‘Preliminarily’ confirmed Filipina COVID-19 patient in HK lunched at local Jollibee, shopped at S. Domingos Market for 4 days
A 40-year-old Filipina who has been “preliminarily” confirmed by the Hong Kong authorities to have been infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) visited Macau last week, and during her six-day stay here she had lunch at the Jollibee fast-food eatery in the city centre and bought fresh food at the São Domingos Municipal Market every day for four consecutive days, the Health Bureau’s (SSM) Control of Communicable Diseases and Surveillance of Diseases Department Coordinator Leong Iek Hou said during yesterday evening’s daily press conference about Macau’s COVID-19 situation.
The Macau authorities are still trying to confirm where the Filipina stayed during her six-day visit to Macau between last Sunday and Friday.
The Hong Kong health authorities informed their counterparts in Macau around midday yesterday about the “preliminarily” confirmed case, Leong said. At the time of the press conference in the late afternoon, the local authorities had still to receive detailed personal information about the Filipina from the Hong Kong authorities as her COVID-19 infection had not yet been confirmed, according to Leong.
According to Leong, the Hong Kong authorities have told their counterparts in Macau they believed that the Filipina case has been connected to a cluster linking four bars in Lan Kwai Fong and Wan Chai.
During yesterday’s press conference at the Health Bureau adjacent to the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, Leong said that the woman came to Macau last Sunday. She returned to Hong Kong on Friday. During her six-day stay in Macau, the Filipina had lunch at the local branch of the Philippine fast-food chain at Circle Square in Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro at around 2 p.m. every day between last Monday and Thursday, after which she went to the São Domingos Municipal Market each time where she bought fresh food.
After receiving the report about the Filipina from Hong Kong’s Department of Health, the Macau Health Bureau managed to contact the woman to ask her about her stay in Macau, according to Leong, who said that as she is a Filipina, she could not clearly describe which streets and buildings she had been to during her stay in Macau. According to Leong, the Filipina said that she rented a flat during her stay in Macau and told the Health Bureau the landlord’s contact number. However, the bureau had not been able to contact the landlord before the press conference.
Leong said that the Health Bureau could therefore not confirm where the Filipina stayed during her visit to Macau.
Leong also said that the Filipina had been in touch with a non-resident worker employed in Macau – whose nationality was not revealed – during her stay here. The non-resident worker, who has been classified as a close contact, has meanwhile undergone a COVID-19 test at the public hospital and been taken to the Health Bureau’s quarantine facility – the Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane – for 14-days medical observation.
Leong pledged that the Macau authorities will announce the details of the Filipina’s stay here once her COVID-19 infection has been confirmed by the Hong Kong authorities.
18th patient in ‘serious’ condition
Meanwhile, Lo Iek Long, a clinical director of the public hospital, announced during yesterday’s press conference that the condition of a COVID-19 patient undergoing treatment at the public hospital – Macau’s 18th patient who was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus disease on March 21 – has become “serious”.
Macau had confirmed 37 COVID-19 cases until yesterday evening’s press conference. The local government confirmed another COVID-19 case last night, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 38 late last night.
According to Lo, the patient in a “serious” condition, a 50-year-old local woman, returned to Macau on a flight from New York to Hong Kong via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) on March 21. Upon arrival at the Macau checkpoint of the bridge Health Bureau official detected that she had a fever, 38 degrees Celsius, after which she was taken to the public hospital, where she tested positive for the novel coronavirus that night.
According to previous government announcements, the 18th COVID-19 patient travelled to the United States late last month to visit her two sons and a daughter who are studying there and returned to Macau with the trio on March 21. One of the woman’s three children – a 19-year-old local man – was also confirmed to have been infected with the novel coronavirus disease the next day – March 22, becoming Macau’s 19th COVID-19 patient.
Staff disinfect the closed Jollibee restaurant in Circle Square last night after a Filipina who has “preliminarily” been confirmed by the Hong Kong authorities to have been infected with the novel coronavirus had lunch there four times last week. According to local media reports, the fast-food eatery will remain closed for disinfection today.Photo: Mark Yeung 
Health Bureau (SSM) Director Lei Chin Ion (second from right), Lo Iek Long (second from left), one of the three clinical directors of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, SSM Control of Communicable Diseases and Surveillance of Diseases Department Coordinator Leong Iek Hou (first from left), and Inês Chan Lou, who heads the Macau Government Tourism Office’s (MGTO) Licensing and Inspection Department (right), pose during yesterday’s press conference at the bureau about the city’s novel coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. Photo: GCS
Macau’s first COVID-19 patient in serious condition
The woman has become Macau’s first COVID-19 patient in a serious condition.
According to Lo, the 50-year-old woman told doctors at the public hospital that she came down with a mild cough on March 18 and an “itchy” throat on March 20. On the first day of treatment at the public hospital – March 21, the hospital immediately treated the woman with antivirals and interferon. Last Tuesday, the woman’s CT scan showed that her pneumonia had become more serious, when doctors increased the amount of the hormone used to treat her, Lo said, adding that the woman, however, came down with dyspnoea and hypoxemia yesterday, after which she received oxygen treatment.
Lo said that the woman’s CT scan yesterday showed that her pneumonia had further deteriorated. Based on the standards formulated by the National Health Commission (NHC), the woman has been classified as being a COVID-19 patient in a serious condition, Lo said.
HK transport link for returnees to end tomorrow
Meanwhile, Inês Chan Lou, who heads the Licensing and Inspection Department of the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO), reaffirmed yesterday that the local government does not plan to extend after tomorrow its special measure to provide Macau residents who have arrived at Hong Kong’s airport from foreign countries with transport to Macau – which will run until tomorrow in collaboration with the Hong Kong government.
Chan pointed out that the Hong Kong government already extended the measure once, adding that both governments have been putting a lot of human resources and material efforts into carrying out the arrangement.
“Hong Kong has already offered a lot of assistance and exemptions for the special transport measure for Macau,” Chan said, adding that Macau should “respect” Hong Kong’s laws and regulations. She also said it was impossible for the Macau government to “repeatedly” ask its Hong Kong counterpart to continue offering exemptions for Macau.
Threat ‘not less serious’ than in ‘first wave’
Speaking during yesterday’s press conference, Health Bureau Director Lei Chin Ion warned that during the current “second wave” of the COVID infection, Macau was facing a threat “not less serious” than that during the “first wave” early last month. The health chief warned that the Filipina who has been “preliminarily” confirmed by the Hong Kong authorities to have been infected with the novel coronavirus disease had possibly transmitted the disease to some local residents during her stay in Macau, in which case the disease would possibly be transmitted to even more people in the city if residents choose to continue attending gatherings. He urged residents not to let their guard down and persevere in keeping up protective measures.
Macau’s first wave – comprising seven tourists from Wuhan and three locals – lasted from January 22 to February 4. The second wave began on March 15.
