Gov’t calls off pandemic measures decision within hours

This past Friday night, the Times learned from a sports association that its training sessions over the weekend were forced to be called off due to a sudden restriction issued by the Health Bureau (SSM), following its “condemning” of a Central District shopping mall for running promotional events last week.
In a notice issued on the day by the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, it was stated that athletes participating in interschool sports competitions would be required to be tested for Covid-19 every seven days. “Competitions will only resume in a short period of time after orderly arrangements have been made,” the notice wrote.
However, within six hours of the education bureau’s notice and two hours after the Times obtained the information from the sports association, on the same night, the Sports Bureau (ID) issued a notice, saying that all local competitions and group training sessions would resume on the following day.
Forty-five minutes after the ID notice, the SSM’s Covid-19 branch issued a notice to explain that due to the fact that “many global cases were pertinent to performances and competitions,” it had changed Covid-19 measures on November 4, further explaining that the change had then been called off as feedback was received regarding the impracticality of the new measures.
Although the notice did not say what the measures were, it was believed to be referring to the cancelation of local sports training and competition sessions. The new measures, on the other hand, have not been announced at the weekly Covid-19 briefing held by the government.
Meanwhile, the Health Bureau has kept its green light for this year’s Grand Prix.
When asked to comment on the matter, Pun Weng Kun, director of the Sports Bureau, said on Saturday that he trusted the professional decision made by the Health Bureau. “I have no knowledge in public health, so I don’t think I have the authority to respond on that,” Pun said.
Furthermore, when questioned about the difficulties in conducting nucleic acid tests every seven days, Pun did not reply directly, but reiterated that he trusted the Health Bureau’s professionalism.
On Saturday, the sports association that first contacted the Times was also allowed to resume training sessions. In addition, the 67th Macau Grand Prix, dubbed that largest sports event in the city, will be held as planned this coming weekend. AL