Macau begins 11th round of mass testing in worst COVID outbreak

Despite a steady fall in infections that saw just 27 new cases reported on Sunday, authorities said the city’s more than 600,000 residents must stay home, with all non-essential businesses shut, until Friday.

Reuters

July 18, 2022 / 08:27 IST

(Representative image: AP)

Macau kicked off an 11th round of COVID-19 testing for residents on Monday, as the world’s biggest casino hub extended a lockdown of casinos and other businesses in the fight on its worst outbreak since the pandemic began.

Despite a steady fall in infections that saw just 27 new cases reported on Sunday, authorities said the city’s more than 600,000 residents must stay home, with all non-essential businesses shut, until Friday.

Although more than 90% of residents are fully vaccinated against COVID, this is the first time Macau has had to grapple with the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

The Chinese special administrative region, which went into lockdown on July 11, has a tally of more than 1,700 infections since the middle of June, after having been largely COVID-free following an outbreak in October 2021.

The former Portuguese colony has only one public hospital and its medical system was already stretched before the outbreak.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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