The Macau government announced yesterday that it has revised its criteria for COVID-19 patients’ discharge from isolation hospital and its rules on post-recovery health monitoring, after combining the mainland’s new criteria for the matter with Macau’s “real situation”.
The local government said that the new measure aims to avoid wasting its medical resources by reducing patients’ hospital treatment period, while its newly amended criteria are still slightly stricter than the mainland’s ones.
Macau’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre made the announcement in a statement last night.
The statement noted that the National Health Commission (NHC) has amended its criteria for COVID-19 patients to be discharged from hospitals and released from isolation in the mainland, in the light of the latest changes in the epidemiological characteristics of the novel coronavirus disease.
COVID-19 patients in Macau, regardless of having symptoms or being asymptomatic carriers, are transferred to either the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre or the Health Bureau’s (SSM) Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane for isolation.
Last night’s statement said that according to the new criteria for Macau, patients who have recovered from the novel coronavirus disease, or “re-positive” COVID-19 carriers, will start their seven-day post-recovery health monitoring after they have tested negative for COVID-19 in three consecutive nucleic acid tests (NATs) which are carried out at least 24 hours apart.
A COVID-19 “re-positive” case means that a person has tested positive for the novel coronavirus again in a nucleic acid test after having recovered from the disease and tested negative for the virus.
According to the new criteria, the statement said, those newly infected with COVID-19 can only start their post-recovery health monitoring after they have tested negative for COVID-19 in three consecutive tests which are carried out at least 24 hours apart, and at least 10 days have passed since they had tested positive for the virus for the first time.
The statement said that according to the new criteria, cases of those who still do not meet the “general” criteria for starting post-recovery health monitoring three weeks after they had tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time will be assessed by a panel of experts who decide whether they can start their post-recovery health monitoring.
The statement noted that post-recovery health monitoring, which was officially known as “recovery period isolation” before the implementation of the new criteria, previously lasted 21 days, adding that the Macau Health Bureau has now shortened the post-recovery health monitoring period from 21 days to just seven days.
The statement noted that previously those who had recovered from COVID-19 underwent their recovery period isolation at the Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane after being discharged from isolation hospital. According to the new rules announced last night, those without clinical needs will now undergo their post-recovery health monitoring at one of the government’s “quarantine hotels”.
Last night’s statement said that those with clinical needs can choose to stay at the Public Health Clinical Centre for their post-recovery health monitoring.
According to the new rules, the statement said, those who have completed their post-recovery health monitoring will be required to practise “self-health management” at home for seven days.
The statement underlined that the local government has decided to amend its criteria for COVID-19 patients to be discharged from hospital treatment and released from isolation based on scientific grounds. The statement said that amending the criteria for patients to be discharged from isolation hospital treatment in accordance with their respective clinical conditions and test results can further reduce their hospital treatment and isolation period with the aim of avoiding wasting medical resources.
The statement also underlined that the local government has decided to set its amended criteria slightly stricter than the mainland’s after considering Macau’s “real situation”.
Testing measure for mainlanders with family-visit travel permits extended to more checkpoints
Meanwhile, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre has also announced that the Macau government’s current special measure requiring all mainlanders with a family-visit travel permit who make three or more entries into Macau per day to undergo a paid COVID-19 test upon arrival here every time is now extended to those using the Macau-Zhuhai checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) or the Inner Harbour Ferry Terminal (for the passenger ferry service with Zhuhai’s Wanzai).
The centre announced the extension of the measure, which took effect at 00:00 today, in a statement on Saturday.
Since Monday last week, all mainlanders holding a travel permit for visiting relatives in Macau who enter Macau via the Barrier Gate checkpoint or the Qingmao checkpoint three or more times per day must undergo a paid COVID-19 nucleic acid test (NAT) upon arrival here every time, despite holding an NAT certificate confirming a valid negative COVID-19 result.
