On 26 August 2020, the Permanent Secretary for Food and Health along with leader of the Mainland nucleic acid test support team, visited the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park Sports Centre to inspect the preparation of the temporary air-inflated laboratory and testing procedures.
Following some two weeks of preparation, to support large-scale testing under the Government’s Universal Community Testing Programme (UCT Programme), the laboratory is now ready to be launched on 1 September 2020 for a large-scale universal community testing within a short period of time with a view to substantially ramping up the virus testing capacity of Hong Kong.
Thomas Chan, who led the work group on testing of the HKSAR said that the HKSAR Government expressed heartfelt gratitude to the Central Government for its support to enhance the testing capacity in Hong Kong, which had laid a solid foundation for the UCT Programme. After the inspection, the work group and the Support Team considered that the preparation of the temporary air-inflated laboratory is progressing well and expressed confidence in the smooth operation of the laboratory when the UCT Programme is launched.
The Government will endeavour to protect public health and ensure the UCT Programme be implemented in a safe and orderly manner to provide voluntary virus tests for all citizens as a paving way for gradual relaxation of social distancing measures and return to normal life.
The temporary air-inflated laboratory had passed the Department of Health (DH)’s assessment under the external quality assessment programme and complied with the requirements to provide COVID-19 tests for the Government. The laboratory also meets the requirements of a Biosafety Level 2 laboratory, and has implemented relevant infection control measures to ensure hygiene and appropriate waste management without emission of harmful gas. — Construction+ Online
