Hong Kong to launch massive COVID-19 testing with central gov't support

As the support from the central government has boosted its testing capacity, Hong Kong will start a mass screening for COVID-19 on Sept. 1 and aims to complete the testing in no more than two weeks in an effort to bring the severe epidemic situation under control.

Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam announced the plan on Friday at a press conference.

The HKSAR government said earlier that the large-scale testing that may cover millions of people in Hong Kong will be conducted for free and on a voluntary basis. Lam said the scheme would not be possible if there were no support from the central government in lab personnel and testing services.

The central government set up a 60-strong nucleic acid testing team to help improve Hong Kong's testing capacity at the request of the HKSAR government, and the first batch of virus testing professionals arrived in Hong Kong to join the anti-epidemic fight at the beginning of August.

All asymptomatic Hong Kong residents aged no less than six can participate in the testing, Secretary for the Civil Service of the HKSAR government Patrick Nip said, adding that the process is scheduled to last seven days and can be prolonged to no more than two weeks.

People wearing face masks walk in the Central area of Hong Kong, China, July 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

The HKSAR government will set up testing stations in all 18 districts of Hong Kong where trained medical staff will collect samples of deep throat saliva or nasopharyngeal swab, Nip said, stressing that personal information of the participants will be well protected and will not be transferred out of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has seen a new round of COVID-19 infections in multiple communities since the beginning of July. With 27 additional cases reported on Friday, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases has surpassed 4,600, and a large proportion of the infections were found over the past weeks.

The resurgence of new cases has made medical resources overstretched and the virus testing capacity far from enough.

Given the situation, the central government has spared no efforts to help Hong Kong brave the challenges, from enhancing testing capacity through three national-level institutions to building new medical facilities.

Lam said with the assistance of the central government, Hong Kong will add utmost 1,000 hospital beds in the AsiaWorld-Expo and will strive to put the medical facilities into use in a couple of weeks, and a new two-storied temporary hospital that can provide more than 800 beds will also be erected adjacent to the expo in four months.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)