Other school, summer activities may follow class resumption

A representative of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) informed that following the reopening of secondary school classes, extracurricular school activities such as interschool competitions might also resume.
The chief of the DSEJ’S Department of Youth, Cheong Man Fai, informed the public about this possibility during yesterday’s press conference of the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center. Cheong further added that the Summer Vacation Activities program organized by the DSEJ in collaboration with the Sports Bureau (ID) is also likely to go ahead, albeit with several adjustments.
“This year and due to the epidemic, we have been communicating with ID to adjust these activities. In general, we expect that there will be fewer activities and a reduced quota for participants from these activities,” Cheong said, adding that the registration and application will continue to use the online platform as in previous years.
Regarding school contests and competitions, Cheong noted that these are usually concluded before May, which, due to the suspension of all school activities, was not possible to do this year. Cheong said that the initial plan was to cancel all these competitions for this year but, with classes resuming early next month, the DSEJ will consider going ahead with some of them.
“From May 4 we will observe the conditions and consider if there is any way we can host any of those competitions. I do not see a high possibility of hosting most of them but maybe we can still host sports-related ones behind closed doors,” Cheong concluded.
In response to several questions to the health authorities, the representative of Social Welfare Bureau Choi Pui Ying noted that for the time being, Macau has not met the requisite conditions to permit nurseries to reopen to the public. As she further explained, unlike schools, nursery work is mostly based on playing together and involves significant contact and interaction between young children aged two years and below. Such conditions currently still pose a significant risk.
Ahead of the class resumption scheduled for May 4 and 11, the health authorities continue to screen teachers, school staff members, and cross-border students for the infection.
According to Doctor Lo Iek Long of the Conde de São Januário Hospital, the authorities aim to test around 5,000 people within this category, noting that from the first day of screening on Monday, the Health Bureau had already tested 1,388 teaching staff.

Screening to extend to other professionals
During the same press conference, Lo also noted that after the education sector, the health authorities aim to extend the screening for Covid-19 to other professionals that are considered of potential risk.
Lo noted that after teachers, school staff members, and cross-border students, the test would also be applied to other groups including healthcare staff members, workers at aged care homes, and social workers and caretakers at private institutions.
The physician added that this is not a campaign aiming to test the population in general, but rather the means of ensuring the protection and safety of specific groups.
“This is not screening in the community. In Macau, the teachers as well staff at elderly care homes need to be tested due to the nature of their work. If they are affected, this can cause a lot of problems in the community. We need to prevent this possibility,” Lo said, adding that what health authorities are doing is finding priority groups of people to be tested to ensure that general society will be safe.
“In the future, even other citizens might be called to do the test,” he concluded.