The number of new confirmed cases in Macao has again dropped to only 22 in the past day, with the city’s Covid-19 tally now standing at 1,755 cases as of midnight last night, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced.
Fourteen of the new cases were found under management and control in the Red Code Zones and medical observation hotels and the rest were detected in the community – four found in close contacts, two among the Citywide and Key Groups’ NATs and two among other population groups.
Macao’s daily Covid-19 cases dropped to 27 previously (16 July) from 31 on the day before (15 July).
A total of 21,378 individuals are under follow up as of 8 am today. Among them are 3,475 close contacts, 11,533 people with overlapping itineraries, 1,276 secondary contacts, 254 general contacts and 777 accompanying persons.
Meanwhile, the 10th round of Citywide NAT concluded yesterday with a total of 667,342 samples collected. Only five batches of pooled samples were found positive while the rest were all negative.
The number of positive batches found in the series of mass nucleic acid testings (NAT) has also gone down from 94 found in the 4th round to 41, 23, 17, 13, 9 and 5 (5th – 10th rounds), according to the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre.
The 11th mass testing began at 8 am today and will conclude at 7 pm tomorrow, after which those who have not taken the test will be assigned a yellow health code and taken by the police to undergo the test at a designated venue, where they will have to wait until their NAT results come out negative. Those refusing to take the test will be subject to 14-day mandatory medical observation.
However, those born on or before 31 December 1942, people with disabilities who hold a valid Disability Assessment Registration Card from the Social Welfare Bureau and those who rely on others’ assistance in their daily lives are exempted from the Citywide NAT.
Before going to the NAT centres, everyone must take a self-administered rapid antigen test (RAT) and upload the result onto the Macao Health Code. Only people whose RAT results are negative can enter the testing centres, while those with positive results must immediately call 119, 120 or 2857 2222 for assistance.
