Coronavirus: 46 cases found for every 100 buildings issued with testing notice, study finds

University of Hong Kong team analyses testing orders issued to residential blocks from start of pandemic to February 15 this year

Practice uncovered on average 29 infections for every 100 blocks during first four waves and 46 in fifth one, they say, calling strategy inefficient

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Medical workers end a Covid-19 testing order at a residential building in Kwun Tong in July. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 9:47pm, 15 Oct 2022

Hong Kong’s policy of subjecting entire residential blocks to Covid-19 testing uncovered just 46 infections for every 100 buildings targeted during the early weeks of the fifth wave, researchers at the University of Hong Kong have found, calling the long-standing practice inefficient and not cost-effective.

The team, which included professors Benjamin Cowling and Gabriel Leung, argued that while building-wide testing had worked well in the earlier stages of the pandemic, it was now past its use-by date and resources should be diverted elsewhere.

“Compulsory testing notices can be an essential method when attempting to maintain local elimination – ‘zero covid’ – and most impactful early in an epidemic when the benefit remains of stemming a new wave,” the academics wrote in a pre-print study posted earlier this week that is yet to be peer-reviewed.

Residents in Sheung Shui undergo Covid-19 testing in March. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Lockdowns were initially ordered whenever a single infection was found in a building, an exercise known as restriction testing declarations, which exasperated residents.