ACH
The Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau has stated that the current licensed dine-in establishments are required to provide a minimum of 17 cubic meters of outdoor air per person through their ventilation systems. This generally achieves a reconstruction ventilation rate of approximately 3.8 to 4.9 air changes per hour or above. However, due to several key risk factors in restaurant dining, such as prolonged mask removal and close-range conversations, a ventilation rate of 6 air changes per hour has been determined to mitigate the risks.
01-03-2022
The Education Bureau today announced that it will provide one-off grants for kindergartens which have joined the kindergarten education scheme, as well as Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) schools and caput schools, to enhance their ventilation.The bureau issued a circular memorandum or a letter to these schools to explain the details of the grants, which involves a total expenditure of about $70 million. It said that in view of the persistent severity of the COVID-19 epidemic, schools should increase their alertness and conduct comprehensive ventilation assessments for their school premises. Appropriate enhancement measures should then be taken as soon as practicable to maintain proper indoor ventilation at schools. There are two types of grants for eligible kindergartens - one for the procurement of a ventilation assessment service and another for buying air purifiers. Each kindergarten will receive a one-off grant capped at $15,000 to procure professional service for ventilation assessment of school premises. They should adopt proper improvement measures based on the assessment results and recommendations. If such measures could not be completed within a short period of time, schools should install air purifiers that comply with relevant standards as soon as possible to improve indoor ventilation.In this regard, kindergartens with 66 or less students will get a grant of $20,000, while those with 67 or more students will receive a grant of $35,000. For DSS and caput schools, the bureau will provide each school with a one-off grant capped at $400,000 according to their actual expenses of procuring ventilation assessment services and implementing necessary enhancement measures in order to fulfil the requirements recommended by registered contractors.
23-04-2021
The Working Group and relevant government departments today (April 23) convened a meeting with the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong during which representative from several developers and the Link Asset Management Limited (LINK) also attended. They were briefed on the key concepts and relevant follow-up arrangements regarding enhancement of air change of premises and installation of air purifiers, and their queries addressed. Besides, it was hoped that they could appeal to shopping mall owners to provide assistance to catering premises as far as practicable in terms of providing fresh air supply. Attendees showed their support to fight the virus together and the work of the Working Group.
The Working Group and relevant government departments will organize a webinar on April 27 (Tuesday) to help the trade to master the relevant requirements, and for direct communication between catering business operators and specialist contractors (ventilation works category), so that the relevant ventilation requirement can be implemented promptly. In addition, the Working Group and relevant government departments visited a number of catering premises (including a bar, a Chinese restaurant, a Hong Kong-style tea restaurant and a hotel restaurant) earlier to learn more about their successful examples and experiences of difficulties encountered.
16-10-2020
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department(FEHD) launched a voluntary declaration scheme on air changes in catering premises and set up an online platform for licensed catering premises to declare the information of air changes per hour of the ventilation system and/or air purification devices installed in their catering premises to enable the public's identification of catering premises which have met the recommendations made by public health expert advisers.
We can help Licensees of general restaurants, light refreshment restaurants, marine restaurants and factory canteens, starting from today to December 31, declare through the online platform information that they have met the recommendation of having a minimum of six air changes per hour in their catering premises and issue a registered specialist contractor (ventilation works category) certificate to process the submission. Upon confirmation, the information will be shown on the list of licensed premises at the FEHD website.