Elderly to be given free rapid test kits as Covid-19 cases drop to 1,272

By Daisy CL Mandap

 

Tsui says the elderly are being encouraged to self-test regularly

Health authorities say free rapid antigen test (RAT) kits will be distributed free to people aged 60 and above starting next Tuesday, to encourage them to self-test regularly. The service will run until May 31.

Undersecretary for Food and Health Dr Tsui Tak-yi said during the daily briefing on Covid-19 that 680 designated service points at district health centres, elderly social centres and elderly day care centres will distribute the free kits.

Each recipient who is a member at the centre or service recipients will get five sets of test kits each time, but staff can exercise discretion in giving them to non-members as well.

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Tsui said this would give better protection to the elderly, who make up more than 90% of all death cases in the fifth wave of the pandemic.

"Elderly people belongs to high-risk groups... Currently we have effective antiviral medications, when given in the early stage of the illness, on symptoms onset, it will reduce the risk of [the illness] getting more severe, or even death," he said.

"With this effective treatment measure, early diagnosis is important for the elderly. So I think it's important to provide more accessibility to this age group."

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Tsui also said elderly residents aged 70 and above can also undergo PCR tests at community testing centers for free without making a reservation.

CE Lam says free rapid test kits will only be given to needy students

Earlier Chief Executive Carrie Lam also said free rapid test kits will be given to students in need when face-to-face classes resume after the Easter holidays. Pupils and teachers will be required to self-test everyday to ensure safety within schools.

CE Lam said 10 million RAT kids have been reserved for students, but only those from households receiving government subsidies.

She said public resources should “be used on those who need it most,” adding that public resources will be hugely affected if the government has to supply everything.

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Meanwhile, other health officials reported 1,272 new Covid-19 cases and 62 related deaths Wednesday. 

The new cases included 734 confirmed through PCR tests and 538 from self-tests.

Twelve cases were detected from travelers who flew in on eight flights from Germany, Nepal, the US, Singapore, France, Shanghai, and India.

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Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said the overall tally in the fifth wave has now surpassed 1.18 million.

She also said that the death toll from the Omicron outbreak has risen to 8,735, and the death rate to 0.739%

Another 62 patients with Covid had died, including 54 who passed away yesterday, and 8 whose deaths were not reported on time.

There are about 9,000 patients still undergoing treatment at public hospitals and treatment facilities. Among them, six are in critical condition, seven are in serious condition, and 54 are admitted to hospitals' intensive care units. 

A total of 1,544 recovered patients have been discharged in the past 24 hours. 

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Online appointment for contract verification to start Sunday

By The SUN 

From Sunday, only those who made an online booking appointment to get their new employment contracts verified will be admitted to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office on the 29^th floor of United Centre building in Admiralty.

This was announced through a notice in the Philippine Consulate’s Facebook page yesterday.

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The only exception to the rule are senior citizens and those with emergency cases, such as overseas Filipino workers with air tickets who are about to fly home to the Philippines, said Assistant Labor Attache Tony Villafuerte.

He also said that after verification, the worker will proceed as before to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration for payment of their membership.

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Welfare Officer Virsie Tamayao said the online appointment system for contract verification will “automatically include OWWA membership, verification and payment.”

The membership fee remains at $196 per two-year contract.

For instructions on how to make an online booking for verification, please click the link below: https://www.facebook.com/POLOHONGKONGSAR/posts/4959463627504282

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1,762 voters cast their ballots on 3rd day of overseas voting

By Daisy CL Mandap

Far shorter queue inside Bayanihan on Tuesday (photo from CG's FB page) 

Five additional precincts with a corresponding number of vote counting machines made all the difference on the third day of overseas voting for the Philippines’ next president, vice-president, 12 new senators and partylist representatives.

According to Consul General Raly Tejada, a total of 1,762 votes were cast for the day, and the counting was made a lot easier by the additional VCMs that were put in place only starting Tuesday.

"Magaang na di hamak” (It was far easier), said Congen when asked how the additional machines had helped make administering the vote easier.

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Until he got permission from the Commission on Elections late on Monday to restore the ten precincts that had been assigned to Hong Kong in all previous overseas voting exercises, the Consulate had to make do with just five VCMs in five precincts.

This led to a potentially explosive situation Sunday, the first day of overseas voting, when thousands of Filipinos descended on Bayanihan Centre in Kennedy Town where the month-long vote is being held.

