New Rapid Coronavirus Tests Introduced At Hospitals

The Hospital Authority (HA) has introduced a new testing process for Covid-19 that promises to deliver results in 45 minutes – compared with up to six hours for traditional tests.

The problem is, supplies of testing kits are limited, and they'll only be used at the emergency departments of ten public hospitals for now.

Sally Wong, a doctor at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, says the new tests are quick, effective, and convenient - the testing equivalent of an all-in-one coffee machine.

"Every time when we receive one patient's specimen, we just process it and put it in one cartridge and then pop it into the machine just like a coffee maker, and about 45 minutes afterwards, you have your coffee ready and you have your result ready”, she said.

The HA has previously had some of these machines, but before now, they were only used to test for the flu.

The key is that the authority have procured new testing kits – that can be thought of as coffee cartridges, using Dr Wong’s analogy – that can test for Covid-19.

These new kits, along with more machines the HA has bought, means they'll now be able to carry out 2,500 rapid tests at ten hospitals per week starting on Wednesday.

The new tests are not just much quicker than the traditional tests, they're also less labour intensive.

And, unlike the old tests that only run when there are lots of samples ready to go, the new ones can be conducted one at a time.

A chief manager of the Hospital Authority, Dr Vivien Chuang, said it's akin to a taxi that can leave with just one passenger, compared to a minibus that has to sit around and wait until enough passengers get on board.

But, because supplies of these kits – which are imported from Sweden and the United States – are very tight, they'll only be used at emergency departments for now.

Chuang says this will help cut short waiting times for patients who used to have to wait for hours on end.

“We do not want them to wait for so long, so these rapid tests can give our result within a short time so we can more flexibly discharge the patient, or admit the patient, if the result is available”, she said.

Traditional tests will still be used for patients outside of emergency departments, and the authority says it has ample kits for the old tests, enough to last a full year even if 1,000 tests are conducted every day.