The decision to expand testing comes as the country has not recorded a single new case of COVID-19 for 18 days. Registered infections remain at 24, with 21 recoveries.

Spokesperson for CIGC Dr Sergio Lobo called on people suffering from respiratory issues or flu-like likes symptoms to visit the testing sites and get tested.

Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, dry cough and tiredness.

Some 515 people have been tested in the new program, Dr Lobo said, with 133 negatives and 382 results pending.

The outreach program comes less than a week after Timor-Leste’s National Health Laboratory (NHL) in Dili started reporting test results for COVID-19 independently for the first time, without the need for verification from a secondary site in Darwin, Australia.