The Government announced that the compulsory testing exercises and enforcement operations for the restricted areas in Yuen Long and Ma On Shan finished today with no confirmed COVID-19 cases found.

After the compulsory testing exercises, people in the restricted areas who can present SMS notifications with negative test results or are wearing wristbands as proof of having undergone testing can leave the areas.

The Government exercised the power under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation on February 5 to make restriction-testing declarations, requiring people within the two restricted areas to stay in their premises and undergo compulsory testing.

They had to stay in their homes until everyone in the two areas were tested and the results were mostly ascertained.

Additionally, the Government issued compulsory testing notices to those who had been at these buildings for more than two hours from January 23 to February 5 to undergo compulsory testing before February 7 even if they were not in the restricted areas when the declarations took effect.

It set up temporary specimen collection stations at the restricted areas and requested people subject to mandatory testing to have their combined nasal and throat swab samples collected for COVID-19 testing.

About 576 residents in the Yuen Long restricted area and 457 in Ma On Shan were tested.

Enforcement actions were carried out immediately after the compulsory testing exercises to verify that all people in the restricted areas were tested.

Two people in the Ma On Shan restricted area who did not undergo mandatory testing were each issued a fixed $5,000 penalty and a compulsory testing order.

Meanwhile, the Government assigned staff to visit about 1,328 households in the two restricted areas, of which 125 did not answer the door. Some of them are possibly vacant units.

Those who did not answer the door are urged to contact the Government to arrange testing as soon as possible.