The Macau government announced yesterday that it will discontinue its COVID-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) kit purchase scheme tomorrow, as residents’ demand for the products has constantly been decreasing.
Yesterday’s announcement, which was made by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre in a statement, means that today is the last day when eligible individuals can still buy COVID-19 RAT kits through the programme.
The Macau government rolled out the programme in early December last year, enabling local residents, non-resident workers, and non-local students enrolled in Macau’s higher education institutions to buy RAT kits used for COVID-19 self-tests from designated outlets at a discounted price.
Each round of the programme ran for 14 days, during which each individual in the three groups was entitled to buy a total of 10 RAT kits at the fixed price of 40 patacas at designated outlets, i.e., four patacas per kit.
The programme was rolled out shortly before the local government discontinued its long-running dynamic zero-COVID approach in early December last year. Since its launch, the programme has run for a total of 19 rounds. Today is the last day of the scheme’s 19th round, which started on August 4.
Yesterday’s statement noted that since early this year when the local government started to tackle COVID-19 as an endemic disease, residents’ demand for COVID-19 RAT kits has constantly been dropping. In each of the latest two rounds of the government’s RAT kit purchase scheme, the statement said, fewer than 200 individuals bought RAT kits through the programme.
The government’s latest remarks about the programme’s possible continuation or termination were made in the middle of June, when Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long told reporters that the government was to continue with its RAT kit purchase scheme at that time because some residents were still purchasing the products through the programme.
Yesterday’s statement said that considering that many different brands of COVID-19 RAT kits are currently available in the market, the government has concluded that the market’s supply of the products can meet residents’ demand for them.
Consequently, in the statement, the government has decided to discontinue its COVID-19 RAT kit purchase scheme tomorrow, after the current and 19th round’s last day today.
Facemask purchase scheme still running
However, for the time being the government is still continuing with its facemask purchase scheme, which was rolled out in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect the city.
Each round of the facemask purchase scheme runs for 30 days, during which each local resident, non-resident worker and non-local student enrolled in local higher education institutions is entitled to buy a total of 30 facemasks at the fixed price of 24 patacas at designated outlets.
The current and 57th round of the facemask purchase scheme, which started on Tuesday, is running until September 13.
This undated photo taken from the Hong Kong government’s COVID-19 special website yesterday shows a box of five COVID-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) kits.
