Hong Kong’s private sector has been urged to follow the Government’s lead in implementing work-from-home arrangements for staff.
Head of the Public Service, Patrick Nip Tak-kuen said it was essential to reduce the flow of people moving about the Territory in order to curb the surging wave of the Omicron and Delta variants of COVID-19.
Mr Nip said the Government wanted to send a strong message to the community in light of the worsening situation, calling on people to minimise unnecessary social contacts.
“We have asked Civil Servants to work from home as far as possible, unless they are involved in anti-epidemic work or providing essential or emergency services,” Mr Nip said.
“The city’s COVID case numbers are surging with both the Delta and Omicron variants, resulting in at least 100-to-200 transmission chains in the community,” he said.
Mr Nip said he expected numbers would continue their upward trend after the Lunar New Year holidays as citizens participated in cross-family gatherings during the festival.
The Head of the Public Service defended the Government’s containment strategy against the virus and described the coming weeks as critical times.
“The most effective measure is to reduce the crowd flow and contact,” he said.
Mr Nip said that so far, 98 per cent of Government employees had received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, with some 1,300 Public Servants yet to be vaccinated.
“If they are absent at work because they are banned from entry at the workplace for not having medical exemption or vaccination records, there will be disciplinary actions,” he said.
Mr Nip hoped the public would understand the inconvenience caused by the suspension of non-emergency services, saying that many Public Servants were needed to fight the pandemic.
Hong Kong, 6 February 2022
