Gov’t suspends operation of outdoor NAT station due to heat

The health authorities have suspended the operation of the new nucleic acid test (NAT) sampling station located outdoors on its first day of operations.

According to the local coordinator of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Leong Iek Hou, the first of this type of facility to be placed in a public park or garden had to shut down at midday yesterday due to extreme heat.

“We suspended the service of the NAT station located at the Iao Hon market park during the afternoon because it was very hot, but operations will resume later this evening,” Leong said during the daily briefing of the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center.

According to the same official, during the period that the station was open, a total of 1,500 people used it for the NAT of key groups and areas.

To several inquiries from the media, she also explained that these stations will be installed by the government and supervised by the Health Bureau, but operated by a third-party, like most of the NAT stations located across the city.

Leong also clarified that the operating system of these stations will be similar to all the others located in indoor facilities, with the exception that in these booths there is no need for the printing of the sticker that identifies the tube with the collected sample.

“The only difference is that at these stations there is no need to print the sticker, the workers just scan directly the QR code of the users with their equipment and then perform the sampling. These samples will be also analyzed later in a mixed sample 10-in-1 method just like any others,” Leong explained.

She also noted that all the stations to be established in outdoor areas, like this one that started operations yesterday, follow the same standards and guidelines of the government and that all the contracts with the operators have the same requirements of priority to be given to the hiring of local residents to perform the sampling.

More of these stations using public spaces such as parks and gardens are expected to open soon, as the authorities claim to be currently “proposing other places that are convenient for the installation of these stations.”

As she had already mentioned last Sunday, Leong noted that the idea is that these stations can replace the ones located on school premises, to allow the resumption of the schools’ normal activities in the new school year.

She said that these stations will be mostly used for the continued performance of mandatory NAT for different key groups and key areas, suggesting that, in case there is a need for more rounds of citywide mass testing for the whole population, school facilities may need once more to be put to use by the health authorities.