Addressing yesterday’s press conference about Macau’s novel coronavirus situation, Wong Ka Ki, who heads the Non-Tertiary Education Department of the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ), announced that Macau-Zhuhai cross-border students stranded in Macau aged below 14 are now allowed to undergo their 14-day quarantine at their home in Zhuhai after returning from Macau, instead of undergoing mandatory hotel quarantine there, which was imposed by the Zhuhai government late last month for arrivals from Macau.
According to Wong, around 500 cross-border students are eligible for the new measure, according to which the Macau authorities will arrange for those who want to return to their homes in Zhuhai to cross the Macau-Zhuhai border today and tomorrow.
According to Wong, the cross-border students can be accompanied by one person to their homes in Zhuhai today or tomorrow. All of them must present a nucleic acid test (NAT) certificate confirming a negative COVID-19 result valid for 24 hours when crossing the Macau-Zhuhai border.
The cross-border students are required to undergo their COVID-19 tests at the Macau Forum NAT station in Zape or the Taipa Ferry Terminal NAT station in Pac On. The test is free of charge for the cross-border students, while the person accompanying a student has to pay for the test, which costs 70 patacas.
Hundreds of Macau-Zhuhai cross-border students, i.e., local students living in Zhuhai, have been stranded in Macau since the Zhuhai government suspended a plan to lift its 14-day hotel quarantine requirement for arrivals from Macau, which was originally scheduled to begin on Monday last week. The suspension on October 4 of the lifting of the hotel quarantine requirement came after the confirmation of a COVID-19 renovation worker cluster earlier that day – which comprised six novel coronavirus patients as of last night. After the confirmation of the first patient of the renovation worker cluster on Monday morning last week, the Macau government suspended its plan to resume classes in schools and in-class teaching at higher education institutions, which was initially scheduled to restart that day.
With the assistance of police officers in protective gear, residents living in San Mei On Building Phase 1 in Estrada Marginal do Hipódromo (馬場海邊馬路) get on a bus arranged by the government yesterday morning during an operation to transfer them to the Treasure Hotel in Taipa. Photos: GCS
Wong Ka Ki, who heads the Education and Youth Development Bureau’s (DSEDJ) Non-Tertiary Education Department, addresses yesterday’s press conference about the city’s novel coronavirus (COVID-19) situation.
According to official statistics, around 1,000 cross-border students had returned to Macau with the purpose of attending their classes after the Macau government announced on October 1 the resumption of school classes on October 4, and the Zhuhai government announced on October 3 the commencement on October 4 of the lifting of the hotel quarantine requirement for Macau arrivals. As the quarantine lifting was abruptly suspended, the cross-border students who had returned to Macau have been stranded in the city since then.
In response, the Macau government has offered free temporary accommodation in Macau for the affected cross-border students, such as youth hostels run by the Education and Youth Development Bureau and accommodation facilities on the University of Macau (UM) campus. According to official statistics, over half of the around 1,000 affected cross-border students have chosen to stay in the government-provided accommodation facilities, while others have opted to stay in their relatives or friends’ homes in Macau.
The Zhuhai government imposed the 14-day hotel quarantine for arrivals from Macau on September 26 after the confirmation of the first two patients of the six-member COVID-19 cluster of quarantine hotel security staff the day before.
During yesterday evening’s press conference, Wong said that the Zhuhai authorities notified their Macau counterparts of the new measure earlier yesterday. Wong said that according to the Zhuhai authorities’ decision, Macau-Zhuhai cross-border students aged below 14 are eligible for the new measure if the conditions of their homes in Zhuhai are officially regarded as meeting the neighbouring city’s COVID-19 prevention and control requirements.
According to the new measure, the Education and Youth Development Bureau will arrange for those living in the Macau government-provided accommodation facilities to go to the Pac On NAT station collectively to undergo their COVID-19 tests, after which the bureau will transport them to the Zhuhai-Macau checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB).
Those not staying in the Macau government-provided accommodation facilities need to go to the NAT stations for their tests, after which they are required to go to their respective schools, which will then transport them to the HZMB Zhuhai-Macau checkpoint.
After entering Zhuhai through the HZMB Zhuhai-Macau checkpoint, according to the new measure, the cross-border students and the people accompanying them will be transported to one of the quarantine hotels in the neighbouring city first, where they will have to undergo a follow-up COVID-19 nucleic acid test and wait for the results. If their tests come back negative, they will then be transported to their homes in Zhuhai for their 14-day home quarantine.
