Macau residents returned from Hubei cleared of virus in initial tests

Fifty-seven people who were rescued by the Macau government from the central Chinese province of Hubei over the weekend have tested negative for Covid-19, Lei Chin Ion, director of the Health Bureau (SSM) has said.

Although two of the residents had coughs, they were allowed to board the chartered flight operated by local flag carrier Air Macau as they were able to prove that the symptoms were from influenza and not the coronavirus. They obtained medical consultations in Wuhan. The two people are of aged 28 and 2.

All 57 Macau ID holders are currently undergoing quarantine at the Public Health Clinical Center on Coloane Alto, along with three recovered patients who are in recovery quarantine. There are 60 people in the center altogether.

Among them, 14 are under the age of 14, while six are under the age of five. Pediatricians were sent to the center to conduct checkups. Examinations of the throat, mouth, ears, abdomen and chest were conducted and the medical team did not find any issues.

Additionally, authorities had previously disclosed that a 10-year-old, one of the people who was to be quarantined at Coloane Alto with a guardian, was not in the group. Yesterday, the authorities made a correction – the 10-year-old was, in fact, onboard the flight with his 17-year-old sister. Both were sent to Coloane Alto upon arriving in Macau to be quarantined for 14 days.

However, a teenager was denied entry at Wuhan airport as their body temperature was 0.2 degrees Celsius above the key level of 37.5 degrees, as ascertained by the authorities. Lei disclosed that the teenager’s mother had contacted the Tourism Crisis Management Office (GGCT) yesterday morning to provide an update on her son’s situation.

The mother said that the teenager returned to his grandmother’s place in Huanggang, Hubei Province. He is now under home quarantine.

Besides the 57 returnees from Hubei, the center also houses three recovered Macau residents who are in recovery quarantine. As of last weekend, all Macau’s 10 patients have recovered from Covid-19.

Admitted to the center on February 27, the 10th and last-to-be-infected Macau patient tested negative on March 3. Yesterday, the recovered patient told medical staff at the center that he had mild diarrhea, so he was tested for the virus again. The results were not issued as of press time.

The ninth patient was admitted to the center on March 3. Her initial throat swab was negative but her stool sample tested positive. Therefore, the center shortened the buffer period and conducted a supplementary test on her yesterday.

The eighth patient was the last one to have been discharged from hospital. She left hospital on Saturday and was immediately admitted to the center for recovery quarantine. She will be tested between the fifth and seventh days of her admission.

The three recovered local residents will remain in quarantine at the center for 14 days, before moving back home for another 14 days of quarantine. The SSM director noted that this is a new guideline from mainland authorities.

Cases of reinfection have been recorded in mainland China, and patients have tested positive again even after 14 days of quarantine. As a result, the mainland authorities had to amend their guidelines.

With the last patient discharged, currently Macau has no Covid-19 patients in hospital. Yesterday was the 32nd day with no new cases in the city.

In response to upcoming measures to quarantine people who have travelled to Italy, Spain, France and Japan, the GGCT has sent text messages to Macau mobile phones registered on a Japanese network to remind these users about the upcoming changes. A total of 173 messages were sent.

Text messages were also sent to mobile phone numbers used by locals in Europe. As of press time, the GGCT could not confirm the number of messages sent.

Regarding the cost of the mission, Inês Chan from the Macao Government Tourism Office said that the office needed more time to provide an answer to the question.

Chan said the successful completion of the mission was due to the hard work of a lot of people, adding that a lot of different projects were going on or were being implemented simultaneously to control the Covid-19 outbreak.