HAD to launch Community Testing Programme for COVID-19 for Pregnant Women
The Home Affairs Department (HAD), partnering with the Board of Directors of Yan Chai Hospital (YCHB), will launch the Community Testing Programme for COVID-19 for Pregnant Women next Monday (August 10) to provide a voluntary one-off free virus testing service for pregnant women. The programme, being implemented on a trial basis till August 15, will offer 5 000 quotas and will be reviewed afterwards.
A spokesperson for the HAD said, "In view of the severity of the epidemic and the first confirmed case involving a mother and her newborn baby, it is understandable that expectant mothers may be worried about the health of themselves and their fetuses. The HAD, therefore, will roll out the testing programme with YCHB for pregnant women."
YCHB will distribute registration forms and throat swab self-sampling kits to pregnant women (or family members who collect the kits on their behalf) at 11 designated collection points (see Annex) from next Monday to Friday. A certificate of pregnancy of the participant is required to be shown upon the collection of the self-sampling kit. The forms and samples for testing must be returned on the following day with the participant's certificate of pregnancy for verification. After the registration forms and specimen bottles are collected from the pregnant women, YCHB will pass them to the testing agency, Sunrise Diagnostic Centre Limited, for testing. Upon completion of the testing, the agency will send a report of the testing result to each pregnant woman to facilitate their admission to hospital or their delivery arrangements. YCHB will send the report to the participants by mail.
The programme ties in with the Government's strategy of "early identification, early isolation and early treatment of the infected". Pregnant women in need of the service are welcome to join the programme.
For details on the Community Testing Programme for COVID-19 for Pregnant Women, please contact YCHB between 9am and 5pm from Monday to Friday (hotline: 6289 4097).