All three patients put under isolated treatment in the Government
Hospital of Macao have received optimistic test results, which
showed negative of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS),
announced a senior health official with the Macao Special
Administrative Region (SAR) government Friday afternoon.
The SARS test result given by the Hong Kong Medical Department to a
52-year-old Macao resident, the third suspected patient in Macao,
arrived here Friday. So far, all three suspected patients in Macao
have passed PCR tests, which did not find coronavirus in their
respiratory secretion samples, said Lei Chin Ion, deputy director
of the Health Service.
Earlier this week, the first suspected patient, a 38-year-old
saleslady, have got her samples tested twice. Both of the results
showed negative of SARS. The sample test of a Dutch student was
equally optimistic.
"However, the patients will continue to be kept in isolation care,
and those who had contacts with them will need to be separated for
a few more days," said Lei.
He
said that since there is a possibility of error tests, doctors with
the hospital will ask for two or three sample tests for each
patient. "A final conclusion can only be made by combining the test
results with clinical observation," Lei said.
On
Wednesday, the Health Bureau in Zhuhai City, south China's
Guangdong province, which is adjacent to Macao across the border
checkpoint of Gongbei, notified its counterpart in Macao about the
first confirmed SARS case it has found.
Macao has stepped up border quarantines by installing 30 new
portable infrared thermometers at the SAR's four checkpoints
Friday, which further facilitated the measuring of visitors' body
temperatures upon their entry.
(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2003)
