The government has rolled out stronger campaigns in a bid to continue raising Macau’s COVID-19 vaccination rates amongst children and senior citizens.
Various measures that aim to boost the inoculation rates of the two groups – which have so far had the lowest COVID-19 jab rates amongst different age groups in the city – were announced during yesterday’s regular press conference by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre.
From yesterday, family members and other relatives of unjabbed senior citizens living in retirement homes must present a nucleic acid test (NAT) certificate confirming a negative COVID-19 result valid for 48 hours, when visiting them, while family members and other relatives of the retirement homes’ senior citizens who have been inoculated against the novel coronavirus must present an NAT certificate confirming a negative result valid for seven days, or a vaccination record confirming that they have received at least two COVID-19 jabs.
The new measure for retirement homes that took effect yesterday was announced in a statement by the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) earlier this week.
The Social Welfare Bureau also said on Wednesday that it has asked over 200 private social service facilities in the city to phone senior citizens, to ask them whether they have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus and encourage unjabbed ones to get inoculated. Around 4,000 staff members and volunteers are now working for the campaign, which started on Wednesday.
During yesterday’s press conference, Choi Sio Un, who heads the Social Solidarity Department of the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS), said that around 240 social service facilities are participating in the campaign, adding that they had made a phone call or sent an SMS to around 50,000 senior citizens or their family members on the first day of the campaign, i.e., on Wednesday.
According to Choi, Macau has 24 retirement homes and other social service residential facilities for senior citizens. Choi said that around 41 percent of senior citizens living in them had received at least one COVID-19 jab as of yesterday, an increase of six percentage points from around 35 percent a week ago.
Choi said that an increase of six percentage points in one week was “encouraging”, but the 41-percent jab rate amongst those living in retirement homes and other social service residential facilities for senior citizens was still “not ideal”.
According to Choi, 14 out of the 24 retirement homes and other residential facilities for senior citizens are those that are privately run but whose operations are subsidised by the government. Choi said that around 1,000 senior citizens living in the 14 facilities have still not been vaccinated against COVID-19. Choi said that only eight of the around 1,000 unjabbed senior citizens have been confirmed by doctors as being unsuitable to be inoculated against the novel coronavirus, indicating that the vast majority of senior citizens living in social service facilities in the city are physically able to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Jab campaign for schoolchildren
As part of the local government’s ongoing campaign to boost the COVID-19 vaccination rate amongst schoolchildren, local schools started early last week asking the parents of their still unjabbed students every week to report whether their children have already been inoculated against COVID-19.
During yesterday’s press conference, Luís Gomes, acting chief of the Non-Tertiary Education Department of the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ), said that over 20,000 students aged between 3 and 11 have recently told their schools that they want to get vaccinated against COVID-19, adding that the government has already arranged for around 12,000 of them to receive their jabs as part of its collective COVID-19 vaccination programme, which is carried out in two ways, namely on-site inoculations on campuses or organising students to receive their jabs collectively at certain vaccination facilities in the city.
Gomes also announced that the Macau Forum vaccination facility in Zape will only be used for inoculating schoolchildren aged between 3 and 11 tomorrow and Sunday, as part of the government’s campaign to boost their COVID-19 inoculation rate.
Gomes noted that Hong Kong has reported several fatalities of children infected with COVID-19, urging parents to take their children to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible.
Jab rate of 78 pct
Meanwhile, Leong Iek Hou, who heads the Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Division of the Health Bureau (SSM), noted during yesterday’s press conference that Macau’s COVID-19 vaccination rate reached 78 percent yesterday, i.e., over three quarters of the population had received at least one jab.
The official COVID-19 vaccination rate of 78 percent as of yesterday was calculated based on Macau’s population of 683,100 at the end of 2020.
According to the latest available demographics, Macau’s population stood at 682,300 at the end of September.
Leong also reported Macau’s latest COVID-19 vaccination rates amongst different age groups. As of yesterday afternoon, according to Leong, the vaccination rates amongst different age groups were: 15.9 percent amongst those aged from 3 to 11; 75.7 percent amongst those aged between 12 and 19; 97.3 percent amongst those aged from 20 to 29; 99.3 percent amongst those aged between 30 and 39; 99.9 percent amongst those aged from 40 to 49; and 84.7 percent amongst those aged between 50 and 59.
According to Leong, as of yesterday afternoon the COVID-19 vaccination rate amongst senior citizens stood at 67.9 percent amongst those aged between 60 and 69; 51.1 percent amongst those aged from 70 to 79; and 22.3 percent amongst those aged 80 or over.
1.3 million Sinopharm jabs & 400,000 BioNTech jabs
Leong also said that the Health Bureau has so far purchased a total of 1.3 million doses of Sinopharm inactivated vaccine and 400,000 doses of BioNTech mRNA vaccine, adding that 920,000 Sinopharm doses and 200,000 BioNTech jabs have been administered. Leong said that the remaining 380,000 Sinopharm jabs and 200,000 mRNA jabs will be sufficient for unjabbed residents to get inoculated and for those who have been fully inoculated against COVID-19 to receive their booster jab.
Leong Iek Hou (right), who heads the Health Bureau’s (SSM) Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Division, Choi Sio Un (centre), who heads the Social Welfare Bureau’s (IAS) Social Solidarity Department, and Luís Gomes, acting chief of the Education and Youth Development Bureau’s (DSEDJ) Non-Tertiary Education Department, address yesterday’s press conference about the city’s COVID-19 situation. Photo: GCS
