A 42-year-old Vietnamese woman tested positive to COVID-19 in Macao on Tuesday, raising the number of infections in the renovation worker cluster to four.
The Macao Special Administrative Region launched a citywide COVID-19 testing on Monday night – its third in the past three months – after the first case in the cluster was reported.
The Macao Special Administrative Region launched a citywide COVID-19 testing on Monday night – its third in the past three months – after the first case in the renovation worker cluster was reported
The first case involved a 46-year-old renovation worker from the neighboring city of Zhuhai, who was screened as part of a “pooling sample” on Sunday night. Three of his colleagues, one mainland resident and two Vietnamese, later tested positive for the virus.
The Macao SAR government on Tuesday suspended work for all all employees in the public administrative departments from October 5 to October 7. Primary and secondary schools will remain closed, while visitors are banned from care homes.
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The outbreak has prompted Macao and Zhuhai to cancel a proposed exemption of the 14-day compulsory quarantine for cross-border visitors if they have a vaccination certificate and a negative nucleic acid test for COVID-19 carried out in the previous 48 hours.
Macao health authorities have yet to confirm the source of thye new virus cluster. The city's new round of mass testing will be crucial in determining if there are any “hidden” transmission links in the community, Health Bureau director Alvis Lo Iek Long said in a press briefing on Monday.
As of 9 am on Tuesday, a total of 144,565 samples have been taken. The test results for 77,317 specimens were all negative, according to Macao’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre.
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