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HONG KONG: Hong Kong launched a massive coronavirus testing scheme on Tuesday (September 1), but calls for millions to accept the offer have been undermined by deep mistrust of the government following the crushing of the democracy movement in the city by China.
The voluntary testing is part of an attempt to stamp out a third wave of infections that began in late June and saw the densely populated city reimpose financially painful social distancing measures.
But the program has been hampered by a limited response due to the involvement of mainland Chinese medical and testing companies, and public fears of DNA and data collection as Beijing cracks down on calls for democratic reform.
Since registration began on Saturday, 510,000 people have signed up for the free trials, about seven percent of the city’s 7.5 million residents.
More than half of the city’s 141 community testing centers are complete by their first day on Tuesday.
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But health experts who advised the government have said that up to five million people may need to be tested for the scheme to comprehensively uncover hidden transmissions and end the current wave.
Hong Kong police patrol outside a sports complex that will be used as a coronavirus testing center. (Photo: AFP / Isaac Lawrence)
Hong Kong has recorded just over 4,800 infections since the virus first hit the city in late January, but about 75 percent of those cases have been detected since early July.
The tests will last between one and two weeks, depending on public demand, with limited numbers each day to reduce the risk of infection.
“I’m doing this for myself and others,” Winnie Chan, a mother in her 30s, told AFP as she entered a testing center on Tuesday. “I have confidence and support the government’s policy.”
Others said they had no plans to register.
“I think it’s a waste of time,” local resident Emily Li told AFP. “The government cannot convince me in terms of the effectiveness of the testing program.”
‘ANTI CHINA RADICALS’
Authorities have called the plan a benevolent public health initiative that was made possible by Chinese aid.
But mainland China’s involvement has sparked rumors and compounded fears from Beijing’s surveillance state, which uses biometric data to monitor its citizens.
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Some prominent Hong Kong health experts have also questioned the efficacy of a mass testing program, arguing that conducting more targeted testing in vulnerable and at-risk communities would be a better use of resources.
They have also expressed concern that testing so many people could help spread the virus in a city where emergency rules currently prohibit more than two people from meeting in public.
A group of politicians and lawmakers, including prominent activist Joshua Wong, called on the public to boycott the test on Sunday.
They expressed fears of massive DNA collection and concerns that Hong Kong could introduce a mandatory health code system like those used on the mainland.
The Hong Kong government has repeatedly dismissed those concerns, denying that DNA would be taken and that no tests would be conducted in laboratories on the mainland.
City leader Carrie Lam, designated in favor of Beijing, criticized opponents of the test plan as “active anti-Beijing and anti-government members” who “will not miss any opportunity to create problems and provoke confrontations even when it is a public health problem. “
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Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office called the opponents’ evidence “radical anti-China” with a “vile disregard” for public health.
Last week, Lam also dismissed doctors who raised concerns about the efficacy of city-wide testing as politically motivated, enraging some in the medical community.
Some of the doctors who expressed concern are leading epidemiologists who have been helping the government fight the virus.
At the height of the third wave in late July, Hong Kong was recording around 150 new coronavirus cases a day.
Citing the surge in infections, Lam canceled local legislative elections for a year, sparking an uproar from the city’s anti-Beijing camp, which hoped to capitalize on public anger after huge protests last year.
Since then, cases have dropped to the single digits, with just nine new infections on Monday, and opponents of the government have questioned why the elections should be canceled if the government could also conduct city-wide testing.
Authorities have said the mass testing is a necessary emergency health measure and will take place over several days, as opposed to an election.
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