Three rounds of mass nucleic acid testing (NAT) will be held this week between Monday (July 4) and Saturday (July 9), the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced.
The comes after the city reported on Sunday the first two fatal cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic started in early 2020 as two chronically ill elderly women passed away.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases from the current community outbreak increased to 784, after 90 new cases were detected on Saturday.
The three rounds come on top of the previous three NAT programmes held in the past two weeks. The mass testing rounds will be carried out according to the following schedule:
4th round:Monday 9am (July 4) to Tuesday 6pm (July 5)
5th round:Wednesday 9am (July 6) to Thursday 6pm (July 7)
6th round:Friday 9am (July 9) to Saturday 6pm (July 9)
Those aged 0-3 are exempted unless they are yellow code holders, the centre added.
All citizens are also required to carry out a rapid antigen test by themselves every single day of the coming six-day period – Monday to Saturday – and upload the result to the online platform. The press conference held by Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre included two policy secretaries: Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U and Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong.
Mr Lei announced details of the MOP10billion package of pandemic relief measures.
[to be updated]
