{"id":525001,"date":"2022-02-22T15:32:40","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/hongkong-covid-02222022102232.html"},"modified":"2022-02-22T15:32:40","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:32:40","slug":"hong-kongs-lam-announces-mass-compulsory-covid-19-testing-for-seven-million-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/02\/22\/hong-kongs-lam-announces-mass-compulsory-covid-19-testing-for-seven-million-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong\u2019s Lam announces mass, compulsory COVID-19 testing for seven million people"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Tuesday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>announced a citywide mass testing program in line with the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s zero-COVID measures that include enforced quarantine and isolation in government facilities for those infected.<\/span>
Lam said schools will close in March and April so hundreds of buildings can be used to deliver three compulsory PCR tests to the city's seven million residents, who will also be required to take rapid antigen tests in between the official tests.<\/span>
She said tens of thousands of isolation beds will be made available in government facilities, some of which will be located in requisitioned, newly completed public housing, and in some 20,000 luxury hotel rooms across the city.<\/span>
\"We have reached a critical juncture,\" Lam said. \"We have to take these measures.\"<\/span>
All current flight bans and social distancing measures, including the use of the LeaveHomeSafe app for the vaccinated to gain access to stores and other public places, will remain in place until late April, she said.<\/span>
Hong Kong reported 6,211 new confirmed cases and 32 deaths of COVID-19 patients on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Tuesday<\/span><\/span>, bringing the number of total deaths to 350 and total confirmed cases to more than 60,000.<\/span>
Economist Law Ka-chung said the zero COVID policy imposed on the city by CCP leader Xi Jinping, who reportedly wants the current COVID wave over by the 25th anniversary of the city's handover to China on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>July 1<\/span><\/span>, will have a huge impact on the economy, especially on foreign investor confidence.<\/span>
\"Foreign investors ... aren't leaving for no reason,\" Law said. \"They see that they are doing is unreasonable, and they wonder how they are supposed to live here, to do business here?\"<\/span>
\"The government can lock us down; it can do what it likes, but people are going to be asking those questions.\"<\/span>