The Health Bureau (SSM) has changed the display of the Macau Health Code so that it “quickly” indicates whether its holder has received his or her third COVID-19 booster jab.
The Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced the new measure, which took effect at 00:00 today, in a statement last night.
Before today, the Macau Health Code of those who had received two COVID-19 jabs at least 14 days prior was surrounded by a gold-coloured square frame – a clear and quick way for the employees of premises and venues to confirm whether the health code holder seeking admission had been fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, while those who had only received their first COVID-19 jab had no colour frame surrounding their health code on their smartphone – in which case the health code holder had to press a button to show the staff member their detailed vaccination record.
Before today, those who had received a COVID-19 booster jab did not have the colour of the square frame surrounding their Macau Health Code change – i.e., it remained gold-coloured.
From today, according to last night’s statement, all those who have been inoculated against COVID-19 will have their Macau Health Code surrounded by a square frame with one of three different colours in order to indicate three kinds of vaccination conditions.
Gold for 2 jabs
Those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, i.e., those who have received two jabs at least 14 days prior, will continue to have their Macau Health Code surrounded by a gold-coloured square frame.
Silver for 1 jab
According to last night’s statement, from today those who have only received their first COVID-19 jab will have their Macau Health Code surrounded by a silver-coloured square frame.
Purple for 3 jabs
From today, the statement said, those who have received their third COVID-19 jab will have their heath code surrounded by a purple-coloured square frame.
Last night’s statement said that before today, the Macau Health Code did not have an “obvious” way to display how many COVID-19 jabs the health code holder had received.
The statement also said that the government will not rule out the possibility of requiring those entering certain premises and venues to have received a certain number of COVID-19 jabs (one, two or three), because of which, the statement said, there was a need for the Macau Health Code to display the holder’s vaccination record “in a clearer way” so as to ensure that staff members of the respective facilities can check each person’s vaccination record more effectively.
The statement said that the three colours, silver, gold and purple, mean that a Macau Health Code holder will have the colour of the square frame become darker as they receive more COVID-19 jabs, with the aim of indicating a stronger level of immunity against the novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile, as of last night, the adjacent city of Zhuhai had reported a total of 27 COVID-19 positive cases, including three asymptomatic cases, during its current Omicron wave, which started last week.
This picture released last night shows the Macau Health Code’s square frame in three colours indicating three kinds of COVID-19 vaccination conditions. Photo: Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre
