We're giving mass testing a miss - for the moment

The territory-wide mandatory test for Hong Kong has been shelved, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced yesterday.

Lam said the February plan, meant for be activated this month and which triggered panic buying and rumors of lockdowns, is now on hold following advice from experts and constraints.

But she said authorities will continue to evaluate outbreaks and reconsider the scheme at "the right time and in the right circumstances."

Based on the SAR's population of 7.2 million including residents and non-residents, Lam said authorities would have to set up 500 testing stations and deploy 80,000 staff, including 9,000 mainlanders, for the operation.

Regardless of cost, she said, "we should look at our capabilities.

"I've heard from many people ... 'you can do it if you try hard enough' and claims we can test everybody thrice in a week. But after a comprehensive review, simulations and evaluation of each and every step we found it's not that simple."

Lam said mainland experts told her that Hong Kong was "fairly weak capability in mobilizing social forces."

She said a territory-wide test is only effective if every person is tested, but at least a million citizens were said to have been infected.

And many had not declared their sickness, while authorities were exempting those who have been infected in the past three months from mandatory tests, Lam said.

So it would be "troublesome and chaotic" to push forward mass testing now.

SAR and mainland experts agreed the territory-wide testing should be conducted at the beginning or near the end of mass outbreaks, she added.

"The advantage of doing it at the start of outbreaks is to suppress the spread of the infection, which is also the timing when mainland authorities usually adopt the strategy; while the latter is to achieve zero infections to pick up all possible carriers in the community to cut transmission chains.

"Although Hong Kong is seeing eased outbreaks, the daily caseload remains at a high level. Experts believe it is not the right time to put our limited resources on a universal compulsory test. We have to achieve the biggest anti-pandemic effect with the least cost."

But Roundtable legislator Michael Tien Puk-sun said the administration needs to carry out mass testing to reopen borders with the mainland.

"The mainland will not accept Hong Kong's slacking measures," he declared.

"If Hong Kong doesn't carry out the mass testing to greatly suppress infection numbers we can never reopen borders with the mainland."

New People's Party legislator Dominic Lee Tsz-king said he was disappointed SAR officials had wasted support from Beijing, pointing to the central government sending much manpower and other resources to Hong Kong.

He asked: "Why hasn't the government reflected on why it is still incapable of mobilizing social efforts two years into the pandemic?"

Legislator Holden Chow Ho-ding of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong said his party respected Lam's decision based on science.

Executive Council convener Bernard Charnwut Chan said some people in the business sector had left Hong Kong because they worried about separation from family members if they were sent to isolation centers after showing up as positive in a mass testing.

He said also that authorities noticed a change in the outbreaks in the past few weeks, and the latest evaluation showed it would not be cost effective to launch a mass testing.

jane.cheung@singtaonewscorp.com