Currently, the negative COVID-19 NAT result for those entering Macau from Zhuhai is valid for 24 hours, while the negative result for those entering Zhuhai from Macau is valid for seven days.
Mainlanders holding travel permits for visiting relatives in Macau, which are issued by the authorities in the mainland, are allowed to commute between the two regions during their permitted stay in Macau.
The extension that starts today means that the measure is now also applicable to those using the HZMB Macau-Zhuhai checkpoint and the Inner Harbour Ferry Terminal, in addition to the Barrier Gate checkpoint and the Qingmao checkpoint.
Saturday’s statement underlined that the local government’s special measure for mainlanders holding family-visit travel permits aims to reduce the COVID-19 risk to Macau resulting from the frequent crossing of the Macau-Zhuhai border.
Each COVID-19 nucleic acid test costs 70 patacas in Macau.
Saturday’s statement noted that the affected travellers must wait for their negative NAT results after having their swabs collected, before being allowed to enter Macau. The statement also noted that it may take up to 12 hours for the NAT results to be available after the travellers have their swabs collected. The negative result of such a compulsory test will not be displayed on the Macau Health Code, the statement said.
Foreign national from HK, 4 returnees from overseas have COVID-19
Meanwhile, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre has announced that a foreign national normally living in Hong Kong has tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in Macau on Friday.
A statement by the centre on Saturday identified the patient as a 49-year-old man who has received two mRNA jabs.
Meanwhile, the centre has also announced that four local residents who returned to Macau from foreign countries have tested positive for COVID-19.
The four residents have returned to Macau from Malaysia, the Republic of Ireland, Thailand and the United Kingdom via Singapore.
A statement by the centre on Saturday identified one of the four patients as a 46-year-old woman who returned to Macau from the Republic of Ireland via Singapore on Wednesday. She has received two mRNA jabs. She tested negative for the novel coronavirus upon arrival at the local airport on Wednesday, because of which she was transferred to one of the government’s “quarantine hotels” for medical observation.
According to Saturday’s statement, the woman still tested negative for COVID-19 in a follow-up test on Thursday. However, she tested positive in a follow-up test on Friday.
The other three patients’ cases were announced by the centre in a statement on Thursday. The first patient is a 40-year-old man who returned to Macau from Malaysia via Singapore, having received three BioNTech mRNA jabs, while second patient is a 45-year-old woman who returned to Macau from the UK via Singapore, having received three Moderna mRNA jabs, and the third patient is a 29-year-old man who returned to Macau from Thailand via Singapore, having received two Moderna mRNA jabs.
All the three patients tested positive for the novel coronavirus upon arrival at the local airport on Wednesday.
All five patients whose cases have been announced by the centre have been transferred to the Health Bureau’s Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane for isolation treatment.
All five cases have been classified as imported and asymptomatic, because of which they have not been added to Macau’s novel coronavirus tally, which therefore remains at 82.
In addition to the total of 82 confirmed COVID-19 cases, Macau has now reported a total of 60 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.
4 COVID-19 cases in Zhuhai
Meanwhile, the neighbouring city of Zhuhai has reported a total of four new local COVID-19 cases since Tuesday last week. One of them lives in Nanping (南屏) town, which only lies a few kilometres northwest of Macau.
The COVID-19 case of the patient living in Nanping was confirmed by the Zhuhai health authorities on Thursday. Since then, a total of seven people in Macau have been identified as close contacts of the Nanping case as of last night.
The seven COVID-19 close contacts in Macau comprise four schoolchildren, the mothers of two of the four children, and a nursing assistant from the mainland working for the private Kiang Wu Hospital, according to various statement by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre.
A health worker administers a COVID-19 jab to a senior citizen at a retirement home on Saturday. The government said on Saturday that 74.3 percent of those living in Macau’s 24 retirement homes and other social service residential facilities for senior citizens had received at least one COVID-19 jab, an increase from around 35 percent about three weeks ago. Photo: GCS
