Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

The case involved a 18-year-old female passenger arriving in Hong Kong from Bangkok, Thailand today. During customs clearance, Customs officers found the suspected cannabis buds, concealed inside 25 plastic bags and weighing about 12kg, in her check-in suitcase. The woman was subsequently arrested.

An investigation is ongoing.

Customs will continue to step up enforcement against drug trafficking activities through intelligence analysis. The department also reminds members of the public to stay alert and not participate in drug trafficking activities for monetary return. They must not accept hiring or delegation from another party to carry controlled items into and out of Hong Kong. They are also reminded not to carry unknown items for other people.

Customs will continue to apply a risk assessment approach and focus on selecting passengers from high-risk regions for clearance to combat transnational drug trafficking activities.

Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, trafficking in a dangerous drug is a serious offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $5 million and life imprisonment.

Members of the public may report any suspected drug trafficking activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).

DH urges high-risk individuals to receive COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible as COVID-19 activity hits one-year high in Hong Kong 
“After the resumption of normalcy, Hong Kong experienced cycles of active periods of COVID-19 in every six to nine months. Taking into account local and global epidemiological data in recent years, the CHP is of the view that COVID-19 has evolved into an endemic disease with a periodic pattern. According to the CHP’s analysis, the active periods are associated with the changes in the predominant circulating strains and declining herd immunity in Hong Kong. In early 2024, the predominant strains circulated locally changed from XBB to JN.1; while in the third quarter of 2024, they changed from JN.1 to KP.2 and KP.3; and they have further changed to XDV since late March this year. There is no evidence suggesting that XDV will cause more severe disease. Nevertheless, the changing nature of the virus should not be taken lightly. The CHP will continue to closely monitor the situation of the variant strains in accordance with the World Health Organization’s recommendation, and be cautious of the possible emergence of more virulent or vaccine-mismatched strains of the virus in the future,” the Controller of the CHP, Dr Edwin Tsui, said.
 
According to the latest surveillance data as of the week ending May 10, the viral load of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from sewage surveillance, the test positivity rate and the cases tested positive by nucleic acid tests in the laboratory have continued to rise over the past four weeks. In particular, the percentage of respiratory samples testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus gradually increased to 13.66 per cent from 6.21 per cent four weeks ago (the week of April 6 to 12), which is a record high in the past year. For sewage surveillance, the per capita viral load of SARS-CoV-2 virus was around 710 000 copy/litre, which was also significantly higher than that of about 390 000 copy/litre four weeks ago. During the same period, the consultation rate of COVID-19 cases at Accident and Emergency departments, general out-patient clinics and sentinel private medical practitioner clinics also recorded a significant increase.
 
“According to the surveillance data after the resumption of normalcy, there were two relatively active periods of COVID-19 in Hong Kong, which lasted for about 15 weeks from April to July 2023 and for about seven weeks from February to March last year. COVID-19 became more active in mid-April of this year (i.e. about four weeks ago). Based on previous statistics, we expect the activity level of COVID-19 to remain at a higher level for at least the next few weeks,” said Dr Tsui.
 
Regarding severe and fatal cases, in the past four weeks, the CHP recorded a total of 81 COVID-19 severe cases (including 30 fatal cases) involving adults. Epidemiological investigation showed that 83 per cent of the patients being elderly persons aged 65 or above, and more than 90 per cent of these elderly cases had underlying illnesses. Only one case had received a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine in the past six months.
 
For children, the CHP has recorded five severe cases (no fatal case) so far this year. Of which, two have underlying illnesses and three cases have not received the initial dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. “This shows that even children who have been in good health can experience severe complications from COVID-19 infection. Therefore, I hope that parents will not hesitate to bring their children to complete the initial dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible. The currently prevalent XDV strain is a related variant of JN.1. Therefore, the JN.1 vaccine used in Hong Kong is effective in preventing the disease, reducing the risk of severe illness and death, and enhancing herd immunity,” said Dr Tsui.
 
