Home address needed for Health Code from today

Following a system crash last month, the Macau Health Code will now require users to enter their home address in order to generate a code.
Dr Alvis Lo of the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center announced the news at yesterday’s weekly press briefing. He added that the new requirement will have a 14-day buffer period for both the users and the system so as to streamline the process.
During this buffer period, users can choose not to enter their home addresses. However, when the period ends, all users will be required to register their addresses in the Health Code platform.
In response to concerns over personal and data privacy, Lo reiterated that, following the previous edition of the address input function, which was what allegedly led to a system crash, the system will not ask for a user’s address in full.
“They will only need to register the name of their buildings,” Lo explained. “They can either search on the platform with the name of the street or the building in which they live.”
The new requirement will come into effect from 11 a.m. today. The time was chosen, according to Lo, to avoid peak hours in the morning when people need to get a Health Code for work or for border crossing purposes.
Although the system has been finetuned to handle a maximum of 800,000 queries per hour, Lo revealed that a break-off mechanism is planted into the program to suspend the address input function when necessary.
With that said, should the number of queries surpass the ceiling, or should any other problems arise, the requirement will be suspended temporarily so that the larger system will not be affected.
Lo stressed that if users do not see the requirement to input their home address, they should not panic and simply follow the instructions of the e-platform, because the address input function may be suspended due to the aforementioned system provisions.
He also explained that if it is the case, the Health Code should be generated normally.
Users who have already input their addresses during the previous function trail will not be asked for the address again. “However, if they need to change their address, they can feel free to do so,” Lo said.
The Center has previously stressed that the address must be true and reflect the actual residential location of the user. Failure to register a true address may incur criminal responsibilities.
It was also explained that the address input requirement is needed to facilitate district-oriented outbreak control.
Authorities to follow age restrictions made by vaccine manufacturers
Concerns over SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were also discussed at the press briefing. It was reported by international media that there could be different age restrictions. The Center was asked whether this will also apply to the vaccines distributed in Macau.
Stressing that progress on vaccines has been smooth and orderly, Lo used the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine as an example to explain that the particular brand of vaccine is recommended for individuals not younger than 16 years old. When administered in Macau, the administration of vaccinations will follow recommendations, including those on age limits, made by the manufacturers.