The government has announced today that 50,000 residents living in Red zones, Yellow zones and their surrounding areas will need to undergo an additional NAT to ensure there are no Covid-19 cases in the city. Individuals will receive a SMS message over the next few hours with further details.
Tai Wa Hou, representative of the Macao Health Bureau, said that the NATs will start on Sunday, 17 October at 9 am, and will end at midnight of the same day, covering residents living in the zones where the four Covid-19 cases – the 72nd, 73rd, 74th and 75th – lived.
Those who fail to undergo the NAT within the specified time will risk their Health Codes turning yellow.
After the detection of the above mentioned cases, the government announced “lockdowns” in their residential neighbourhoods – now referred to as Red Zones. In these zones, hundreds of residents were barred from leaving their homes. In Yellow Zones, hundreds of residents have to undergo multiple NATs. To date, no new cases have been detected in either the Red and Yellow zones.
Tai also called on hundreds of residents who travelled on the same bus routes as the four recent Covid-19 cases to be tested voluntarily to ensure there has been no transmission.
Tai said that only with the assurance that there are no hidden cases of Covid-19 in the territory will it be possible to return to normality in the city.
On another note, as of today a total of 3,056 people are undergoing quarantine in Macao: 2,333 in designated medical observation hotels and 723 in self-selected medical observation hotels. The total includes 1,535 Macao residents, 909 foreign employees and 612 tourists.
