Authorities hit back at key area NAT notifications criticism
The Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center has urged all citizens to pay attention to the data they input to the Macao Health Code system, calling them to make any necessary updates as quickly as possible to avoid complications.
The announcement came in response to the many criticisms leveled by citizens who claim that they are either being wrongly designated for the nucleic acid tests (NAT) of key areas or, conversely, are living in those areas but have not been contacted to undertake a NAT.
At yesterday’s daily briefing of the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center, the local coordinator of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Leong Iek Hou, said that these mismatches are not due to flaws in the system but are instead due to outdated or inaccurate data entered by the citizens in the Health Code system, which is used to control key groups and areas, and the red and yellow zones of confinement.
“We know that there are many cases in which [people’s] phone number is not updated so they could not get the notifications,” Leong said, adding that “there are also problems with the address registered into the system … not [being] updated and consequently leading to some being called to do the NAT because of their old address.”
Leong said that people should pay attention to the personal information that they enter into the system, as there are many cases of duplicate records where people are using different addresses on the platform for the uploading of rapid antigen tests (RAT) and the Health Code.
She also mentioned that authorities are aware that elderly citizens and children can have their health code information on different devices depending on their caregivers, reminding them of the need to update personal data on all the different devices.
“We call on people to review all data in all mobile devices, including those from domestic helpers, parents and other family members,” the official said, adding that the RAT platform and Health Code work separately and addresses and phone numbers must be updated in both systems.
According to Leong, most people have authorized the Health Code system to collect personal data from the Identification Services Bureau when their personal information in this database is outdated, which she claims is the reason for many of the errors in calling the right people to undertake testing in the key areas.
