The Government said it took immediate action in respect of a case involving a man who received negative COVID-19 test results in Yau Tsim Mong and later tested positive when he was admitted to a hospital.
In response to media reports concerning the case, the Government said it immediately contacted the Hospital Authority and the relevant testing service providers to obtain more information about the patient.
The Food & Health Bureau has engaged Prof Yuen Kwok-yung, a member of the Government's expert advisory panel, to take part in the follow-up action.
The case, which was confirmed on January 20, may be associated with three cases that were confirmed on January 18. The Government needs to further look into this case and will announce more information once available to allay public concerns.
The laboratories responsible for related testing services include Hong Kong Molecular Pathology Diagnostic Centre and KingMed Diagnostics (Hong Kong). They are contractors of Canton Road mobile specimen collection station and Henry G Leong Yaumatei Community Centre.
They have participated in the external quality assurance programme of the Department of Health with satisfactory performance and have the medical testing accreditation of the Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme.
Furthermore, the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch of the Centre for Health Protection regularly sends specimens to all service providers of community testing centres for comparison tests to ensure their sensitivity and specificity meet the designated criteria.
Three rounds of comparison tests have been conducted in the past two months. As of January 20, the Henry G Leong Yaumatei Community Centre has provided swabbing and testing service to nearly 90,000 citizens and identified 312 positive specimens.
Meanwhile, the mobile testing stations operated by Hong Kong Molecular Pathology Diagnostic Centre in various districts have provided specimen collection and testing services for more than 180,000 citizens and identified 186 positive specimens.
Noting that testing remains an integral part of the strategy to fight COVID-19, the Government said it will strengthen virus testing and expand the coverage of mandatory, targeted and voluntary testing.
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