Imported cases of COVID-19 may cause a fourth wave of infection in Hong Kong unless the city strengthens its border checks and plugs policy loopholes, a top infectious disease expert and government advisor said on Sunday.

Professor David Hui, a respiratory disease expert at Chinese University and member of the government’s COVID advisory panel, issued that warning in a television program on the same day that Hong Kong recorded 19 new cases of COVID-19, eight of which were imported and 11 locally transmitted. Three of the cases were of unknown origin while three others were identified in citywide testing.

Hui also noted, however, that Hong Kong will probably not have to allocate new resources for another round of citywide COVID-19 testing unless a new outbreak occurs on the same scale as the previous three.

The government’s most urgent task, he said, is to continue monitoring the border, stemming the inflow of imported cases like those that caused the city’s last three major outbreaks. The latest wave was caused by a policy loophole that exempted certain groups from quarantine, including the crews of ships and airplanes, he noted.

Meanwhile, the government plans to conclude a two-week testing drive on Monday, and although it has already declared the program a success, public debate continues over the initiative’s purpose, efficacy and adequacy.

The testing program has detected 26 symptom-free carriers in 13 days, but only a new outbreak of “exponential proportions” would warrant another mass testing drive, Hui said. Hong Kong would probably need support from the mainland to deal with the difficulties of coordinating another universal testing program, he added.

About 1.68 million Hongkongers had been tested by 11am on Sunday, according to Civil Service Secretary Patrick Nip, speaking in a radio interview. Nip said the community testing program was unlikely to be repeated.

“It’s a one-off universal community testing program to help us to understand the infection situation in the community, and also to identify and isolate those infected, especially those asymptomatic cases,” Nip said.

Medical sector lawmaker Pierre Chan criticized the program for falling short of its goals, pointing out that health chief Sophia Chan had initially expected five million people to participate and 1,500 symptom-free patients to be identified.

Pierre Chan believed the scheme’s “benefits” were mainly “political,” because it gave the government many opportunities to express gratitude to the central government.

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