Two new patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease were admitted to the Health Bureau’s (SSM) isolation and treatment facilities on Monday, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre announced in a statement yesterday.
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 3,513, of which 3,378 had meanwhile been cured.
No new COVID-19 patients had been recorded for three consecutive days, from Friday to Sunday, after one patient was admitted on Thursday last week.
Macau has not recorded any COVID-19 fatalities for 18 days in a row, from February 3 to 20, according to yesterday’s statement by the centre, which announced that no fatalities were recorded on Monday.
Consequently, Macau’s official COVID-19 death toll has remained unchanged at 121.
The 18 consecutive days without any COVID-19 fatalities is the longest period in a row without any deaths caused by the novel coronavirus disease, since Macau’s seventh COVID-19 fatality was reported on December 13, a few days after the Macau government abandoned its long-running dynamic zero-COVID approach.
Before one fatality was reported on February 2, Macau had not recorded any COVID-19 fatalities for seven consecutive days, from January 26 to February 1.
773 deaths in December: official data
Meanwhile, official statistics show that Macau recorded 773 deaths in December last year, a year-on-year increase of 234.6 percent from December 2021 when 231 fatalities were recorded.
The number of 773 fatalities recorded in December was announced by the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics January 2023, published by the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) last week.
During a press conference early last month, Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long acknowledged that Macau recorded “over 600” deaths in December last year, as opposed to an average of around 200 per month during the previous two years.
Lo noted early last month that Macau recorded around 2,300 deaths per year during the previous two years, equivalent to an average of around 200 per month, acknowledging that the number of deaths recorded in December 2022 was “certainly high”.
According to the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics January 2023, Macau recorded 2,230 and 2,320 fatalities in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Because of the much-higher-than-normal monthly number of deaths recorded in December last year, Macau recorded 2,992 fatalities in 2022, according to the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics January 2023.
Before last year, according to historical official statistics, Macau had recorded around 2,000 to 2,300 deaths every year over the past few years.
Macau suffered its first peak of widespread COVID-19 infections around the Christmas holiday resulting from the local government’s decision to abandon its dynamic zero-COVID approach on December 8, but the city’s COVID-19 situation has markedly improved since around the middle of last month. Nevertheless, for the time being the Macau Health Bureau is still urging everyone in Macau to continue wearing a facemask when they are in public places.
After Macau had the highest daily number of new COVID-19 fatalities of nine on January 5, the new daily number of fatalities had gradually been declining, before the latest fatality was reported on February 2.
