The Macao SAR Government has announced a third round of mass testing for all people in Macau, to be conducted over 48 hours from 9pm Monday night, after the SAR confirmed its 72nd case of COVID-19 on Monday.
The new case is a 46-year-old man who lives in Zhuhai and works in Macau. He most recently arrived in Macau on 26 September and has remained in the SAR since, staying in three separate hotels – Sands Macao (26 and 27 September), Grand Emperor (28 and 29 September and from 1 October) and Victoria Hotel Macau (30 September). He received virus tests on 28 and 30 September and returned negative results.
However, on Monday morning the government announced that a pooled test of samples from 10 people had returned a positive result for COVID-19. The 10 were each rushed to hospital and tested individually, with the man returning a positive result and being announced as Macau’s 72nd case.
Given that this is the third round of mass testing since the start of August and the second in nine days, it begs the question: Is the Macau government going to test every single person physically present in Macau every time a case is announced?
While several other countries around the world are rolling out strategies to “live with the virus”, the Macau government seems determined to stick with a zero-COVID strategy, commensurate with the strategy adopted by mainland China.
Macau’s border with Zhuhai was effectively closed on Sunday 26 September after two security guards working at a designated quarantine hotel tested positive. The border was originally scheduled to reopen three days later on 29 September but the opening was postponed until 1 October, then until midday Monday before being cancelled again at the last minute.
School was also cancelled for all students less than an hour before classes were scheduled to begin, causing chaos for parents.
The government revealed during a 75-minute press conference on Monday afternoon that the latest case had also visited Oceanus during his stay, although both Oceanus and Sands Macao have been allowed to remain open for now pending further contact tracing. Grand Emperor and Victoria Hotel are currently closed due to being located in “red zones”.
