AP PHOTOS: Inflatable labs in Hong Kong for mass COVID tests
ABC News
HONG KONG -- Hong Kong has ramped up its testing capacity with the help of inflatable mobile laboratories, as the city grapples with tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases daily.
The labs arrived from mainland China ahead of a planned city-wide testing of its more than 7 million residents later this month.
It's part of a “zero-tolerance” COVID-19 strategy enforced in China, and one that Beijing had pressed upon Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous territory that's been struggling to contain a surge driven by the omicron variant.
Several of the mobile labs have been set up across the city with each equipped to handle tens of thousands of samples daily. They're often deployed in mainland China, which seals off entire neighborhoods — and sometimes cities — for mass-testing when cases are detected, until every resident is cleared from infection.