‘Unprecedented’ outbreak puts several sites on lockdown as gov’t confirms 31 cases
Macau is battling with its worse Covid-19 outbreak yet as the city recorded 31 new SARS-CoV-2 infections of unknown origin as of 10 p.m. yesterday.
The government has not stated whether the latest 10 cases were detected from the ongoing mass testing or from close contacts of the 21 positive cases confirmed yesterday afternoon.
The cases involve 21 women and 10 men, aged between eight months and 89 years old. Eight of the 31 were symptomatic confirmed cases, while 23 are classified as asymptomatic.
Due to this outbreak, the Health Bureau (SSM) has put 602 people under follow-up, with 146 close contacts, 36 second-level close contacts, 10 common contacts, four accompanying personnel and 375 with itinerary intersections, which was referred to by the health officials as “non-core close contacts.”
Health officials found the current conditions worrying and “unprecedented,” in Alvis Lo’s own words.
21 infected in stable condition
In a press conference at 5 p.m. yesterday, when the tally was still 21, Lo, director of the SSM, pointed out although eight of them have developed symptoms, all symptoms were mild and the people were in a stable condition.
The remaining 13 people showed no symptoms as of the time of yesterday’s press conference.
Meanwhile, not all infected people were vaccinated. Four people were completely unvaccinated, three had only had their first dose, five had received only two doses and the remaining nine had received a booster shot.
Of the 21 people, 16 are women and five are men. They are aged between eight months and 89 years. The 21 people were separated into two epidemiological clusters consisting of 17 and four people respectively.
Thirteen of those in the 17-person cluster are non-local workers from Myanmar, living together in an apartment in Im Lai Building. Another infected person is a neighbor of the thirteen. Another two people are colleagues at Padre Modern Cuisine near the Government Headquarters. The remaining person is the employer of the 13 non-local workers.
The other cluster includes a worker at the Correctional Services Bureau’s (DSC) headquarters at the local prison in Coloane. The infection was detected from the regular key-group SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test (NAT) scheme. The other three people from this cluster are relatives of the DSC worker who meet each other often, according to Lo.
The main connection between the two clusters, Lo said, is that they are linked with apartments located in buildings diagonally opposite each other on Rua Afonso de Albuquerque.
Highly contagious
SARS-CoV-2 managing to infect 13 people living together is proof of how contagious the virus is, said Lo.
Lo made this statement in response to a journalist’s question about how infectious these new patients were. Previously, local health officials have said that the count of virus detected in a secretion sample collected from a patient would indicate the capacity of the infection to spread from that particular patient.
“There is a household shared by 14 people, of whom 13 were infected,” the city’s health chief said, adding that this was a “clue as to how contagious the virus is.”
The official noted that cycle threshold (CT) values do not always signal how easily the patient may infect others. “CT values are dynamic,” the official said, referring to the recently popular term.
He pointed out that counts of the virus could soar in the first three days and plunge afterwards. “But three days is enough [to infect people] if no safety measures are put in place,” Lo said. “This is a very good example.”
The city’s two previous outbreaks of Covid-19 occurred among cohabitants. The city has also seen mass outbreaks of the flu in schools, with the SSM announcing the city’s first flu fatality over the weekend.
At the press conference, Lo reiterated that members of the public are encouraged to reduce movements to allow the bureau to buy time and contain the current outbreak.
Comparing experiences with neighboring countries, Japan and South Korea have lifted travel bans and started allowing tourists to enter despite new infections being reported in those countries every day.
NEARLY 67,000 TESTS NEGATIVE AS OF 10 P.M.
As of 10 p.m. yesterday, a total of 211,779 samples have been collected, of which 66,797 have been tested and confirmed as negative. Test results from the mass testing drive will not be uploaded to the Macao Health Code and cannot be used for immigration purposes.
Health officials also emphasized the transmissibility of the virus.
Cases were reported in other places, indicating that a brief, seconds-long interaction at a supermarket is sufficient to spread the virus, even when both people are wearing face masks.
Authorities reiterate that anyone who remains untested after 12 p.m. on June 21 will be assigned a yellow health code and will be taken by police to a designated venue to undergo sampling.
The health official was also questioned several times on the possibility of these cases being imported from mainland China. To this, Lo emphasized that epidemiological tracking was still in progress, so he would not give any definite answer.
Civil service sees two-day service suspension
The Administration and Public Services Bureau (SAFP) announced in a statement delivered by Lo yesterday that local public services will be suspended for two days on Monday and Tuesday this week.
The work suspension was implemented to help facilitate the citywide NAT and to reduce human movement across the city. The decision was made by the Chief Executive and promulgated in Executive Order No 99/2022.
Departments that provide emergency services to the public will remain in operation despite the public service suspension.
The private sector is also encouraged to halt operations and work from home, the health chief noted, although this is not mandatory.
He reiterated the main reason the government is putting non-
emergency civil servants on a two-day break is that it will help reduce the movement of people in the community. The executive would like to attempt to contain the spread of the virus using this tactic.
As such, he said, the private sector is also recommended to follow suit.
