Starting from this Tuesday (March 22), the SAR Government has decided to resume the application of the Prevention and Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing of Certain Persons) Regulation, specifying the issuance of mandatory testing notices for residential buildings in different regions.
On the same day, Secretary for Food and Health Chen Zhaoyu mentioned in a radio program that the authorities will re-issue infection risk indicators through the "Safe Travel" app to let the concerned citizens know that they need to undergo mandatory testing as soon as possible.
The last time a mandatory inspection announcement was issued was on February 24.
Later, the Hong Kong government decided to cancel all mandatory testing announcements that had been issued, and instead distribute rapid test kits to relevant persons in locations with a higher risk of infection.
About a month later, the mandatory testing measures at designated locations have finally been introduced again. Unlike before, those who have tested positive for nucleic acid tests or reported self-reported rapid antigen tests in the past three months can be exempted from mandatory testing. detection.
The "Safe Travel" app currently used in Hong Kong lacks tracking capabilities.
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Program should connect positive records
Obviously, the government's reintroduction of mandatory testing measures this time still relies heavily on the "Safe Travel" app.
However, since the announcement of the mandatory inspection was stopped, “Travel With Peace of Mind” has not been updated any more. The last version is 3.1.0 released on February 16 and 20.
Since the current government allows those who have been infected to ignore the mandatory testing announcement, the program itself should also add relevant functions to cooperate with the new mandatory testing measures.
For example, "Safe Travel" currently only has the functions of vaccination, vaccination exemption certificate and electronic test record, but it should actually allow users to directly connect to the positive case records of the Department of Health, so that it can judge whether it is necessary to receive or display it. The government's mandatory testing announcement notice to avoid misunderstandings for those who have been infected with the virus within three months and do not need to undergo mandatory testing.
Moreover, there are no people who need to undergo forced inspections to go to the waiting list, which will also increase the pressure on the inspection stations.
Carrie Lam predicted that the announcement of mandatory testing will be restarted as soon as possible. When a building or group is found to be at risk of transmission, relevant citizens will be asked to take samples at community testing centers or mobile testing stations through the announcement.
Long-term compatibility with vaccine passports
On the other hand, according to the arrangement announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor recently to relax social distancing measures in stages, "Travel with Peace of Mind" will still be used to cooperate with the "Vaccine Pass" until the final stage.
In order to increase the incentives for citizens to be vaccinated, the authorities may check whether the program that receives the notification of compulsory inspection can regularly compare its travel records within the required inspection date to see if there are inspection stations, and if not, it will pop up when users scan the QR code Reminder to check the message.
In addition, the "Safe Travel" entry page has automatically displayed the status of the electronic needle card or medical exemption certificate. In the long run, it can also be considered to display whether the mandatory test is received and completed at the same time.
Of course, it must be emphasized that this is by no means hoping that the authorities will jointly implement a "forced inspection pass". After all, not all testing stations can use "safe travel", and the "vaccine pass" also accepts paper needle cards, so the program page adds this information It should be purely for the purpose of reminding citizens.
Regardless of the mandatory testing announcement, the "vaccine passport" or the "safe travel" program, the ultimate goal is to help the society get rid of the haze of the new crown pneumonia epidemic as soon as possible. Therefore, any kind of anti-epidemic policies and tools must keep up with the latest developments.
Unfortunately, as has been the case for more than a year, the program design of "Safe Travel" seems to be lagging behind again. I hope the responsible department of the SAR government can update it as soon as possible, so that the society can make better use of this anti-epidemic tool.
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