Fully vaxxed students should be exempt from morning RATs, health expert says

Fully vaccinated students - those inoculated with three doses of the Covid vaccine - should be exempt from the rapid Covid test requirement before heading back to school each day, says the University of Hong Kong's microbiologist Ho Pak-leung.  

His comments came as the SAR government estimated that 60 tons of additional waste were generated by the use of the rapid antigen test kits.  

Read more: Sixty extra tons of plastic waste from RATs no big deal: Environment chief  

Speaking on a radio program on Thursday, the health expert said that with Hong Kong's high vaccination rate, authorities could reduce the plastic waste generated from RATs by targeting specific groups for the tests.  

Ho estimated that students in the territory used around 800,000 test kits each day before heading back to school, which authorities could amend the requirement to reduce the figure.  

He called on authorities to only require students who display symptoms of Covid and those involved in suspected outbreaks to undergo the tests.  

Meanwhile, he added that used RAT kits should not be recycled from a medical point of view.