The Macau government yesterday announced the continuation of mandatory COVID-19 rapid antigen tests (RATs), aka self-tests, for everyone in Macau for three more days from today, as it has concluded that the case of a 58-year-old local man who works in a fresh seafood shop in the Inner Harbour area, which was announced on Monday, has resulted in a relatively high risk of the novel coronavirus having spread in the community.
Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long made the announcement during yesterday evening’s press conference by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre where he also said that the government will likely launch another round of mandatory citywide nucleic acid tests (NATs). “The probability will not be low,” Lo said.
The current mass NAT campaign for everyone triggered by the 58-year-old man’s case ends at 11 a.m. today.
The government’s three-day self-testing drive that was triggered by Sunday’s COVID-19 detection of a 43-year-old casino croupier and her two sons ended yesterday.
Lo said yesterday that while both the COVID-19 cluster detected on Wednesday last week and the cluster detected on Sunday have only resulted in a low risk of the occurrence of COVID-19 community transmissions, the Macau government was now putting special emphasis on tackling the 58-year-old man’s case, as the source of his infection has still not been identified and he had visited a large number of venues before he was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Monday.
Macau’s current COVID-19 situation began on Tuesday last week when a 66-year-old local woman tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Zhuhai, whose infection was confirmed by the Macau Health Bureau the following day. Her two family members, namely her son and younger sister, as well as a 57-year-old local man living in the same building in Fai Chi Kei, were also diagnosed with COVID-19 later last week.
In addition, a 43-year-old local woman, who works as a croupier at the MGM COTAI casino-hotel resort, as well as her two 13-year-old sons, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. In addition, a 34-year-old local woman living in the same building in Iao Hon district was also diagnosed with COVID-19 later the same day.
According to the Health Bureau’s announcement on Sunday, the 66-year-old woman and the 43-year-old woman visited an express courier outlet in the underground shopping centre next to the Gongbei checkpoint in Zhuhai on Tuesday last week at the same time.
Furthermore, two more cases related to the 66-year-old woman were diagnosed earlier this week, namely the wife and a son of the 57-year-old man living in the same building in Fai Chi Kei.
Consequently, as of last night 10 cases had been reported from the two COVID-19 clusters.
The 58-year-old local man, whose case was announced on Monday, works in Macau and lives in Zhuhai. He underwent a COVID-19 nucleic acid test in Zhuhai on Sunday night, and his test came up positive on Monday morning. He works in a fresh seafood shop near Praça de Ponte e Horta in the Inner Harbour area. He is normally tasked with delivering seafood to restaurants.
The Macau Health Bureau said on Monday that the two cities’ health authorities had still been unable to identify whether the 58-year-old man’s case was connected to the recent COVID-19 cases detected in Zhuhai or Macau.
Seafood shop deliveryman’s case ‘highest’ risk
During yesterday’s press conference, Lo pointed out that the cluster detected on Wednesday last week and the cluster detected on Sunday were clearly connected as a person of each of the two clusters, i.e., the 66-year-old woman and the 43-year-old woman, visited the same place in the Gongbei underground shopping centre at the same time on Tuesday last week.
Lo noted that the buildings where the two women live, as well as the MGM COTAI casino-hotel complex, were quickly locked down after the detection of their respective COVID-19 infections, and those affected by them were quickly transferred to quarantine or required to undergo special COVID-19 measures. In addition, Lo said, all other cases in the two clusters involving four families were detected when they were already in quarantine.
Consequently, Lo said, the Health Bureau has concluded that the two clusters have only resulted in a low COVID-19 community transmission risk.
In contrast, Lo said that for the time being the case of the 58-year-old man who works for the fresh seafood shop entails the “highest” risk to the community.
Lo said that the Health Bureau’s viral genome sequencing has indicated that the man’s COVID-19 infection “came from the same source” as the cases of the two clusters. However, he said, the Health Bureau has still been unable to identify any epidemiological connection between the man’s infection and the two clusters.
Consequently, Lo said, citywide nucleic acid tests and rapid antigen tests for everyone are both “important” for Macau’s ongoing fight against the viral menace.
Extensive travel, poor facemask-wearing
In addition, Lo said, the 58-year-old man had had an “extensive” travel history across the city before he was diagnosed with COVID-19. Even worse, the man “very often” failed to wear a facemask properly when out and about, according to Lo.
Therefore, Lo said, the Health Bureau is still intensively carrying out its epidemiological investigations with the aim of identifying all others affected by the man’s COVID-19 infection and imposing special COVID-19 measures on them as soon as possible.
Including the 58-year-old man’s case, as of last night 11 cases had been reported amid Macau’s current COVID-19 situation that began on Tuesday last week.
Omicron BA.5.1
Lo also said that viral genome sequencing has indicated that all COVID-19 carriers detected in the current COVID-19 situation were infected with the Omicron BA.5.1 subvariant. However, Lo said, the Health Bureau has confirmed that their cases were not related to recent imported cases detected in hotel quarantine among arrivals from Hong Kong, Taiwan or foreign countries, and neither were they related to Macau’s previous COVID-19 outbreak that began on June 18 and started to subside in late July, commonly known in Chinese as 618 outbreak.
Self-test reminder
Those who have self-tested for COVID-19 with an RAT kit must upload their results to the Health Bureau’s RAT online declaration system at https://app.ssm.gov.mo/generalrat.
As previously, during the new round of three-day self-tests beginning today, those failing to report a negative RAT result on the system will have their Macau Health Code turn yellow from 00:00 a.m. the next day. They will only have their health code return to green after reporting the result of the respective test on the system. If they continue to fail to report a negative result the next day, they will only have their health code return to green after undergoing a paid nucleic acid test.
Lo said during yesterday’s press conference that the 58-year-old man, who tested negative for COVID-19 on Friday, caused a possible transmission risk to the community on Saturday and Sunday before his infection was diagnosed on Monday. Lo said that the Health Bureau has concluded that some people in Macau might have been infected by the man, but they may not be detected by the ongoing citywide NAT drive due to their respective incubation period. Consequently, Lo said, the probability of having another round of mandatory mass nucleic acid tests “is not low”.
Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long addresses yesterday’s press conference about the city’s current COVID-19 situation. – Photo: GCS
