Some 1,300 Macau Pass cards belonging to holders believed to have shared bus rides with the confirmed Covid-19 cases have had their payment function temporarily suspended, health authorities revealed.
The measure is limited to anonymous cards of passengers who are likely to have ridden the same buses with the confirmed cases, with other anonymous cards not included, with the measure in force since 6:00 am of October 7.
Health authorities will verify that the people in question really do have a common path with the patients and then they will confirm the real situation of each person, provide the corresponding quarantine measures and organize nucleic acid testing for those at risk of infection, sending them to undergo medical observation as necessary.
Authorities believe that having a real name Macau Pass system has the benefit of making citizens aware of the risks they face and can take effective preventive and control measures right away, such as separating from their families in time and paying attention to their own health conditions.
Health authorities stated previously that a transmission link has been established between the recent string of cases that led to the city’s third mass testing action and the cases reported before the October 1 National Day.
After an investigation was carried out, health authorities discovered that the 66th case – a Nepalese security guard – shared the same bus on September 24 for about 14 minutes with the 74th patient, a Vietnamese renovations worker.
If cardholders find that the payment function of their Macau Pass card has been deactivated, they are urged to immediately visit the website of the Macau Pass inquiry system (https://bit.ly/covidBus) to check whether they have shared a common bus trip with the recently confirmed cases.
If relevant records are found, the cardholder should report to the “Reporting and Assistance System for COVID-19 Prevention and Control” (https://www.ssm.gov.mo/covidq), send a text message to 63337492, or email [email protected] by providing their personal information, the date of bus ride, the bus number, boarding time and names of stations, so that the authorities can make timely arrangements to follow-up.
When the epidemiological investigation is completed, the Health Bureau will notify the Macau Pass company to reactivate the payment function of the Macau Pass card.
