The government announced yesterday that it will start a period consolidating Macau’s achievements in its battle against the current COVID-19 outbreak on Saturday, which is provisionally slated to last one week, during which various non-essential businesses can resume operations in a limited way provided that they comply with extra and special COVID-19 prevention and control measures.
Non-essential businesses that will be allowed to reopen from Saturday will include casinos, banks and hair salons. However, various entertainment venues such as cinemas, beauty parlours and karaoke bars will remain closed. During the upcoming seven-day COVID-19 prevention consolidation period, restaurants will still only be allowed to sell takeaways.
The current “relatively static” restrictions on people’s movements and operations of businesses, i.e., suspension of non-essential businesses, have been in force since Monday last week. The various essential businesses that have been allowed to remain operational since Monday last week will stay open during the upcoming consolidation period, but in conjunction with a raft of requirements to comply with various COVID-19 measures that will, however, be less strict than those required for non-essential businesses.
The mandatory requirement to wear a KN95 facemask or those of a higher standard when out and about will remain in force during the consolidation period.
The limited resumption of operations of non-essential businesses that will start on Saturday was announced by Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng in an executive order promulgated in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday. Details of measures to be implemented for the consolidation period’s limited resumption of operations of non-essential businesses were announced during yesterday evening’s daily press conference about the city’s current COVID-19 outbreak, which was detected on June 18.
The measures announced in yesterday’s executive order will take effect at 00:00 on Saturday and are slated to end at 11:59 p.m. on Friday next week.
Unchanged from Ho’s previous executive order which imposed the current “relatively static” restrictions on people’s movements and operations of businesses from Monday last week, businesses meeting three requirements will be allowed to remain operational during the new seven-day period.
Firstly, according to the executive order, those providing basic public services will stay open, such as water, electricity and natural gas utilities, fuel suppliers, telecom services, public transport (buses and taxis), and waste collection. Those that are needed to maintain civil society’s normal functioning will also remain operational, such as hotels and inns, cleaning services, property management, daily necessities wholesalers, and logistics operators transporting daily necessities.
Secondly, those that are needed to maintain residents’ daily lives will also remain open, such as wet markets, supermarkets, restaurants and other businesses selling takeaways, pharmacies, and healthcare facilities.
Thirdly, the order states that exceptionally the government can allow certain businesses to remain open as well.
The executive order states that businesses meeting the three requirements, i.e., essential businesses, can operate normally during the seven-day period, while other businesses, i.e., non-essential ones, can only operate in a limited way provided that they comply with the government’s special COVID-19 measures.
However, according to the order, three types of businesses will still not be allowed to operate during the new seven-day period, namely day nurseries, indoor renovation projects in buildings, and shops in shopping centres without direct access to public roads, except shops operating essential businesses such as supermarkets.
According to the executive order, staff members of both essential and non-essential businesses must ensure social distancing on premises where they work and require all those entering the premises to scan the respective venue code, i.e., the Macau Health Code’s visit-record function.
According to yesterday’s order, various entertainment and recreation venues that have been closed since June 23 will remain closed except hair salons, namely cinemas, theatres, indoor playgrounds, amusement arcades, cybercafes, snooker halls, bowling alleys, saunas, massage parlours, beauty parlours, gyms, health clubs, karaoke bars, bars, nightclubs, discotheques, ballrooms, cabarets, and public swimming pools.
The order states that hair salons will be allowed to resume operations but with limited services during the upcoming seven-day period from Saturday to Friday next week, but also with special COVID-19 measures in place.
During the upcoming seven-day period, according to yesterday’s order, everyone must stay at home unless going to work, shopping, or going out for other necessary tasks or urgent matters. Everyone must wear a facemask when going out, while all adults must wear a KN95 facemask or those of a higher standard. Anyone violating the order, including those failing to wear a KN95 facemask or those of a higher standard when going out, faces up to two years in jail or a hefty fine.
According to yesterday evening’s press conference, during the seven-day consolidation period, people will be allowed to go out to exercise near their home, or take their dog out for a walk near their home. A number of walking trails in the city will reopen.
However, according to yesterday’s press conference, people will not be allowed to go for a run because people cannot wear a facemask when jogging.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U said during yesterday’s press conference that during the consolidation period, children and students will be allowed to go to stationary shops to buy goods, and people will be allowed to go to buy clothes “if they have been torn”. She noted that such activities are barred during the current “relatively static” restrictions but will be allowed starting on Saturday.
During the consolidation period, Ao Ieong said, public bus passengers will no longer need to display a special permit when catching the bus.
Ao Ieong urged residents to only leave home to engage in” necessary” activities in their neighbourhoods.
Most of the two public bus operators’ over 80 routes will resume services during the consolidation period.
Ao Ieong underlined that the consolidation period aims to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak from occurring again.
Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long said that casinos will be allowed to reopen for business on Saturday “in a limited capacity” but must adhere to strict anti-epidemic measures.
Lo also said that rules for casinos and other businesses include thorough sanitation, facemask-wearing in public areas and halving staffing levels.
Officials also said at yesterday’s press conference that an official assessment found casinos’ ventilation systems and cleaning to be compliant with the government’s strict COVID-19 prevention and control measures, while malls will remain closed during the “consolidation period” as they fell short of the requirements.
Ao Ieong said that the government is now planning for the consolidation period to provisionally last one week, with a possibility of the period being extended for a period of time, while the government will consider further relaxing COVID-19 prevention restrictions if the city’s COVID-19 situation further improves during the seven-day consolidation period.
Meanwhile, Ao Ieong said that in case the COVID-19 situation deteriorates, the government would possibly again impose its “relatively static” restrictions on people’s movements and operations of businesses after the seven-day consolidation period.
Lo and Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) Director Kong Chi Meng said during the press conference that the government’s mandatory citywide nucleic acid tests (NATs) will continue to be carried out during and even after the seven-day consolidation period.
According to Lo and Kong, seven key groups of people, namely restaurant staff, food deliverers, public bus drivers and taxi drivers, live-out domestic helpers, as well as security, cleaning and building management staff, will have to undergo a daily nucleic acid test for six days from Sunday through Friday next week.
Those working in other occupations will have to undergo a nucleic acid test every other day.
According to Lo and Kong, the government will carry out a new round of mandatory citywide nucleic acid tests for everyone on the weekend of July 30-31.
While those aged below three will continue to be exempted from mass nucleic acid tests during the July 30-31 testing round, senior citizens born on or before December 31, 1942 and residents with disabilities will no longer be exempted, Lo said, adding that the two groups of people will run the risk of being infected with COVID-19 during the upcoming consolidation period, and that’s why they needed to be tested once more.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U addresses yesterday’s press conference about the city’s current COVID-19 outbreak. Photo: GCS
