Gov’t has different criteria for locking down different venues

A public health official admitted yesterday that there exists different criteria for determining whether a location should be locked down when positive cases are detected there.

In past weeks, the government has changed its criteria several times for designating a location as a red or yellow zone.

In practice, however, some have found the reality slightly different from the criteria announced. For example, the Grand Lisboa Hotel was completely shut off after 13 cases were detected there, but the shopping mall at the Four Seasons Hotel in Cotai was only given similar treatment after the venue-specific tally passed 40.

The operating suspension of the Four Seasons coincided with journalists slamming the government for not using the same rules for all venues. The lockdown took place about five hours after an official explained that suspending the venue was not necessary because the shops involved had been closed.

Elsewhere, a supermarket was allowed to reopen after brief sanitization following some of its workers having tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.

These different responses have caused some confusion among the public.

Questioned on the matter yesterday, public health doctor Leong Iek Hou of the Health Bureau (SSM) declared that whether a location is essential to the neighborhood or community is one criterion used when determining whether it should be put under lockdown.

She said that if a location is essential to the neighborhood or community, the health agency will consider allowing it to reopen or operate after a certain standard of cleaning and sanitization has been met. A team of temporary workers must also be available because the existing employees will be under quarantine.

“We also consider a location’s risk to the community if it remains open,” Leong added.

The key to managing infections found in workplaces, she said, is to confine all people inside.