Hit by virus surge, Hong Kong offers free tests to everyone

Hong Kong will offer free coronavirus tests to its residents starting Sept. 1 as it grapples with its worst outbreak since pandemic began, leer Carrie Lam said Friday.

testing program, which will last up to two weeks, will allow every Hong Kong resident to be tested on a voluntary basis, she said.

“For good of yourself and ors, and for safeguarding public health, please take part in scheme,” Lam said. “What we’re doing today is so that we can come off epidemic as soon as possible, so that we can resume our ecomic activities.”

testing is aimed at identifying people who are infected with coronavirus but have exhibited symptoms, officials said. city, which has 7.5 million people, has conducted over 1.2 million coronavirus tests so far.

A new surge in infections which started in July has more than tripled number of cases in city to 4,632.

Businesses such as beauty salons and bars have been temporarily shuttered and re is a ban on dine-in services after 6 p.m. as part of social distancing measures. city's ecomy contracted 9% in second quarter of this year, marking a full year of recession due to last year's anti-government protests and pandemic.

Lam said testing was possible because of support from Beijing, which is providing resources such as laboratory staff to boost testing capacity in semi-automous Chinese city.

city’s government has faced pushback from skeptical residents and critics who are worried about privacy issues, given that program is supported by Chinese Communist Party. Some fear tests will be used to produce DNA records of residents.

Criticism of mainland government has grown since it imposed a new national security law in Hong Kong which has been viewed as an attack on “one country, two systems” framework under which city has been governed since its return to China in 1997.

Lam brushed aside such concerns, saying that matter what government does, re will always be people who come up with conspiracy ories.

Dr. Gagandeep Kang, an infectious diseases expert at Christian Medical College in Vellore in sourn India, said universal testing can help wipe virus out provided that those who test positive are immediately isolated and frequent retesting is conducted to ensure that tests do t miss people who fall sick later.