Hong Kong prepares to launch mass Covid-19 testing as city confirms 46 new cases, two more deaths
- Sixteen air-inflated labs among the facilities ready to be deployed for large-scale screening within days
- Latest infections come one month to the day since city’s toughest social-distancing rules took effect, but official warns against relaxation
Hong Kong is preparing to launch mass Covid-19 screening as early as this week and mulling the resumption of talks to re-establish travel links with two of its neighbours, as city health authorities confirmed 46 new Covid-19 infections and two more deaths.
Saturday’s tally marked exactly a month since Hong Kong imposed its toughest social-distancing measures yet against the coronavirus, and the 13th straight day of the city reporting fewer than 100 infections.
But health officials warned against easing the anti-contagion rules due to expire on Tuesday, as the city's infected total increased to 4,406 with 69 deaths.
“If the measures were relaxed, the numbers could rebound again,” said Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection.
She told a press conference on Saturday that 39 of the new infections were locally transmitted, of which 12 had unknown origins. Seven of the cases were imported.
As part of the response to Hong Kong’s third wave of infections, three firms linked with mainland China have been applying the finishing touches for the roll-out of the community testing scheme, which is being offered on a voluntary basis to the city’s 7.5 million population with the support of medical experts from over the border. It is expected that the three laboratories could perform nearly 500,000 tests per day.