Chaos at Treasure after its appointment as exclusive venue for HK returnees

Chaos has ensued at Taipa’s Treasure Hotel after the government announced that, from today onwards, people returning from the neighboring region of Hong Kong would exclusively be permitted to quarantine at this venue.

The hotel reported that the number of booking requests by far exceeds capacity and that it has been unable to respond to a large number of inquiries.

Local health authorities acknowledged the difficulties during yesterday’s press briefing from the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre, claiming that they are doing “all they can” to help, while nevertheless reaffirming the impracticability of finding a new venue.

“We have received many requests and inquiries from people that have been affected by the [forced] cancelation of rooms in other hotels. We are trying to collaborate with the hotel [Treasure Hotel] to help people from Hong Kong who already had rooms booked in other hotels,” a representative from the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Lau Fong Chi, said. 

In addition, Lau stated, “We are aware that the hotel has received over 2,000 email inquiries and a very high number of attempts via phone. We are ensuring that the hotel can provide support to all people. We know that there are problems and that the phone line is always occupied. We advise people to use email instead for inquiries as phone is not a recommended method at this moment.”

The health authorities also noted that the Treasure Hotel is the only venue capable of providing quarantine facilities in a closed loop, ensuring that there is no possibility of an outbreak. 

Furthermore, its rooms must be shared between not only the returnees from Hong Kong, but also those returning from medium and high-risk areas abroad. 

It must also be available for staff members from border checkpoints and airports that are in close contact with people arriving from abroad, who must comply with guidelines of undergoing periodic periods of isolation to ensure containment of the virus.

According to other media reports during the press briefing, all other quarantines hotels, which were previously fully booked until April, are now available for the purposes of quarantine and have an adequate supply of available rooms.

Returnees can pose risk in other hotels

In response to many media inquiries, Dr. Leong Iek Hou, coordinator at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, justified the measure of placing all returnees from Hong Kong in the Treasure Hotel, stating that these people could pose a risk to public health if they stay elsewhere.

“The Treasure Hotel is a special hotel for quarantine. It ensures that there is no circulation of people coming from medium and high-risk areas as it is managed in a closed-loop system. It also allows separation of floors, lifts and other kinds of equipment so people from different areas do not mix,” she said, adding that the total number of recent arrivals from Hong Kong provided a clear indication that the number of those potentially infected is high.

Questioned as to why there was a distinction between the number of days in quarantine for people arriving from Hong Kong and those returning from other countries or regions with a similar pandemic risk status, Leong said, “According to our experience, in general, the incubation time for people infected with the Omicron variant of the disease is within 14 days [which is the case for those who tested positive arriving from Hong Kong], while for other variants of the disease, the incubation period can be longer, as there is a possibility [that] these people have been infected with other variants.”

According to Leong, this justifies the different number of days in quarantine for returnees from Hong Kong (14 days) and those coming from Singapore or other countries abroad (21 days).

Two-thirds of Coloane’s isolation facility occupied

Forty rooms out of a total of 60 available for treatment in isolation at the Public Health Clinical Center in Coloane are occupied by people undergoing treatment, Dr. Leong informed yesterday.

According to the official, the center has 60 rooms and a maximum capacity of 110 beds.

She said that currently, 40 rooms are occupied by 43 people undergoing treatment, 30 of whom are recent returnees from Hong Kong. Of these, 29 occupants are asymptomatic and one has been recorded as the 80th case of infection with Covid-19.