Hong Kong authorities to offer one-off COVID-19 testing for all

Hong Kong residents will soon be entitled to a free, one-off COVID-19 test, authorities said Friday as the number of infections in the city continues to rise alarmingly.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced the plan during an afternoon press conference.

“To allow us to get a better grasp of the community outbreak, to identify asymptomatic carriers as early as possible and give citizens a peace of mind, we are very willing to activate a universal testing scheme,” Lam said.

The testing will not be mandatory and will begin in about two weeks.

Emphasizing that the widened testing would not be possible without the guidance the central government, Lam said Beijing is “greatly concerned with Hong Kong’s recent outbreak and has expressed that it is on hand to respond to the requests of the SAR government and offer the necessary support.”

Last weekend, seven medical experts from mainland China were dispatched to Hong Kong, the first of a team of 60 that will assist in the city’s efforts to ramp up testing.

Specific arrangements are still being discussed, but authorities will aim to finish the testing as quickly as possible, and the scheme would avoid arrangements that would require people to line up or gather.

The news follows an announcement yesterday that the government’s COVID-19 Community Testing Scheme would be extended to parts of Wong Tai Sin, Yau Tsim Mong, Kwun Tong and Tuen Mun due to the concentration of clusters in these areas.

The scheme has already been completed in Tsz Wan Shan, a virus hotspot in the early days of the city’s third COVID-19 wave. In total, 34,000 specimen bottles were distributed and more than 29,000 have been collected.

Hong Kong has been struggling with a surge in infections since early July, when the city began recording at first dozens, then over 100 cases, each day.

After implementing tough measures including a ban on dining in restaurants after 6pm and a mandatory mask rule, the numbers have fallen this week with around 80 to 95 new infections every day since Monday.

89 more coronavirus cases were confirmed Friday, bringing the total number of infections in the city to more than 3,930.

A makeshift hospital at Asia-World Expo also began taking in stable COVID-19 patients this week. Sources say authorities are also considering the conversion of the Hong Kong Coliseum and the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal into makeshift facilities should the need arise.