"I would see this more as an attempt to improve test availability in Hong Kong," Sridhar told RTHK's Mike Weeks. "So, it may fulfill some of the effects that a mass testing would perform but it doesn't actually fall under the umbrella of an actual mass testing, simply because it's voluntary. I would think that the mentality would be: hey, if I don't have symptoms and I only have one free test I don't want to waste the mass test, in a way. It said mass testing of high-risk groups showed that one in every 2,500 of the 130,000 people tested was carrying the virus. Several public health experts have questioned the effectiveness of mass testing at a time when people are still able to move around the SAR.

Source: The Standard August 18, 2020 02:37 UTC