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Coronavirus: mass Covid-19 testing set to begin in Hong Kong as more than 553,000 sign up amid arguments over scheme
- Coronavirus testing programme will begin at 8am at 141 sample collection centres across all 18 districts in city
- Hong Kong’s leader, top ministers and bureau chiefs will take the lead and be tested at government headquarters
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Hong Kong confirmed nine new Covid-19 cases on Monday, the day before the start of mass testing to identify invisible coronavirus carriers in the city, but arguments continued over the effectiveness and safety of the scheme.
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More than 553,000 residents had signed up for the programme as of 6pm, while Hong Kong’s leader, her top ministers and bureau chiefs will take the lead and be tested at the government headquarters in Tamar.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s top advisers will also get tested before the weekly Executive Council meeting on Tuesday, a source said.
The scheme opens at 8am at 141 sample collection centres across Hong Kong’s 18 districts.
Testing at 97 stations, or 70 per cent, is fully booked for the first day, and at 14 of them for the entire period of the programme.
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Hong Kong’s mass Covid-19 testing to begin on September 1, to last at least 7 days
Hong Kong’s mass Covid-19 testing to begin on September 1, to last at least 7 days
At a regular press briefing, meanwhile, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said there were nine more confirmed cases on Monday, including two imported infections involving a pilot from Ethiopia and a domestic worker from the Philippines.
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