Local nucleic acid tests able to detect mutated Covid-19 strain from UK

The nucleic acid tests for Covid-19 used in Macau are sensitive enough to identify the mutated coronavirus that has been spreading rapidly in the U.K., Medical Director of Conde de São Januário Hospital Dr. Alvis Lo Iek Long confirmed at the regular media briefing regarding Covid-19 yesterday.
In the press conference by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center, Lo said that once a specimen tests positive for Covid-19, it will be undergo further genomic sequencing to ascertain whether it carries the mutant strain.
Lo’s remarks came after a growing number of countries and cities, such as Hong Kong, India and most European countries, have cut off tourist flows from the U.K. due to the specter of a new and more infectious variant of coronavirus, which reportedly hails from Britain.
He also stressed that the public “should not be too pessimistic” regarding the outcome of the upcoming vaccine, even though a vaccination may not guarantee quarantine-free entry into Macau.
The vaccine, Ho stressed, is effective at lowering the risk of severe illness or death once an individual is infected with Covid-19. It can also control the transmission of the virus if a significant number of people in the city are vaccinated.
Since December 21, the center has tightened quarantine restrictions, extending the mandatory quarantine period from 14 days to 21 days for all arrivals entering Macau from Hong Kong and all other places, except mainland China and Taiwan.
“We decided to prolong the length of quarantine based on two factors, which were the emergence of the new Covid-19 variant from Britain and the increasing number of cases who had tested positive after being released from 14-day quarantine reported in some parts of the world,” said Dr. Leong Iek Hou, Coordinator of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the interim, those who have already been discharged from quarantine hotels, are required to perform self-health monitoring for an extra seven days and take another Covid-19 test on the 20th day.
Leong said that this group of people has already completed an additional test for Covid-19 and their health code was converted from yellow to green on the 21st day.
When asked by the media about the technical hitch on the health code website on December 24, which coincided with the launch of a new function for applicants to input their address on the website, Lo said the issue was caused by a glitch in the server and had nothing to do with the new function.
Lo said the new function for filling in addresses, originally scheduled to be put into service on December 24, will be relaunched after New Year’s Day.
As of December 27, a total of 386 people were observing quarantine periods in Macau —271 of them were non-Macau residents, whilst the remainder were Macau residents.
From May to December 27, over two million nucleic acid tests were carried out in Macau — 1.3 million of which were carried out on Macau residents, whilst the remaining 700,000 were carried out on non-Macau residents. Staff Reporter