Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng’s order yesterday to impose a blanket ban on foreign visitors appears, at first glance, to be rather draconian but, I am sure, it’s absolutely necessary to protect our city from the novel coronavirus menace.
Macau, one of the world’s most densely populated territories (around 20,000 people per square kilometre), must be particularly careful in its response to the COVID-19 threat.
Drastic measures are, in my view, the best way of tackling a virus that is not only highly infectious but, apparently, has the morbid predilection to kill the elderly with underlying health issues, a situation that calls for civil society’s commitment to collective responsibility and solidarity among different generations.
The fact that Macau has confirmed three “imported” COVID-19 cases in as many days has been nerve-racking for many locals. That’s why I am in full support of the government’s decision to tighten not only entry but also quarantine rules. People arriving from COVID-19 high-risk countries should be taken into designated quarantine facilities, instead of being allowed home quarantine which is difficult to enforce.
Consequently, all of us – residents and non-resident workers of whatever social, professional and ethnic background – should strictly adhere to the government’s epidemic prevention measures such as immigration restrictions and quarantine regulations. Anyone having an issue with Health Bureau (SSM) officials’ on-the-spot decisions – such as whether to send someone to a quarantine facility or into home quarantine – should not waste their VERY precious time by creating a scene but instead seek legal redress through the proper channels at the appropriate time. That’s what courts are for.
We are experiencing a global health emergency that requires an extremely harsh response.
Our friends in Europe and North America are now paying the price for their initially rather lax response to the COVID-19 threat. Rather irresponsibly, politicians in the EU earlier this month still resisted border control measures within the 27-nation bloc to stem the novel coronavirus threat and bitterly complained about Donald Trump’s decision to suspend air travel between the US and the Schengen Area. Now they are eating their own words and falling over themselves to implement restrictions on cross-border travel such as between the Spanish-Portuguese border.
One can only hope that both North America and Europe will finally get their act together and be able to follow China’s large-scale lockdowns and other drastic but necessary and ultimately efficient measures that in a relatively short period of time succeeded in getting the viral threat under control – and saving many lives.
On the anti-COVID-19 front, Macau has so far been the central government’s best pupil. Let’s make sure that our beloved city will remain one of the world’s top anti-novel coronavirus fighters.
Harald Brüning
