HONG KONG -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam said on Friday that the HKSAR government will further expand the community testing for COVID-19 to identify silent carriers as early as possible and break community transmission chains.

Lam made the remarks while visiting five private laboratories that assist the HKSAR government in carrying out the testing.

According to the HKSAR government, the five labs belonged to five companies that are currently operating 19 community testing centers across Hong Kong, with a combined capacity of over 20,000 tests a day.

At the request of the HKSAR government, the companies also arrange mobile stations in areas with more confirmed cases to provide free testing to local residents or those who feel they are at high risk of infection.

The community testing centers and mobile stations have provided 500,000 tests since mid-November and identified over 600 confirmed cases.

After months of concerted efforts of the HKSAR government and the testing companies, the maximum testing capability of public and private laboratories has been significantly increased to about 100,000 per day.