'Weekly Tests For Care Home Staff Are Unnecessary'

An alliance representing NGOs on Thursday called on the government to only require care home staff to be tested for coronavirus once every two weeks, after many operators it polled expressed opposition to the government's plan to halve the gap between checks to seven days.

The Council of Social Service surveyed the operators of nearly 250 care homes earlier this week, with all of them saying more regular tests would affect their operations.

Most of the respondents said they had to make overtime compensation arrangements for staff during an earlier round of mandatory tests, after asking them to get tested at government facilities during non-working hours.

Less than 10 percent of the care homes covered in the survey managed to arrange private laboratories to test their staff on site.

The council urged the government to increase its subsidy for institutions which opt to make their own private testing arrangements. It also demanded more community testing facilities specially catered to care home staff in different districts, as well as to accept deep throat saliva samples for testing.

The government on Thursday ordered a third round of mandatory testing for those who will work in care homes for the elderly and people with disabilities between December 29 and January 7, while specifying that people's samples must come from nasal and throat swabs collected by someone else.