Construction of infectious diseases building must proceed, Tam says

Alexis Tam

The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, explained on Saturday that after considering population safety and the protection of heritage, the government will demolish two buildings beside the public hospital, where they will build the infectious diseases building.
As reported by the Times on Friday, Mr Tam told media representatives that the construction of this building is long overdue and has been planned since 1999. After the SARS epidemic in 2003, as well as the recent outbreak of infectious diseases in neighboring regions, the government decided to build the facility to effectively address such diseases.
The secretary reminded the media that in order for the health services to properly isolate and treat the patients, the new building needed to be located near the main hospital facility. Mr Tam added that this was why the Cultural Heritage Council of Macau had green-lit the demolition of two buildings currently in use by the Social Welfare Bureau.  One of the buildings was being used as a rehabilitation center for drug addicts; the other served as a storage unit for the CHCSJ.
Mr Tam stated that in order to preserve Guia’s Hill heritage and landscape, the height of the Infectious Diseases building had been changed. The architectural works have already been completed. RM