City braces for more mass testing

Macau will face yet another round of Covid-19 nucleic acid mass testing, commencing from 9 a.m. today until 6 p.m. tomorrow, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center announced yesterday during the daily press briefing.

This new round of citywide mass testing comes in response to the 299 positive cases detected from June 25 (Saturday) to 3 p.m. June 26 (Sunday), the director of the Health Bureau (SSM), Alvis Lo said during the briefing.

June 25 had among the highest number of cases reported within a single day, with a total of 71 positive cases. Notably, no mass testing was conducted on this day. Most of these cases came from nucleic acid tests (NAT) conducted in key areas and on specific focus groups in the community. These tests were conducted on around 26,000 people only, Lo noted.

“There are 71 new cases. Of these, 57 were detected in the community, and only 14 came from people who were already under our supervision,” the SSM director announced. Lo added that in total, of the 261 cases known by 24:00 Saturday, only 66 were symptomatic. 

The number of clusters or groups of people testing positive has grown to 10. According to the epidemiologic investigation, authorities found links to known sources of infection in seven of these clusters, but have been unable to identify the potential source of infection in the other three.

Twenty other people are still undergoing epidemiologic investigation to understand if their infections are part of any of these known groups or if, alternatively, they are part of a different cluster.

Earlier, the Chief Executive (CE), Ho Iat Seng, published an order extending the closing of all public services to the public until  July 1, with exception of essential services and related Covid-19 prevention and control activities.

Information provided by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center noted that for this new round of mass testing, which will take place over a six-hour shortened period (33 hours in total), there will be an increase in the number of sample collection posts.  This brings the 32 general posts to 41 (9 more).

The new posts include schools as well as civil society associations, intending to further reduce the distance between people and the NAT sampling collection posts, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong, said.

According to Ao Ieong, the authorities intend for posts to be no further than a 15-minute walk from each person’s home or workplace.

The goal, she said, was to minimize the use of public transport to reach testing sites, reducing the risk of further community transmission.

“We want people to have their test as close as possible to their homes, within their neighborhood, and not across the city in other neighborhoods,” Ao Ieong said, adding, “our purpose is that they can be tested just a short distance away from their homes and without the need to take the public buses.”

Later, in response to media inquiries, she added that residents may do a test closer to their work if they prefer but noted that they should do so only when exiting the workplace.

Additional remarks were made by several officials on the need to respect the booking time as much as possible to avoid unnecessary crowding at the NAT posts, which can pose an additional risk of transmission.

The new round of mass testing for the whole population will take place from 9 a.m. today until 6 p.m. on June 28 (Tuesday).

Footprint recording not ‘useless’ anymore

Director of the Health Bureau (SSM) Alvis Lo remarked on the need for citizens to record their every step outside their homes, noting the importance of this measure now.

“Before, there was no great need for people to present the local Health Code and to scan the location QR Codes of every establishment as [case numbers] were insignificant at the time, but it is no longer like that. We are in a situation where recording our itineraries can greatly help to find cases and uncover clusters and links,” the SSM director said. Lo’s comments followed Secretary Ao Ieong’s call for people to use the location QR codes of every place they enter – especially at markets, supermarkets and other places where crowds can assemble.

Lo also said that he hopes that citizens can have “some patience” to cope with the current restrictions and measures, as “we now need to have an added control so we can return to normal (before June 18) as soon as possible.”