Local health authorities have ordered a citywide nucleic acid test (NAT) for today following the discovery of a positive case in Zhuhai from a man who works in Macau as a seafood deliveryman.
The mass test will commence at 7 a..m. today until 11 a.m. tomorrow.
According to the director of the Health Bureau (SSM), Alvis Lo, the NAT drive is urgent for two reasons. The first is because the 58-year-old Zhuhai resident who tested positive in Zhuhai has a very uncertain itinerary due to his job and is likely to have come in contact with many people from different locations across town, since his job is to deliver seafood products to restaurants all over Macau. The second reason is that, according to weather bureau, there is a possibility that Macau will be affected by typhoon “Nalgae” in the upcoming days. For this reason, health authorities decided to expedite mass testing of the population by restricting it to just one day to avoid the need to conduct testing during the peak of the typhoon, Lo explained.
“We don’t know the itinerary of this case very well, and the source of the infection is also unknown. Since he has had lots of contacts across the city, we fear that there may be some concealed infection cases,” the SSM director said. Lo added, “We want to have a balance between the need to do this screening of the population without jeopardizing normal life, so we will try not to suspend social activities and we will keep economic activities running normally as well as schools.”
“The reason we want to do this [mass testing] in such a short time is that we have a typhoon coming and it will not be suitable to do this if there are strong winds and heavy rain. We are calling on everyone to collaborate with us so we can have this screening done in this short period,” Lo said.
Format mirrors last mass testing
For today’s NAT drive, authorities explained the operations and procedures will be the same as the last mass testing, with authorities calling on citizens to book their NAT before heading to the sampling station. In addition, people should take a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) and ensure the result is negative before leaving the house.
People should also wear a KN95 mask for the duration they are at the sampling station and strictly follow the booking time to avoid crowds gathering at the posts.
To facilitate the process and allow more NAT slots for those who are not doing tests regularly, Lo also explained that people who conducted a NAT yesterday (October 31) for work or border crossing reasons will be exempted from the mass testing. However, those who currently have yellow codes, are undertaking a period of health self-management, or who would otherwise need to do a NAT over consecutive days are not exempted from mass testing.
