HK$530mn Price Tag For Universal Covid Testing

The government on Tuesday put the cost of its universal voluntary Covid-19 testing scheme at HK$530 million while dismissing concerns about its cost-effectiveness.

Officials said of the total amount, HK$370 million would go towards the wages of medical and other support staff.

Authorities also revealed that nearly 1.8 million people took part in the two-week exercise that ended on Monday, which identified 42 infections.

In a government press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Chief Executive Carrie Lam rejected suggestions that the number of infections did not justify the cost of the scheme.

"This universal community testing programme has made multiple contributions to our anti-epidemic efforts, and it is not easy, or actually it's not quite right, to reflect or measure these benefits by the unit cost of a confirmed case," Lam said.

"The effectiveness and the success of public health relies in keeping the people safe, keeping the people away from disease infections and so on."

The civic service secretary Patrick Nip, who's in charge of the testing scheme, reiterated that while the government had not set a target on the number of participants, it managed to achieve the objective of finding asymptomatic virus carriers and cutting off possible transmission chains in the community.

Nip also thanked the central government for its support for Hong Kong over the testing scheme.

The health minister, Sophia Chan, said thanks to an increase in testing capacity, the government could improve its testing as well as medical-surveillance strategies in future.

But Chan also warned of the possibility of a fourth wave of the outbreak in the winter months, so social-distancing measures would have to remain in place.