People are tested at a temporary testing site for COVID-19 in Hong Kong on Feb 12, 2022, as authorities scrambled to ramp up testing capacity following a record high of new infections. (LOUISE DELMOTTE / AFP)

HONG KONG – The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government launched a series of enhancement measures on Friday to provide residents with ample, high-quality, speedy, accessible and affordable community testing services.

The call came on Friday, when the authorities registered total 4,369 cases of COVID-19, including 3,983 locally transmitted ones, and two related deaths.

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With the participation of more contractors, it is conducive to the further strengthening of the local community's testing capability and ramping up of testing capacity.

Spokesman, HKSAR Govt

Under the new measures, a number of mobile specimen collection stations will be regularized as community testing centers (CTC) and community testing stations (CTS), service hours of CTC and CTSs will extended and standardized, and all 85 CTC/CTSs will provide self-paid testing services at two pricing tiers starting late October, the government said in a statement.

The existing online booking arrangement for testing services will be expanded and a "green lane" will be set at CTC/CTSs for high-risk persons like staff members of residential care homes and nursing homes to save their time spent waiting on site, the statement added.

In addition, more testing agencies have been engaged through a competitive procurement process to undertake community testing services.

“With the participation of more contractors, it is conducive to the further strengthening of the local community's testing capability and ramping up of testing capacity …. It can also substantially enhance the speed and convenience of nucleic acid testing,” said a government spokesman.

About half of CTC/CTSs will have new service providers and, hence, services will be suspended temporarily on some of the dates.

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The SAR government will not adopt a "lie flat" approach in anti-epidemic work and will continue to do its utmost to contain the epidemic under a targeted approach with a view to yielding the greatest effects with the lowest costs, added the spokesman.