A female asymptomatic 66-year-old patient who has not received any SARS-CoV-2 vaccines was detected as having Covid-19 yesterday in the northwestern district of Fai Chi Kei.
Part of the city was anxious after the announcement by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre early yesterday afternoon, which was made in addition to the later announcement about regional mass SARS-
CoV-2 nucleic acid test (NAT) drives.
Public health doctor and Health Bureau (SSM) official Leong Iek Hou devoted several minutes at the special press briefing yesterday to discussing the movements of the patient, but did not disclose her vaccination status.
Later, she was asked whether the patient was vaccinated and if she has developed any symptoms.
“As per our data, neither she or her cohabiting family members have been vaccinated with any SARS-CoV-2 vaccine,” the public health doctor replied.
As of press time yesterday, her cohabiting family members, namely her sister and her son, have tested negative for the virus.
While admitting that the vaccine does not create complete immunity against the virus, she did not forgo the opportunity to persuade members of the public to get fully vaccinated, which she said included the booster shots as well.
“Although the vaccine does not guarantee you will avoid infection, what is more important is that the vaccine will help seismically lower the chances of developing severe cases and complications,” she said.
The quality of information dissemination yesterday also prompted public criticism.
Near noontime yesterday, news was dispersed in various social media or chat groups about a new patient in the area, leading to the lockdown of certain areas and a key area mass NAT drive. At present, the official social media page of the Response and Coordination Centre only announces that a new patient has been detected. No news about the mass test drive was announced.
About an hour before the press briefing yesterday, the official social media page eventually made an announcement about the key test drive, which came after many worried people residing or working in Fai Chi Kei had already rushed to take the test.
At the press briefing, SSM director and pulmonologist Alvis Lo admitted that his bureau was aware of the so-called leaked information, which he later emphasized as “not critically confidential.”
The police, who also deployed a representative to the press briefing, admitted that crowds were seen at several test stations prior to the official announcement on the mass test.
When asked why the government did not conduct timely crisis management on the situation, such as issuing press releases to clarify the mass testing had not yet started, Lo boasted that the government’s response to the situation yesterday morning was “very swift.”
At 9 am yesterday, the SSM received notifications from their Zhuhai counterparts about the detection of positive results in a 10-in-1 test tube of test specimens. Of these 10 test takers, eight have had recent links to Macau. Therefore, according to the SSM director, these eight people presented to the public hospital for individual tests.
It was then that the 66-year-old woman’s infection was detected. Afterwards, the SSM conducted epidemiological investigations, before it identified the areas and groups of people needing to get tests. The government also needed to evaluate the suitable number of test stations.
“We had to finish all [of] these in a matter of four to five hours,” Lo defended.
He then agreed that it would be ideal if no news had been prematurely released. Nonetheless, “a lot of people work in test stations. It is possible that they have inadvertently released the information to families and friends,” he added.
To hold them accountable, in his opinion, was not necessary because the leak was not ill-unfounded. For the time being, he said, the main tactic would be to encourage the public to rely on official announcements.
Details of mass NAT drive
People living or working in the area confined by five roads are required to take a test each day from now until October 28. The area is surrounded by Avenida do Conselheiro Borja to the north, Avenida do Almirante Lacerda to the south, Avenida do General Castelo Branco to the east, as well as Rua Norte do Patane and Rua Sul do Patane to the west.
People who have stayed in the above area for more than half an hour on or after October 24, despite not living or working within the area, will be required to take the test too. The Response and Coordination Centre added that considering the higher infection risk in the area, nobody with aforementioned links to the area would be exempt from the test.
To cooperate with this NAT drive, all operating sampling stations will continue to provide testing services. Six stations will extend their service hours to midnight on October 26, and then open from 9 am to midnight on October 27 and 28, namely Qingmao Port, Kon Chi Medical Service Centre, Leisure Area in Baía Norte do Fai Chi Kei, Trust Leisure Garden Bus Terminus, Macau Medical and Health Federation at Edifício do Bairro da Ilha Verde, as well as the former Macau Yat Yuen Canidrome.
The Response and Coordination Centre reminds test-goers that before heading to the NAT station, they must first perform a rapid antigen self-test (RAT) and declare the result via the Macau health code platform. Only those with a negative RAT results will be accepted by NAT stations.
If the RAT result is positive, regardless of existence of symptoms, an ambulance should be called. The declarant and co-habiting individuals must stay home and wait patiently to be transferred to the quarantine site by the designated ambulance. Relevant nucleic acid testing will be arranged for all such individuals by the government.
Furthermore, the Response and Coordination Centre once again reminds people to input their correct address during the application for a health code, so as to avoid being wrongly identified as close contacts.
Meanwhile, as with previous handling of people with yellow health codes, those within the test zone will be allowed to conducted regular activities, such as work or study, even if they bear yellow health codes.
The key area concerns about 26,000 people, judging from data collected through the Macau health code system, Lo disclosed yesterday.
Footprints of the patient
The aforementioned 66-year-old housewife has had her infection detected in a group sample in Zhuhai with a Cycle Threshold (CT) value at 32. After being retested at the public hospital in Macau yesterday, her infection was confirmed with a CT value at 16.6, which indicates a relatively high amount of virus.
The remaining seven test-takers with connections to Macau in the same group tested negative yesterday.
At the press briefing yesterday, Lo highlighted that it was highly likely that the infection was imported. About half-an-hour after the briefing, a spokesperson for the SSM updated the status to confirm that it was an imported infection.
Residing in Edf. Wang Heng in Fai Chi Kei, the sexagenarian had stayed home during the day on October 21, 22, 23 and 25. At about 6 p.m. on all four days, she departed from home for Zhuhai on foot through the Qingmao Border Checkpoint. In Zhuhai, she did grocery shopping at the Kang Zhi Yuan Supermarket in the Underground Shopping Mall. She took the same route back home afterwards.
On October 24, she stayed home except for a visit to the Royal Supermarket in Luen San Square in Fai Chi Kei at about 1:30 pm.
In addition, at 3 p.m. on October 23, she visited the Caritas Macau Food Bank at Ilha Verde. Between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on the same day, she took bus No. 1 from Avenida do General Castelo Branco to the Border Gate.
