Covid-19 | Confusion on first day of citywide PCR test

Long queues outside the Tap Seac Pavilion

Queues have only lengthened at most sample collection stations for the citywide polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on Wednesday. Lawmakers, commentators and members of the public expressed their confusion in several ways.
Local residents taking the test are confused about the long queues at sample collection stations when officials at the Health Bureau had reaffirmed its “readiness” and its planning for “contingencies.”
Many people have waited hours before they could have their secretion samples collected. It was said on social media that test-takers were required to line up for as much as eight hours for the test at the new Ilha Verde Economic Housing station.
Incumbent lawmaker Agnes Lam revealed on her social media page that several of her friends spent more than five hours waiting for the sample collection.
There was intermittent rain on Wednesday, with intervals of sunshine and at times high temperatures.
After nightfall the queues at many stations did not shorten. At about 1 a.m. on Thursday a picture was posted by a social media user that showed the queue at the Pui Ching Middle School trailing three-quarters of the distance around the block. The block consists of the school, the Lou Lim Ieoc Garden, as well as some residential buildings.
Videos posted at 3 a.m. on Thursday by several media outlets also showed queues equaling the length of those in the daytime at several stations, such as the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion, the Kiang Peng Secondary School and even the Academy for Security Forces in Coloane.
Commentator Ron Lam also visited several stations at the early hours of yesterday. He questioned the absence of officials and the government’s apparent lack of contingency plans for a rainy night.
The long queues were explicable. Some workers were ordered by their employers to get a negative Covid-19 result from the citywide polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test before they could go to work, the Times was told.
The individuals did not say whether they would be considered absent from work if they failed to do so.
Guidelines were not clear either. At some stations, in early hours of the citywide test, officers told the queue that the elderly, the pregnant, the disabled and children would not receive priority. However, at some stations, the priority arrangement was implemented.
In spite of the arrangement, the threshold for being considered “senior” varied from station to station. The Times was told by readers that some stations followed the legal threshold of 65 years of age, meaning that test-takers of or above this age would have priority arrangement. Some readers also reported that some stations drastically raised the bar to 80 years of age. AL