Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U said yesterday that the local government is studying the feasibility of requiring all athletes at sports competitions and other kinds of sports events in the city to have been inoculated against COVID-19.
Ao Ieong made the remarks while speaking to reporters after attending a ceremony for the conferment of honorary doctoral degrees at the private Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Taipa.
Ao Ieong pointed out that since last year athletes at all international sports competitions in the world have been required to have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The policy secretary said that it was impossible to require athletes to wear a facemask and practise social distancing of at least one metre while competing in games.
Ao Ieong said that after referencing international sports events’ COVID-19 vaccination requirements and studying the COVID-19 prevention measures implemented by the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing earlier this year and last year’s National Games, the Macau government is studying the feasibility of requiring all competitors at local sports events, such as the annual Macau Grand Prix, and even inter-school sports competitions, to have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
Ao Ieong noted that it is impossible for athletes participating in inter-school sports competitions to be subject to “closed-loop management” measures.
Ao Ieong underlined that the local government’s possible measure to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for all contestants at local sports events aims to secure Macau’s COVID-19 prevention and control work while enabling local sports events to take place.
NAT validity for arrivals from Zhuhai ‘can only be relaxed if it has zero cases for 7 days’
Meanwhile, Ao Ieong also said that the validity of the negative COVID-19 nucleic acid test (NAT) result for those entering Macau from Zhuhai could only be relaxed if the neighbouring city has zero new local COVID-19 cases for at least seven days.
The Macau Health Bureau (SSM) said on Thursday that it was assessing with its Zhuhai counterpart whether the NAT validity for those entering Macau from Zhuhai could be raised back to 48 hours from the current 24 hours once the city has had zero new local COVID-19 cases for seven days.
However, the Zhuhai health authorities confirmed a new local COVID-19 case on Friday. The patient lives in Zhuhai’s Cuixiang (翠香) subdistrict.
Including the latest case, Zhuhai has reported a total of five new local COVID-19 cases since March 15.
Before the latest case on Friday, the last local COVID-19 case in Zhuhai was confirmed on March 19.
Ao Ieong said yesterday that the Macau and Zhuhai governments have reached a consensus that the NAT validity for those entering Macau from Zhuhai could be relaxed if the neighbouring city has recorded zero new local COVID-19 cases for seven days counting from Saturday, i.e., the next day after the detection of Zhuhai’s latest local case.
Ao Ieong also said that she believed that Zhuhai would be able to bring its local COVID-19 transmissions under control very quickly.
Meanwhile, Ao Ieong also said that the local government has reported to the central government a list detailing the number and types of medical workers who would be possibly needed for the local government’s worst-case COVID-19 contingency plan. In case Macau needs supports from medical workers from the mainland to help tackle a serious COVID-19 outbreak here, the central government would be able to provide the city with medical workers more quickly, according to the policy secretary.
One more returnee from HK has asymptomatic COVID-19, raising such cases to 64
Meanwhile, one more returnee from Hong Kong has tested positive for COVID-19, Macau’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre has announced.
The centre has classified the case as imported and asymptomatic, because of which it has not been added to Macau’s novel coronavirus tally, which therefore remains at 82.
However, the case has raised Macau’s asymptomatic COVID-19 tally to 64.
According to a statement by the centre on Friday, the patient is a 51-year-old woman who has received two COVID-19 mRNA jabs. She underwent a COVID-19 test upon arrival in Macau on Wednesday, but it came up with an uncertain result. However, according to the statement, she tested positive for the novel coronavirus in a follow-up test on Thursday.
The woman has been transferred to the Health Bureau’s (SSM) Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane for isolation treatment.
Meanwhile, the same statement also announced an imported COVID-19 “re-positive” case, a 41-year-old local woman who also returned to Macau from Hong Kong on Wednesday.
A COVID-19 “re-positive” case means that a person has tested positive for the novel coronavirus again in a nucleic acid test (NAT) after having previously been infected with COVID-19 and recovered.
According to the statement, the woman, who has received two mRNA jabs, also came up with an uncertain COVID-19 result upon arrival in Macau on Wednesday, before testing positive for the novel coronavirus in a follow-up test on Thursday.
The woman, who has not come down with any COVID-19 symptoms, has also been transferred to the Public Health Clinical Centre for isolation.
The statement said that the woman was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease in Hong Kong on February 24, because of which her case has been classified as a “re-positive” case.
Since December last year, the Macau government has separately classified and announced asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and confirmed COVID-19 cases.
COVID-19 “re-positive” cases are not classified as confirmed COVID-19 cases for Macau, neither are they classified as asymptomatic COVID-19 cases for Macau.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U speaks to reporters on the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) campus in Taipa yesterday. Photo: Rui Pastorin
