The Labour Department's heatstroke prevention guidelines plan to add a "heat index", which is expected to be consulted in October and implemented in April next year

The hot weather continues, and the occupational safety of outdoor workers has attracted much attention.

The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Sun Yuk-han, said in a radio program this morning (6th) that the government is studying the guidelines for the "Risk Assessment for Prevention of Heat Stroke at Work" and adding the Observatory's heat index as an objective reference indicator.

Sun Yuhan said that the industry hopes to have simpler guidelines for the prevention of heat stroke, and believes that the Observatory's heat index is the most suitable reference index. He hopes to consult the industry in October this year and introduce new guidelines in April next year.

Sun Yuhan said that last year, law enforcement agencies conducted about 26,000 inspections and made 2 prosecutions involving heatstroke risks because the employees were not provided with cool drinking water.

Regarding the suggestion of a trade union to formulate more specific laws, such as the suspension of outdoor work when the temperature is higher than 39 degrees Celsius, Sun Yuhan believes that Hong Kong may not be suitable for a "one size fits all" approach.

He pointed out that heatstroke is a work-related injury for employees while working outdoors, but it is difficult to classify heatstroke as an occupational disease. In the past, the number of reported heatstroke work-related injuries received by the Labour Department each year was about 20. It is impossible to prove that the risk of heatstroke in outdoor work is higher than the risk of heatstroke in other outdoor sports. high.

The ratio of three injections in elderly homes is 45% and 8 temporary care centers are prepared for the outbreak of the epidemic

The epidemic is rampant. In terms of epidemic prevention in residential care homes for the elderly, Sun Yuhan pointed out that the government's goal is to increase the third vaccination rate to 50% by the end of September. The current progress is satisfactory. The third vaccination rate has reached 45%. It is estimated that can be reached in advance.

He said that at present, two respite care centers for the elderly and the disabled have been put into operation, and the occupancy rate is still not full. If necessary, another eight spare respite centers can be activated to cope with the outbreak of the epidemic.

He said that the government will use local manpower as much as possible, and if the manpower is insufficient, it will seek "foreign aid" and hire mainland personnel to fight the epidemic.

Extremely hot weather｜The Labour and Welfare Bureau introduced the Observatory’s heat index to prevent workers from heat stroke this summer, strengthened inspections for the next 20 years, continued aging Cooperation to fight the sixth wave of the epidemic