Because voters could not be processed quickly, a huge queue formed outside the polling centre, prompting police who were enforcing strict gathering rules outside to ask the Consulate to stop people from lining up less than four hours since voting began at 8am.

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Despite this, voters still had to wait for up to six hours from the time they queued up to get to their designated precincts.

Things improved on Monday as a comparatively smaller number showed up to vote, but some also faced delay as the VCM in their precinct had to be recalibrated and the ballot box changed after reaching the threshold of 1,000 voters per cycle.

Tejada said that on Tuesday, no significant event happened “except the blistering pace of voting.”

 

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Some of those who chose to cast their ballots on this day testified to how quickly and smoothly the voting went.

A steady stream of voters led to the high weekday turnout 

 

Lizzie Cuyugan, a permanent resident said, “Very good experience today! Our family of four entered Bayanihan at 1:45pm, and we were out before 2.”

 

Cuyugan extended thanks to a volunteer from the University of the Philippines Alumni Association in Hong Kong who assisted her family in finding their assigned precincts.

The volunteer said among the day's voters were some of the foreign domestic workers who failed to make it to the cut-off on Sunday. They managed to get permission from their employers to return Tuesday, and were happy to vote with less queuing.

 

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Also a happy voter was journalist Philip C. Tubeza who said in a Facebook post that he didn’t have to queue up, and managed to finish voting in just 20 minutes.

 

But the real test for the machines will come this Sunday, when the thousands who were turned away on the first day will likely show up again, and mix with a fresh batch of voters.

 

In anticipation of yet another deluge, Congen Tejada said he would talk with the police and inform them of the additional machines that have been installed, and which should make the voting process twice as quick.

 

Hopefully, this would be enough to convince them not to halt queuing early so no voters will have to be turned away before the 5pm cut-off time.

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2k more rooms opened for quarantine of inbound travelers

By The SUN

 

Upmarket Kowloon Hotel will start accepting travelers for quarantine from Thursday

Starting on Thursday, Apr 14, three more designated quarantine hotels will be opened for all incoming travelers, including foreign domestic helpers.

These are the Royal Pacific Hotel, the Kowloon Hotel and Cordis, Hong Kong, which are currently reserved by the government for use as community isolation facilities.

They will altogether provide 2,000 rooms on top of the current supply.

Meanwhile, on May 1, four designated quarantine facilities for FDHs will be opened for booking by all Hong Kong residents returning from places abroad. These are Courtyard by Marriott in Shatin, iclub Ma Tau Wai Hotel, O’Hotel and Rambler Garden Hotel.

A government statement said these hotels will provide about 1,600 rooms.

All FDHs who have already made a reservation with any of these hotels will not be affected. All other incoming residents can reserve a room through the online booking of the hotels concerned starting from 10am on next Tuesday, Apr 19.

The government said all the quarantine hotels had submitted their price information before joining the scheme, and will not be allowed to adjust their charges unless they have secured prior approval

The list of the DQHs and their booking status can be found here: www.designatedhotel.gov.hk.

Rambler Garden will start accepting bookings from non-FDHs from next week

The announcement comes as 1,433 new Covid-19 cases were reported Tuesday, 26 more than the previous day.

The Centre for Health Protection the new cases included 735 confirmed via PCR tests and 698 that were reported by people who took rapid antigen tests.

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Thirteen imported cases were reported, 11 of which were detected through PCR tests, meaning they tested positive on arrival in Hong Kong. The two others were found via rapid tests during their seven-day hotel quarantine.

The new cases pushed Hong Kong’s total Covid-19 tally in the fifth wave to 1.19 million.

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According to CHP’s Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, the death toll also climbed to 8,673 with 59 additional fatalities being logged today. The death rate stands at 0.73 %.

Chuang also announced a revised number of infections detected through the three-day mass self-testing of residents, to 3,128. These are broken down into: 1,696 reported on Friday, 774 on Saturday and 658 on Sunday.

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She said a few more may be added if positive results from the Sunday self-tests are reported today.

Dr Larry Lee from the Hospital Authority said 9,222 patients are receiving treatment at public hospitals and infection control centres. Among them, five are critical and are among 58 confined in intensive care, while 16 are in serious condition.

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A total of 1,430 patients were discharged during the 24-hour reporting period.

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DH, umaming nagnakaw ng mga alahas ng amo na nagkakahalaga ng $400k

 

Ang Eastern Court kung saan ginawa ang paglilitis

Isang Pilipinang domestic helper ang umamin sa sakdal na pagnanakaw ng mga alahas, relo at ginto na pag-aari ng  kanyang amo na nagkakahalaga ng $400,000 mula sa bahay nito sa Midlevels, Central, nang humarap sa Eastern Magistracy kanina.

