Coronavirus: laboratory boss says Hong Kong can cut 90 per cent of transmission chains if mass testing is completed in 3 to 7 days
- Sunrise Diagnostic Centre chairman Anthony Wu says ideal screening timeline would include each resident undergoing two or three tests
- Urgent need for more personnel from mainland China to ramp up Hong Kong’s testing capacity, Wu says
Coronavirus transmission chains in Hong Kong could be cut by more than 90 per cent if citywide testing was completed in three to seven days, the head of a major laboratory operator has said.
Sunrise Diagnostic Centre chairman Anthony Wu Ting-yuk on Sunday said citywide Covid-19 testing should be ideally completed in three to seven days, with every resident taking two or three tests within that period.
“That would cut off 90 to 95 per cent of transmission chains,” Wu, a former Hospital Authority chief, told a television programme.
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But he added that several thousand personnel from mainland China would need to be brought in to help implement the Covid-19 screening measure.
“What is urgently needed is more testing personnel to ramp up the testing capacity and get out results as soon as possible,” he said.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor acknowledged on Thursday the government was considering universal Covid-19 screening to combat the explosive fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hong Kong on Sunday logged more than 6,000 new infections.