Although the Covid-19 vaccination plan is one of the priorities established by the government, it does not have higher importance than the vaccination plans for other diseases, health authorities told the Times.
Replying to a question from the Times on whether people should prioritize vaccination with a Covid-19 vaccine or follow other regular vaccination plans first, Dr. Leong Iek Hou, coordinator at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said, “We don’t want the Covid-19 vaccination plan to cause people to delay other vaccination plans,” adding that people should adhere to their regular plans and ensure they receive any necessary vaccines on time, even if this means that they need to postpone one of the Covid-19 doses for a couple of weeks.
The question was raised due to information received by the Times regarding a citizen who wished to receive an anti-tetanus vaccine being informed at the counter of a private hospital in Macau that he should first be vaccinated against Covid-19.
In response, Leong reaffirmed that there is no Health Bureau (SSM) policy on this matter and that the position of the health authorities is that regular vaccination plans should not be delayed.
The same official explained that what the SSM is doing is promoting the Covid-19 vaccine to citizens seeking medical services who are not yet vaccinated.
“We are just promoting and advising people who have not received the vaccine yet to do so,” Leong, said. “That is all we can do, explaining to them that the vaccine can help them to protect themselves, their families, and the community in general.”
No plans for a Covid-19 field hospital in Seac Pai Van
At the same opportunity in response to a question, health authorities also denied having plans for a field hospital dedicated to Covid-19 isolation and treatment to be built around the Seac Pai Van area.
“There are no such plans yet and there is no location defined. We are only studying potential spaces that could be suitable for such a facility, in the case if ever needed,” Leong said, adding, “It needs to be a place big enough to contain all the facilities and allow for closed-loop management as well being far from densely populated areas such as residential areas,” she concluded.
The idea of building a large-size quarantine facility in Macau is part of the Policy Address from the government for 2022 (LAG22) and was mentioned when the Chief Executive (CE), Ho Iat Seng, delivered the main points of the LAG22 at the Legislative Assembly (AL) last November.
Nonetheless, in a session dedicated to a Q&A with the press on the LAG22 held the same day, Ho said in a reply to the Times that the government had no intention of building a dedicated quarantine facility in Macau.
The response came in apparent contradiction to the LAG22 document and Ho’s address at the AL, and was never cleared by the authorities.
“If we need to expand our quarantine facilities, we will cooperate with the hotel industry. Some hotels are willing to cooperate with us and we continue to gather support from the hotel sector. We have no intention to build quarantine facilities from scratch,” the CE said to the Times.
In the chapter dedicated to strengthening the infection prevention and control system and promoting economic recovery, the LAG22 document states that the government will “study the feasibility of building large quarantine facilities.”
