Maskless smoker gets 5-months jail, 10,000-pataca fine
Macau mourned one more COVID-19 fatality yesterday, a 94-year-old chronically ill woman, raising the city’s novel coronavirus death toll to four.
Yesterday’s fatality came after the city reported its third COVID-19 death on Tuesday, an 88-year-old chronically ill woman. The city has had two new COVID-19 fatalities in two days.
Lei Wai Seng, a clinical director of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, announced the latest and fourth COVID-19 death during yesterday evening’s daily press conference about the viral menace.
According to Lei, the woman was taken to the Health Bureau’s (SSM) Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane for isolation treatment after she tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday last week.
Lei said that the woman had been taken care of by her family members at home as she was completely unable to look after herself.
The woman suffered various chronic diseases such as chronic heart failure and respiratory failure, Lei said.
Lei said that the woman had been prescribed antiviral medicines and antibiotics after she started isolation treatment. However, she died in the wee hours of yesterday, Lei said.
During the treatment at the Public Health Clinical Centre, the woman had come down with multiple organ failure, Lei said.
The senior citizen’s family members told doctors that they did not want her to receive invasive medical treatment, because of which the doctors decided not to give her treatment with life-saving equipment, Lei said.
The latest two COVID-19 fatalities reported this week came after Macau reported its first two COVID-19 deaths on Sunday last week. Both were chronically ill female senior citizens, aged 100 and 94 respectively, who lived in the same nursing home.
Lei said yesterday that two of the four COVID-19 fatalities had not been vaccinated against COVID-19, while the other two had previously received two Sinopharm inactivated jabs.
Lei underlined that none of the four COVID-19 fatalities had died of pneumonia, but that all of them, whose chronic diseases were “very serious”, had died of complications or organ failure triggered by their COVID-19 infection.
Details of maskless smoker’s summary trial
Meanwhile, senior Unitary Police Service (SPU) officer Cheong Kin Ian reported during yesterday evening’s press conference that the Court of First Instance (TJB) had sentenced earlier in the day a local man to five months in prison for smoking in the street without wearing a facemask on Tuesday, with the prison term having been suspended for two years. Moreover, the defendant was sentenced to pay a fine of 10,000 patacas within one month.
The case is the first court ruling on violation of the government’s ongoing seven-day executive order that took effect at 00:00 on Monday and is slated to end at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday.
According to Cheong, the case occurred at around 7 p.m. on Tuesday, when police officers on patrol saw the man smoking without wearing a facemask in Pátio Fu Van, an alley near the Ruins of St. Paul’s. The police arrested the man for violating the executive order according to which all adults must wear a KN95 facemask or those of higher standards when going out.
The police transferred the case to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), which later transferred the case to the Court of First Instance. According to Cheong, a judge of the court carried out a summary trial for the case earlier yesterday, during which the defendant admitted the offence.
Yesterday was the third day of the local government’s seven-day special measures during which all businesses in Macau must close except those essential for maintaining civil society’s normal functioning or residents’ daily lives, and everyone must stay at home unless going to work, buying daily necessities, or going out for other necessary tasks or urgent matters, such as going to a nucleic acid test (NAT) station for their mandatory test or going to healthcare facilities to seek medical treatment.
According to the seven-day special measures, which are implemented based on an executive order by Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng promulgated in the Official Gazette (BO) on Saturday, everyone must wear a facemask when going out, while all adults must wear a KN95 facemask or those of higher standards.
Anyone violating the order, including those failing to wear a KN95 facemask or those of higher standards when going out, faces up to two years in jail or a hefty fine.
According to Macau’s infectious disease law, the chief executive can impose special measures through an executive order with the aim of preventing the spread of an infectious disease. Those violating the measures face up to two years in prison or a fine, according to the law.
According to a statement by the Court of First Instance last night, the man admitted that after having dinner at his grandfather’s home on the ground floor of a building in the alley on Tuesday night, he went outside and smoked. The man said that he started to smoke after removing his facemask and putting it into his trouser pocket. The man also admitted that he was aware of the government’s special measures this week from TV news reports, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, Cheong also said during the press conference that between 00:00 a.m. and 3 p.m. yesterday, officers of various law enforcement agencies and inspectors of other public entities had given 588 violators of the executive order an oral warning. Cheong also said that since Monday’s commencement of the implementation of the executive order, law enforcement agencies had booked 19 people for violating the order.
Outbreak tally rises by 32 to 1,615
The latest tally of Macau’s current COVID-19 outbreak has increased by 32 to 1,615, according to a Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre statement yesterday morning. The 32 new locally transmitted cases were detected between 00:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, raising the outbreak tally from 1,583 as of Monday night to 1,615 as of Tuesday night.
On Monday, the figure was up by 57. It rose by 59 on Sunday. Observers said the downward trend was a possible indication that the government’s tightened COVID-19 control measures this week are working.
Macau reported its first COVID-19 case on January 22, 2020.
The current outbreak’s latest tally of 1,615 includes the four COVID-19 fatalities.
Yesterday morning’s statement said that while 22 of the 32 new local cases reported on Tuesday were detected among COVID-19 carriers subject to management and control measures, namely lockdowns and hotel quarantine, the other 10 cases were detected in the community, comprising five close contacts of previously reported COVID-19 cases, four cases detected by mass nucleic acid tests (NATs) and among high-risk key groups of people, and one case detected among other groups of people.
Meanwhile, according to a Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre statement, as of 3 p.m. yesterday, 600,444 people had had their swabs taken for COVID-19 tests under the government’s eighth mandatory citywide NAT drive, which ended at 6 p.m. yesterday, 439,889 of whom had come up with a negative result, while four batches of pooled samples (10 samples per pooled sample) had tested positive for COVID-19 as of 3 p.m. yesterday.
The current COVID-19 outbreak’s nineth citywide NAT drive will start at 9 a.m. today and end at 6 p.m. tomorrow.
Cheong Kin Ian, who heads the Unitary Police Service’s (SPU) Police Affairs Liaison and Public Relations Division, addresses yesterday’s press conference about the city’s current COVID-19 outbreak. Photo: GCS
