Concerns over quarantine facilities in AL
Ho Ion Sang
Several lawmakers have expressed concerns yesterday regarding the Covid-19 situation in the neighboring regions and its potential impact on Macau.
While expressing support for the recent words of the Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, who said that the local government would continue to fight Covid-19 and maintain the “zero-cases policy,” several lawmakers noted the difficulties concerning quarantine arrangements for residents coming from outside Macau, specifically from Hong Kong.
During yesterday’s plenary session at the Legislative Assembly (AL) and during the period before the meeting, several lawmakers spoke on the matter, including Ma Io Fong, Ho Ion Sang, and Zheng Anting.
Ma called on the government to prepare and provide more timely information concerning policy changes, specifically on the decision to reserve certain quarantine venues for specific categories of travellers. Ma accused the executive of taking the decision too hastily that returnees from Hong Kong must quarantine in the Treasure Hotel. The measure “has caught the public off guard,” he said.
While agreeing with the reasons behind the decision, Ma said that “the government must have its work prepared and coordinated in advance.” He asserted that there are many problems related to the booking of lodgings, as well as transportation from Hong Kong to Macau, which the local authorities have been ignoring for want of solutions.
“Some residents managed to book a room but were unable to buy a bus ticket, and there were even cases where they managed to book a room, but, due to policy changes, had to cancel their reservations, and were not sure where to turn to for help.”
The lawmaker advised the authorities to “strengthen communication with the hotels designated for medical observation, helping the staff to respond to the residents.” He further proposed that the government should “coordinate the work of booking rooms and bus tickets for residents who had previously booked rooms [that had been canceled], as [these travellers] already had everything prepared, but [their plans were upset] due to changes in the measures.”
Due to the scarcity of venues and the challenges for local authorities in finding suitable quarantine venues, Ma also called on the government to consider the possibility of negotiating with Zhuhai authorities. He suggested that the two regions “study the possibility of Macau residents returning from Hong Kong to be quarantined in hotels in the mainland, providing them with more options.”
On the same matter, lawmaker Ho also urged the government to seriously prepare for an eventual outbreak, claiming that in a city with such a high population density “a large-scale outbreak would have unimaginable consequences.”
Ho also said that the community expects the government to take into account the experience of other regions, particularly Hong Kong, to thoroughly prepare contingency plans for a potential new outbreak. The government must make plans “especially concerning quarantine hotels, isolation beds, human health resources, testing capacity, etc., and disclose, as soon as possible, plans to respond to a possible outbreak in the community to clear the concerns residents’ anxieties.”
Ho claimed that the reason for such a large-scale outbreak in Hong Kong was due to a “shortage of hospital beds and quarantine facilities, which resulted in the impossibility to effectively separate the sick and close contacts from healthy people.” Ho therefore called on the government to accelerate as much as possible the construction of the infectious disease facility currently being built at the Conde de São Januário Hospital Center, “so that it can start operating as soon as possible, to protect the local public health.”
Also addressing the same issues, Zheng called on the authorities especially support those residents who had already made reservations at quarantine hotels, which due to the change of policy, been canceled, and whose hopes of returning to Macau were postponed.
“In my opinion, the government should improve how rooms are reserved and, for example, create an online room-reservation system, intended exclusively for the reservation of rooms in observation hotels, to facilitate, with greater precision and effectiveness, the reservation of rooms for residents,” Zheng said.
Zheng also warned the government to take into account the treatment capacity for patients while searching for quarantine venues. The lawmaker said that if Macau accepts too many people coming from regions of high risk who could be potentially infected, there might not be the capacity in the local health system to treat them.
AL approves merger of three education funds
The Legislative Assembly passed a bill yesterday that merges the Education Development Fund (FDE), the Higher Education Fund, and the Student Welfare Fund into a single autonomous fund.
During the brief debate before the final approval, some lawmakers expressed concerns regarding the management of the education funds, specifically in light of a report from the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) in late December last year slamming the FDE management over unlawful subsidies granted to schools.
On the matter, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong, said that the government has already acknowledged the concerns over the issue and has taken the necessary lessons from the CCAC report.
Ao Ieong said that the new autonomous fund which merges the three previous funds will have much closer supervision and additional transparency, including the online publication of all funding projects approved by it, as well as an audit system to be conducted by an independent third party.
One of the lawmakers most actively seeking guarantees from the government that this fund would not be another waste of public money was Ron Lam. He questioned the Secretary on several aspects of the bill, and voted against or abstained from several articles which he said he did not support or which required further protection and support for schools and teachers, particularly concerning access to scholarships and permanent funding projects.
After the vote which finally approved the bill, lawmaker Lam, in a declaration of his vote, expressed once again his “hopes that government will fulfill the promises made at this plenary.” He also hopes that the government will follow the regime of acquisition from both tertiary and non-tertiary education institutions, to ensure the good use of public money. RM