“Currently, the proportion of high-risk groups, especially the elderly, receiving booster doses of the vaccine is relatively low. This suggests that the public does not attach much importance to vaccination. Based on the surveillance data and vaccination figures, the CHP projected that about 75 per cent of the elderly aged 65 or above living in Residential Care Homes for the Elderly and 90 per cent of those living in the community had not received booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine timely according to the CHP’s recommendation. I would like to reiterate my appeal to the high-risk groups, especially the elderly and persons with underlying illnesses, to receive an additional booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible,” Dr Tsui added.
 
Apart from vaccination, the public should maintain stringent personal, environmental and hand hygiene at all times to minimise the risk of infecting COVID-19 and other respiratory infectious diseases. High-risk persons (e.g. persons with underlying medical conditions or persons who are immunocompromised) should wear surgical masks when visiting public places. The general public should also wear a surgical mask when travelling on public transport or staying in crowded places. When respiratory symptoms appear, one should wear a surgical mask, consider avoiding going to work or school, avoid going to crowded places and seek medical advice promptly.
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For the latest surveillance data, members of the public can refer to the CHP’s weekly COVID-19 & Flu ExpressIssued at HKT 20:36

HKSAR Government responds to media enquiries on reporting, photo and video-taking at prohibited places specified in subsidiary legislation made under Safeguarding National Security OrdinanceIssued at HKT 1:30

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C for T meets taxi trade and reiterates determination to continuously combat illegal carriage of passengers for reward activities and formulate legislative proposals on regulation of online car hailing platforms within 2025 (with photo)Issued at HKT 21:14

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Medical Laboratory Technologists Board responds to requests for clinical practice/attachment hours 
The MLT Board is aware of a statement made by individual groups and training institutions regarding the hours required for clinical practice/attachment for medical laboratory technologists and responds today (May 15) as follows:
 
The MLT Board, established under the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance (Cap. 359), is a statutory body that reviews the training arrangements of MLT from time to time to enhance their professional development. The MLT Board has started to discuss and review the requirement for clinical practice/attachment in the curriculum since 2023. It has agreed to strengthen the training of students in different medical laboratory-related areas under the principle that the overall number of training hours should remain unchanged. The　objective is to ensure that the curriculum keeps abreast of the times and aligns with the latest developments in the medical field.
 
Since 2023, the Registration Committee of MLT Board has been discussing and reviewing the hours required for clinical practice/attachment, which were formulated in 2013. Subsequently, at the MLT Board meeting of February 5, 2024, the MLT Board endorsed revising the required hours for clinical practice/attachment from 400 hours, covering only four basic areas, namely “Clinical Microbiology & Infection”, “Anatomical Pathology”, “Chemical Pathology” and “Haematology”, to 200 hours. This change will enable the institutions to allocate the released 200 hours to elective study modules according to the characteristics of their respective curricula without affecting the total number of hours. Under this arrangement, institutions can optimise the released training time to strengthen students’ learning in the basic areas or arrange for the students to explore other medical laboratory-related subjects beyond the basic areas, such as clinical immunology, molecular techniques and genetic testing etc. This encourages the diversified development of different institutions while maintaining their professional standards. Contrary to the allegation made in the statement, it is not a hasty reduction of clinical practice/attachment hours from 400 to 200 before graduation.
 
Before making the decision, the MLT Board has been in close liaison with the industry through its Registration Committee (which comprises institutions, members of the associations and practitioners from different work backgrounds) and has held in-depth discussions on various accreditation requirements. Meetings were held to discuss the above issues and a Working Group on Review of Accreditation Criteria and Checklist was set up to invite experts to provide views in optimising the accreditation criteria and to continuously review both the local and international situations. The allegation that “academic institutions and industry stakeholders were not adequately consulted” is off the mark. The MLT Board stands ready to further explain to the MLT industry and training institutions the rationale of revising the required hours for clinical practice/attachment , and will work closely with stakeholders on the implementation details to facilitate the smooth execution of the resolution.
 
The MLT Board is a statutory body established under the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance (Cap. 359) to promote adequate standards of professional practice and of professional conduct in the MLT professions. The MLT Board members (see Annex) comprises a wide representation of stakeholders, who are from the medical laboratory testing and medical professions, professional education, the Government, the Hospital Authority, and private sector.
Issued at HKT 20:54

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