HONG KONG -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said Sunday that it will distribute around 290,000 sets of COVID-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) kits as part of a follow-up on the recent detection of the COVID-19 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.

The HKSAR government also urged RAT kit users to report any positive results for COVID-19 via the government's online platform.

On Sunday, Hong Kong registered 1,681 confirmed locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 and 147 imported cases, official data showed.