EOC files sexual harassment case vs FDH employer

 

Unwelcome sexual advances or remarks at the workplace
constitute sexual harrassment, even towards FDHs

The Equal Opportunities Commission said today, Mar 1, that it filed a case for sexual harassment at the District Court on behalf of a foreign domestic helper who said she had been harassed by her former employer on a number of occasions.

According to the EOC, among the acts that the FDH had complained about was her employer coming up close to her to sniff her hair and body after she had taken a shower.

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The claimant also said the respondent employer repeatedly asked her to have sex with him and uttered other vulgar sexual remarks, like asking her to help him have babies.

After being rejected repeatedly, the employer reportedly became furious and used severely abusive language to press his demand for the worker to have sex with him.

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No other details of the case, including the dates of the alleged offences and the amount of claim being sought, if any, were mentioned.

Under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, any unwelcome sexual behavior which results in another person being offended, humiliated or intimidated, constitutes sexual harassment.

This includes unwelcome sexual advances, unwelcome requests for sexual favours, and other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.

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“The SDO covers sexual harassment in the employment field,” said the EOC.

According to the EOC, there has been a considerable number of cases where employees were subjected to sexual harassment at the workplace.

From 2020 to 2022 alone, the EOC said it received 504 sexual harassment complaints, representing 51% of all the complaints filed under the SDO.

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By taking this case to court, the EOC said it hopes to raise public awareness that sexual harassment against employees, including FDHs, is unlawful, and will attract serious legal consequences.

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It’s official: Mask-wearing will no longer be required in HK from tomorrow

 

CE Lee and Secretary Lo announce the lifting of the mask mandate at a press conference

Chief Executive John Lee announced earlier today that mandatory masking in Hong Kong will be lifted from tomorrow, Mar. 1. The no-mask order will be enforced whether outdoor or indoor.

Speaking ahead of the Executive Council meeting this morning, CE Lee said the move is a signal to the world that life in Hong Kong is now back to normal.

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“After looking at all the data, the trend and the fact that the winter surge is nearing the end, in order to give people a very clear message that Hong Kong is resuming to normalcy, I think this is the right time to make the decision. That is why today I made the announcement to lift the masking requirement as soon as possible, that is, starting from tomorrow (March 1),” said the CE.

He added that as part of measures to protect public health, persons in charge of premises or groups considered as high risk such as hospitals and care homes, will still be allowed to require people entering the premises to still wear masks.

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But this also means that mask-wearing will no longer required for most other places, including public transportation.

CE Lee assured the public that there is no going back from lifting all pandemic restrictions, and that there will be a total scrapping of the mask mandate for indoor and outdoor place.

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Health Secretary Lo Chung Maw said it would be problematic to enforce a partial lifting of the mask mandate and it would cause inconvenience to most people.

"The complete lifting of the mask mandate means an official end to all of our social distancing measures... We look forward to tomorrow, March 1, being a better day," Lo said.

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The CE said He said the government will keep tabs on the Covid situation to ensure that the rate of infection remains under control.

 

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HK to lift mask mandate tomorrow, reports say

 

The announcement to lift the masking order is expected to be made today

Various media outlets have reported that Hong Kong will follow Macau’s lead and lift its mask mandate as early as tomorrow, Wednesday, and the announcement made today.

Government sources quoted in the reports say the requirement for people to wear masks both indoors and outdoors, would be scrapped at the same time.

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But mask-wearing will continue to be imposed in hospitals and other health-care facilities. People will also be encouraged to wear masks when boarding public transportation, unlike in Macau where it is still mandatory.

Hong Kong’s mask mandate was first imposed in July 2020 and has been renewed every two weeks, with the latest extension due to expire on Mar 8.

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It is the last pandemic restriction that Hong Kong has yet to lift, after doing away with requiring  vaccination proof for most indoor premises and PCR tests for inbound travellers and visitors in hospitals and care homes.

Currently, only those doing strenuous physical activities or visiting country parks are allowed to take off their masks outdoors.

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Under Cap 599I Prevention and Control of Disease (Wearing of Mask) Regulation, those who are caught without a mask outside their homes, and are not eating or drinking, can be fined $5,000 on the spot.

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This allowed the government to rake in $750 million in the 2022-23 financial year alone.

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Visiting arrangements in public hospitals relaxed

 

Visitors will be allowed longer hours.

