Medical workers from the mainland arrive in Macau on July 3, 2022 to assist the Macau Special Administrative Region government in carrying out mass Covid-19 testing. - Xinhua
HONG KONG (Agencies/China Daily): Macau kicked off a new round of city-wide Covid-19 testing on Monday (July 4) for its more than 600,000 residents, as officials raced to contain a spiralling number of cases in the worst outbreak to hit the world's biggest gambling hub since the pandemic began.
Coronavirus testing for all residents will take place three times this week across the city, with people also required to take rapid antigen tests in-between.
Total 650 medical workers from the mainland have arrived in the special administrative region to assist the government in carrying out mass testing, according to the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center of Macau.
The move comes as Macau reported first Covid-19-related deaths since the start of the pandemic. Two women aged 94 and 100 died after testing positive for Covid-19. Both of them had had chronic diseases, the centre reported on Sunday.
The Macau health authorities registered 90 new cases on Saturday, of which 43 were asymptomatic.
As of Saturday, 784 people had tested positive in the latest outbreak in the Macau SAR since June 19, with 467 of them being asymptomatic, the center said.
While Macau has not introduced a full-scale lockdown seen in the Chinese mainland cities like Shanghai, all non-essential government services are shut, schools, parks, sports and entertainment facilities are closed and restaurants can only provide takeaway.
Casinos are allowed to remain open but most staff have been asked to stay home, in line with instructions to the city's residents.
The government said it would not shut casinos to protect jobs.
The stringent measures come after Macau has been largely Covid-free since an outbreak in October 2021.
Macau adheres to China's "zero-Covid" policy which aims to eradicate all outbreaks. Its cases are still far below daily infections in other places.
