How Hong Kong coronavirus testing lab plans to help Cathay Pacific, other airlines revive international travel

Hong Kong-based genetics testing company Prenetics is in talks with government officials and airlines, including Cathay Pacific, to help make travel safer and rev up economic activity. The firm is turning to the airline industry to help figure out how to prevent second waves of infection stemming from imported cases of the novel coronavirus. “Testing, testing, testing will be critical for travel to resume,” said Danny Yeung, 41, co-founder and chief executive of Prenetics. “It’s scary, no one wants to fly,” he said. The company is the largest private laboratory in Hong Kong, in terms of testing capacity, with a maximum of 5,580 tests on a daily basis. It has more than 150 employees. Weaving together shared protocols could allow the free movement of people within “travel bubbles”. For Hong Kong, a travel bubble would do away with the 14-day quarantine on arrival in the city for travellers from within its limits. A Cathay Pacific spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for information about the airline’s plans to roll-out testing for Covid-19 among crew and passengers.<br/>