Macau’s COVID-19 death toll has risen by four to 11 at the weekend, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre has announced.
The four fatalities were announced in two statements by the centre, on Saturday and yesterday.
The city’s eighth and ninth COVID-19 fatalities were announced in Saturday’s statement, while the 10th and 11th fatalities were announced in yesterday’s statement.
None of the four victims had been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
All four victims had suffered from various underlying diseases. While three of them were senior citizens, one of them was a 36-year-old woman who had suffered from malignant glioma.
According to Saturday’s statement, the eighth fatality, a 74-year-old woman, had suffered from diabetes, chronic renal insufficiency, and hepatic haemangioma. She had tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, after which she was transferred to the Health Bureau’s (SSM) Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane for isolation treatment.
On Friday, the woman suffered multiple organ failure during hospitalisation, and died in the evening.
The ninth fatality, an 83-year-old man, had suffered from hypertension and chronic renal insufficiency. He had tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday last week and was then transferred to the Public Health Clinical Centre for treatment.
The man came down with respiratory failure and pneumonia during isolation treatment on Thursday. His condition deteriorated rapidly and died on Friday night.
According to yesterday’s statement, Macau’s 10th COVID-19 fatality, a 36-year-old woman, had suffered from malignant glioma and secondary epilepsy. She had tested positive for COVID-19 on December 9 and was then transferred to the Public Health Clinical Centre for isolation treatment. She came down with a lung infection on Monday last week. Her condition began to deteriorate further and she died on Friday night.
The 11th fatality, an 86-year-old woman, had suffered from high blood pressure, hyperthyroidism, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure. She had tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday and was then transferred to the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre for isolation treatment, where she died later after developing acute heart failure.
Hotel quarantine scrapped
Meanwhile, the Macau government had scrapped its long-running mandatory hotel quarantine requirement for arrivals from Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as foreign countries on Saturday.
The measure took effect at 00:00 a.m. on Saturday. The measure was announced in a Health Bureau statement on Friday.
According to the statement, the five-day mandatory hotel quarantine has been replaced by five-day home quarantine.
Previously, arrivals from Hong Kong, Taiwan and foreign countries needed to undergo five days of hotel quarantine, followed by three days of isolation at home, known as 5+3.
Since Saturday, arrivals from the two Chinese regions and foreign countries are required to undergo five days of home quarantine, followed by a three-day ban on travelling onward to the Chinese mainland, known as “optimised 5+3”. This means that after arriving in Macau, the respective travellers can only enter the Chinese mainland nine days after arriving in Macau.
The arrivals’ Macau Health Code will convert to red upon entry into Macau.
For three consecutive days from the next day of entry, the arrivals must undergo a rapid antigen test (RAT, aka self-test) every day and upload the result to the dedicated website of the Health Bureau. Provided that the three tests are negative for three consecutive days, their Macau Health Code will convert to yellow. The person must undergo a nucleic acid test (NAT) at a testing station on that day, otherwise their health code will convert back to red. The arrivals must again self-test on the fourth and fifth days in home quarantine. If the results are negative again, their health code will convert to green, allowing them to move without restrictions in Macau.
However, arrivals can still opt for hotel quarantine at their own expense, i.e., those who cannot stay at a private home in Macau can instead book a hotel room for the five days.
The new measure requires arrivals to obtain a negative NAT result valid for 48 hours before embarking on their trip to Macau by aeroplane, vehicle or ferry.
Mainland Chinese arrivals have never been subject to Macau’s mandatory quarantine rules, except for those arriving from areas affected by a COVID-19 outbreak in the mainland.
Residents queue to collect government-provided anti-COVID-19 kits at a designated point in Iao Hon district yesterday. – Photo courtesy of TDM
