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The Director of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), Dr Lee Boon-ying, today (December 3) reminded senior citizens and those taking care of senior citizens to beware of a drop in air temperature and take appropriate measures to protect senior citizens from getting cold in winter as low winter temperatures can have a significant negative impact on health.
The Observatory and the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association hosted the Warmth and Care in Wintry Weather press conference today. Dr Lee introduced the HKO's location-based weather service - the MyObservatory PDA version, the iPhone enhanced version and the Android version - at the press conference. When conducting out-door activities, senior citizens and those taking care of senior citizens can use the MyObservatory service to obtain real-time information on local weather and take appropriate measures if the temperature drops.
Executive Director of the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association (SCHSA), Mr Ma Kam-wah, said that more senior citizens use the association's Personal Emergency Link Service (PE-Link) in winter. The SCHSA will continue to liaise closely with the HKO to monitor the weather, and if necessary strengthen the manpower of the Call and Care Service Centre, and send recorded voice messages through the Caring Message Service to remind PE-Link users of expected weather changes to minimise their health impact.
Auntie Leung Wing-yin, who has been a user of PE-Link for many years, said, "With PE-Link and the MyObservatory location-based weather service, senior citizens like me will have a safer winter."
Note
(1) 'MyObservatory' is a location-based weather service. Making use of positioning software to estimate the user's location, this new service automatically displays the latest weather information, including temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, wind direction, wind speed and weather photo, from the nearby weather stations. The recently launched enhanced version incorporates 7-day weather forecast, weather warnings, HKO storm track, satellite and radar images, etc.
(2) 'Caring Message Service' of the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association is provided through an interactive voice response system (IVRS) with autodial function. It aims to deliver greetings, reminders and the latest information to the 'Personal Emergency Link Service' users on a regular basis, to help them keep in touch with the community.
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