Macau will hold another round of mandatory citywide COVID-19 tests on Friday and Saturday, the Health Bureau (SSM) announced in a press conference this afternoon.
According to Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre official Leong Iek Hou, the mandatory nucleic acid tests (NATs) for all people in Macau, except babies under the age of one, will be carried out at 70 testing stations on Friday between 7:00 a.m. and 12:00 a.m. and on Saturday between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Leong said the citywide tests, the second citywide testing drive since the first case of the current COVID-19 outbreak was confirmed on Tuesday last week, were needed despite the fact that all the 720,000 test results in the first round held yesterday and today were negative.
The 11 cases diagnosed since last week are all connected to frequent Macau-Zhuhai border crossers and close contacts. As of this afternoon, the origin of infection one of the cases, the employee of a fresh seafood wholesale story tasked with deliveries to restaurants and retail shops, was still unclear.
In general, Macau follows the National Health Commission's (NHC) dynamic zero COVID policy.
Macau's first COVID-19 case was confirmed in January 2020.
As of tonight, Macau's COVID-19 tally of confirmed and asymptomatic cases stood at 795 and 1,779 respectively, of which 787 and 1,756 had meanwhile been cured, according to Health Bureau data. Macau's novel coronavirus death toll remained at six.
