Most people think that the first formal involvement of the Force came with the quarantine and subsequent evacuation of the residents of Amoy Gardens Block E. In fact, three weeks before the Amoy outbreak there had been a SARS outbreak at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sha Tin. This Chinese University of Hong Kong Teaching Hospital is huge and on any given day there is usually a dozen or so people receiving treatment there who are under police detention. Most are pregnant Mainland overstayers/illegal immigrants. For that reason Tin Sum Division (TSDIV) maintains a Police post in the Accident & Emergency (A&E) Casualty Department.

On March 11, officers on duty there reported to the Divisional Commander (DVC), Mr Steven Wordsworth, that hospital staff were all wearing masks and gloves, and that a supply of them had been provided to their post. Mr Wordsworth immediately contacted the Hospital Administrator and learned that there had been a serious outbreak of an unknown atypical type of pneumonia. Until more was known about the disease, his officers on duty there were recommended to take the same precautions as the hospital staff.

The Prince of Wales Hospital Outbreak

Mr Wordsworth paid a personal visit to the hospital and received a more detailed briefing from medical staff. These visits continued on a daily basis throughout the emergency. He offered enhanced patrols to provide moral support for the medical staff and a (never used) contingency response plan if the hospital was quarantined.

He then set up procedures for protecting his own staff. Mr Wordsworth obtained masks, gloves, overboots and barrier suits. He established a Hygiene Station for vehicles, equipment and suited-officers deployed at the hospital, or other high-risk areas, and an indoor Hygiene Bay for disinfecting officers' accoutrements.

On March 17 the Accident & Emergency Unit closed and so did the Casualty Post but daily visits were still made to the pregnant Mainland overstayers/illegal immigrants. When the A&E Department re-opened a week later, the Casualty Post was re-manned but shifts there were reduced to four hours to ensure his staff could have a good shower before going off-duty.

Naturally enough, in the beginning there was some concern that the procedures adopted may cause alarm to the general public, however Mr Wordsworth felt it was necessary to offer the best protection available. Fortunately, the precautions and procedures established by TSDIV afforded officers the confidence to continue working in a known SARS environment even though the situation worsened.

TSDIV Frontliners

TSDIV Woman Police Constable Ms Lee Pui-yiu who was assigned to duty at the Casualty Post well before March 11 told OffBeat: "I was a bit worried when I first saw the medical staff in masks, gloves and even Barrierman suits," she said. "I am married to a Policeman and have a newborn baby daughter, that is why, in the early days, I had some sleepless nights worrying about their safety and that of the child's grandparents. But I was so relieved when our DVC told us to use the masks and gloves, and then the suits, and reduced our time at the hospital so that we could clean up at a Hygiene Station, Hygiene Bay and our shower units before going off-duty. All my colleagues and I are really grateful our senior officers took such good care of us.

Police Constable (PC) Mr Chan Chun-pong said that at first he was not worried at all. "But then as the number of cases rose, and newspapers gave the details, my family members worried about my safety, and perhaps about their own. That caused me some concern. Then," he said, "in late March I developed a fever, and went into quarantine. Because of that, in addition to worrying about my family, I also started worrying about my comrades with whom I shared duties. Fortunately after three days I was cleared and was actually relieved to be back at work."

"During the periods we were on duty in the Barrierman suits," said Mr Chan, "we had some embarrassing moments when worried patients, mistaking us for medical staff, approached us for help. Some got a little agitated when we directed them to someone else."

"Perhaps, there should be some outward sign that we are Police officers," said Ms Lee. "Next time, and it seems we have to accept that there will be a next time, there could be some disposable identifying arm bands for us, and for our colleagues from other departments, to wear. It could save a lot of confusion for those on duty and for members of the public," she concluded.

Amoy Gardens Outbreak and the Aftermath

NTKDIV Commander, Mr Gary Field, from where most of the containment activities were controlled following the quarantine and then the temporary evacuation of Amoy Gardens E Block, said that he felt the Police had managed to do a good job despite the fact that they were working with an unprecedented multi-disciplinary response force.

"I think that the public's initial response to our presence in support of the Department of Health, and staff from various other government departments, was quite mature," said Mr Field. After all, they woke up in the morning to find that they would be unable to report for work, go to school, keep appointments they had made, or where they would source their next meal."

Some got a little irate during the subsequent evacuation. But those who refused to leave, initially, were willing to do so after the Command Post contacted the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department to arrange for their pets to be taken into their protection.

