Registration For Covid-19 Tests To Start This Week

Secretary for the Civil Service, Patrick Nip, said people will be able to register online for the universal Covid-19 test scheme by the end of this week.

Speaking on an RTHK radio programme, Nip said that people can make an appointment with a preferred testing station at a specific date and time, which will hopefully prevent people from crowding at the 100 stations across the city.

All individuals need to do is provide their name, ID card number, and phone number when they register. On the day of their appointment, they will be assigned a sample bottle with a number. If their sample yields a negative result, the individual will be notified via SMS.

Nip said that as long as people own a Hong Kong ID card and display no symptoms, then they can take part in the testing scheme, and foreign domestic helpers will also be allowed to be tested. He also urged companies to be flexible and allow employees to get tested during office hours.

The minister also said people's samples and information will stay in Hong Kong, and their personal details will be encrypted before they are destroyed a month after the tests are done.

He said that because the two-week scheme is voluntary, it's hard to estimate how many people will take part. He said health authorities would still try to find asymptomatic carriers of the virus through the scheme, and that the government and the public needed to work together.

Nip did not respond when asked if the scheme would be made compulsory if not enough people volunteer for testing.

He also dismissed suggestions that the third wave of Covid-19 infections was caused by poor governance rather than lax community epidemic prevention, saying that the authorities have done everything they can in the past half year – from virus detection to social distancing – and that the fight against the epidemic cannot be done by the government alone.