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A spokesman for the Department of Health (DH) said today (August 17) that the department's hotline (2125 1111) for public enquiries about infant milk formulae with low iodine content will have its operating hours adjusted from tomorrow (August 18) due to a low utilisation rate.
Starting from tomorrow, the hotline will operate from 9am to 6pm from Monday to Friday to receive enquiries. It will be diverted to voice mail after weekday operating hours and during weekends.
The spokesman said that the arrangement was made in view of the decrease in the number of calls received by the hotline.
"The hotline received around 20 enquiries per day in the past two days. As such, the operating hours will be adjusted to better utilise manpower resources," he said.
Up to 4pm today, the hotline had received a cumulative total of 4,066 enquiries from members of the public since it was set up in the evening of August 8. One hundred and fifty-seven callers said that their infants were mainly consuming the infant formulae concerned and they were advised to change to another brand of cow milk-based formula with adequate iodine content.
Updated information will be uploaded to the DH's website (www.dh.gov.hk) for public reference.
Ends/Friday, August 17, 2012
Issued at HKT 17:24
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