People visiting relatives or friends in public hospitals will no longer be required to perform nucleic acid tests starting March 1; instead, they will be allowed in if they show a negative result on the rapid antigen test (RAT).

Hospital visitors will also be given more visiting hours.

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These were among the measures adopted by the Hospital Authority as it relaxed measures against the spread of Covid-19, in keeping with the gradual resumption of normalcy in Hong Kong.

In a statement, the HA said, "Visitors are only required to perform a COVID-19 rapid antigen test within 24 hours before the visit, and show a negative result. They are no longer required to provide any nucleic acid test negative result."

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The HA said visiting hours of public hospitals are currently limited to two hours per day.

“From March 1 onwards, public hospitals will adjust their visiting sessions and hours subject to ward operations,” it said. “Visiting hours of some hospital wards would be longer than two hours. Various visiting hours will also be arranged to allow family members to have more flexibility and more time to meet with patients.”

In addition, there is no restriction on the number of visitors.

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“Visitors can take turns to visit but only two visitors are allowed to enter the ward at the same time for each patient,” the HA said.

“The visiting arrangements previously relaxed will continue to be in place subject to the operation of wards, including no prior appointment required for visitors and allowing visitors to feed patients,” it added.

Still, the HA reminded patients and visitors to remain vigilant against the spread of disease.

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"Patients and visitors should continue to comply with prevailing infection control measures, including wearing surgical masks when patients are not drinking or eating, wearing surgical masks at all time for visitors and paying attention to hand hygiene, so as to minimize the risk of spreading virus," it said.

The HA also noted that while the new visiting arrangement will be implemented in all public hospitals, a small number of wards may eed to disallow visiting due to operation constraints.

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“Visitors may ask for details regarding the visiting arrangement from ward staff,” it added.

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Study concludes: Covid-19 vaccines are safe

 

Vaccination against Covid-19 is safe, says independent study.

If there is still any doubt that the Covid-19 vaccines administered I Hong Kong is safe, the final report of the Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following Immunisation (AEFIs) agaijnst COVID-19 should lay it to rest.

The3 committee has found that of the 20.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered to 6.9 million people in Hong Kong, not one could be linked to the 120 deaths reported within 14 days after vaccnation.

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The committee, set up under the Department of Health (DH) to independently assess the potential causal link between Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFIs) and COVID-19 vaccination in Hong Kong, revealed its findings in a meeting convened today (Feb. 27).

The World Health Organization defines AEFI as any medical occurrence that follows immunization and that does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine.

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The DH has put in place a pharmacovigilance system for COVID-19 immunisation, and is partnering with the University of Hong Kong (HKU) to conduct an active surveillance program for Adverse Events of Special Interest (AESI) under the COVID-19 Vaccines Adverse Events Response and Evaluation Programme (CARE Programme). The main purpose of the pharmacovigilance system is to detect potential signals of possible side effects of the vaccines.

 The committee reported that as of February 26, about 20.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in Hong Kong. Around 6.9 million people had received at least one vaccine dose, it added.

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In the same period, the DH received 8,102 reports of adverse events (0.04 per cent of total vaccine doses administered), including 120 deaths within 14 days after vaccination (0.0006 per cent of total doses).

 In its report, the Expert Committee found that of these 120 death cases, 117 death cases had no causal relationship with vaccination, two cases had causal relationship with vaccination that could not be established, and one case preliminarily considered as not associated with vaccination.

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The committee cited the case of an 83-year-old man who died five days after receiving the first dose of CoronaVac vaccine in May 2022. Preliminary autopsy revealed ischaemic heart disease. In the final autopsy report, the cause of death appears to be acute myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart tissue called myocardium which affects the heart's electrical system and leads to irregular heart beats.

Investigations could not identify the cause of the myocarditis. Research has not found any evidence that the vaccination could cause acute myocarditis. Studies conducted by HKU under the CARE Program also did not find any association between CoronaVac vaccination and myocarditis.

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 The Committee has also reviewed available clinical data and information for conducting causality assessment of other serious or unexpected AEFIs and AESIs. The results will be included in the updated safety monitoring report (as at February 28) to be published at the Government's designated website on March 3.

In addition, information related to AEFIs of COVID-19 vaccines and relevant statistics will also be released in the "Update on monitoring COVID-19 vaccination" press release and the Government's website regularly, it added.

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