Cross-border truck drivers must now take a HK$350 Covid-19 test before entering the mainland

Cross-border truck drivers heading into the mainland will need to take a HK$350 Covid-19 test, paid for by the Hong Kong government, before they can enter Zhuhai or Shenzhen from Hong Kong, after anti-pandemic measures implemented by the Guangdong Provincial Government.

From this Friday, 10 April, the Shenzhen Municipal Government and Zhuhai Municipal Government will require all cross-boundary truck drivers to present proof of a negative test result of a nucleic acid test conducted with the previous seven days. Those wishing to enter Shenzhen will also need an “i Shenzhen” health certification code, a self-certification through WeChat app Shen i U (深i您), the official iShenzen (i深圳) WeChat account or iShenzhen app.

“Tests for the Hong Kong cross-boundary goods vehicle drivers will be centralised at the site of ports and the cost will be HK$350. The government will bear the cost involved,” said a Hong Kong government spokesman. Details will be shared later, he said.

Nucleic acid testing looks for the RNA of the virus using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. But such testing is known to give more false negatives, according to Dr James Gill, Locum GP & Honorary Clinical Lecturer at Warwick Medical School in the UK. “As the swab needs to pick up enough of the virus to work, this is one of the reasons the coronavirus the PCR test can have a higher false negative test rate – i.e. missing the virus even though someone has the infection,” he said.

Professor Robert Dingwall, Professor of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University, also in the UK, said, “Basically, you should never test unless you have accurate tests and know what you are going to do with the information.”

Meanwhile truck drivers and “necessary accompanying personnel” coming into Hong Kong from the mainland are one of only a few groups exempted from the city’s stringent quarantine requirements.