Addressing yesterday evening’s press conference about Macau’s novel coronavirus situation, Tai Wa Hou, a clinical director of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, said that after having been contacted by the Health Bureau (SSM), 55 people who had failed to undergo a COVID-19 test during last week’s three-day mass nucleic acid testing (NAT) drive are refusing to be tested for the novel coronavirus.
Tai said that if they had continued to refuse to be tested for COVID-19 by last night, the Health Bureau would ask the police today to locate them and take them to a testing site.
The government’s three-day mass NAT drive started at 9 a.m. on Wednesday last week after Macau confirmed four COVID-19 cases the day before, a family of four comprising a couple and their two children, a schoolboy and a schoolgirl. It was Macau’s first citywide disease testing in its history.
A total of 614,465 people were tested for COVID-19 during the 72-hour citywide NAT drive, which ended at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Moreover, 101,786 people were tested outside the mass testing programme between Tuesday and Saturday last week. The results of all 716,251 were confirmed as being negative.
Those who failed to undergo the free test before 9 a.m. on Saturday were required to undergo a paid test at the city’s five regular NAT stations before 9 p.m. on Saturday, otherwise their Macau Health Code colour would become yellow. The Health Bureau has been urging those who have still not been tested for COVID-19 to get tested, otherwise their Macau Health Code colour would remain yellow.
Tai Wa Hou, one of the three clinical directors of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, addresses yesterday’s press conference about the city’s novel coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. Photo: GCS
During yesterday evening’s press conference, Tai said that as of 4 p.m. yesterday, the Macau Health Code colour of 4,154 people in Macau – comprising 1,882 Macau residents and 2,272 non-local residents – was still indicating yellow. According to Tai, the Health Bureau started to call the 4,154 people on Sunday, but only had been able to contact about half of them as of yesterday afternoon.
According to Tai, the people whom the bureau had been unable to contact included various situations such as no-one answering the calls, phone users hanging up, and phone numbers that are disconnected.,
According to Tai, the about 2,000 people whom the bureau had been able to contact included about 1,200 who said that they had already undergone a COVID-19 test which, however, involved the wrong registration of their ID information (details reported by The Macau Post Daily yesterday). The Health Bureau would have to verify their ID information so as to confirm whether they had in fact undergone a COVID-19 test.
According to Tai, the about 2,000 people also included about 600 people who had not undergone a COVID-19 test, comprising small children, senior citizens, those with reduced mobility, and those with chronic diseases. Tai said that the Health Bureau will arrange for them to undergo a test as soon as possible.
The about 2,000 people, Tai said, included 55 who continued to refuse to be tested for COVID-19, despite of having repeatedly been asked by Health Bureau staff to get tested. If they continued to refuse to undergo a nucleic acid test (NAT) by last night, Tai said, the Health Bureau would ask the police today to locate them and take them to testing sites where they will have get tested and stay until they have a negative result.
According to Tai, those who continue to refuse to be tested for COVID-19 after being located by the police will be required to sign a consent document confirming that they are willing to undergo 14 days of medical observation at a quarantine facility. If they refuse to sign the document, Tai said, the authorities will impose “mandatory quarantine” on them.
Reasons for refusing to be tested
According to Tai, the 55 people who continued to refuse to be tested for COVID-19 as of yesterday afternoon mentioned various reasons for their refusal to undergo a test. Some of them said that they thought the citywide NAT drive was “useless” for COVID-19 prevention and control work, while some said that the authorities did not have the power to order them to undergo a nucleic acid test as COVID-19 tests should be voluntary, according to Tai, who said that the 55 people still insisted on refusing to be tested for COVID-19 after repeated explanations and persuasive attempts by the Health Bureau.
There was no update by the bureau late last night on the situation of the 55 testing “refuseniks”, namely whether any of them had meanwhile agreed to get tested.
Meanwhile, Tai said during yesterday’s press conference that Health Bureau (SSM) Control of Communicable Diseases and Surveillance of Diseases Department Coordinator Leong Iek Hou could not attend yesterday’s press conference as she had become ill due to fatigue so she needed to take sick leave. Tai said that Leong has not come down with a fever or any other respiratory symptoms and she has tested negative for COVID-19 in a nucleic acid test.
Vaccination rate reaches 43 pct
As of 4 p.m. yesterday, 531,317 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered to 293,807 people in Macau, comprising 54,515 who had received their first jab and 239,292 who had received their second jab.
Macau’s COVID-19 vaccination rate stood at 43 percent as of 4 p.m. yesterday – i.e. over 40 percent of the population has received at least one jab.
A total of 11 adverse events were reported in the past 24 hours (until 4 p.m. yesterday). The total number of adverse events since the start of the vaccination drive stood at 2,252, or 0.42 percent of the total number of jabs, including seven serious cases.
NAT cert for Guangdong-Macau travel valid for 48 hours
Meanwhile, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced in a statement last night that from 6 a.m. today the validity of the NAT result for Guangdong-Macau travellers is increased to 48 hours from 12 hours.
8 environmental samples test positive
Meanwhile, the centre announced in a statement yesterday afternoon that eight of 100 environmental samples have tested positive for COVID-19. The eight positive samples were found in places connected to the life and work of the four-member family cluster infected with the Delta variant. The cluster was confirmed early last week. According to the statement, the 100 samples were collected in the family’s home, public areas of the building where they usually live, work places and other premises visited by each of the four patients – supermarkets, restaurants and a library.
Tai said during yesterday’s press conference that the eight positive samples were found in the car driven by the family’s father and in a lunch box left in a mini-fridge at his workplace. The father is a driver employed by the Health Bureau.
