With the current tally of positive cases rising from 31 to 36 in Macau, the government is on alert and will continue the mass testing drive until 12 p.m. today. While two of the new cases were detected by the current mandatory testing drive, the rest involve two clusters.
While the authorities have not been able to trace the source of these new infections, it has provisionally narrowed down on a likely connection between two clusters.
Health Bureau (SSM) Director, Alvis Lo Lek Long, said that the bureauâs investigations tentatively concluded that the cases are âconnected in a wayâ.
According to the Bureau officials the first cluster of 23 people included 13 non-resident workers (NRWs) living in an apartment, their colleagues and neighbors and patrons of a restaurant located near Government Headquarters.
The second cluster involves 13 people, consisting of a prison staff member and family, their neighbors, relatives and colleagues.
In the wake of these new cluster transmissions, several residential buildings across Macau have been classified as yellow code zones or red code zones(lockdown). Residents of red code zone buildings are not allowed to leave their homes except when they need to step out for essential services or buy food and water from the counters the government has set up in their areas. Although yellow code zone residents are allowed to step out of their homes, they are not allowed entry into several public facilities or public transport. Likewise, passengers using public transport will now be asked to present a green Macau Health code.
The government will also be setting be setting up isolation facilities at the Macau East Asian Games Dome in Cotai if infected individuals need to be isolated. To add to this, the government has also arranged for a few hotels as isolation facilities.