The authorities have transferred a 35-year-old local man who failed to report that he had visited Qingdao when returning to Macau last week to “mandatory quarantine”, the Health Bureau (SSM) announced in a statement yesterday.
The statement pointed out that the Health Bureau imposed its 14-day quarantine for arrivals from Qingdao last Tuesday due to the COVID-19 epidemic situation there – all those who have been in the north-eastern port city within the 14 days prior to their entry into Macau must undergo 14 days of quarantine and medical observation at one of the government’s “quarantine hotels”.
According to the statement, the Health Bureau received an email message from an “earnest” resident last Thursday, who discovered that the man had posted photos showing his visit to Qingdao on social media, and therefore suspected that he had deliberately not reported his travel history when returning to Macau so as to evade the bureau’s quarantine requirement.
The statement said that after an investigation, the Public Security Police (PSP) identified the man and took him in for questioning, when he admitted that he visited Qingdao between October 9 and last Tuesday but failed to report the travel history in the Macau Health Code when returning to Macau via the Barrier Gate border checkpoint last Wednesday.
In addition to possible criminal responsibility, those who have breached the Health Bureau’s quarantine requirement may also be subject to mandatory quarantine, the statement said, adding that “therefore the Health Bureau has decided to impose mandatory quarantine on the local resident, and the Public Security Police will carry out a follow-up investigation into his alleged illegal conduct”.
The statement pointed out that according to the Law on the Prevention, Control and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, those who fail to make an honest and accurate health declaration face a prison term of up to six months.
The statement urged residents to comply with Macau’s current COVID-19 border entry measures so as to prevent imported cases and a COVID-19 rebound.
The local man’s case came after a plastic surgeon working for the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, who visited Qingdao between September 25 and October 5, failed to report his travel history to his superior after returning from the port city in Shandong province and continued to carry out his clinical work, a case announced by the Health Bureau on Tuesday. According to Tuesday’s announcement, the Macau Health Code of those who have been in Qingdao within the past 14 days but had already entered Macau before last Tuesday’s quarantine measure is indicates yellow, and therefore the plastic surgeon was required to practise 14 days of “self-health management”, in which case his superior would have arranged for him to work in a way that his contact with others would be kept at a minimum.
