Staff of residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs), residential care homes for persons with disabilities (RCHDs) and nursing homes must undergo the sixth round of COVID-19 nucleic acid tests from January 28 to February 6.

The Secretary for Food & Health issued a compulsory testing notice on January 25.

The notice covers those who are employed by and will be on duty at RCHEs, RCHDs, nursing homes and day service units attached to residential care homes, or will provide services to residents or users through hire-of-service contracts from February 7 to 20.

They must not take the sample themselves and should receive specimen collection services using combined nasal and throat swabs.

Relevant staff may choose to undergo free testing at community testing centres, mobile specimen collection stations or self-arrange testing in laboratories recognised by the Government at their own expense.

They can also have their specimens collected by a healthcare professional or trained personnel arranged by institution operators for testing at government-recognised laboratories.