Hong Kong's testing capacity could be boosted up to 200,000 samples per day - 20 times its "insufficient" present capacity, says the leader of mainland support team.
Yu Dewen, who was also the chief commander of a Guangdong medical support team for Wuhan in February, told Xinhua News Agency his 60-man team hopes to work together with three mainland testing institutions to conduct large-scale testing schemes - but did not go into details.
Describing the Department of Health's daily testing capacity of 10,000 as "far insufficient," Yu said the Hong Kong branches of three mainland laboratories - BGI, Hybribio and KingMed - can test a total of 20,000 to 30,000 samples a day.
"With the support team joining hands with the mainland institutions, we can greatly increase testing capacity," he said.
"We will strive to boost the daily volume to 100,000 to 200,000, or even more."
The team's first batch of seven members arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday to meet with local authorities and the three laboratories to understand their workflow.
The Department of Health and the Hospital Authority yesterday said they have yet to meet with the mainland support team.
The arrival of the mainland support team sparked discussion of whether they would help test every citizen but the Centre for Health Protection's head of communicable disease branch, Chuang Shuk-kwan, said even if city-wide testing could detect asymptomatic patients, it cannot completely eradicate all silent transmission chains.
David Hui Shu-cheong, a government adviser on Covid-19 and a Chinese University respiratory expert, said any move to test en masse would need to involve a week-long lockdown to prevent residents from wandering around before results come out.
"And it will require extra manpower to collect samples door to door and help people purchase daily necessities," he said.
Hui suggested extending testing to more high-risk groups - including residents of hard-hit districts as well as high-risk jobs like cashiers and staff of public service providers.
Meanwhile, another team of six experts has finished drafting a design to turn the AsiaWorld-Expo into a virus treatment center, mainland media People's Daily reported.
Central-South Architectural Design Institute engineers specializing in structural construction, drainage and power supply assisted the company's representative to Hong Kong, Xie Hu, in modifying the venue.
CITIC General Institute of Architectural Design and Research expert Li Li's team drafted a floor plan of the makeshift center in five hours and submitted all construction graphs within three days to the local authority.
jane.cheung@singtaonewscorp.com
