The population will be tested three times in March, Hong
Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said.
She said testing capacity will be boosted to 1 million a day
or more.
“Since we have a population of some 7 million people,
testing will take about seven days,” she said.
Hong Kong has reported about 5,000 new daily infections
since Feb. 15, with the cases threatening to overwhelm its healthcare system.
Since the current surge began at the beginning of the year, the city has
recorded nearly 54,000 cases and 145 deaths.
The order for citywide testing comes after mainland Chinese
authorities dispatched epidemiologists, health workers and other medical
resources last week to help contain the outbreak in the semi-autonomous Chinese
city.
Hong Kong has largely aligned itself with mainland China’s
“zero-COVID-19” policy, which aims to totally stamp out outbreaks, even as many
other countries are shifting their approach to living with the virus.
Lockdowns of entire cities have been imposed in a number of
areas of the mainland, but Lam said no such measure is currently being
considered in Hong Kong because it is “not realistic.”
She also denied that the central Chinese government is
giving instructions to Hong Kong on how to handle the epidemic.
“I reiterate that the central government never issued any
instructions on our anti-epidemic work,” she said. “The central government will
offer support as needed or upon our request, but of course we will always
exchange our views.”
The “zero-COVID-19” strategy means that Hong Kong authorities
often take measures such as locking down residential estates for mass testing
when positive cases are detected, imposing strict quarantine requirements on
travelers and ordering the shuttering of businesses.
The rapid surge of infections in the city has threatened to
overwhelm its healthcare system.
Health officials said last week that hospitals were already
at 90% of capacity and isolation facilities were full. People who test positive
for the virus in Hong Kong must either be admitted to a hospital or a
quarantine facility.
Lam acknowledged on Tuesday that the city’s isolation
facilities are “severely inadequate” and that it is “working very hard with the
full support of the central authorities” to build more.
Current social-distancing measures, such as a ban on dining
at restaurants after 6 p.m. and the closure of businesses such as gyms and
bars, will be extended until April 20.
“This is not good news to the sectors affected, but really
at this stage of the pandemic we have no choice but to take these measures,”
Lam said.
She said the city hopes to boost its vaccination rate to 90%
by early March.
Other measures announced Tuesday include ending the school
year early and moving the normal July-August summer holidays forward to March
and April so that schools can be turned into facilities for testing, isolation
and vaccination.
Flight bans from countries classified as high risk,
including Australia, Canada, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Britain
and the U.S., will be extended to April 20.
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