CHINA / SOCIETY
HK to provide free COVID-19 testing to all residents
Published: Aug 07, 2020 03:35 PM

Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam announces the postponement of the 2020 Legislative Council (LegCo) General Election of the HKSAR due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, July 31, 2020.Photo:Xinhua

 

Hong Kong will provide free coronavirus tests for its 7.5 million residents taken on a voluntary basis starting in two weeks' time in collaboration with the central government, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced on Friday, as the city has been hit by a third wave of coronavirus cases. 

Under the universal testing plan, each resident will be able to take one free testing voluntarily, Lam said at a press conference. 

The COVID-19 epidemic situation in Hong Kong is still severe, as the number of confirmed cases in July witnessed a sharp increase, while the sources of 40 percent of the cases remain unknown, Lam said. 

The city reported 89 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, dropping below 100 since the start of August. 

But Lam warned that Hong Kong may still face a coronavirus rebound in the winter, and there is a need to improve the testing capacity and build more treatment centers. 

Lam's announcement came after the central government's decision to send two teams to the city to help curb the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic. Lam said one team of 60 members has already arrived to increase the city's COVID-19 testing capacity and another team will soon arrive to build the makeshift fangcang hospital. 

Three Chinese mainland-linked laboratories - BGI, Kingmed and Hong Kong Molecular - will help the city improve its testing capacity, according to Lam. 

A joint venture partner of BGI was building 16 temporary Huoyan, or Fire Eye, laboratories in the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park Sports Center, which are expected to be fully operational within two weeks, BGI said in a press release sent to the Global Times on Friday. The facilities will be able to handle 100,000 single-tube tests per day, expanding the total daily capacity from 30,000 to 130,000.

Yu Dewen, the team leader from neighboring Guangdong Province, told the Xinhua News Agency that the arrival of nucleic acid technicians from the Chinese mainland is likely to boost the city's daily testing capability to 200,000 from the current 10,000 per day.

Addressing privacy concerns, Lam said the universal citywide coronavirus tests in Hong Kong will ensure the protection of personal data, as the labs will not be given any personal information apart from that needed for the test. 

Observers and medical experts in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland have slammed rumors that the DNA of Hong Kong residents could be given to the Chinese mainland, saying that the rumormongers are putting politics ahead of lives.

In addition to helping the city improve its testing capacity, the central government will also help Hong Kong build a 1,000-bed makeshift hospital in the AsiaWorld-Expo and a Hong Kong version of Huoshenshan hospital outside the AsiaWorld-Expo, Lam said. 

The announcement on Friday came after mounting calls in Hong Kong to invite specialists from the Chinese mainland to help the city conduct citywide testing. 

Hung Kam-in, a member of the Kwun Tong District Council in Hong Kong and a community volunteer, told the Global Times on Friday that residents in his community hailed the testing plan because they believe the citywide testing could help identify silent carriers. 

"However, the [HKSAR] government has to make plans for a small group of people who smeared the central government's help and even obstructed others from conducting the nucleic acid tests," Hung said. 

It's possible that these forces may obstruct the citywide tests, and it's necessary for the police or other law enforcement to be around when mainland professionals collect samples in communities, Hung said.