Govt Appeals To People To Self-test For Covid

The government has urged residents to report their coronavirus infections within 24 hours for follow-up as a voluntary three-day self-test exercise started on Friday.

In full-page newspaper ads, the government appealed to citizens to test themselves daily for three consecutive days to help cut off virus transmission so that society can return to normal.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, Albert Au of the Centre for Health Protection said officials did not have any estimates on how many Covid cases might be found, but are ready to offer support to those who test positive.

He said the self-test exercise can help the government better gauge the SAR's Covid situation.

“There are virus transmission chains and invisible infections in the community. The more people taking part in the testing exercise, the more cases we can find,” he said.

Au said it’s best for people to do the tests in the morning and gently blow their noses before collecting specimens.

He noted that people who had been infected in the past three months should be immune to the virus, but they are recommended to do self-tests nevertheless if they have symptoms.