In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, leading Hong Kong-based genetic testing and digital health company, Prenetics – or CircleDNA as it’s better known – has announced that it will be pooling its resources to expand urgent COVID-19 testing across the city, making RT-PCR testing easy, accurate and safe for over 100,000 Hongkongers. As the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-general Tedros Adhanom has stated, the key to fighting COVID-19 is to “test, test, test”.

Named Project Screen, the initiative is a collaboration between Prenetics and leading companies from various sectors, including Prudential Hong Kong, Chinese University Hong Kong (CUHK), Xcelom, Mason Supreme Healthcare, hpa SOCIAL, Beyond Ventures and Pickupp. The test costs HK$985, but Prudential has volunteered to subsidise HK$300 for frontline workers and their families – meaning they will only need to pay HK$690.