Cathay Pacific CEO calls for Hong Kong to adopt faster Covid-19 testing method in bid to kick-start planned travel bubbles

The antigen test, also backed by a member of Carrie Lam’s cabinet, produces results within 15 minutes, though some have questioned its reliability

‘We should be working on [making] travel bubbles happen,’ Cathay’s Augustus Tang says, adding some form of quarantine may still be necessary initially

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Augustus Tang Kin-wing, CEO of Cathay Pacific, sees travel bubbles as the solution to an aviation industry battered by Covid-19. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 9:30am, 28 Sep 2020Updated: 10:47am, 28 Sep 2020

Cathay Pacific has thrown its weight behind a rapid new Covid-19 testing method it believes can help safely pave the way for long-awaited travel bubbles, though passengers may have to initially live with some form of quarantine.

The backing of the much quicker antigen tests for international travellers from Augustus Tang Kin-wing, the airline’s CEO, came as a member of the Executive Council, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s de facto cabinet, also lobbied airport and health authorities to adopt the new method when it hits the market.

The antigen test, which produces results within 15 minutes, has generated questions about its reliability. While some health experts have said the accuracy of some rapid tests can be as high as 97 per cent, Hong Kong has recently imported numerous cases from India, which relies heavily on rapid testing.

“We should be working on [making] travel bubbles happen. We believe we should be using rapid tests in Hong Kong, [and] rapid tests in the partnering region in that particular travel bubble,” Tang told the Post in an interview, suggesting the corridors were the solution needed by a battered aviation industry.

Hong Kong now favours deep-throat saliva testing for its reliability, but it takes about eight hours to get the results. Photo: Sam Tsang

“We believe it is important that we risk manage it at the start when opening up. Depending on the risk profile, the quarantine requirement may not be required, or you still may need 14 days or five days,” he added.