Passengers wearing facemasks disembark from a star ferry in Hong Kong, July 18, 2020. (ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong can fight the worsening pandemic through deeper collaboration with Guangdong province, which can offer support through bulk purchases of virus tests, and its virus-testing machines and medical technicians, a veteran medical expert said.

Lo Chung-mau, hospital chief executive of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, said Hong Kong’s overall ability to conduct nucleic-acid testing, including its capacity, cost control and efficiency in this area, is currently inadequate

Lo Chung-mau, hospital chief executive of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, made the remarks in an interview with Chinese language newspaper Wen Wei Po that was published on Friday.

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Lo said Hong Kong’s overall ability to conduct nucleic-acid testing, including its capacity, cost control and efficiency in this area, is currently inadequate.

Lo said many Hong Kong laboratories buy testing kits from overseas at an average price of 500 yuan ($71) to 600 yuan. However, he added that his hospital spent only 15 yuan for each kit after joining a bulk purchase with Guangdong province.

He further suggested Hong Kong agencies consider buying testing kits produced on the mainland, which he said are of reliable quality, based on the experience of his hospital. Lo also encouraged agencies to join bulk purchases with Guangdong to further reduce the cost.

Lo estimated that Hong Kong needs to conduct 20,000 nucleic-acid tests per day, double the current number, to cope with the demand.

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Yet efforts to reach the goal were hindered by the city’s system of conducting tests in different laboratories and its inefficient testing machines, he said. 

Lo suggested Hong Kong centralize tests in designated laboratories and introduce more-efficient machines from the mainland.

A key factor for improving HKU-SZH’s testing capacity is the use of automatic machines, one of which can extract 96 samples at a time, Lo said, adding the hospital’s daily capacity has increased from less than 100 to more than 3,000 now.

To make better use of the mainland’s machines, ship them to a designated laboratory in Hong Kong, which specializes in massive nucleic acid testing, and set up a joint laboratory at a checkpoint between Hong Kong and Shenzhen to conduct such tests.

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Lo also said that many medical professionals at his hospital had expressed their willingness to be sent to Hong Kong to help contain the pandemic.

He said that the hospital has 28 medical employees who specialize in COVID-19 nucleic-acid tests. If necessary, the hospital can send some of them to Hong Kong, he added.