The validity of the nucleic acid tests (NAT) undertaken to be eligible to cross the border have been restored to seven days for all locations within the Guangdong province, the representative from the Public Security Police Force (PSP) announced yesterday at the press briefing from local health authorities on the Covid-19 situation in Macau.
According to the PSP spokesperson, this measure was communicated by the Guangdong authorities and revokes the previously enforced validity period of 48 hours.
The new measure will be enforced from midnight of August 25 and will apply to all people crossing the border between Macau and Guangdong province, including cross-border drivers, the PSP said.
The same official also noted that in the week between August 16 and 22 there was a significant increase in cross-border movement compared with the previous week of August 9 to 15.
According to the figures shown and collected by the PSP, the total number of border movement has increased by 57.64% week-to-week, while the number of visitors entering and exiting Macau has risen even further by 65.27%.
This means that on average, and for the past week, there was a daily movement of about 32,400 people on tourism visas. Still, such a figure is only a fraction of the total border crossing figures that reached an average of over 272,000 border crossings per day.
Questioned if the easing of restrictions regarding the NAT validity could affect the safety of locals, as happened on August 3 when a family of four was confirmed infected with the Delta variant of Covid-19 after their daughter returned from a school trip in the mainland, the Coordinator of the New Coronavirus Contingency Coordination Center, Dr. Leong Iek Hou explained that prevention and control measures are being decided according to the real-time situation and must be balanced. The factors to consider in this balance include the prevention of the disease and the movement of people and the economic activities on both sides of the border.
Vaccinations among younger and older groups are rising
Dr. Tai Wa Hou informed yesterday that the vaccination rate for the two groups that the health authorities have said they are targeting because their vaccination rates were very low in comparison with the other age groups, is finally rising.
Tai said that in the week from August 12 to 19, the vaccination rate of senior citizens raised from the 20% to 27%, the younger group aged between 12 and 19 recorded an exponential hike from around 20% to 43.3%. Tai also noted that the government efforts in directing specific campaigns to these groups are delivering successful results.
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