SCS on Universal Community Testing Programme
********************************************
Reporter: So you said that we don't have a threshold for the figures to be representative, so could you explain why you say that, because if we don't give a clear target, how we can say that we have a general understanding of the situation?
Secretary for the Civil Service: The purpose of the Universal Community Testing Programme is to identify as early as possible those who are infected in the community, especially those asymptomatic cases. So if through the Universal Community Testing Programme, we could identify as many as possible these cases, that would be better. And the second purpose is to enable those who wish to be tested, could be provided free COVID-19 testing service. So that's the purpose of the programme. This programme is voluntary. With these parametres, of course, we want as many as possible Hong Kong citizens to come forward to receive the test, and that would be helpful. But we would not set a target on the programme because I don't think it's realistic for us to do so. But no matter what, the programme would enable us to have some sort of reference value to understand the infection situation in the community and the number of asymptomatic cases in the community. That would provide useful data and information for us to control the epidemic and also to pave the way for normalising our activities and economic activities in the future. That's basically the purpose of the programme. Thank you very much.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Sunday, September 6, 2020
Issued at HKT 12:30
Issued at HKT 12:30
NNNN