The Department of Health today invited citizens to join a walking challenge under the “10,000 Steps a Day” Campaign, the enrolment for which will start on October 5 for the challenge period in November.

Co-organised by the department and the Occupational Safety & Health Council, the event aims to encourage members of the public to increase their physical activities to combat non-communicable diseases (NCD).

The department is committed to combating NCD through, among other ways, reducing the prevalence of insufficient physical activities in the local population.

This is one of the nine local targets to be achieved by 2025 as set out in the Towards 2025: Strategy & Action Plan to Prevent & Control NCD in Hong Kong launched by the Government in 2018.

People aged 18 or above can join the challenge as workplace organisations including self-employed people, or individuals.

Participants should use a mobile app to record their steps accumulated during the challenge period and synchronise the step count data with the event’s designated online platform.

Awards will be granted to top performing organisations and individuals who achieve an average of 8,000 steps per day, or 80% of the daily step goal of 10,000.

Enrolment, on a first-come, first-served basis, will take place from October 5 to 31. Interested workplace organisations and individuals can enrol through the event’s official website to be announced here in due course.

The challenge period will cover the step counts from November 1 to 30.