Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa has again expressed
gratitude to the Central People's government Wednesday over medical
supplies being sent to Hong Kong for combating Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Tung told the media after returning from the special Chinese-ASEAN
leaders' meeting against SARS that the Central government is
sending to Hong Kong the first shipment of 400,000 protective
suits, 200,000 goggles and one million protective masks with
quality guaranteed by a special committee.
"All these have bespoken of the incomparable care of Chinese
government towards Hong Kong.
"The Chinese leaders are very caring towards the Hong Kong people,
and their care and support have encouraged us to face the
difficulty," he said.
Such medical supplies were immediately pledged for Hong Kong after
he recently relayed the concern to the Central government that
there may be a shortage of medical supplies here, he said.
"Similarly, I have expressed the hope that if the situation calls
for extra medical staff urgently, the Central government said it
will also give support," he said.
Commenting on the Hong Kong government's continuous fight against
the disease, Tung said it is not acceptable that everyday there are
at least several medical workers in Hong Kong getting infected, and
he vowed to fight the disease down to the zero number of case.
As
for the declining number of daily confirmed cases of infection, he
remarked "Yes, the number is stabilizing at a rather lower level.
But I don't think that's good enough. We need to move the number
further down, and this is my determination, the determination of
the whole government and the determination of the community to do
so. A combination of all these things will get us going again.
"We should never be complacent because of this (the downward
trend)," he added.
He
said the meeting unanimously agreed that the way to contain the
spread of the disease is to strengthen quarantine measures at
border control points.
(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2003)