Golden Week to test Macau’s infection prevention measures

The week-long holiday that commemorates the founding of the People’s Republic of China, commonly known as Golden Week, will be the ultimate test of Macau’s prevention and control measures which are in force due to Covid-19, said the medical director of Conde de São Januário Hospital, Dr. Alvis Lo, yesterday during the briefing of local health authorities.
Replying to questions from the media about the need to continue enforcing so many restrictive measures, Lo said, “Golden Week will be a test that will allow us to evaluate our [current] preventive measures and review them [if necessary].”
The doctor, who is a member of a panel of local health experts in charge of establishing and reviewing the measures in force, noted, “to enforce new measures […] can come as an emergency and happens from one day to another, but to revoke [previously enforced measures] it takes times as we need to do it slowly and in a controlled manner.”
“We know that the measures in force cause constraints and hassles to many people but [those] people must understand that we need to protect our population,” he remarked.
Macau has not registered any local infections for 183 days and also has not detected any imported cases for 94 days. It was also noted that the mainland, the only entry point available for visitors to Macau, has also not recorded any cases of Covid-19 infection in the past 20 days.
Due to a forecasted increase of activity across the borders due to Golden Week, local health authorities announced that the daily quota for Nucleic Acid Tests (NAT) has been raised to a maximum of 19,000 tests a day with the NAT testing post of Forum Macao to raise its capacity to 13,000. The posts at Kiang Wu Hospital and the Macau University of Science and Technology Hospital have also raised their capacity raised to over 1,500 and 1,000 tests per day respectively.
According to Lo, in extreme circumstances, there is still the possibility that people will resort to the company China Certification & Inspection Group Macau Co. LTD, which can provide testing and deliver results within the same day for a price of MOP500.

Regency Art Hotel done with quarantine
The Regency Art Hotel in Taipa will cease to operate as a designated quarantine venue from September 30, the representative of the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Lau Fong Chi, said yesterday during the media briefing.
The official also noted that as in previous occasions, health authorities will proceed with the thorough cleaning and disinfection of all facilities before handing the hotel back to management so it can operate normally as a hotel unit again.

Hygiene behind school outbreaks
Questioned about Health Bureau (SSM) reports of an infection cluster in schools with a virus that causes respiratory problems, Dr. Leong Iek Hou, coordinator of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledged that the infections, although unrelated to Covid-19, have been confirmed as viral, suggesting that schools should pay more attention to hygiene.
“With the reopening of classes, namely in kindergartens, there were cases of infections with respiratory symptoms. We have detected that was due to a viral infection that caused low-temperature fevers as well as other low effects. This disease is related to our hygiene a lot. When we have these cases [this means] schools must do a proper cleaning and open the windows to renew the air of the rooms, and they need to raise the frequency of disinfection,” Leong said.
“There is always a risk of contagion in schools due to proximity [of children], but it is a low risk,” she added. “Even if there is a case [of Covid-19], what we need to do is to act fast. We cannot keep schools closed permanently.”