Anti-Epidemic Kits Arrive for Three-day Test

Lam asks people to test themselves from April 8 to 10

The Hong Kong government has already begun distributing the anti-epidemic kits to households (though I have yet to receive mine).

It contains: 10 lateral flow tests - sounds like a euphemism for rapid antigen tests (RAT); 10 KN95 masks; and some Lianhua Qingwen Jiaoning capsules.

This govt photo was taken on the carpet!

For the record there isn't any paracetemol.

Today Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor instructed local residents to test themselves everyday from April 8-10 and to report any positive results in a bid for health officials to get a "snapshot" of Hong Kong's infection rate.

And then she added the exercise was voluntary.

"We could only appeal to people's cooperation, riding out their aspirations to resume normal, daily living as soon as possible, and also to be able to travel," she said.

"We need the full cooperation and support of the people; we don't just rely on legal instruments."

So she would like people to test themselves, but it's up to them if they want report the results... how is this exercise going to be useful then?

Lam was hard at work putting the kits together

Lam also said this three-day exercise would not replace the mass testing which she still believes is still "necessary and essential". She did not have a time frame in which it would be carried out either.

Meanwhile today Hong Kong reported 4,457 cases, and 116 deaths, of which 99 were in the past 24 hours and 17 backlogged.

The numbers are slowly coming down, thanks to the peak already having happened in early March, but also with RATs being easily available and relatively inexpensive now, many are testing themselves daily to ensure they aren't spreading the virus at work or to friends and family.