Hong Kong to enforce mass testing for Covid-19

(File photo)

Hong Kong will roll out compulsory testing for Covid-19 starting in mid-March for its 7.4mn residents, leader Carrie Lam said yesterday, as university researchers predicted new infections could peak at a staggering 180,000 a day next month. Lam said stringent coronavirus rules would be in place until mid-April with schools shut until August, as authorities battle to control an “exponential” rise of infections which have overwhelmed healthcare facilities and resources. Hong Kong is home to some of the most densely populated districts on Earth, with the majority of people living in high-rise buildings cheek by jowl with family members and often sharing tiny lifts. “The coming one to three months are crucial in fighting the pandemic,” Lam told a press briefing. Residents would need to test three times under the compulsory testing scheme with daily testing capacity reaching 1mn. Venues including school campuses could be used for testing and isolation, she said. The measures are the most draconian to be implemented, two years into the pandemic in the global financial hub. Lam reiterated the city’s “dynamic zero Covid” strategy similar to mainland China, aiming to eradicate any outbreaks at all costs. She repeatedly thanked mainland authorities for their “staunch support”. She said authorities were not considering a city-wide lockdown, like those in mainland China. The central government would however help to build a temporary hospital. Health authorities in the former British colony reported 6,211 new cases, 32 deaths and a further 9,369 cases that came up positive in preliminary tests. They said a backlog in testing meant they were unable to get a full picture. In a paper titled “Modelling the fifth wave of Covid-19 in Hong Kong”, researchers at the University of Hong Kong said they updated their February 10 study to show the number of daily deaths potentially peaking at near 100 by late March, and cumulative deaths potentially rising to around 3,206 by mid-May. Infections could peak at 180,000 a day. Less than two weeks ago, the same researchers had predicted daily infections potentially peaking at around 28,000 by mid-March with a total of 954 deaths by the end of June.