Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, after attending a radio programme today (January 21): 
 
Reporter: Regarding the bird flu, because there will be Chinese New Year, do you think the risk is higher for people to get bird flu? 
 
Secretary for Food and Health: I am very concerned about the H7N9 avian influenza situation in the Mainland. There have been an increasing number of human infection cases since this winter. In Hong Kong, we also have a total of four patients returning from China with H7N9 infection so far. I need to appeal again to Hong Kong citizens who plan to go to the Mainland during the Chinese New Year to take precautions by not going close to any wet markets or having any contact with birds or poultry. 
 
Reporter:  (On subsidy amount for healthcare policy) 
 
Secretary for Food and Health: I think it is very important for the Policy Address this time to have an initiative to adjust the baseline of the recurrent provision for the Hospital Authority (HA) to a more healthier level. This will allow the Government to be more focused on the change in population as well as the population structure of Hong Kong when considering the provision for the HA in future. I think the Government in future will still consider the need for Hong Kong to have a very robust healthcare system.
 
 (Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Saturday, January 21, 2017
Issued at HKT 12:06

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