Government will expand social welfare safety net to cover more elderly

 Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun says the government will expand its care to cover more elderly households. Sun's comment comes after an elderly couple were found unconscious in a Lai King Estate unit on Friday. They were not visited by the Care Teams as they were below 80 years old.

The elderly couple were sent to hospital for treatment after being discovered unconscious at home. But the 78-year-old wife was later pronounced dead.

Speaking to the media, the Labour and Welfare Bureau says the incident was a tragedy. He says the affected elderly household did not receive help from the Social Welfare Department or NGOs. The couple were also not included in the list of care team's home visits because they were below 80 years old.

Chris Sun, Secretary for Labour and Welfare says, "As the first step, we are targeting all elderly households who are over the age of 80. The next step for us is that we are looking into the possibility of not just looking at the age, we are looking at how we can cooperate with the Hospital Authority for those aged below 80 and suffer from chronic diseases. And if that chronic disease requires constant care, our thinking is to include them as well."

Sun says that the care teams have visited more than 100,000 elderly families out of around 700,000 in the city, and 13,000 households received referals for further support.