Three more people died of the novel coronavirus disease on Monday, raising Macau’s COVID-19 death toll to 16, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced yesterday.
According a statement by the centre, the three victims, one male and two females, aged 60, 88 and 94 respectively, had all suffered from underlying diseases.
1 victim double-jabbed, 1 victim triple-jabbed
While one of the three fatalities had not been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, the other two had received two and three COVID-19 jabs respectively.
Different to government statements about previous COVID-19 fatalities, yesterday’s statement did not announce details of the latest fatalities, such as what underlying diseases they had suffered from and when they had tested positive for COVID-19.
The first six of the 16 COVID-19 fatalities were reported during Macau’s previous COVID-19 outbreak that began on June 18 this year and started to subside in late July, colloquially known as 618 outbreak in Cantonese.
The seventh fatality was reported on Tuesday last week, which came after Macau switched to an adjusted anti-COVID-19 approach that implicitly allows constant transmissions of the novel coronavirus in the community, which got off the ground about 10 days ago.
The Macau government was pursuing a dynamic zero-COVID approach when the city was hit by the 618 outbreak. The local government’s then dynamic zero-COVID model aimed to cut off transmission chains and eventually reach zero cases in the community after the novel coronavirus had been imported into the city every time.
In addition, the previous dynamic zero-COVID approach required the implementation of strict border entry curbs.
The local government has underlined that it is currently pursuing a step-by-step approach towards easing COVID-19 restrictions with the aim of preventing a COVID-19 outbreak from occurring exponentially.
Macau logs 90 new patients on Monday
Meanwhile, yesterday’s statement also announced that 90 new patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease were admitted to the Health Bureau’s (SSM) isolation and treatment facilities on Monday.
Since Thursday last week, the Macau government has no longer announced daily new asymptomatic COVID-19 infections, and instead it has only announced daily the new number of patients admitted to facilities run or arranged by the Health Bureau, which currently comprise the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, the Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane, and hotels used for isolation treatment.
Guidelines on work resumption of infected staff
Meanwhile, the Health Bureau published guidelines earlier this week on criteria that allow staff members infected with COVID-19 to return to work, according to which those who have not come down with a fever or other “obvious” COVID-19 symptoms after being infected with the novel coronavirus can continue to work, if the respective companies seriously lack staff members to maintain their operations.
The new guidelines published on Monday aim to limit rapid transmissions of the novel coronavirus at workplaces and reduce the adverse impact of the current COVID-19 outbreak on the operations of businesses.
According to local media reports earlier this week, various businesses and shops in the city, restaurants in particular, have been forced to suspend operations after many of their staff members were infected with COVID-19.
The guidelines published on Monday lay out three levels of criteria that allow infected staff members to return to work, namely levels A, B and C. According to Level A, which applies to companies that are not affected by a lack of staff, employees can return to work if they have self-tested negative for COVID-19 with a rapid antigen test (RAT) kit at least five days after testing positive for the novel coronavirus or coming down with COVID-19 symptoms for the first time.
Under Level B, which applies to companies that are affected by a lack of staff, employees can return to work at least seven days after testing positive for the novel coronavirus or coming down with COVID-19 symptoms for the first time, regardless of having tested positive or negative in their latest rapid antigen test or nucleic acid test (NAT).
According to Level C, which applies to companies that are seriously hit by a lack of staff, employees who have been infected with COVID-19 are allowed to continue working as long as they have not come down with a fever or other “obvious” COVID-19 symptoms.
Nevertheless, according to the guidelines, companies under Level B or C are required to implement special measures that aim to minimise possible COVID-19 transmissions among staff members, and between staff members and customers or patrons.
Meanwhile, as of 1:45 a.m. today the Health Bureau’s special website on epidemics had not been updated since Sunday. On that day, Macau’s official COVID-19 tally stood at 1,427 “confirmed cases” including 11 fatalities. Macau diagnosed its first COVID-19 case in January 22, 2020.
People who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 rest during their 30-minute observation period at Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion yesterday when the new inoculation facility there started operating. – Photo courtesy of TDM
