Macau will continue its mandatory nucleic acid test (NAT) campaign next week, Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long announced at the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre's daily press conference this afternoon.
According to Lo, next week's campaign will comprise four NAT rounds starting on Sunday (July 10). The four rounds - the sevens to 10th since the government launched the citywide campaign shortly after the first case in the current COVID-19 outbreak was detected on June 18 – will require all people in Macau aged at least three to undergo a nucleic acid test at a station station every other day through July 17. They will also be required to self-test once a day and to send the results to an app set up by the Health Bureau.
Lo said the objective of the new NAT rounds is to reach "zero cases in the community".
The local government follows the central government's dynamic zero-COVID policy which aims to save lives and prevent serious cases.
Lo said that testees will be given free KN95 facemasks and rapid antigen test kits (self-test kits) during next week's testing drive.
Testing statistics released this morning show that the day-on-day growth in newly detected cases is going down.
Macau detected its first COVID-19 case back in January 2020. Macau's novel coronavirus tally since then has grown to 550 confirmed and 980 asymptomatic cases, according to data available on the Health Bureau's website this afternoon. The current outbreak has resulted in two fatalities – two women, aged 100 and 94 respectively, who lived in the same nursing home.
