Scrap Compulsory Testing Orders, Expert Urges

University of Hong Kong infectious disease expert Ho Pak-leung on Monday called on the government to stop issuing compulsory testing notices for buildings where Covid patients are found, or where sewage samples test positive for the virus.

Speaking on a radio programme, Ho said this is because the overall anti-epidemic strategy in Hong Kong has shifted from cutting transmission chains to preventing serious illnesses and hospitalisation.

He noted that authorities are now allowing some Covid patients to isolate at home for a week, meaning that positive sewage samples and some extent of vertical or horizontal transmissions are bound to be found within the buildings they live.

“This means you have weighed and accepted the risk brought by this arrangement is controllable given the protection from vaccination in Hong Kong. The arrangement means in these buildings there will be some vertical or horizontal transmissions,” Ho said.

“If you on the one hand accept this policy but on the other hand continue to issue compulsory testing notices, the policies are contradictory to each other… the policies have to be logical.”

He said the government should review the effectiveness of such testing orders in identifying patients, as well as the resources that have to be put into those operations, and consider whether they should be continued.