The Government announced that the exercise on the restriction-testing declaration for the restricted area in Yau Ma Tei finished at around 6am and one confirmed COVID-19 case was found among those tested.

The Government exercised the power under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation on January 26 to make a restriction-testing declaration effective from 7pm, requiring people within the specified restricted area at 9-27 Pitt Street and 3 Tung On Street in Yau Ma Tei to stay in their premises and undergo compulsory testing.

They had to stay in their premises until all such people in the area were tested and the test results were mostly ascertained.

Eight temporary specimen collection stations were set up in the restricted area for people to undergo rapid antigen tests and have their combined nasal and throat swab samples collected for COVID-19 testing.

About 330 people were tested, of which one confirmed case was found. The patient and close contacts have been hospitalised or transferred to quarantine centres.

The declaration was revoked after residents were informed of their test results.

About 380 staff from the Home Affairs Department (HAD) and its Office of the Licensing Authority, Police, the Yau Tsim Mong and Sham Shui Po District Offices were mobilised to implement the declaration and notice, the Government said.

It provided simple food for people subject to compulsory testing to facilitate their dinner arrangement. Masks and hand sanitisers were also provided.

Since there are a number of ethnic minorities in the restricted area, the HAD arranged 18 working staff who can speak Nepali, Urdu or Hindi to assist ethnic minorities in undergoing testing in specimen collection stations and help explain the declaration's arrangement.

It also produced leaflets in three ethnic minority languages for people in the restricted area and set up a dedicated hotline for ethnic minorities to make enquiries and seek assistance. Another hotline set up by the department handled around 26 enquiries.

Meanwhile, the Government visited 306 households, of which around 93 did not answer the door. Such households include those in buildings in the restricted area which have not been evacuated and those with confirmed cases or undergoing quarantine, while some units are possibly vacant.

It will take measures to follow up and trace households in the district which have not responded.

The Government hopes this temporary inconvenience will completely cut the local transmission chains in the district and ease residents' worries and fear so that they will regain confidence in resuming social and business activities in the area.

In addition to expressing gratitude to people subject to compulsory testing for their support, understanding and co-operation, the Government thanked all participating government staff and testing agencies for their hard work which enabled the smooth implementation of the declaration within 11 hours.

People who had been in the restricted area for more than two hours in the past 14 days, even if they were not present in the area at the time when the declaration took effect, must comply with the compulsory testing notices and get tested as soon as possible, the Government stressed.