Macau Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long has urged residents not to panic over the rising number of COVID-19 cases following the government's recent decision to ease its restrictions in the ongoing fight against highly infectious disease.
Addressing a regular press conference about the COVID-19 situation in Macau yesterday, Lei pointed out that scientific data indicate that most of those infected with the prevalent Omicron variant don't get seriously ill.
The Health Bureau recorded 85 COVID-19 cases in the community on Friday, a large increase compared to the situation just a few weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Lo also said that Macau will enter its second phase of relaxed COVID-19 restrictions on Wednesday when those diagnosed with the disease may be permitted to quarantine at home, depending on the outcome of a self-health assessment to be submitted to the Health Bureau via an e-platform. The result will be indicated by a four-colour system: "green" means that the infected person can quarantine at home; "yellow" requires the infectee to book an appointment at a designated community clinic for follow-up assessment; "orange" requires the infectee to seek further treatment and assessment at a community treatment centre; "red" means that the infected person must undergo hospital treatment.
About two dozen community clinics were planned to be operational on Wednesday, Lei said.
Lo also announced that starting tomorrow, members of the public no longer are required to scan their Venue Code to access public spaces and facilities such as parks, public transport (buses, taxis, LRT) and municipal markets. However, scanning of the Macau Health Code will still be required to enter government offices and schools as well as social welfare and medical facilities.
It is up to other public venues such as restaurants whether they wish to still require people to scan the venue code in order to be allowed in.
Lo also said that the government had already begun to hand free anti-COVID-19 kits (containing facemasks, traditional Chinese medicine and self-test devices) to people in Macau. Anyone in Macau - residents, non-resident workers, non-local students and long-term visitors - are entitled to the kits.
Lo also said that following the successful implementation of the second easing phase, Macau could possibly return to normalcy in the third phase. However, he gave not timeline for when he expected the third phase to get off the ground.
Macau confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020. For nearly three years, the government had implemented strict COVID-19 prevention and control measures in line with mainland China's dynamic COVID policy. The mainland has recently begun to relax its curbs.
Currently, arrivals from the Chinese regions of Hong Kong and Taiwan and foreign countries need to go into five-day hotel quarantine and three days of self-health management. Health Bureau officials have signalled that the quarantine requirement for arrivals from Hong Kong could be lifted soon. Mainlanders arriving in Macau are not required to undergo quarantine here.
As of yesterday, Macau's official COVID-19 tally of confirmed and asymptomatic cases stood at 878 and 2,063 respectively, of which 791 and 1,920 had meanwhile been cured. The COVID-19 death toll remained at six.
