Macao could have to go through another mass-testing session, Health Bureau Director Alvis Lo Iek Long has warned.
As frontline workers continued to conduct nucleic acid tests (NAT) at 76 stations across the city this morning under the shadow of Typhoon Nalgae (booking link here), the Health Bureau (SSM) is redoubling its efforts to trace the source of the most recent Covid-19 case, a 58-year-old deliveryman who works in a fresh seafood shop near Praça de Ponte e Horta in the Inner Harbour area.
So far, the SSM has been unable to establish whether the deliveryman, who travelled widely around the city and often failed to wear his facemask correctly, is connected to the two clusters currently afflicting the city.
Lo said the probability of having another round of mandatory mass NATs “is not low”, The Macau Post Daily reported.
Following the conclusion of the mass-testing drive, everyone in Macao will be required to take a rapid antigen test (RAT) today, tomorrow and on Friday.
Results must be uploaded to the SSM’s online declaration system. Anyone failing to report a negative RAT result on the system will have their Macao Health Code turn yellow. If they continue to fail to report a negative result the next day, they will only have their health code return to green after undergoing a paid NAT.
In related news, Municipal Affairs Bureau emergency teams have sped up the distribution of fresh and frozen food to households in Red Codes Zones due to the imminent arrival of the typhoon. The collection service for “daily necessities” delivered by friends and relatives of those in the locked-down buildings has been suspended.
