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Letters | How to ensure Hong Kong’s mass at-home testing is not a futile exercise
- Readers discuss the loophole in the voluntary testing exercise, pandemic policy fatigue, and the need for more fine-grained Omicron data
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The Hong Kong government has asked all residents to do the rapid antigen test for three consecutive days starting on April 8 and report to health authorities if positive. As a reward for being an honest citizen, you run the risk of being quarantined in a container or a newly built facility, perhaps sharing a room with strangers, regardless of your symptoms, for at least seven days.
The vast majority of positive cases are asymptomatic and people recover in a matter of days. I would be all sorts of a fool to subject myself to needlessly miserable quarantine if I were to test positive.
To get the most cooperation and honest reporting, the government should clearly state that those who test positive have a choice of home isolation. Short of that option, the whole exercise will be a waste of resources and produce meaningless data.
People need a clear goal to strive for.
Lam Kam Sing, Tai Po
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