Speaking at her regular press briefing on Monday, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says that for the purpose of eliminating any silent transmissions in the community, compulsory universal testing is still a very effective tool to use, and the government is still considering this exercise. Lam states that universal mass testing will provide the government with the basis to safely resume activities in the city and negotiate or discuss with the mainland the resumption of quarantine-free travel arrangements. Since this will be a mammoth exercise, the government says that they are still looking for the perfect time to execute. Lam says that the current compulsory testing order, or ‘restriction-testing declaration’ (RTD), in which residents in a restricted area are required to do the compulsory test at a certain time, provides the government with a very good reference as it identifies the extent of infection in that restricted community. Similar rules will apply if the authorities conduct the comprehensive universal test. Lam states that the recent drop in the number of cases detected in overnight lockdowns is due to the exemption granted to Covid patients who have already recovered from the virus within the past three months.
Covid infections in the city continue on a downward trend, falling below 10,000 for the past few days. Hong Kong health officials reported 8,037 Covid cases on Sunday, 3,555 of which were confirmed through the government PCR tests and 4,487 were reported from the RAT-test declaration platform. The government appeals to the public to make good use of the distributed RAT kits or schedule tests in the community testing centres as the city currently has sufficient testing capacity.
As of yesterday, 151 people died due to Covid, bringing the total number of deaths in the city to 7,039. Five of the deceased had not been vaccinated, and all had underlying illnesses. The government initially announced new arrangements to vaccinate elderly and disabled people at home. During overnight lockdowns, unvaccinated residents aged 70 or over can register for in-home inoculation, and jabs will be given after the lockdown operations are completed.
Between now and April 21, Lam says that there is still the Ching Ming Festival and the Easter holiday. The Hong Kong leader says that she understands that the public is already suffering from anti-epidemic fatigue and would like to go out. But the Hong Kong leader urges the public to be patient and states that there are a few more weeks before the city eases its social distancing measures and that we can only do so if the situation is stabilised.
In an earlier announcement, the government stated that gradual resumption of public services would commence on April 1. Certain non-emergency or non-essential services may be resumed at a later time, and normal services may be resumed from April 21 should there be no rebound in infections in the city. However, authorities still recommend that Hong Kong employers continue to allow staff members to work from home and slowly resume normal operations in accordance with the timeline for the phased relaxation of the social distancing measures in the city.