Health chief says current levels of control are unacceptable and vows to keep indices below the danger level of 20pc
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong yesterday vowed to bring mosquito numbers below danger levels in all 18 districts by next month.
'This is my target given to the [food and environmental hygiene] department to see whether we will be able to keep the [ovitrap] indices at all districts below 20 per cent,' he said.
Twenty is the 'alert' level for disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Last month the ovitrap index reached a Hong Kong-wide average of 31.6 per cent, with 30 of the 38 monitoring stations exceeding the alert level. The highest level was 61.8 per cent in Tai Wai.
Describing the situation as unacceptable, Dr Yeoh said: 'I will be asking my colleagues to make sure that we have dramatic improvements by next month.'