SI Jemelyn A. Florentino, 31, ay umamin sa bawa’t isa sa pitong  kaso ng pagnanakaw na inihain sa kanya ng pulisya.

Ayon sa sakdal, ninakaw ni Florentino ang mga mamahaling gamit ng amo sa pitong magkakahiwalay na okasyon:

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• Isang pares ng kwintas na gawa sa ginto at perlas, noong Aug. 15, 2021.
• Isang relong Franck Muller noong Sept. 5, 2021.
• Dalawang palawit sa kwintas o pendant na kulay ginto noong Oct. 14, 2021.
• Isang ½ ounce na gold coin noong Oct. 14, 2021.

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• Dalawang ½ ounce na gold coin noong Oct. 15, 2021.
• Kwintas na silver noong Nov. 21, 2021.
• Isang relong Rolex noong Dec. 5, 2021.

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Ayon sa taga-usig, ang mga ninakaw na alahas ay natunton sa mga pawnshop sa Wanchai at Central, kung saan isinangla ni Florentino ang mga ito sa kabuuang halaga na mahigit sa $16,000 lamang.

Sinabi naman ng abugado ni Florentino na napilitan siyang magnakaw dahil sa kahirapan.

Maliban sa pagiging isang solong magulang sa dalawang anak, siya rin ang tumustos sa pagpapagamot ng ama niyang nagkasakit at namatay noong nakalipas na taon, dagdag ng abogado.

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Sa isang sulat, sinabi ng isang kapatid ni Florentino na nagtatrabaho rin sa Hong Kong, na ang nasasakdal ay isang mapagmahal na ina sa kanyang mga anak, na gusto nang makauwi sa kanila sa lalong madaling panahon.

Itinakda naman ni Magistrate Leung Ka-kie ang pagsentensiya kay Florentino sa Apr 26.

Iniutos din ng hukom na gawan ng pagsasaliksik ang tunay na kalagayan ni Florentino. 

Ibinalik siya sa piitan bago sa takdang araw ng kanyang sentensiya.

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Filipina DH, 6 others charged with obtaining fake Covid vaccine records

By The SUN

Nurse Ho is alleged to have issued vaccination records to the 6 without giving them any vaccine 

 

A Filipina domestic helper and four members of the family she works for, are to appear in Kwun Tong court tomorrow to face charges of conspiracy to defraud for allegedly obtaining vaccination records without actually receiving any Covid-19 vaccine doses.

Two sisters as well as a nurse who allegedly issued the vaccination records will be charged for the same offence.

Mary Ann Villeza Marcelo, 39, and Liu Kwok-hung, 67 a construction worker who lives in the same household as she, were today charged by the Independent Commission Against Corruption for making false representations in relation with the case.

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The five other accused were earlier charged for the same offence.

They are Carmen Ho Ka-man, 34 a registered nurse; sisters Cheng Nga-yi, 30 and Cheng Sze-wai, 25, primary school teacher and tutor respectively; and Liu Hoi-yan, 42 and her mother Siu Hang-yee, both housewives.  

Hoi-yan is said to be the daughter of Kwok-hung, and Marcelo works for them.

According to a statement issued by the ICAC today, all the defendants have been released on bail pending their appearance in court tomorrow.

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The statement said Ho worked as a nurse for Quality HealthCare Medical Services Limited which operated a community vaccination centre at Kowloon Bay Sports Centre for inoculating residents with the BioNTech vaccine.

On Feb 20, four days after the government implemented the vaccine pass for specified premises including restaurants, malls and supermarkets, Ho allegedly issued vaccination records to her six co-accused who visited her in her booth at the CVC, but did not receive any vaccine.

Ho and all members of the Liu household are accused of conspiring to defraud the Department of Health by dishonestly and falsely representing that each of them had received a dose of vaccine, thereby inducing DH to issue them vaccination records.

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Ho faces a separate charge of the same offence along with the Cheng sisters.

ICAC said that inquiries showed that Ho is friends with Hoi-yan and Nga-yi, who separately told the nurse their worries about the side effects of vaccination, and the restrictions that they faced with the implementation of the vaccine pass.

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The alleged offence came to light after supervisors at the CVC found six syringes with unused vaccine from the sharp box in Ho’s booth, after the visit of her six co-defendants.

 All seven accused are expected to enter their plea to the charges in court tomorrow.

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