China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Tuesday resumed operation of the Huo-Yan (Fire Eye) Laboratory to enhance the region's ability to trace and curb the source of COVID-19 infections following a resurgence of cases in recent days. 

First set up in August 2020 at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park Sports Center, the laboratory consists of 16 air-inflated film chambers and is equipped with around 100 testing facilities. After operation tests, some 400 medical workers from Hong Kong and the mainland are working in the lab to test samples of the residents.

"Between around 21:00 (Monday) and early (Tuesday) morning, we will start to run testing for the first samples we receive. All of our labs here will operate around the clock so as to help find the source of infections as soon as possible and cut it off. And so far, Hong Kong is short of testing capabilities. And the setting up of Huo-Yan Laboratory here can help expand the testing scale to find more sources of infections and cut them off," said Liu Xing, director of the laboratory.

"We have mobilized all of our people. And we're kind of lucky to have more than 200 people from Shenzhen (of Guangdong Province) and people from other companies in Hong Kong to help us. So, this has provided Hong Kong with great testing capabilities. We want to thank our country for supporting Hong Kong. And we will definitely achieve the victory in the fight against the epidemic. And with the support from our country and the cooperation of residents in Hong Kong, I think we're able to win this battle," said Anthony Wu Ting-yuk, chairman of the Sunrise Diagnostics Center, a testing lab in the city.

Hong Kong reported 2,071 new infections with 2,052 local ones on Monday, with the total number of infections reaching 25,051.

(Source: CCTV Plus)