This screengrab of the official Facebook page of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor shows her sharing her negative COVID-19 test result on April 8, 2022 as the three-day voluntary self-test exercise begins.
HONG KONG – The Hong Kong government has called on residents to report their positive COVID-19 infections within 24 hours for follow-up as a voluntary three-day self-test exercise began on Friday.
The program aims to give city authorities a snapshot of the current pandemic situation in Hong Kong and formulate further anti-pandemic measures, Hong Kong Executive Chief Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said at a media briefing on Friday.
Though the testing is not mandatory, Lam said she hopes every Hong Kong resident will contribute to the virus battle and help achieve the goal of containing COVID-19 as soon as possible.
In a social media post, CE Carrie Lam shared her negative test result after conducting a self-test Friday morning. She said the rapid antigen test is easy to follow and called on all Hong Kong residents to unite in fighting the pandemic
The government has distributed anti-epidemic service bags to 2.7 million households across the city since Saturday. Each kit comprises 20 KN95 masks, 20 rapid antigen test agents, two boxes of proprietary traditional Chinese medicine, and anti-pandemic information kits.
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Hong Kong residents are encouraged to test themselves every day from April 8-10 using the kits that were delivered to their homes and report any infections to authorities within 24 hours. The residents can also get the kits at the city’s 89 distribution points.
More than 110,000 such kits have been given out at the centers since they began operation on Thursday.
In a social media post, Lam shared her negative test result after conducting a self-test Friday morning. She said the rapid antigen test is easy to follow and called on all Hong Kong residents to unite in fighting the pandemic.
A number of other Hong Kong officials, including Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen and Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee, also made the appeal on their social media channels.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (3rd left) poses with other government officials during a visit to the packaging center for anti-epidemic service bags at Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, March 30, 2022. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVERNMENT)
On his official Facebook account, Nip shared tips for conducting the self-test, including washing the hands and blowing the nose before doing the RAT.
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A short message with the reporting website link that encourages people to take the tests was sent to the public on Friday morning.
The government has also put up full-page newspaper ads appealing to residents to test themselves daily from Friday to Sunday to help cut off virus transmission so that society can return to normal.
Hong Kong reported 2,644 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the infection tally in the financial hub to 1.17 million.