Exclusive | Coronavirus: Hong Kong mass testing ‘could be postponed to April’ in focus shift to elderly care, reducing death rate
- Sources say ‘nothing is cast in stone’ on time frame for massive exercise, and Beijing has never set an exact date
- Hong Kong has recorded high numbers of daily Covid-19 deaths, surpassing 100 over the past week
Hong Kong could postpone its Covid-19 mass testing to April as part of a shift in focus to reducing coronavirus death rates and caring for the elderly, sources have said with the city in the throes of a fifth wave of infections.
Insiders told the Post that conducting mass screening at the peak of the outbreak would be “useless”, unless the city had prepared an adequate number of isolation facilities.
A source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday that top city officials were considering the strategy shift as a result of the changing situation.
“Now the priority is to reduce the death rate and care for the elderly,” the insider said.
But sources added that “nothing is cast in stone” in regards to the time frame for mass testing.
“The Hong Kong government only put March as a planning parameter. The central government has never set a time frame,” the source said.