Govt Adviser Hopes 5 Million Will Take Covid Tests

An infectious disease expert who advises the government on its anti-epidemic response, Professor David Hui, said he hopes at least five million people will volunteer for the upcoming citywide Covid-19 test scheme, which reports say is to start on September 1.

The Chinese University professor urged people to sign up for the scheme, saying if there was a low turnout it would be difficult to detect hidden carriers and cut off the chains of transmission.

Hui also told a Commercial Radio programme he expected about 4,000 to 5,000 medical personnel will sign up to help, and he has personally volunteered as well. He said so far, 2,000 medical personnel have signed up to help.

Hui said his team did not take part in discussions on the implementation of the universal testing scheme and that he found out about the launch date through media reports.

He said repeated testing is not necessary for most people, and is only needed for those who work in high-risk jobs that involves coming into contact with a lot of people such as nursing home staff, or people in areas where there have been outbreaks.

He also dismissed concerns that the DNA of people joining upcoming citywide Covid-19 tests would be collected and sent to the mainland.

"I think individuals will only be identified by a bar code, your details will not be released to the laboratory staff," he said.

"Just taking a little bit of specimen from the upper airway would not be sufficient for your DNA to be used for duplication purposes, so I don’t think you need to worry about it."

When asked about when would be the right time to relax a raft of social distancing measures, Hui said that they would need to observe the Covid-19 situation for one or two more weeks.

If the number of confirmed cases and proportion of infections with unknown source goes down, then the authorities can consider a gradual relaxation of measures, such as allowing restaurant dining in the evenings, and allowing four people to share a table, he said.