Coronavirus: what Singapore’s home test kits can teach Hong Kong about the ART of war on Covid-19

The city state has a special weapon in its fight against the coronavirus: cheap and readily available rapid antigen tests that mean Covid sufferers can isolate at home

From the US to Australia, various places are turning to home tests to battle outbreaks of the fast-spreading Omicron variant. Could they hold the key for Hong Kong too?

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People relax in Singapore’s financial district. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:26pm, 17 Feb 2022Updated: 8:51am, 18 Feb 2022

When bank worker Angelica Lim caught Covid-19 over the Lunar New Year, she was told to isolate for three days and then do a rapid antigen test using a home kit.

Under Singapore’s rules, anyone who gets Covid-19 and has no symptoms can leave self-isolation after 72 hours if they test negative on an ART – as the self-test kit is referred to in the city state. If they continue testing positive, they are only allowed to leave self-isolation after a full seven days.

The 24-year-old set about testing herself as often as she could, sometimes up to twice a day, in the hope she would return a negative result before the full seven days were up.

Luckily for Lim, there was no shortage of kits. Plenty had already been sent to her through the mail by the government and her member of parliament’s team had also left some on her doorstep.

Lim didn’t even need to buy them, even though the kits are widely available across the island and cost only about S$5 (US$3.70) each.

Since June last year, test kits have been made readily available to consumers at various retail points from pharmacies to supermarkets. About 9 million have been sold so far. Regular self-testing is part of the country’s broader plan for living with the virus, as outlined in a speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in May last year, and the approach is already paying dividends.

As of January, the website of Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority has listed 13 test kits approved for over-the-counter sales at supermarkets. The government has also distributed close to 25 million ART kits to households so residents can test themselves when they feel unwell, before meeting elderly relatives or entering the workplace.