'Subsidise Patients Who Take Covid-19 Tests'

The president of the Doctors' Union, Yeung Chiu-fat, says the government should subsidise visits to the doctor for patients who agree to take a test for Covid-19, as officials consider enforcing compulsory testing.

Speaking on an RTHK programme on Monday, Yeung said he believed as many as half of the people with coronavirus symptoms who go to doctors agree to take a test.

He said there was little doctors could do without cooperation from patients and a subsidy from the government had the potential to help.

Also speaking on the same programme as Yeung was University of Hong Kong microbiologist, Ho Pak-leung, who also warned of a potential rapid deterioration in the Covid-19 situation here.

Ho called on the government to step up inspections at venues such as restaurants and bars to ensure that they're meeting social distancing rules.

He said officials should immediately prosecute businesses if they find regulations being breached, saying that this would be better than risking an upsurge in cases, and tighter measures that would harm the economy.

The comments come after another HKU microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung, who is also an advisor to the government on the pandemic, said the administration had got its priorities wrong on testing.

The University of Hong Kong scientists said public and private doctors had picked up more cases than a territory-wide mass testing scheme.