Covid-19: Hong Kongers told to report self-test results, or else...

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam called on residents to promptly report positive results of home Covid tests or face legal consequences, amid reports that the city's sweeping outbreak is being under-counted.

The Asian financial hub launched a website on March 7 to self-report infections in order to speed up the process of sending high-risk patients to community isolation facilities after a surge of daily cases overwhelmed the city's gold-standard laboratory testing system.

"It is incumbent upon us as the government and the law enforcement authority to tell people that there is a legal basis" to disclose, Lam said during her daily briefing on Friday. The government would rather have people cooperate and fulfill their civic responsibility, Lam said, adding that there has been a small number of arrests or prosecutions of people breaching quarantine orders. Those who contravene such orders could be fined a maximum of HK$25,000 ($3,200) and jailed for up to six months.

In mainland China, health officials also urged people who tested positive on RATs to report the results. Anyone who failed to do so and caused Covid to spread faces legal liabilities.