Residents who have had two jabs of the government’s COVID-19 vaccine will have the records displayed on their Macau Health Code starting tomorrow, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre has announced.
A statement by the centre on Friday said that the Health Bureau (SSM) will update the Macau Health Code system at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, according to which the new version of the Macau Health Code will be displayed on the users’ smartphones when they have their health code generated on their devices.
According to the statement, the new version of the Macau Health Code will have four new configurations.
Macau’s two types of COVID-19 vaccines, China’s Sinophram inactivated and Germany’s BioNTech mRNA vaccines, require two jabs for people to develop immunity.
In the first new configuration, the Macau Health Code of residents who have had two jabs of the Health Bureau’s COVID-19 vaccine will display a link indicating that they have had the two shots. By clicking the link, the health code will display the details of the residents’ COVID-19 vaccination records, the statement said.
The government’s COVID-19 vaccination drive started on February 9 with Sinopharm jabs covering those in priority groups such as those working on the frontline against COVID-19 and those working in occupations that are subject to a high COVID-19 risk. Inoculations for all local residents started on February 22.
The government’s inoculations with BioNTech vaccines started on Wednesday last week.
In the second new configuration, the Macau Health Code’s three colours, namely red, yellow and green, will be deeper to present a more “vivid” QR code, because of which the sensitivity of the scanner will be improved when scanning the code, the statement said, adding that therefore residents’ experience of using the health code will be improved when crossing the border.
In the third new configuration, the Macau Health Code system will require users who have added an “inaccurate” home address to their code to fill in an “accurate” one.
An accurate address required by the government for residents to add to their Macau Health Code is not a full address, which means that it only indicates the building where the users live, without detailing the floor or flat.
For the third new configuration, Friday’s statement said that for example, a number of residents have only filled in the names of their respective residential estates, which each comprise a number of towers – the names of which are required.
The Macau Health Code’s address function enables the local government to prepare for the possible implementation of its community-based COVID-19 prevention and control measures – in case the city confirms new local COVID-19 cases – officially known as accurate COVID-19 prevention and control measures divided by areas and levels. The local government has said that the address function would enable its health authorities to quickly identify whether a particular Macau Health Code user lives in a COVID-19 affected area.
Friday’s statement said that in the fourth new configuration, the Macau Health Code system will add a new function which will enable the possible implementation of the local government’s community-based COVID-19 prevention and control measures, according to which the Macau Health Code colour of those who live in a COVID-19 affected area will indicate red or yellow – depending in the severity of the respective areas’ COVID-19 epidemic situations.
The statement said that in case the government activates its community-based COVID-19 prevention and control measures, residents living in a COVID-19 affected area will be prevented from changing their home address.
