The Macau government announced today the gradual easing of COVID-19 restrictions from next week but warned that with the further relaxation of curbs between 50 and 80 percent of the population was expected to contract the novel coronavirus.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U, whose portfolio includes the public health sector, announced the step-by-step easing of the curbs in a special press conference, accompanied by senior officials of the Health Bureau.
Ao Ieong said that Macau was entering a "new phase" in tackling the COVID-19 threat. Macau confirmed its first novel coronavirus case in January 2020.
Macau recorded 24 new COVID-19 cases yesterday.
Initially, according to the relaxed curbs, from Monday COVID-19 close contacts will be allowed to quarantine at home instead of at a government-designated facility. After a trial run of between one and two weeks, also those infected with the novel coronavirus will possibly also be allowed to quarantine at home. The officials said they estimated that up to 90 percent of the infectees to be permitted to quarantine at home as they could be expected to be asymptomatic.
Currently, all those testing positive for COVID-19 are taken by ambulance to a quarantine facility.
Starting on Monday, COVID-19 patients will be assessed individually to decide whether they can quarantine at home or be treated at a community clinic or at a hospital, Leong Iek Hau, who heads the Health Bureau's Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Division, said.
Ao Ieong said that the number of mandatory COVID-19 tests for arrivals from the Chinese mainland would possibly be reduced, while mandatory quarantine for those arriving from the Chinese regions of Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as foreign countries would be adjusted "very soon". She did not elaborate.
Ao Ieong also said that the local government would follow the anti-COVID-19 guidelines announced by the central government yesterday but would adapt them to the local situation.
The policy secretary also said that all people in Macau - residents, non-resident workers (NRWs) and non-local students - would be given free anti-COVID-19 kits including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) supplements, KN95 facemasks and self-tests (RATs) over the next two weeks.
Ao Ieong warned that while Macau's current COVID-19 infection rate is low, between 50 and 80 percent of the population would possibly be infected with the novel coronavirus in the near future as a result of the relaxed curbs, in line with similar measures in the Chinese mainland.
She noted that some 4,800 residents aged 80 and over in Macau have still not be vaccinated against COVID-19. She pledged that the government will try its best to reach a 100 percent vaccination rate.
Ao Ieong said the government would pursue a step-by-step approach towards easing the current restrictions in order to avoid severe case and even fatalities.
Macau's COVID-19 death toll stands at just six, almost three years after its confirmed its first case. Generally speaking, foreign nationals without a local residency permit have been barred from entering Macau since March 2020. This, observers say, has kept Macau's infection rate and death toll much lower than, for instance, in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Ao Ieong also said that self-tests (RATs) would gradually replace nucleic acid tests (NATs) at testing stations.
The officials also said Macau's Health Code system would remain in place for the foreseeable future and that the "5+3" rule from arrivals from places other than the Chinese mainland would be maintained, i.e. five days mandatory quarantine at a government-designated hotel and three days of self-health management. However, from Monday, the self-health management will no longer entail a "red" but merely a "yellow" health code, which allows its holder to move more freely.
As of tonight, Macau's official COVID-19 tally stands at 851 confirmed and 2,040 asymptomatic cases, of which 791 and 1,904 have meanwhile been cured.
Macau's population stands at about 670,000, according to official demographics.
