Hong Kong Announces Free Voluntary Covid-19 Testing for All Residents

What’s new: Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced Friday that the government will offer free coronavirus testing to all of its 7.5 million residents as the Chinese mainland has scaled up efforts to help the territory battle its worst wave of Covid-19 cases.

Lam said in a press conference that the city-wide testing is voluntary and will be rolled out over the next two weeks at the earliest. Three testing organizations from the Chinese mainland will be in charge of the operation, and seven medical experts Beijing dispatched to Hong Kong on Sunday will also help with the testing program.

The government will also add 1,000 more beds to a makeshift hospital at the AsiaWorld-Expo site in a few weeks and establish another temporary hospital close to the exhibition center in the coming months.

Lam said Beijing is willing to help share the burden of the costs associated with the testing and establishment of the hospital in Hong Kong but the territory’s government has not yet figured out how much it will all cost.

The Background: The announcement comes after China sent a team of about 60 health officials to Hong Kong from neighboring Guangdong province to carry out widespread testing for Covid-19. The team aims to boost Hong Kong’s coronavirus testing capacity up to 20 times its current ability, said Yu Dewen, an official with Guangdong’s health commission who led the team.

Hong Kong opened its first makeshift hospital on Saturday, located inside the AsiaWorld-Expo. The second temporary hospital near the site will reportedly be set up with the help of a six-member team from China’s former epicenter city of Wuhan.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)