The Health Bureau (SSM) has confirmed that Macao’s 72nd Covid-19 case – a 46-year-old mainland Chinese who was the first of the four-strong renovation worker cluster – has been infected with the Delta variant.
Leong Iek Hou, the SSM’s Control of Communicable Diseases and Surveillance of Diseases Department Coordinator, said that the findings of viral genome sequencing by her bureau indicated that the viral genetic sequences of the Turkish imported case (the city’s 64th), the six hotel security staff cluster cases, and the 72nd case are 100 per cent identical, meaning that all of them were “from the same source in terms of genetics”.
Leong said that the SSM will carry out viral genome sequencing for the other three cases of the renovation worker cluster so as to confirm whether they were also “from the same source in terms of genetics”.
According to Leong, the findings of her bureau’s investigation show that the 66th patient (one of the Nepalese security guards) and the 74th patient (the Vietnamese man) were standing next to each other for around 14 minutes on a route No. 25 public bus on 24 September. Leong said that they also touched the same area on a handrail on the bus during the trip.
Consequently, Leong said that the Health Bureau has determined that the Vietnamese renovation worker was possibly infected with Covid-19 by the Nepalese security guard during the bus journey.
