(Hong Kong, 20 February 2020) The recent COVID-19 outbreak has seriously affected the wellbeing of almost everyone in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Red Cross (HKRC) has launched services to care for both physical and mental health of the public. Anyone who has questions about personal health and environment hygiene regarding COVID-19, or has emotional distress due to the outbreak, is welcomed to make appointment with the Hong Kong Red Cross through social media channels. The enquiries are handled by trained Red Cross volunteers or staff members, with professional support from registered nurses or clinical psychologists. All service users’ personal information and conversation will be kept confidential.

Community Health and Education Service "Health Chat":

Whatsapp: (+852) 9738 2934

Psychological Support Service "Shall We Talk":

Whatsapp: (+852) 5164 5040　／　Telegram: @hkrcshallwetalk

Dr. Eliza Cheung, Clinical Psychologist of the HKRC, said, “It is understandable for the public to experience fear and anxiety when the outbreak affects all walks of life of the community. Yet, an overly degree of anxiety may induce irrational behaviours, such as hoarding hygiene products or sharing information without proof. We suggest the public to maintain daily routines as much as possible, and take a moment to fact-check any news they receive before sharing. People should seek help from professionals if stressful reactions persist over a period of time and affect their daily life.” The HKRC has designed leaflets about managing emotions, especially for people under quarantine, medical personnel and frontline workers, and is ready to offer relevant psychological support service to them.

Since January 2020, the HKRC has promoted knowledge about respiratory infection prevention and distributed personal hygiene items to different groups of affected people. Targeting at the vulnerable groups in the community, the HKRC, in collaboration with our community partners, has distributed infection control kits to the vulnerable people who do not have sufficient social resources, including elderly persons living alone, elderly aged 60 or above with chronic illnesses, mentally retarded persons or people with mental illness and low-income people. The distribution of infection control kits will continue until the end of March, and benefit about 30,000 vulnerable people. Besides, the HKRC staff members and volunteers organized community health and hygiene promotion activities in Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, Tuen Mun and Ma On Shan, in order to widely spread the messages on infection prevention. Through different programmes and services, the HKRC has already distributed 13,700 pieces of surgical masks, over 2,600 bottles of alcohol hand sanitiser, about 2,000 alcohol based wet wipes, nearly 2,000 packs of disinfectant hand towel and 180,000 leaflets about prevention of COVID-19. Information on infection prevention and personal hygiene is also shared in different ways on HKRC’s social media channels, to enable learning of different groups of people in the community.

Besides, the HKRC provides clothing, blankets and personal sanitary items to the quarantine centres through Social Welfare Department for emergency use of the persons under quarantine. Since the 2nd half of February, the HKRC has also started to support the Department in providing daily necessity shopping service to persons under home quarantine in Kwun Tong District.

While the outbreak continues, the HKRC would like to express our deepest gratitude to all the individuals and groups for their donation-in-kind, and to our community partners, volunteers and staff for their continued support. We will continue our health and hygiene promotion activities and psychological support service at the community, and continue searching and procuring infection prevention and hygiene materials, in order to help the people in need to cope with the challenges brought by the disease outbreak.

The HKRC has distributed infection control kits, each includes 14 surgical masks, 1 bottle of alcohol hand sanitiser, 2 packs of antiseptic tissue, 2 packs of alcohol towel, and leaflets about infection prevention and psychological support to different vulnerable groups, and has shared infection prevention and personal hygiene knowledge with them

To disseminate proper knowledge in response to the respiratory tract infections and maintain good personal and environmental hygiene, the HKRC has organized four sessions of street-level health and hygiene promotion activities with distribution of alcohol hand sanitiser

The HKRC has provided clothing, blankets and personal sanitary items to the people in quarantine centres through the Social Welfare Department

Infection control kit distributed by the HKRC

About the Hong Kong Red Cross

Established in 1950, the Hong Kong Red Cross is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the world's largest humanitarian network serving 192 countries. We dedicate ourselves to motivating people from all walks of life to put humanitarian spirit into action. With services in four main areas, namely, “Emergency Relief and Disaster Preparedness”, “Community Health Service and Education”, “Humanitarian Engagement and Education”, and “Special Education and Rehabilitation”, we provide a diversified humanitarian platform for Hong Kong citizens. For details, please visit www.redcross.org.hk.

Media Enquiries

Yan Law, Corporate Communications Manager

(+852 2507 7111／ky.law@redcross.org.hk)

Keily To, Assistant Corporate Communications Manager

(+852 2507 7115／keily.to@redcross.org.hk)