HONG KONG - The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said Thursday that all its employees should accord top priority to fight against the epidemic as a team serving the people of Hong Kong.

"All government employees, whether they have been arranged to work in the office or otherwise, should stand ready at all times and participate in anti-epidemic work when called upon by their departments, no matter what their original/usual duties are," said a government spokesperson.

Containing the fifth wave of the epidemic is now of paramount importance to the government, said the spokesperson.

"Over the past several weeks, bureaux and departments swiftly mobilized a large amount of manpower to launch various anti-epidemic measures, including large-scale 'restriction-testing declaration' operations, contact tracing, assistance in the issuing of quarantine orders, distribution of wristbands, and support for call centers for persons subject to home quarantine," the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson also strongly appealed to all employers in Hong Kong to allow their staff members to work from home as far as possible so as to drastically reduce the flow of people and social contact in the community and to slow down the spread of the virus as much as possible.

Hong Kong registered 6,116 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, according to data from the Center for Health Protection Thursday.

Since the start of a mass inoculation program in February last year, about 5.72 million people, or 84.9 percent of the eligible population in Hong Kong, have taken at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccines, while about 5.05 million, or 75.1 percent of the eligible population, have taken two doses. Over 1.36 million people in Hong Kong have taken their third booster shots.