Gaming operators authorised to carry out their own nucleic acid tests

Gaming operators have been approved to install their own nucleic acid testing places in casinos, health authorities have indicated.

According to Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre Centre Coordinator Dr. Leong Iek Hou, all six gaming concessionaires requested permission to have their own testing centres, with eight testing stations installed.

Currently a negative Covid-19 test is required to enter the SAR and to enter local gaming areas, with gaming operators stating clients would be able to be tested in these centres.

Tests are carried out by China Certification & Inspection Group Macau Co. Ltd, the same Chinese state-owned group that is currently handling tests for government run testing stations, with the results also transferred to the local Health Code system

‘As the supervisory body, the Macau SAR Government inspects and appreciates the sampling methods, the testing procedures, the locations and method of collecting the samples at the stations installed in the casinos, as well as verifying that the test reports correspond to the technical and above all it ensures that they are reliable,’ Dr. Leong said in yesterday’s pandemic update press conference.

Since October 2 an average of 7,000 tests, in five local testing areas, with the total local testing capacity at 29,000 people per day.

On September 26, Health Services increased the daily testing quota to around 13,000 people at the Forum Macau and Pac On terminal for 3,000 per day since September 29 at the Kiang Wu Hospital and Macau University Science Technology Hospital.

A total of total of 77,092 visitors crossed the city’s border checkpoints between the 1st and the 4th of October, accounting for an 87.4 per cent year-on-year plunge, figures released by the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) show