Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, after attending a radio programme today (November 22):
Reporter: Could you also tell us more about the five new testing centres that the Government is proposing?
Secretary for Food and Health: Virus testing is a very important strategy, especially when we are now facing a very severe situation in Hong Kong. The number of unlinked cases has been increasing in the past few days and we are now testing more people. In terms of the compulsory testing order that we issued just this morning, we envisaged that there will be more people coming out, especially the compulsory testing order is for the 14 places whereby the dancing gatherings have taken place. So we urge people who have been there since November 1 to come out to test before next Tuesday, so that we can identify more people if they require hospitalisation or quarantine.
Reporter: Where will the five new testing centres be and when will they be in use?
Secretary for Food and Health: We will be increasing the number of testing centres in the coming week. Obviously it will be in different districts in Hong Kong. On top of the five testing centres, we will also be assessing the situation of different districts. If there are a lot of cases in a particular district, not only are we putting on or setting up more centres, but we can, like what we have done in Tai Po District, we can set up mobile swabbing stations, or send mobile vans to distribute specimen bottles.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
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