The unprecedented nature of the mainland help had sparked questions on the scale of the assistance, how it would be managed and whether the city could pull off the intervention without creating more chaos and confusion.

Analysts said they saw management of the pandemic as a key test of the chief executive’s ability to lead Hong Kong. Mainland academic Tian Feilong described it as a test of the principle of “patriots” ruling the city and the “one country, two systems” governing model as well.

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On Monday, the city was hit with another record-breaking 2,071 new confirmed cases and about 4,500 preliminary infections.

Under Lam’s direction, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai will take up a new key role in coordinating with mainland counterparts the enhancing of nucleic acid testing capabilities. If district-based compulsory testing was imposed, Tsang was likely to steer the efforts, according to a source familiar with the arrangements.

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One working scenario was to divide the city into 10 areas, and carrying out mandatory testing for the entire population progressively over 10 days, the source suggested. But this would require the setting up of adequate isolation facilities and other lockdown measures to prevent movements across districts. A lot of groundwork would be needed before such plans could be executed, the source said.

“A mass testing trying to contain the virus will only be possible if we have a large boost in our testing capacity so it can be done in a short period of time,” the source said. “We also need to learn from the mainland experiences on what lockdown measures are needed during the process.”

The other four principal officials leading the task forces are: health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee, who will liaise with mainland experts on epidemiology; development secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun on the construction of isolation and treatment facilities; commerce minister Edward Yau Tang-wah on the delivery of medical supplies; and transport chief Frank Chan Fan on ensuring the supply of daily necessities to Hong Kong.

The line-up had also sparked speculation, such as to the role of civil service chief Patrick Nip Tak-kuen who had been a core member of the city’s pandemic committee. A source said Nip was not being sidelined in the new “big project”, as his focus was on boosting the city’s vaccination rate which was also crucial to the mission.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung, who attended the Shenzhen meeting, was also not assigned to steer any task force, a day after being asked to oversee border crossing of personnel and supplies.

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“The secretary for security is helping out on admissions to isolation, and law and order of possible testing operations as well,” an insider said, adding that the role was across departments and in his capacity he could communicate directly with his mainland counterparts. Hence it was not necessary for him to steer a separate task force.

Such work also already required a “close working cooperation on a daily basis” with the mainland, the source added.

During a post-meeting press conference, Lee said there were no plans to have a citywide lockdown. He was not asked about the possibility of district-based operations.

In her Sunday night statement, Lam said the local administration held an internal high-level meeting to follow up, adding it would leverage on the central government’s guidance based on its experience in fighting the pandemic, as well as support in terms of manpower and resources to “further boost Hong Kong’s capability of ‘early identification, early isolation and early treatment’ of the infected”.

“Assuming the primary responsibility for the fight against the epidemic, the Hong Kong government will spare no effort to implement the strategy … in pursuit of ‘dynamic zero-infection’,” she said, referring in part to the tactic the mainland has adopted to stem virus spread by putting cities into partial or full lockdowns and performing mass testing.

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Setting out how Lee would be responsible for coordinating the task forces and reporting to her on concrete measures, she said the government felt “worried and sorry” about the fifth wave that had overwhelmed local facilities.

It marked the second time in five days that Lam used apologetic phrases in her official statements, after long queues spanning hours throughout the day were seen outside community testing centres and growing reports of confirmed Covid-19 patients not being sent to hospital for days.

Anthony Wu Ting-yuk, chairman of Sunrise Diagnostic Centre, operator of a new testing lab at Ma On Shan Sports Centre which opens on Tuesday, estimated that about 1,000 staff from the mainland would be needed to further boost capacity. The Ma On Shan facility will allow the city to boost its capacity to 300,000 tests day, up from 200,000.

The city had exhausted all its manpower on testing, he said.

“If we want to boost our testing capacity, such as a larger scale of mandatory testing, we need manpower assistance from the central government.”

Those who had arrived in Hong Kong also shared their working experiences on mainland social media, saying they had to work around the clock every day and were overwhelmed by the many positive cases.

Barrister Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a member of Lam’s de facto cabinet, said based on his understanding, staff from the mainland would not be performing any medical duties, even if there was enough legal basis under the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance to allow the government to appoint people to act as medical and health professionals in the city.

While manpower from across the border might be needed for testing he did not think the government would consider having mainland nurses or medical professionals help out.

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Tian Feilong, director of semi-official think tank the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau, said: “The fight against the pandemic is also a key test of the actual effectiveness of ‘patriots ruling Hong Kong’ and the chief executive’s ability to govern.”

He said even though Hong Kong had undergone an electoral overhaul and oath-taking for public servants, the colonial culture and civil servant tradition hindered its performance.

“Civil servants and social elites are also accustomed to ‘worship’ Western values ​​and models, and do not believe that the country can do better in fighting the pandemic,” added Tian, who is also an associate professor at Beihang University’s law school in Beijing.

Medical and health services sector lawmaker David Lam Tzit-yuen said that district-based lockdowns could be done by enforcing a ban on cross-district travel, rather than prohibiting residents from leaving their homes. He said this could be complemented by new restrictions on public transport.

“One way is to only allow vaccinated residents living in low-risk zones to take public transport if they could return negative results of multiple tests during a certain period of time,” he said.

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As he saw sampling capacity as the bottleneck for local authorities, he suggested that the support of 10,000 to 20,000 medical professionals would be needed in ensuring 1.5 million specimens could be collected for testing a day.

Former Hospital Authority chief executive Leung Pak-yin said district-based lockdowns could not help curb the virus’ spread even after testing capacity was ramped up, as cases could go undetected during the incubation period or there could be false negative results.

“After the testing, the uninfected people will get infected once the restricted areas are released. The cycle will repeat itself,” he told the Post, suggesting resources instead be spent giving rapid self-test kits to residents and guiding patients on recovering at home.

Additional reporting by Gary Cheung