2 more cases for renovation worker cluster, COVID-19 tally reaches 77
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 renovation worker cluster has increased by two more patients after Macau confirmed its 76th and 77th novel coronavirus cases on Saturday, which raised the number of cases of the cluster from four to six. According to the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre, both cases are connected to the 75th case, one of the patients of the renovation worker cluster.
According to the centre, the 76th patient is a 53-year-old male non-resident renovation worker from the mainland who normally lives in the same flat as the 75th patient. He underwent a COVID-19 test last month which came up with a negative result on September 27. After having been classified by the centre as a “close contact” of the 75th patient, he started to undergo medical observation at a Health Bureau quarantine facility on Monday last week. He tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week during his quarantine, but tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Friday last week.
According to the centre, the man was inoculated against COVID-19 in Macau with China’s Sinopharm vaccine on May 31.
According to the centre, the 77th patient is a 49-year-old female non-resident domestic helper from Vietnam who is a friend of the 75th patient. She underwent a COVID-19 test last month which was negative on September 25. After having been classified by the centre as a “close contact” of the 75th patient, she started to undergo medical observation quarantine on Tuesday last week. She tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week during her quarantine, but tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Friday last week.
According to the centre, the woman was vaccinated twice against COVID-19 in Macau with the Sinopharm vaccine on July 1 and 30.
According to the centre, the 76th patient came down with a fever, while the 77th patient is asymptomatic. Both patients are undergoing isolation treatment at the Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane.
The 75th case, a 42-year-old woman from Vietnam, was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease on Tuesday last week.
Both the security staff cluster involving two medical observation quarantine hotels and the renovation worker cluster have been classified as “connected to an imported case” – a local resident from Turkey who was diagnosed with COVID-19 on September 24. He was confirmed as Macau’s 64th COVID-19 case.
Macau’s total of 77 COVID-19 cases now comprises 60 imported cases and 17 cases “connected to imported ones”.
Residents in ‘poor hygiene’ lock-downed building transferred to quarantine hotel
Meanwhile, the government yesterday transferred 821 residents from 268 households living in Phase 1 of San Mei On Building (新美安大廈) in Iao Hon district to the Treasure Hotel in Taipa, one of the government’s quarantine hotels, for them to continue their medical observation quarantine. The government imposed a lockdown on Phase 1 of San Mei On Building on Tuesday last week after the confirmation of the 75th patient, who normally lives there, earlier that day.
Those living in lockdown areas (red code zones) are barred from leaving their homes during the lockdown period, which normally lasts 14 days.
The centre announced on Saturday that it had decided to transfer those living in San Mei On Building Phase 1 to one of the government-designated quarantine hotels due to the building’s “poor hygiene” environment and high density of residents, which was adversely affecting officials’ work to carry out COVID-19 measures there and various measures to support the residents locked-down there.
The government started to transfer residents from San Mei On Building Phase 1 yesterday morning, when the city was being hit by torrential rain. The government completed transferring all residents from there to the Treasure Hotel last night.
The government has underlined that its operation to transfer residents from the old building would not pose a COVID-19 risk to the community.
Mandatory COVID-19 tests for target groups incl Nepali & Vietnamese
Meanwhile, the government has launched mandatory “high-frequency” nucleic acid testing (NAT) for “high-risk” target groups comprising non-resident workers from Nepal and Vietnam, and local and non-local renovation and laundry workers and security guards.
The new programme was announced during Saturday’s press conference by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre which was held despite the Typhoon Signal No. 8 at that time.
Officials said on Saturday that members of the five target groups would be notified by SMS, and their employers must ensure that their staff will go to get tested for COVID-19. They are slated to be tested four times, every other day. The tests are free of charge.
Macau’s most recent COVID-19 cases include a number of Nepali security guards and Vietnamese renovation workers.
Officials said during yesterday’s press conference that around 15,000 are expected to be covered by the programme.
According to the latest available statistics from the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), Macau had 10,675 Vietnamese and 3,476 Nepali non-resident workers at the end of August.
The officials said at Saturday’s press conference the aim of the targeted testing drive was to identify “hidden risks” among certain segments of the workforce.