As well as officers from KE Regional Headquarters, EU KE, Sau Mau Ping District, NTKDIV and the Police Tactical Unit companies Alpha, Yankee and Zulu were all involved in one way or another.

"After the Amoy Gardens E Block evacuations, Yankee Company was assigned to making home visits to all residents of other buildings in the area where an isolation order had been made. "They did not really get angry with us," said 4 Platoon Commander Woman Inspector Ms Jacqueline Choi Nga-wing, "they seemed to understand that we were simply helping them to meet the requirements of the law. We soon got into a routine, making three random visits a day to 20 or so residences."

Kowloon East Regional Missing Persons Unit were given their first cases just after E Block had been cordoned off. Home Affairs Department and DH staff were escorted to each unit and the situation explained to the residents. Missing people had to be contacted and that included 'absent families'. All but four families were subsequently contacted and persuaded to go for a medical examination.

Woman Sergeant Ms Chung Sau-ling told of trying to locate a missing Indonesian domestic helper. "She had left the premises, 'address unknown' before the outbreak after a dispute with her employer," said Ms Chung. "So we used our contacts with Social Welfare Department and some NGOs before, eventually, discovering that she was living in a domestic helpers' shelter. We finally got a message to her and she surrendered for a medical examination."

NTKDIV Inspector Mr Jonas Kwong, who was the Operational Support Sub-Unit Commander for the evacuation of Block E, said that the main difficulty for the Force was that it was not simply a Police action. "We were supporting others," he explained. "We were supporting the decision makers. There had been no post World War II precedent for anyone to go on.

"But we completed the move without losing anyone. We did have problems over the count for one of the Isolation Camps. Apparently there was no head count done as they arrived. Two or three were carried out subsequently and, naturally, came up with different numbers at different times. People had started to move around. That was finally resolved," Mr Kwong concluded.

The difficulties experienced by our frontline officers in the processing of the families, during the evacuation are highlighted by the recollection of an incident by PC Mr Yeung Yuk-sing from NTKDIV, when he was assisting in processing the residents onto the convey vehicles, "We were given the details of the composition of each family unit by the DH. In particular, I remember that with one of the families being evacuated, the checklist said that there should be four family members present. When I processed them onto the vehicle, we found that there were only three. I asked where the fourth person was, only to be subjected to an unexpectedly angry, embittered and indignant reply that he was already dead from SARS. We made our peace with them. They were entitled to be upset. After that, we became much more careful as to how we couched our questions," said Mr Yeung.

The Big Clean-up

In the days following the evacuation, a Multi-Disciplinary Response Team arrived to try and discover the reasons for the outbreak and to arrange a thorough cleansing first of public areas and then of residential units. Evacuees were escorted back to Block E to supervise the disinfecting and cleansing of their units. The four families 'missing' were overseas but gave permission for forced entry, cleansing and resealing.

NTKDIV Sgt Mr Tsang Siu-keung was in charge of the Command Post on the day that access had to be arranged to the flats belonging to the four families currently overseas. "I had asked the Amoy Gardens Management to recommend a couple of locksmiths who normally work in the area," said Mr Tsang. "After one of them had still not gained access an hour after starting work, we found out that he was really nothing more than a key-cutter.

"After the premises were finally opened, we witnessed the cleaning of the four residences and they were carefully re-locked to ensure they would remain secure," concluded Mr Tsang.

EU KE Station Sergeant Mr Yu Tai-lun commanded one of the Quarantine ('Q') cars used to escort Auxiliary Medical Service ambulances carrying DH officers and suspected SARS patients and their contacts to hospitals. This duty started on the first day of the quarantine but, as the outbreak spread, it became a region-wide task. The crew of a Q car was four officers, three were provided with masks and gloves and a fourth had the full protection gear (mask, gloves, boots and Barrierman suit). These 'collections' were coordinated by PC Mr Fung Chun-leung from Tseung Kwan O operations centre.

KE Operations Superintendent Mr Jeff Herbert was most impressed at the way the Force's support operation for the DH had swung into action. "It shows that our practical abilities and experience as police officers do enable us to rise to each and every occasion," he said. "After this event is well and truly behind us, there will, no doubt, be the usual careful consideration of all that we have done and how we did it. I am sure that there will be experiences to share and lessons to be learned from them. This is all part and parcel of being a police officer and how we can expect to rise to the next occasion that comes along."

Force frontliners at Amoy Gardens

TSDIV's frontliners: WPC Ms Lee Pui-yiu and PC Mr Chan Chun-pong