Hong Kong shifting to rapid Covid-19 tests to fight record outbreak

Residents wait in line to test for the Covid-19 outside a building at the Kwai Chung Estate public housing complex in Hong Kong, on Jan 22, 2022. - AFP

HONG KONG, Feb 26 (Bloomberg): Hong Kong is changing its Covid-testing strategy to obtain faster results with self-administered kits as it battles to suppress its worst coronavirus outbreak to date.

The government will allow people with positive results to register the information online for follow-up without seeking confirmation in more sensitive nucleic-acid tests. The move is meant to "avoid resource duplication and time delay,” authorities said in a statement Friday night (Feb 25), promising more detailed information in due course.