Authorities admit source of positive case at Treasure Hotel unknown
The health authorities said they are investigating the source of a positive case at Treasure Hotel and suspect that the employee was infected due to the “working environment,” Wong Weng Man, acting chief of the Health Promotion Division of the Health Bureau, said yesterday in a press conference.
Since the positive case was found at a medical observation hotel on August 15, the authorities said they have immediately enacted pandemic prevention measures, which include strengthening the pandemic prevention measures in the hotel, isolating the contacts and notifying the Macao Government Tourism Office. The authority now also requires that the one NAT across two days rule be changed to one NAT a day.
So far, no more positive cases were found at the hotel.
Wong said that they are still investigating the source of the infected employee.
“The number of people entering and returning to Macau has increased in the current month, so the positive cases have also increased. Moreover, those who isolate at Treasure Hotel are mainly people who are returning from Taiwan and foreign areas, so the rate of virus transmission is also high,” said Wong.
“We speculated that the infected employee at Treasure Hotel may have been infected by his working environment,” Wong added.
For the other three positive cases at Inner Harbour, Wong said that all three individuals are safe and undergoing treatment at the hospital. They also conducted several NATs to test the residences and workplaces of the three individuals, and all results were negative.
Thus, the authority said that the risk of community transmission caused by the three individuals can be ruled out.
Key groups not required to pay for NAT
The health authority issued a guideline for key working groups and notified the relevant departments that NAT testing of these employees is not a necessary condition before they go to work.
The guideline classifies different types of key working groups, while the specific definition of the relevant key working groups is formulated by the companies.
In relation to the costs of testing, it was explained that some groups will be paid by the government, and others will be paid by companies. However, the authority said that employees will not need to pay for the cost of NATs.
