Some 72% of Macau’s population supports more restrictive measures to contain the Covid-19 outbreak, the People’s Daily — the largest newspaper group in China and the newspaper of record of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — reported on Tuesday (July 5).
In an opinion piece expressing dissatisfaction with the measures taken by the local government to contain the outbreak, the newspaper cites an online survey from an undisclosed source stating that the majority of local people support the implementation of national policies for the containment of outbreaks, namely the full lockdown of cities or metropolitan areas seen in several mainland provinces.
“Macau had made plans, conducted drills, and mobilized resources in advance. So what seems to be the problem? A poll released online on the evening of July 4 revealed some clues: under the question of ‘which pandemic prevention method do you support the most’, 72% of the surveyed people chose ‘the citywide full confinement measure’ [lockdown], which gathered a far higher result than the other options,” the People’s Daily wrote.
The piece continues, “a similar feeling is expressed in the daily press conference [of the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center], at which reporters repeatedly ask whether authorities are considering imposing a citywide lockdown. There is a common feeling from everyone that the current pandemic prevention measures are not strict enough, applied [in a timely fashion] and coherent, and this raises many concerns.”
Although noting that the strain affecting Macau is not known in China and so presents some new challenges, the article heavily criticizes the decisions made by the local government, saying that “Macau’s approach has not been satisfactory.”
“Take the outbreak of a cluster in the Four Seasons mall as an example. The place should have been disinfected, closed and controlled as soon as the first infected person appeared, and detailed tracking should have been carried out to stop the chain of infection, but it seems that [such work] stopped only after finding the link between the infected person and the source,” the piece read.
“Even when the reporters asked why the mall was not closed, the officials in charge said they thought it was unnecessary. As a result, more people were infected in that place in the following days until the mall was ordered to close.”
Giving another example of how the policies of local government have failed, the same article noted that the number of new cases found in the community is constantly higher than those in the control areas, “indicating that the transmission in the community continues to be frequent and has not been interrupted.”
The opinion article also criticized health authorities for failing to prevent a cluster of the virus within the public hospital. This affected several healthcare professionals and other workers from the hospital. Additional infections occurred in a home for the elderly, said to have caused the death of two people.
Praising the decision to combine a series of mass testing for the whole population with self-administered rapid antigen testing at home, the article urged government officials to face the problems more precisely, “not taking any chances, not avoiding difficulties, and with a ‘firm hand’ so the victory against the virus can be achieved in the shortest possible time.”
Questioned on the possibility of lockdowns, health authorities have expressed on several occasions that they have no intention, for the time being, of enforcing a general lockdown in the city. The city of Shanghai has been cited as an example where the results of a lockdown were said to be “disastrous” and caused damage that will take a long time to recover from.
At the same time, online rumors continue to spread that a lockdown is imminent and preparations are being made to impose one in the coming days.
Questioned on the topic during yesterday’s press conference from the health authorities, the representative of the Public Security Police Force, Lei Tak Fai, urged the population to stop spreading false rumors and fake news online, as the broadcasting or spreading of such rumors during a time of an immediate state of prevention is considered a crime.
Lei also called on the population to not rush to supermarkets to stock up on groceries and other necessities, as there is no plan to enforce a lockdown and the supply of products remains stable.
Earlier, the Civil Protection Operations Centre also issued a statement clarifying that the rumor of an imminent lockdown is a “false rumor on the Internet,” calling on citizens not to trust such information.
