Macau reported two COVID-19 cases late last week, and the two carriers had engaged in activities and travel in the community before they were diagnosed.
The first case, which was detected on Friday, is a tourist flying from Lanzhou who entered Macau from Zhuhai on Thursday, while the second case, which was detected on Saturday, is a public bus passenger who caught the same bus as a non-resident worker (NRW) whose COVID-19 infection was detected in Zhuhai on Monday last week.
Tourist from Lanzhou
The first case, a 33-year-old male tourist from the mainland, was announced in a statement by the Macau Health Bureau (SSM) on Friday afternoon. According to the statement, Zhuhai’s health authorities told their Macau counterparts on Friday morning that a batch of mixed nucleic acid test (NAT) samples collected from Zhuhai’s airport had tested positive for COVID-19, and that two of the testees were in Macau.
Consequently, the Macau Health Bureau contacted the two people to undergo a follow-up individual-sample nucleic acid test, after which the bureau confirmed that it was the 33-year-old tourist who tested positive for COVID-19.
According to the statement, the 33-year-old man flew from Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, to Zhuhai with a friend on Thursday. They had their swabs collected for a nucleic acid test upon arrival at Zhuhai’s airport, after which they entered Macau from Zhuhai via the Hengqin checkpoint that night. They caught a taxi and checked into StarWorld Hotel in Nape, after which they also visited the casino there.
The 33-year-old man and his friend, the statement said, caught a taxi in the early hours of Friday to an eatery located on the ground floor of a pier building in the Inner Harbour area for a meal.
The 33-year-old man was transferred to the Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane for isolation treatment after he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 on Friday morning, while his friend has meanwhile been transferred to quarantine for medical observation.
Friday’s statement said that the Health Bureau has classified the 33-year-old man’s case as imported.
Passenger on same bus as cleaner
The second case, a 48-year-old male mainlander, was announced in a statement by the Health Bureau on Saturday morning. He was transferred to quarantine for medical observation on Tuesday night last week after he had been identified as a passenger of a public bus in Macau that had been caught by a 52-year-old non-resident worker whose COVID-19 infection was detected in Zhuhai on Monday last week.
The 52-year-old man’s case was announced by the Macau Health Bureau on Tuesday last week. He works as a cleaner in Macau but lives in Zhuhai. He tested positive for COVID-19 in Zhuhai on Monday last week, after which Zhuhai’s health authorities informed their Macau counterparts of the case the next day.
The 52-year-old cleaner caught a public bus from Cotai to near the Barrier Gate checkpoint on Monday evening last week before returning to Zhuhai via the checkpoint. Saturday’s statement said that the 48-year-old man was transferred to quarantine on Tuesday night last week after he had been identified as having caught the same public bus as the 52-year-old man.
Saturday’s statement said that the 48-year-old man tested negative for COVID-19 in nucleic acid tests on Wednesday and Thursday, before testing positive on Friday. The statement also said that the man has come down with COVID-19 symptoms such as a fever and dizziness. He is now undergoing isolation treatment at the Public Health Clinical Centre.
