Cash Incentive Mooted For Govt Test Participants

The president of the Doctors' Union, Henry Yeung, has called for cash incentives to get people to take part in government's universal coronavirus tests, saying previous mass screenings held in Covid hotspots had yielded poor responses.

Yeung said only around half of the residents living in Covid hotspots actually handed in their samples to the authorities after they were given specimen bottles.

The doctor, who had visited a few of the outbreak sites, said some people lined up for the kits just to get a complimentary box of face masks, and they threw the test kits away afterwards.

"I think it is not only political reasons. The reason is that they don't want to know the results," he said. "They think if they are positive, then they will affect people surrounding them."

The tests run by the government was expanded on August 7 to cover some public estates in Wong Tai sin, Tuen Mun and Kwun Tong, and two private buildings in Yau Tsim Mong, involving a total of 46 more buildings and about 86,000 residents.

As of August 14, about 28,000 specimen samples — less than a third — have been collected from these buildings under this plan.

Yeung told RTHK's Frances Sit offering an incentive like a small cash payment would make more people volunteer for the test.

"You can give each citizen a small amount of cash, maybe HK$200 or HK$300. I think [then] most of the people will go there," he said.

The voluntary citywide Covid-19 tests, to be carried out with the help of mainland experts, is reportedly to start on September 1.