Universal Test Scheme A Success: Carrie Lam

Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said the government's universal community testing scheme was a huge success even though just less than a quarter of the SAR's population have done the test.

Speaking ahead of her weekly Exco meeting on Tuesday, Lam said that after the two-week exercise, just over 1.78 million people had their specimens collected and 32 infected people identified.

"To have 1.78 million voluntarily take part in a massive testing programme is a very good result," she said, saying that the scheme succeeded in helping the authorities find asymptomatic carriers of the virus.

Lam said it helped the government and the community gain a better understanding of the Covid-19 situation in the city which will help the authorities with deciding how to ease some social distancing measures.

"Now with a relatively low rate – I think the rate is perhaps two cases per 100,000 situation – that provides a very good epidemiological picture of what is happening in Hong Kong."

She said the scheme also succeeded in injecting "a certain degree of positive spirit which is so lacking in Hong Kong society for a while", raising people's awareness that the fight against the epidemic is ongoing and won't stop until a vaccine is available, and also in dispelling fears that the test was not safe.

"When we started to launch this programme, there was a lot of smearing, badmouthing about the Covid-19 test, about the possible infections and this and that. So people could have fear and anxiety about subjecting themselves to a Covid-19 test," she said.

“The great majority of reaction that I have heard is 'well, it’s very simple', 'it is very safe', 'it doesn’t hurt me at all'.

"So next time when there is going to be another outbreak – whether in an elderly home, whether in a public housing estate – then the public health authorities have to go into sort of more compulsory type of Covid-19 testing, at least the people affected will not have that same fear and anxiety."

Lam said that her administration will announce later in the day more details concerning what social distancing restrictions will be eased from Friday, as well as details about the third round of employment subsidies under the third round of anti-epidemic funding.