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Letters | Making testing impossible for elderly defeats Hong Kong’s fifth wave fight

  • Readers discuss the hurdles elderly face in complying with testing demands, the importance of ties with the mainland, and adapting Hong Kong’s pandemic policies

Reading Time:4 minutes
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A resident of Lee Yat House at Shun Lee Estate undergoes Covid-19 testing on March 14 after the complex was put under lockdown and ordered to do mandatory testing. Photo: Dickson Lee
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There are many reasons Hong Kong people are so frustrated with the government’s “efforts” in containing the Covid-19 pandemic. Here is one.

My mother learned on April 3 that her building was on a list for mandatory testing. She is happy to comply with the requirement, but she is in her 80s, has had heart surgery and a few bouts of pneumonia and is too fragile to travel to the testing centres. She is also worried about the risk of cross-contamination.

She called the hotline seeking alternatives, including whether someone could be sent to her home for her to be tested or she could submit a saliva specimen to comply with the requirement. She was told “no” on the former, while on the latter she was told it was possible but only if she could provide a doctor’s certificate that she was unfit to go to the testing centre to be tested.

The notice requires residents of her building – most of whom are elderly – to complete the mandatory testing by April 4. Will any government hospital be able to provide an immediate appointment for her to be assessed and have a certificate issued by the next day? It’s also simple logic that if she could make it to the hospital for an appointment, she could also make it to the testing centre.

Denying the elderly alternatives or making it so cumbersome that they become a non-alternative means many who are immobile or too fragile to travel to a testing centre will stay untested. This defeats the purpose of the daily sloganeering of early detection, early treatment and prevention of deaths.

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