Macau’s daily number of new COVID-19 patients admitted to medical facilities has been on the rise since last week, recent and yesterday’s official figures indicated.
Official figures released yesterday showed that seven new COVID-19 patients were admitted to treatment facilities on Sunday – one admitted to the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre and six admitted to the private Kiang Wu Hospital.
No new COVID-19 patients had been admitted to treatment facilities for three consecutive days, from April 28 to 30, before a new patient was admitted to a treatment facility on Monday last week. Since then, Macau had had new COVID-19 patients admitted to treatment facilities every day, as of Sunday.
From May 1 to 7, when the new daily numbers of patients admitted to treatment facilities after having been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease were one, one, one, two, three, five, and seven respectively. Consequently, a total of 20 new COVID-19 patients were admitted to treatment facilities during the seven-day period.
According to the Health Bureau’s (SSM) COVID-19 website, which was updated yesterday, Macau’s official cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases stood at 3,540, of which 3,408 had meanwhile been cured.
Previously, no new COVID-19 patients had been admitted to treatment facilities for 33 consecutive days, from March 23 to April 24, before two new patients were admitted to treatment facilities on April 25.
No new COVID-19 patients were admitted to treatment facilities on April 26, while three new patients were admitted on April 27.
Meanwhile, Macau had not recorded any COVID-19 fatalities for 94 days in a row, from February 3 to May 7. Consequently, Macau’s official COVID-19 death toll has remained unchanged at 121.
The Health Bureau said on Saturday that an average of around 20 patients seeking treatment at the city’s hospitals tested positive for COVID-19 every day over recent days.
Macau suffered its first peak of widespread COVID-19 infections around the Christmas holiday following the local government’s decision to abandon its long-running dynamic zero-COVID approach on December 8. A one-month period transitioning the city from the zero-COVID approach ended on January 8, when the local government started to tackle COVID-19 as an endemic disease.
Since Macau logged the highest daily official 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.
The Health Bureau has reaffirmed that Macau is expected to be affected by the periodic occurrence of relatively small-scale peaks of COVID-19 infections in the foreseeable future.
A car drives past an entrance to the private Kiang Wu Hospital last night. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
