The Government has decided to make use of the Anti-epidemic Fund to conduct large scale COVID-19 testing for designated high-risk groups and expand Hong Kong’s overall testing capacity.

The Food & Health Bureau made the statement in response to media enquiries on the Government's initiative to administer tests for people at higher risk from coronavirus.

The bureau explained that with a view to targeting clusters of infection in various premises and sectors in the community, the Government decided to immediately enhance COVID-19 tests for high risk groups in the community on a voluntary basis.

After liaising with major private laboratories in Hong Kong, the Government noted that there are only three labs in the market that can provide such testing services at a massive scale up to tens of thousands.

The laboratories are Sunrise Diagnostic Centre Limited established by BGI, China Inspection Company Limited and Prenetics. 

After considering the suitability of testing service models for the actual operation of the relevant sectors provided by the labs, the Government decided to directly procure testing services from Sunrise Diagnostic Centre and Prenetics under the Anti-epidemic Fund for voluntary testing of staff of residential care homes for the elderly, residential care homes for persons with disabilities as well as nursing homes, taxi drivers and restaurant staff.

The Hong Kong Association of Property Management Companies has also been discussing with China Inspection Company Limited to provide testing services for the property management sector with subsidy from the Anti-epidemic Fund.

Such services provide a one-stop solution to cover procedures from specimen-taking to testing. The testing arrangements for different sectors vary.

The testing service costs are still under discussion with individual companies. The Government will review the testing costs to ensure a reasonable procurement price and announce funding details in accordance with Anti-epidemic Fund requirements at a later stage.

At the same time, the Department of Health, through the connection of Hong Kong Association of Medical Laboratories (HKAML), procured testing services directly from five local private laboratories to enhance public testing capacity.

The private labs began testing service for the department today with a total capacity of handling about 1,000 specimens per day.

The Hospital Authority is exploring the possibility of setting up special counters at general out-patient clinics to distribute deep throat saliva specimen bottles to people with mild symptoms who wish to get tested.

The Government and HKAML reached a consensus that private laboratories will endeavour to assist the department and the authority in providing more testing services if the testing capacity could be ramped up in the future.

The collection and use of any personal data for the purpose of voluntary COVID-19 tests should comply with the provisions of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.

Government departments or testing agencies that process the data will report to the Department of Health or other relevant departments on a need basis for the purpose of disease control. The workflow does not involve the provision of any personal data to any organisations or people outside Hong Kong.

The Government will also consider taking various measures to minimise the amount of personal data collected and accessed.

Should the epidemic situation remain serious, the Government will not preclude the possibility of further procuring services directly from private laboratories to rapidly increase Hong Kong’s testing capacity.