Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng gave instructions on the next phase of the COVID-19 prevention and control work during a meeting yesterday held by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre at Macau’s Civil Protection Operations Centre in Pac On about the government’s month-long pandemic prevention and control work.
Senior government officials, including Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon, Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U, Unitary Police Service (SPU) Commissioner-General Leong Man Cheong, Macau Customs Service Director-General Vong Man Chong and Chief-of-Office of the Chief Executive’s Office Hoi Lai Fong attended yesterday’s meeting, according to a statement by the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS).
Addressing the meeting, Ho said that every public entity must plug loopholes in their pandemic prevention and control work in order to reach the government’s dynamic zero- COVID-19 goal so that people’s lives can return to normal as soon as possible.
Ho said the government would be able to launch its “consolidation period” once the number of new COVID-19 cases per day has dropped to a low level thanks to the efforts of the city’s residents and business operators during Macau’s “relatively static” movement of people who have been undergoing frequent rounds of mandatory citywide nucleic acid tests (NATs).
The “relative static” movement of people and suspension of non-essential businesses has been in place since July 11.
During the meeting, Ao Ieong gave a presentation on the preparatory work for the “consolidation period” of pandemic prevention and control measures, according to the statement, which did not say when the “consolidation period” in Macau’s ongoing fight against COVID-19 will begin.
However, officials at yesterday’s daily Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre indicated that the “consolidation period” could start as early as Saturday.
The problems that each public entity might encounter during the “consolidation period” were also discussed, and possible solutions were put forward, the statement said.
Ho noted that the current COVID-19 outbreak faced by Macau was more daunting than any previous one, since the Omicron BA.5 variant was highly transmissible and “insidious”.
The government had adopted a string of timely measures to contain the spread of the virus in accordance with continuous risk assessments, and advice from medical experts from mainland China, Ho added.
Ho underlined that every public entity of the government must work together to put people’s lives and safety first, while ensuring their daily needs and maintaining social stability, in order to reach the government’s dynamic zero- COVID-19 goal.
Ho also thanked everyone in Macau for their tolerance and cooperation over the past month, as well as the hard work of all civil servants and volunteers from various organisations who have helped in fighting the outbreak.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng chairs a meeting of the Civil Protection Operations Centre about the ongoing fight against the current COVID-19 outbreak and the government’s arrangements for the upcoming “consolidation period” tackling the highly infectious disease. Photo: GCS
