Coronavirus: Hong Kong leader defends decision to resume testing orders as more ‘effective’ strategy to assess pandemic situation
- Carrie Lam says testing capacity has increased and orders will allow asymptomatic patients in the community to be identified
- List of premises to be compiled based on risk assessment, including recent epidemic data such as positive cases
Hong Kong’s leader has defended the resumption of issuing compulsory testing orders as an effective strategy to assess the city’s pandemic situation instead of relying on rapid antigen tests (RAT).
Health officials also said residents living in a building or an estate with a rising number of infections that had not been locked down were likely to receive an order from authorities.
The government had said on Tuesday the practice of issuing mandatory testing notices on the “Leave Home Safe” risk-exposure app would resume, and residents with high exposure risk to the coronavirus were required to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
The practice was stopped last month as the city’s limited testing capacity could not cope with the exponential growth of cases, with residents switching to using RAT kits to declare their infections to health authorities.
But Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Wednesday that testing capacity had increased and the resumption would allow asymptomatic patients in the community to be identified.
“There is no doubt that the PCR test has higher sensitivity and is far more accurate … Since we have the capacity with the ramped-up laboratories in Hong Kong, I certainly think that we should be far more proactive and undertake more PCR tests to assess the situation.”
