Test Kits Snapped Up In Tai Po Amid Virus Scare

Residents in Tai Po queued up outside the Tai Po Jockey Club Clinic to try to get their hands on test kits for the coronavirus on Sunday morning, a day after health authorities warned there could be silent transmission in the neighbourhood. The government has also arranged for a van to distribute free test kits.

Some people were seen waiting before the clinic opened its doors at 9am, and the 90 test kits available were all handed out in half an hour.

Among those in the queue outside the Tai Po Jockey Club Clinic were residents of Kwong Fuk Estate, where a 26-year-old bar waiter with untraceable source of infection lives.

"[I was] so scared that my heart skipped a beat because I take the same lifts as the confirmed patient," said a woman who got four test kits for her family.

She said she will stop going out for meals as she expressed worries that there had been a number of residents in the estate confirmed with Covid-19.

But some arriving at the clinic were left empty handed.

"They should not have set a quota," complained a woman who was trying to get test kits because she said her children were feeling under the weather.

Another man said he was disappointed that he could not get a test kit because his employer required him to get tested before he could go to work.

At Kwong Fuk Estate, cleaners wearing protective equipment were there to carry out disinfection work.

A number of recent Covid-19 cases were from Tai Po, while most of them belonged to clusters.

The government said in a statement that Prenetics would use a van to distribute and collect deep throat saliva specimen bottles in Tai Po from Sunday afternoon free of charge.

It said in a statement that the van would be parked near the taxi station at Hang Seng Bank in Kwong Fuk Road from 1.30pm to 6.30pm on Sunday.

The van would also operate from 10am to 5pm on Monday and Tuesday.