People told The Macau Post Daily that they are worried about Macau’s latest COVID-19 cases, and some of them expressed concern over the possibility of having a local outbreak of the highly infectious disease.
A 25-year-old local resident surnamed Chan said that over the National Day weekend she was planning to visit the mainland for leisure. However, she added, as soon as she learnt of the new cases, she started to panic. Even though yesterday’s suspension of plans to cancel Zhuhai’s 14-day mandatory quarantine for arrivals from Macau didn’t affect her “severely”, yesterday’s cases made her worried about job security. She showed appreciation for the government’s “quick” novel coronavirus prevention and control measures but she said she hoped that the government could urge residents to undergo a few more rounds of the citywide mandatory nucleic acid testing (NAT) drive.
A 23-year-old local resident, Leong, said that she was “not too affected” by the situation, as she thought that when Zhuhai announced last week that it planned to relax its mandatory quarantine regulation for arrivals from Macau everything “would be alright”. She confessed that initially she thought after the aviation show in Zhuhai was over, everything would “go back to normal” but with yesterday’s new COVID-19 cases, she said she believed that there will be “even more cases”.
Zhuhai’s Airshow China 2021 ended on Sunday.
People are sleeping outside the Barrier Gate checkpoint last night after yesterday morning’s shock announcement of the suspension of lifting Zhuhai’s mandatory quarantine for Macau arrivals. Photo: Maria Cheang Ut Meng
After the new cases were reported last night, Leong said she started to get nervous as she was planning to get her student visa in Hong Kong, Shenzhen or Guangzhou. She underlined that she was worried about not getting her visa on time which would affect her further studies in the United Kingdom in January.
Leong said that she felt “neutral” about the government’s prevention and control measures against the novel coronavirus pandemic because locking down buildings and the mass NAT drives were “standard procedures”. However, Leong stressed she believed there will be more cases as Macau’s 72nd COVID-19 patient had been to many places and venues in the city. She complained that she often sees non-resident workers getting on buses without wearing their facemasks properly or not wearing facemasks at all in the streets, adding that such behaviour could easily lead to an outbreak in Macau.
A 23-year-old non-resident-worker surnamed Rong said that she had been looking forward to the lifting of the mandatory quarantine between Macau and Zhuhai but she was disappointed as she had expected to be able to go to Zhuhai quarantine-free for the National Day Golden Week. She pointed out that she had taken her suitcase to work on September 24 but was “severely upset” over the short notice about the mandatory quarantine regulation for Macau arrivals in Zhuhai even though she understood that it was necessary. She added that she was then ready to leave Macau yesterday but her plan had been axed the second time due to the latest COVID-19 situation in Macau. Her first disappointment came when Zhuhai’s quarantine rule was not lifted, as expected by many, for National Day.
When asked what Rong thought about the Macau government’s COVID-19 prevention and control measures, she said that she was not familiar with the procedures but she noticed that Macau residents were willing to wear facemasks. She also pointed out that the latest cases would have an “immense impact” on Macau both economic and socially.
Meanwhile, a local resident surnamed Wong, who is working in a seafood shop, lined up at the Patane wet market for the third round of NAT mass testing 30 minutes before it started at 9 p.m. and told The Macau Post Daily that he was “very afraid” about the new wave of COVID-19 cases. He said that he was there early because he wanted to get his result “sooner to feel safer”. He said he hoped that residents would go to get tested earlier so the government could “hunt down” the city’s “hidden” COVID-19 carriers.
Wong said that amidst COVID-19 it was “necessary” to comply with the government’s mass testing drive as this was the “century’s biggest virus”, adding that residents should cooperate with the government even though it might seem “annoying”.
