Just six Covid-19 cases in first batch of 128,000 Hongkongers tested in mass screening scheme – including four recovered patients
- Four are recovered patients discharged last month but still carrying traces of the coronavirus
- Medical experts say identifying any invisible carriers through the mass exercise will be crucial in the race to contain the current wave
As officials revealed on Thursday that the free, community-wide voluntary testing scheme had effectively tracked just two new Covid-19 cases so far – as the other four had recovered and posed low infectious risk to the public – medical experts said identifying any invisible carriers caught through the mass exercise would be crucial in the race to contain the current wave.
“Just a handful of cases could undermine us,” said Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a top microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and an adviser to the government on pandemic control.
“Let’s say there are 20 cases in every 800,000 people. If you do the maths, given that Hong Kong has a population of 7 million, there are going to be some 100 cases.”
If those 100 people went out and spread the coronavirus in restaurants and public transport, Yuen said, the consequence could be “very serious”.
Professor Gabriel Leung, dean of HKU’s medical school, said the number of infections identified from the programme so far was well within his estimate of 3.8 to 16.4 people being confirmed for every 128,000 tested.