The government announced in an Executive Order that it will lower the age limit of eligibility to take the mRNA vaccine to 12 years old from today.
Tai Wa Hou, medical director of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital, reiterated the announcement at the daily health press briefing yesterday.
This new group of vaccine recipients – aged between 12 and 15 years – can get inoculated at three locations: the blood collection room at the public hospital, the Ocean Health Center in Taipa and the Ilha Verde Health Center. The health authorities will provide 800 seats for this group of individuals, for the time being.
In order to take the vaccine, minors must either be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, or present a statement of informed consent signed by their parent or legal guardian.
Concerns about the safety of the vaccine persist. About a week ago, a medically recovered lung cancer patient fell into a coma one day after taking the mRNA jab. He is currently in the Intensive Care Unit of the public hospital.
When questioned why the incident was not considered a severe adverse effect following immunization (AEFI), Tai stressed that “those cases which are apparently clinically unrelated to vaccination will not be announced.”
But a social media post reported to be from a nephew of the patient stated that once the patient arrived at the hospital after events unfolded on the day following the vaccination, the doctors kept “hypnotizing” them that the event was unrelated to the vaccine, without even checking with the government AEFI taskforce.
In the post, it was said that the patient started coughing up blood 20 hours after his vaccination.
Responding to a follow-up question, Tai added that the reason for not inoculating cancer patients in Macau is that the immunization reaction may not be satisfactory. He said that chemotherapy will obstruct the development of immunity after vaccination. “It is simply because of this reason,” he said.
He said he could not provide more information because of privacy concerns.
The Public Security Police Force stressed that it operates 16 locations to help residents, particularly those who do not have or do not know how to use a smart device, generate and print the Macau Health Code for use throughout the day.
Responding to a question yesterday, the police pointed out that 15 of the locations are at police stations, and that these operate 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Therefore, even if senior residents need to print Health Code at early hours of the day so that they can take yum-cha, they can do so. AL
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