(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The social distancing measures currently in place will be maintained for another two weeks until January 20, Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan said today.

Announcing the Government’s decision at a press briefing this afternoon, Prof Chan noted the measures could not be relaxed given the global COVID-19 pandemic and local situation.

“As far as the social distancing measures are concerned, you may recall that we have put in place a very stringent set of social distancing measures in early December and we have extended the social distancing measures on December 24 - the same set of measures.

“But then given the situation again is very slow in terms of the downward trend, we felt that it is very important to maintain the social distancing measures. 

“The mobility data that I have shown also shows that there are still a lot of activities going on in the community despite the work from home arrangement and other measures." 

Prof Chan called on the public to work together to bring the infection numbers down.

“I can understand that people may be impatient and fatigued. But unless and until we all work together in reducing people flow, I am very worried that these clusters and these outbreaks may continue.

“We do not want to see any rebound or resurgence of number of cases because the whole healthcare system and the whole Government have been working very hard to bring this down.

“We just want to continue to bring down this number and we require the co-operation of everyone, so that we can fight the virus together.”