Authorities have decided to stop active surveillance of older persons, due to individuals objecting to provide samples for Covid-19 testing.

While the Covid-19 Technical Advisory Group (TAG) had initially requested to collect samples from 10 percent (around 350 individuals) of the elderly from households, National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC)’s spokesperson on Monday announced that this was later changed to five percent (about 170 persons).

Samples were collected from 105 individuals and one had tested positive for the virus.

However, due to objections from individuals to provide samples, TAG has since decided to halt this work.

Noting that this work was conducted without a cause to determine if the virus has reached older persons in households given that they are at a significantly increased risk of severe disease if infected, Mabrook said that they have only halted active surveillance work but will be continuing to test them if identified as contacts of confirmed cases.

Older persons identified through contact tracing are to be tested as soon as possible, even if they do not have any Covid-19 like symptoms. These cases are to be given high priority.