The number of people diagnosed in the current Macau pandemic outbreak has risen to 533, with a total of 27 people testing positive on Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) today. The Sheraton Hotel Earth Tower, which has a total of 2,000 rooms, will become an isolation facility for the infected.
A total of six staff members of the Health Bureau have been infected: a worker taking samples at an NAT station, two outsourced hospital cleaners, one nurse at a Public Health Clinic, one nurse at a hospital emergency department and one assistant.
The Director of the Health Bureau, Alvis Lo Iek Long, said, “After preliminary analysis, the six staff members of the Health Bureau were not infected within hospital premises, but during their day-to-day lives. There was no obvious outbreak of infection at the hospital.”
The Macau government has asked all Macau residents to administer RATs today (Wednesday) and tomorrow. A total of 652,000 people received Nucleic Acid Tests (NAT) in the last round of NAT testing on Monday and Tuesday, and from the results so far available, 44 of the “10 mixed-into-1” samples are positive.
Lo said that starting 1 July, the Health Bureau will arrange for Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM) practitioners to conduct telephone and video calls with patients who are in isolation hotels, asymptomatic and mildly positive by NAT testing, provided they are willing to receive TCM treatment.
“Depending on their physical condition, they will be given capsules of Lianhua Qingwen or Huo Xiang Zhengqi to relieve their symptoms and speed up the progress of their negative tests.”
The recommendation of Lianhua Qingwen is despite various authorities disputing the TCM treatment’s efficacy, including the Singapore government.
Approximately 25% of cases in Macau are showing symptoms, with the remaining 75% being asymptomatic. Only one case so far has been described as “serious” by the Macau Health Bureau, a 60-year old female who had a CT scan showing pneumonia in both lungs. According to information provided on Monday by the head of the Novel Coronavirus Response Coordination Center, Dr Leong Iek Hou, the woman’s condition was considered “stable” and she is receiving anti-viral medicines. She was triple-vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine.
The Health Bureau also said that no casinos are closed because of the epidemic.
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