Local health authorities are promoting changes to quarantine hotel venues ahead of the summer holidays in preparation for the expected increase of demand for such facilities, namely from students abroad, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center said yesterday at the weekly regular briefing.
From May 8, the Pousada Marina Infante will resume operations as a quarantine hotel, being classified as a designated general-purpose hotel and accepting local residents as well as non-resident workers (TNR) arriving from Hong Kong. Eligible residents of Macau can apply for the quarantine expenses at this venue to be waived.
At the same time, the Grand Coloane Resort will continue to serve as a general-purpose alternative hotel venue, being able to receive anyone coming from Hong Kong who wishes to select this hotel venue – guests who will, in this case, have to pay the expenses related to the 14-day stay at this venue in full.
Concurrently, two other hotels will be assigned duties as “Specialized Hotel Venues,” namely the Regency Art Hotel and the Treasure Hotel.
While Treasure Hotel continues to be the designated specialized hotel, the Regency Art Hotel will take on such duties as an alternative venue.
While the Treasure Hotel will admit all local residents arriving from abroad as well as TNR coming from foreign countries and Taiwan (including those coming from the Philippines under the new pilot program for domestic workers), Regency Art Hotel will accept people arriving from foreign countries and Taiwan, except TNRs from the Philippines. In the case of the Regency Art Hotel, all quarantines will be funded by the guests, while eligible residents can be exempted from payment if they stay in the Treasure Hotel.
All these changes were presented by the representative of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Lau Fong Chi, who explained that they aim to increase the offer in respect of the number of quarantine rooms during the period of summer holidays, as well as aiming to allow a better separation between people arriving in Macau from areas with different risk level for Covid-19 infection.
Lau also added that the changes undertaken, namely regarding people arriving from Taiwan, have to do with the recent outbreak that led to an increase in the level of perceived risk for Taiwan.
For that reason, Lau added, people arriving from Taiwan who already had other bookings made will be transferred, according to the new rules, to the Treasure Hotel, while other adjustments, including those involving bookings for Grand Coloane Resort, are still being made and will take further time, she said.
To accelerate the adjustments, these four hotel venues, from today noontime, will begin to accept bookings under the new arrangements.
Lau noted that reservations must be done exclusively using the e-mail provided; no reservations over the phone will be accepted.
As for the price of the quarantine stays, the same government official said that they vary according to each hotel, advising interested parties to consult the hotels for pricing information.
In response to a question about whether the Regency Art Hotel allows those quarantining in a closed-loop system, as the government said is strictly necessary, and commenting as to the reason why more alternatives for the Treasure Hotel could not be found, Lau said, “Both hotels need to have a closed-loop. Before being accepted as a quarantine venue, we inspected Regency and we have made some adjustments to ensure that this hotel could be used as an alternative specialized hotel,” she concluded.
According to figures cited by Dr. Leong Iek Hou, coordinator at the local Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there is a preliminary estimate that around 800 students abroad will want to return to Macau during their summer holidays.
She said that according to the information provided by the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ), some 773 students abroad have already expressed their wish to return between the months of May and September, with the large majority arriving aiming to arrive in the months of June and July.
Rapid antigen tests not going to replace NAT
When questioned about the recent changes to the Macau Health Code and the possibility of people doing rapid antigen self-tests and reporting their results to the system, Dr. Leong Iek Hou said that antigen tests are only complementary to nucleic acid tests (NAT) and that the authorities will not allow the replacing of NAT with just a rapid antigen test.
“Antigen tests are only complementary [to NAT]. We are not going to replace the NAT with them,” she said, explaining, “They are less sensitive and accurate and can provide a lot of false results. These [antigen tests] are most useful during an outbreak where we need to minimize movement and still ensure some feedback from people [in home isolation], but not in a situation where there is no severe outbreak, no lack of NAT resources, and no severe risks in doing them.”
