Four more people died of the novel coronavirus disease on Monday, raising Macau’s official COVID-19 death toll to 56, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced yesterday.
According to a statement by the centre, the four male victims, aged between 61 and 98, had all suffered from underlying diseases.
None of the four fatalities had been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, the statement said.
The first six of the 56 COVID-19 fatalities were reported during Macau’s previous COVID-19 outbreak that began on June 18 last year and started to subside in late July, colloquially known as 618 outbreak in Cantonese. The Macau government was pursuing a dynamic zero-COVID approach when the city was hit by the 618 outbreak.
The seventh fatality was reported on December 13, which came after the Macau government 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 early last month.
Macau logs 110 new patients on Monday
Meanwhile, yesterday’s statement also announced that 110 new patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease were admitted to the Health Bureau’s (SSM) isolation and treatment facilities on Monday.
The Health Bureau’s isolation and treatment facilities currently comprise the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, the Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane, and hotels used for isolation treatment.
According to the Health Bureau’s COVID-19 website, which was updated yesterday, Macau’s official cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases stood at 2,803, of which 2,502 had meanwhile been cured.
Before the local government abandoned its long-running dynamic zero-COVID model early last month, Macau had widely been described as an “oasis” in the global COVID-19 desert, considering its markedly small number of infections and very low death toll.
Macau recorded its first COVID-19 case on January 22, 2020.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U told reporters last week that the government estimated that Macau had its first peak of COVID-19 infections between December 21 and 23, following the commencement of the government’s easing of COVID-19 curbs early last month. The policy secretary, whose portfolio includes the public health sector, also urged residents to be well prepared for the possible “periodic” occurrence of peaks of COVID-19 infections in the future.
The local government has underlined that Macau needs to always adopt a COVID-19 approach in line with the mainland authorities’ measures.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng told reporters on Christmas Eve that he expected people in Macau to be able to return to normal life like in the pre-pandemic period after going through the current “difficult and tough” period hit by widespread COVID-19 infections.
