The Government has all along been providing convenient testing services to members of the public through various channels, including a free testing service, and encouraging them to make good use of various means such as community testing centres (CTCs) and mobile specimen collection stations located in various districts for testing, with a view to achieving "early identification, early isolation and early treatment", and cutting transmission chains in the community as early as possible.
 
     Apart from continuing to provide service for persons subject to compulsory testing, the Government will maintain free testing service at CTCs/mobile specimen collection stations for persons undergoing voluntary testing to reduce the risk of virus transmission in the community.
 
     CTCs provide booking and walk-in services. Members of the public only need to provide simple personal information on the 24-hour booking system (www.communitytest.gov.hk/en). The system shows the booking status of the centres for the coming two weeks to facilitate the public's planning and selection of a suitable testing centre and a time slot for testing. The testing centres will accord priority to serve individuals with advance bookings. As of 6pm today (February 25), there were around 32 per cent availability for booking places for the coming 14 days. Members of the public may call the testing centres for enquiries on the availability of bookings or walk-in quotas before visiting the centres.
 
     In view of the current risk assessment and testing resources of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Government has updated the priorities and channels of testing services starting from today, including distributing rapid test kits base on the risk levels of districts instead of issuing compulsory testing notices, the number of mobile specimen collection stations will be suitably reduced in respect of the updated priorities. Mobile specimen collection stations at the following locations will cease operation from tomorrow (February 26) onwards:
 

• Kennedy Town Playground
• Southorn Playground
• Quarry Bay Community Hall Carpark
• Tsz Wan Shan Community Hall
• Kai Tak Station Square Open Plaza
• Yau Tong Road Playground
• Cheung Sha Wan Sports Centre
• Mini-Soccer Pitch, Kowloon Park
• Tsuen King Circuit Sports Centre
• Cheung Fat Estate Community Centre
• Kwai Chung Sports Ground
• Mei Lam Sports Centre, Tai Wai
• Che Kung Temple Sports Centre
• Tai Po Sports Centre
• Luen Wo Hui Playground, Fanling
• Tin Shui Sports Centre, Tin Shui Wai
• Tin Pak Road Park, Tin Shui Wai
• Kin Sang Community Hall
• Tung Chung Road Soccer Pitch

     
     The Government will set up an additional mobile specimen collection station at Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse tomorrow. In view of the severe epidemic situation, in order to stop the spread of virus in the community as soon as possible and reduce the number of people waiting at the service points for testing, ticketing machines have been installed in a number of service points for on-site ticket arrangement. Depending on the actual situation of different sites, such ticketing arrangement will be made available at more suitable service points for testing. Members of the public can visit the CTC website (www.communitytest.gov.hk/en) to check the real-time queueing ticket status of relevant service points for testing.
 
    To enable the working population to undergo testing on their rest days or before/after work, the CTCs are open daily from 8am to 1.30pm and from 2.30pm to 8pm, even on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. The opening dates and operating hours of the mobile specimen collection stations are stated in the Annex.
       
     The Government urges all individuals who are in doubt about their own health conditions, or individuals with infection risks (such as individuals who have been in contact with confirmed cases), to undergo testing promptly for early identification of infected persons.

Ends/Friday, February 25, 2022
Issued at HKT 22:33

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