Coronavirus: Hong Kong start-up joins government’s mass community testing efforts to contain third wave

Prenetics signs contract with the Hong Kong government to test around 200,000 restaurant staff over the next few weeks

The largest private laboratory in Hong Kong is also boosting its capacity to 22,000 tests a day, up from 5,580

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Testing for Covid-19 at Beijing Puren Hospital in Beijing on July 14. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:15am, 19 Jul 2020Updated: 10:24pm, 19 Jul 2020

Hong Kong’s food and health minister Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee walked the streets on Friday, giving out free Covid-19 test kits to restaurant staff as the government ramped up efforts to break the invisible chains of infection crisscrossing the city.

The city is battling a surge in local cases from unknown sources of infection, prompting the government to dip into emergency funds to buy tests for around 400,000 citizens.

The government said it had asked three laboratories to help with the mass community testing: Shenzhen-headquartered BGI, Macau’s China Inspection Company and Hong Kong-based Prenetics.

The companies will fan out across Hong Kong’s 18 districts to test high-risk groups such as staff in care homes for the elderly and disabled, nursing homes, taxi drivers, property management employees and restaurant waiters.

Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Hong Kong is following in the footsteps of mainland China cities, Germany, Iceland and South Korea in using mass community testing as a way to identify asymptomatic people in the community and halt the spread of the coronavirus.

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