The government yesterday abruptly cancelled the requirement for casino and construction workers to have a 48-hour validated negative result for nucleic acid testing (NAT) before they can go to work.
According to the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre, this original requirement had been aimed to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 virus in the workplace and among employees.
However, according to a statement by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre, there were snaking queues at the Workers Stadium NAT station yesterday morning, and most of those in the queue had their NAT appointment in the afternoon and in the evening but came early in order to get their NAT result as soon as possible so that they could go to work this morning.
Therefore, the government cancelled the requirement of having a 48-hour validated negative result for a nucleic acid test before work that had only been announced on Tuesday, to avoid people gathering at NAT stations, which, the statement acknowledged, is not conducive to COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control.
Even so, the statement said, casino and construction staff are required to undergo a rapid antigen test (RAT- self-test) every day before they work, and after testing negative they need to upload their RAT result to the government’s Macau Health Code digital platform so that they can enter their workplaces.
The government said that it had increased the number of the NAT stations and booking quotas for NATs in response to the demand for personnel in different sectors.
Currently, according to the centre, there are more than 50,000 self-paid booking quotas for NATs per day, and 40,000 booking quotas for yellow code holders at six regular NAT stations in Macau.
The government urged the relevant staff in the casino and construction sectors to comply always with the government’s pandemic prevention and control guidelines and measures.
