The government has relaxed its restrictions on the number of guests attending banquets and other dining events and their respective compulsory nucleic acid testing (NAT) requirements.
The relaxed measures for the organisation of banquets took effect yesterday when the Health Bureau (SSM) amended its guidelines on the organisation of banquets and other dining events. The amended guidelines were published on the bureau’s COVID-19 website yesterday.
According to the new version of the guidelines, public entities, as well as private organisations or community associations whose operations are subsidised by the government, are allowed to hold social eating gatherings with up to 49 guests.
Public entities, as well as private organisations or community associations which receive government subsidies, are only permitted to hold social eating gatherings with 50 to 299 guests “if very necessary”. However, all those attending or working for such gatherings must present a nucleic acid test (NAT) certificate confirming a negative COVID-19 result, regardless of whether they have been fully inoculated against the novel coronavirus or not, according to the new version of the guidelines.
According to the latest version of the guidelines, public entities, as well as private organisations or community associations whose operations are subsidised by the government, are barred from holding social eating gatherings with 300 or more guests.
In contrast, individuals and companies, as well as private organisations and community associations whose operations are not subsidised by the government, are subject to less strict requirements for the organisation of banquets.
According to the new version of the guidelines, individuals or companies, as well as private organisations or community associations which do not receive any government subsidies, are allowed to hold social eating gatherings with up to 299 guests, without the need for those attending or working for such gatherings to undergo a COVID-19 nucleic acid test.
Individuals or companies, as well as private organisations or community associations whose operations are not subsidised by the government, are permitted to hold social eating gatherings with 300 or more guests but all those attending or working for such gatherings must present an NAT certificate confirming a negative COVID-19 result, regardless of whether they have been fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus or not, according to the new version of the guidelines.
Normally those vaccinated against COVID-19 require two jabs to develop basic full immunity, i.e., if they receive a two-dose vaccine.
Different NAT rules
According to the latest version of the guidelines, fully-vaccinated participants in and staff members of banquets must present an NAT certificate confirming a negative COVID-19 result valid for seven days, provided that the negative COVID-19 NAT result for those commuting between Macau and Zhuhai is valid for seven days. However, participants and staff members who have not been fully inoculated must present a negative COVID-19 result valid for just 48 hours.
In case the negative COVID-19 NAT result for those commuting between Macau and Zhuhai is valid for just 48 hours or even shorter, according to the new version of the guidelines, fully-vaccinated participants in and staff members of banquets must hold a negative COVID-19 result valid for 48 hours, while those who have not been fully inoculated must show a negative COVID-19 result valid for just 24 hours.
Currently, the negative COVID-19 NAT result for those commuting between the two cities is valid for just 24 hours.
The relaxed measures for the organisation of banquets that took effect yesterday are still stricter than the ones that had been implemented before Macau’s latest COVID-19 that began on June 18 – commonly known as ‘618” in Chinese.
Before June 18, there were no official caps on the number of guests attending banquets and other social eating gatherings, regardless of the types of organisers. The major special COVID-19 measure that had been implemented before June 18 was that all those attending or working for banquets with over 400 guests were subject to mandatory nucleic acid tests.
Since Macau returned to its normalised COVID-19 prevention and control period around three weeks ago, the government has rolled out strict measures for the organisation of banquets, which had been implemented before yesterday and according to which public entities, as well as private organisations or community associations whose operations are subsidised by the government, were barred from holding social eating gatherings with 20 or more guests, while individuals or companies, as well as private organisations or community associations whose operations are not subsidised by the government, were barred from organising meal gatherings with 300 or more guests.
The new measures that took effect yesterday mean that the government has now lifted its cap on the number of guests attending social eating gatherings organised by individuals or companies, as well as private organisations or community associations whose operations are not subsidised by the government, while social eating gatherings organised by public entities, as well as private organisations or community associations whose operations are subsidised by the government, are still subject to an official cap on the number of guests, i.e., they are barred from holding social eating gatherings with 300 or more guests.
