Hong Kong, Jul 24 (IANS): The Hong Kong government said that it will distribute around 210,000 sets of Covid-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) kits as part of a follow-up on the recent detection of the virus in sewage samples.

The test kits will be distributed to residents, cleaning workers and property management staff working in the areas with positive sewage testing results showing relatively high viral loads in order to help identify infected persons, reports Xinhua news agency.

The government also urged RAT kit users to report any positive results for Covid-19 via the its online platform.

On Saturday, Hong Kong registered 4,034 confirmed locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 and 231 imported ones.

Since the start of a mass inoculation program in February last year, over 6.76 million people, or 92.9 per cent of the eligible population in Hong Kong, have taken at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccines, while over 6.5 million, or 89.3 per cent of the eligible population, have received two shots.

As of Saturday, 66.4 per cent of the eligible people in Hong Kong have taken their booster doses, while a total of 191,554 people have taken the fourth shot, official data showed.

A spokesperson for the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) stressed that as the local situation of Covid-19 infection is still severe, the CHP strongly appealed to the community to continue to comply with social distancing measures, avoid going out, and refrain from participating in unnecessary or crowded activities or gatherings.

The spokesperson urged people who are yet to take vaccines, especially senior citizens, chronic patients, and immunocompromised persons who face a higher chance of death after Covid-19 infection to get inoculated as early as possible.