The Health Bureau (SSM) reaffirmed yesterday that Macau can enter a COVID-19-prevention stabilisation period tomorrow when people in the city will no longer need to self-test for COVID-19 with a rapid antigen test (RAT) kit every day and restaurants will be allowed to resume dine-in services, provided that the government’s latest round of citywide nucleic acid tests (NATs), which was carried out on Saturday and yesterday, does not detect any positive results.
As of 3 p.m. yesterday, no positive results had been detected in the mass NAT round, the current COVID-19 outbreak’s 14th round, which ended at 7 p.m. yesterday.
According to the bureau, the results will be announced this morning.
If Macau enters its stabilisation period tomorrow, the COVID-19-control consolidation period will have eventually lasted 10 days.
Health Bureau Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Division chief Leong Iek Hou made the remarks during yesterday evening’s daily press conference about the viral menace.
More details about the easing of measures that will be implemented during the government’s likely stabilisation period were announced by Health Bureau Director Alvis Lo Iek Long during Friday’s COVID-19 press conference.
The government had extended its then seven-day consolidation period, which was initially slated to end at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, for three more days, because of which the period is now slated to end at 11:59 today.
Compared to the first seven days of the government’s consolidation period, more relaxed COVID-19 measures are being implemented during the ongoing three-day extension that started at 00:00 a.m. on Saturday, such as that people are no longer required to wear a KN95 facemask but can wear a surgical facemask instead.
During the consolidation period’s three-day extension, shopping centres and indoor renovation projects have been allowed to resume operations in a limited way provided that they comply with the government’s special COVID-19 prevention and control measures. In addition, the government has reopened public parks, sitting-out areas and hiking trails since Saturday. However, children’s playgrounds remain closed.
Because of the resumption of indoor renovation projects, the Health Bureau has added indoor renovation workers to high-risk key groups of people subject to a mandatory daily nucleic acid test. Their mandatory daily nucleic acid tests, which were announced during Friday’s COVID-19 press conference, took effect on Saturday.
Consequently, those in eight occupations are currently listed as high-risk key groups of people who are required to undergo a nucleic acid test every day during the ongoing three-day extension of the government’s consolidation period, namely security staff, cleaning staff, restaurant staff, food deliverers, public bus drivers and taxi drivers, live-out domestic helpers, construction-site workers, and indoor renovation workers.
During Wednesday’s COVID-19 press conference, Health Bureau officials initially said that everyone would be required to continue to self-test for COVID-19 every day at least for the first seven days during the possible stabilisation period. However, Lo announced during Friday’s press conference that people will not need to self-test every day anymore during the stabilisation period.
Lo said that the government’s stabilisation period can start tomorrow following its 10-day consolidation period provided that no positive results are detected in the 14th round of citywide nucleic acid tests.
Lo said that for the time being the government plans for the stabilisation period to provisionally last one week, after which Macau’s “normalised” COVID-19 prevention and control period would start, i.e., the return to the situation before the current outbreak, which began on June 18.
Lo said that during the stabilisation period, those in high-risk key occupations will have to continue to undergo a nucleic acid test every day, while all those who leave home for work but are not in key occupations, who have been required to undergo a nucleic acid test every other day since the commencement of the consolidation period, will have their testing requirements relaxed to a test every three days during the stabilisation period.
According to Lo, those who dine in restaurants or enter other indoor facilities where people do not always wear a facemask during the stabilisation period will be required to display a negative COVID-19 NAT result valid for three days. The three-day negative NAT proof will also be required for those who enter indoor facilities where they stay for a relatively long time.
According to Lo, the three-day NAT validity will start on the respective person’s sampling day.
Tally stays at 1,821
The latest tally of the current COVID-19 outbreak has remained unchanged at 1,821, after Macau had had zero new cases on two consecutive days, on Friday and Saturday. Two new cases were detected on Thursday, raising the outbreak tally from 1,819 as of Wednesday night to 1,821 as of Thursday night. Both new cases were detected in quarantine hotels.
As of Saturday, Macau had had no community cases for eight consecutive days.
Residents wearing KN95 facemasks or surgical facemasks walk in Travessa dos Anjos yesterday, the second day of the three-day extension of the government’s COVID-19-control consolidation period. – Photo: MPDG
