CU Medicine Brochure

26 Under normal circumstances, Christy Cheng , a senior nursing student of The Nethersole School of Nursing, would be closing in on her degree with a placement in a hospital, working the wards. But under COVID-19, nothing is normal. With all hospital placements suspended, Christy instead found herself spending two days taking nasal and throat swabs from ‘regular’ Hong- kongers, as part of the voluntary coronavirus testing scheme rolled out to all the city’s residents. ‘This was a chance for me to practise my clinical nursing skills,’ Christy says of the testing programme, which ran from 1–14 September 2020. In all, 1.7 million Hongkongers got tested, yielding 42 asymptomatic cases. Although the number of COVID-positive tests was tiny, the process showed there were not signif- icant numbers of ‘hidden’ cases. The spectre of asymptomatic patients wandering the streets was dispelled. This enabled the city to ease lockdown restrictions. ‘There could be 42,000 or 42, you never know,’ Prof. Janita Chau of The Nethersole School of Nursing says. The reassurance was both citywide and personal. ‘People want to go out and meet their family. But if they are worried, how can they live a normal life?’ Professor Chau participated for 10 long days as a supervisor. Nursing Teachers and Students Test Community, and Themselves Coronavirus testing gives nursing students vital hands-on experience