Hong Kong authorities have slashed the time needed to send emergency mobile alerts to residents from an hour to 15 minutes under a HK$150 million (US$19 million) system, while messages can now be tailored to specific districts, the security chief has revealed.
A hearing session into the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire in April had exposed the lengthy time needed to trigger the alert. But security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung on Saturday stopped short of specifying the types of incidents, such as major fires, that would trigger the use of the Emergency Alert System in the future.
The system, established in 2020 and managed by the Office of the Communications Authority, has only been used once – to announce that Queen Elizabeth Hospital was turned into a designated Covid hospital in 2022.
Speaking on Saturday in a radio show, Tang explained that the system had originally been designed around preset emergency scenarios such as earthquakes and tsunamis.
“When dealing with situations that did not have pre-written messages, the content had to be accurate and clear,” he said.
