Addressing yesterday’s press conference about Macau’s novel coronavirus situation, Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) Deputy Director Kong Chi Meng announced that classes in schools and kindergartens will resume on Monday, when higher education institutions can also resume in-class teaching, provided that Macau’s COVID-19 situation remains stable.
Classes in non-tertiary (recurrent, special, pre-primary, primary and secondary) education institutions and in-class teaching at higher education institutions have been suspended in the wake of the detection of a COVID-19 Delta variant cluster involving two medical observation quarantine hotels late last month.
Kong said yesterday that his bureau has decided the date of resuming in-class lessons after listening to opinions from the Health Bureau (SSM) and taking into account the ongoing tasks carried out by the schools in preparation for class resumption.
Kong underlined that schools and higher education institutions must strictly comply with the government’s COVID-19 prevention and control guidelines, and deep-clean and disinfect the campus before the resumption of classes.
According to Kong, private tutorial centres and continuing education institutions can also resume operations on Monday.
Initially after the resumption of classes on Monday, Kong said that schools should first put special emphasis on helping students adapt to campus study life again and on consolidating what they have been taught.
Kong also said that schools should adjust their assessment, learning and teaching arrangements for their students in line with the real situation, such as by rescheduling and reducing the number of tests and examinations.
Unjabbed school staff, university staff & students to be tested for COVID-19 every week
Meanwhile, a DSEDJ statement yesterday reaffirmed that higher education students, teachers and all other staff members, as well as non-tertiary education teachers and all other staff members, who have not been inoculated against the novel coronavirus will be required be tested for COVID-19 every seven days from Monday next week.
The Education and Youth Development Bureau has rolled out the new jab-or-test measure after referencing new guidelines published by the Health Bureau on September 13 on COVID-19 vaccinations and nucleic acid testing (NAT) for “all staff members” in the city.
According to the new guidelines published by the Health Bureau on September 13, almost the entire working population in the city, regardless of whether working in the public or the private sectors, will have to be tested for COVID-19 once every week, or even more frequently, if they have not been inoculated against the novel coronavirus.
All the respective public or private entities will have to draw up their own specific rules that enable them to implement the new jab-or-test measure that is required by the “principled” guidelines published by the Health Bureau on September 13.
According to the new jab-or-test measure for the education sector, which will start on Monday, higher education students, teachers and all other staff members, as well as non-tertiary education teachers and all other staff members, must either display a vaccination record confirming that they have received at least one COVID-19 jab, or present an NAT certificate confirming a negative COVID-19 result valid for seven days, yesterday’s statement pointed out.
Yesterday’s statement also said that the jab-or-test measure will also apply to all staff members of private tutorial centres and continuing education institutions from Monday next week.
The new vaccination-or-test measure will also start for all those working in social service facilities on Monday next week, according to a statement by the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) statement last week.
The new jab-or-test measure had already started for public servants on Monday last week.
Yesterday’s statement also said that over 22,000 non-tertiary education students, teachers and all other staff members have received at least one COVID-19 jab. In the non-tertiary education sector, the COVID-19 vaccination rate among all staff members has reached nearly 80 percent, while the inoculation rate among students aged 12 or over has reached 40 percent, the statement said.
According to the statement, over 33,000 higher education students, teachers and all other staff members have received at least one COVID-19 jab. In the higher education sector, the vaccination rate among all staff members has also reached almost 80 percent, while the inoculation rate among students has reached over 60 percent, the statement said.
Two types of COVID-19 vaccines are currently available in Macau, China’s Sinopharm inactivated vaccine and Germany’s BioNTech mRNA vaccine. Both Sinopharm jabs and BioNTech shots are administered to those aged 12 or over in Macau. The Health Bureau lowered the minimum age for the administration of Sinopharm vaccine from 18 to 12 from Monday this week.
Macau has not recorded a new local COVID-19 case for 12 consecutive days after the latest case was confirmed on October 9. Macau’s COVID-19 tally stands at 77, without any fatalities.
Vaccination rate reaches 64.2 pct
As of 4 p.m. yesterday, 769,665 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered to 437,869 people in Macau, comprising 102,766 who had received their first jab and 335,103 who had received their second jab.
Macau’s COVID-19 vaccination rate stood at 64.2 percent as of 4 p.m. yesterday, i.e., about 64 percent of the population had received at least one jab. According to the latest demographics, Macau’s population stood at 682,500 at the end of June.
A total of 26 adverse events were reported in the past 24 hours (until 4 p.m. yesterday). The total number of adverse events since the start of the vaccination drive stood at 3,229, or 0.42 percent of the total number of jabs, including eight serious cases.
Meanwhile, the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) announced yesterday that the Golden Crown China Hotel and the adjacent Treasure Hotel will not be used as COVID-19 medical observation quarantine hotels from now “for a period of time”. The two hotels in front of the local airport in Taipa, which are connected to each other, were involved in a six-member COVID-19 Delta variant cluster of security staff which started late last month.
Meanwhile, the Social Affairs Bureau said in a statement yesterday that all creches can also reopen on Monday.
Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) Deputy Director Kong Chi Meng addresses yesterday’s press conference about the city’s novel coronavirus situation. Photo: GCS
