Hong Kong begins coronavirus mass-testing amid calls for boycott

 

 Hong Kong began a voluntary mass-testing programme for coronavirus on Tuesday, amid calls for its boycott by some pro-democracy activists, as part of a strategy to break the chain of transmission in the city's third outbreak of the disease.
The testing programme has become the latest political flashpoint in China's self-governing territory, with many distrustful over resources and staff coming from Beijing, and fears that residents' DNA could be collected during the exercise.

The Hong Kong government has dismissed such concerns, saying that no personal data will be attached to the specimen bottles and that samples will be destroyed in Hong Kong after the exercise.
Testing began at 8am (00:00 GMT), with residents heading to more than 100 testing centres staffed by some 5,000 volunteers.
According to the South China Morning Post, at least 10,000 people were tested in the first two hours of the programme, including many middle-aged and elderly people.
The Hong Kong government said that as, of Monday evening, about 553,000 people had registered for the test. The government expects 5 million of the city's 7.5 million residents to take part in the week-long programme, which could be extended to another week if there is demand.
It is aimed at identifying silent carriers of the virus - those without symptoms who could be spreading the disease.