A 59-year-old casino chauffeur has been quarantined in Coloane as he is believed to have come into contact with a Covid-19 patient in the mainland.
He was taken to the Health Bureau’s (SSM) Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane after Zhuhai’s health authorities said that when the man was visiting Gulong Gorge in Guangdong’s northern city of Qingyuan on Sunday last week, he came within three metres of a person who was later confirmed as an asymptomatic Covid-19 patient in Guangzhou’s Liwan district – which has recently been hit by new local Covid-19 cases.
The Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced that the Health Bureau (SSM) located the chauffeur, who works at the City of Dreams, and took him to the Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre on Saturday night, where he tested negative for Covid-19 in a nucleic acid test (NAT).
Despite his negative NAT result and although he had not come down with any Covid-19 symptoms, the SSM decided to quarantine him until the 14th day after he had been in contact with the asymptomatic Covid-19 patient, after considering that he risked having been infected with Covid-19.
The chauffeur, who insisted he had always worn a face mask, joined a tour group organised by a travel agency in Zhuhai on 22 May for a two-day trip to Qingyuan.
He returned to Zhuhai on Sunday night last week on the travel agency’s coach. His family members met him in Macao and drove him home.
The man received his first Covid-19 jab in Macao on Tuesday last week, after which he underwent a NAT in Zhuhai which came up negative.
The man visited his relatives in Zhuhai’s Doumen district on Wednesday last week, before returning to Macao the next day when he went to the Jai Alai Oceanus casino in Zape to gamble.
The man went to work on Friday and Saturday, before he was found by the bureau on Saturday night.
