Press Release

SFH inspects Ebola Exercise TOPAZ in simulated quarantine centre

1 December 2014

The Secretary for Food and Health (SFH), Dr Ko Wing-man, today (December 1) inspected an interdepartmental exercise codenamed TOPAZ conducted by the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health (DH) in Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village (LYMP). The exercise served as an in-depth drill at the quarantine centre (QC) for the This link will open in a new windowPreparedness and Response Plan for Ebola virus disease of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the Plan).

"According to the Plan, the DH will work with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), the Civil Aid Service (CAS) and the Auxiliary Medical Service (AMS) to convert designated holiday camps into QCs as part of the investigation and control measures under the Serious Response Level (SRL). Today's Ground Movement, the fourth such exercise in the last five weeks, put the government departments which will run the QCs under tests in various simulated incidents with a view to enhancing the preparedness and responsiveness of relevant stakeholders to Ebola," a spokesman for the DH explained.

Under simulation, upon local laboratory confirmation of an Ebola case, the SRL Steering Committee convened a meeting which decided to evacuate and disinfect the patient's home and workplace, and to open the QC in LYMP to quarantine the patient's close contacts, including the home contact and her office colleagues as other contacts.

The drill tested the following operations of the QC:

• Registration of quarantine confinees and introduction of facilities, meals and daily arrangements in the QC;
• Taking of body temperature, performing hand hygiene and assessment on health condition at the Medical Post;
• Incidents during quarantine confinement and on-site assistance to quarantine confinees; and
• Handling of symptomatic quarantine confinees and referral to the Hospital Authority Infectious Disease Centre.

The SFH visited the simulated QC, inspected the facilities and observed the procedure of de-gowning of personal protective equipment (PPE) by exercise participants in a designated area after handling a symptomatic quarantine confinee who developed vomiting.

More than 20 counterparts from health and quarantine authorities of the Mainland and Macau, including the National Health and Family Planning Commission; the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine; the Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau of Guangdong, Zhuhai and Shenzhen; the Health and Family Planning Commission of Guangdong Province and Shenzhen Municipality; and the Health Bureau of Macau, observed the exercise today, while over 60 officers from participating departments took part in the drill.

"The Lady MacLehose Holiday Village in Sai Kung and LYMP in Chai Wan under the LCSD are ready for service. Depending on actual scenario and needs of epidemiological investigations, suitable venues will be converted into QCs in case the SRL is activated," the spokesman added.

"The exercise again provided a valuable opportunity for relevant parties to test their preparedness and identify areas for improvement. The Government is committed to maintaining preparedness against Ebola," the spokesman said.

Exercise TOPAZ is a series of multi-agency drills based on the Plan launched on August 20 with the Alert Response Level activated accordingly. The first phase was a household disinfection exercise held on This link will open in a new windowOctober 29 and an investigation and disinfection exercise conducted in a guesthouse setting was held on This link will open in a new windowNovember 6. A table-top exercise on interdepartmental responses to different scenarios on This link will open in a new windowNovember 14 was the third phase.

"We will continue to conduct interdepartmental exercises with government bureaux/departments, organisations and stakeholders concerned in close partnership," the spokesman added.

Participating departments today included the AMS, the CAS, the Hong Kong Fire Services Department, the DH, the LCSD and the Social Welfare Department.

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