No more announcements of asymptomatic cases
Macau’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced yesterday in a statement that from yesterday the Macau government will no longer announce daily new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.
The centre also announced that Macau reported 45 confirmed cases, whose carriers had come down with COVID-19 symptoms, on Wednesday.
The 45 cases were detected between 00:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday.
The statement noted that the National Health Commission (NHC) has no longer announced daily new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases in the mainland since Wednesday, and instead it has only announced daily new confirmed cases. Consequently, the statement said, the Macau government now also follows the NHC’s adjustment in its announcements accordingly.
The statement noted that with the central government’s adjusted anti-COVID-19 approach in place, “many” people in the mainland who have not come down with any COVID-19 symptoms after getting infected with the novel coronavirus are no longer required to undergo nucleic acid tests (NATs), because of which the mainland’s health authorities are no longer able to accurately come up with the “real” number of daily new asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers, the statement said.
Macau reported 402 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, comprising 290 asymptomatic cases and 112 confirmed cases.
Yesterday’s statement noted that in the mainland, only those who have come down with pneumonia, or other “obvious” COVID-19 symptoms, are classified as confirmed COVID-19 patients. Correspondingly, the statement said, in Macau COVID-19 carriers who need to be transferred to facilities run or arranged by the Health Bureau (SSM), namely the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, the Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane, and hotels used for isolation treatment, are classified as confirmed COVID-19 patients.
The statement said that in line with the new classification criteria, Macau reported 45 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
According to the Health Bureau’s anti-epidemic website, Macau’s official COVID-19 stood at 1,254 confirmed cases on Wednesday, including seven deaths. The website no longer mentions the tally of asymptomatic cases.
24-hour NAT validity for Macau-Zhuhai travellers to continue for 7 more days
Meanwhile, the 24-hour validity of the negative COVID-19 NAT result for those travelling between Macau and Zhuhai, which was slated to end at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, has now been extended for seven more days until Wednesday next week. The seven-day extension was announced by Zhuhai’s health authorities in a statement on Wednesday.
The seven-day extension is now slated to end at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday next week.
This photo released by the Government Information Bureau (GCS) on Wednesday shows the ex-Canidrome in Fai Chi Kei, one of eight community clinics for COVID-19 patients that started operating that day.
