Policy Address | Pandemic prevention still tops gov’t priorities for next year

Measures directly or indirectly related to Covid-19 pandemic prevention and control still top the government’s policy priorities for 2022. This was acknowledged by the government in the Policy Address Report for the Fiscal Year 2022 (LAG22).
The policies within the report, delivered by Chief Executive (CE) Ho Iat Seng, yesterday, outline a need to continue enforcing several measures such as border restrictions, medical observation quarantine, and the imposition of severe limitations on the circulation of people, namely those who are not local residents.
At the press conference following the delivery of LAG22 at the Legislative Assembly (AL), Ho was asked about the reopening of borders. Ho said in response that decisions on the easing of border restrictions “are always [three-party] decisions between Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland. We will release more information as soon as we have it.”
He added, “Of course we are going to open also to the [rest of] the world in the future but we have to pay attention to all these countries that are suffering from [infections] of Covid-19.”
Although Ho hinted that negotiation is ongoing in an attempt to ease the current border restrictions even if only by a small amount, he also remarked that quarantine measures are not likely to see major changes anytime soon.
“At the moment I think quarantine is a must. In the next phase maybe we are going to have a new measure, I don’t know,” Ho said, noting that in Europe, after a period of borders opening, several countries are returning to lockdown measures.
“There are a lot of uncertainties regarding Covid-19 and I think we need to evaluate the situation and discuss with health authorities to make sure we make the right decision,” he concluded.
Earlier on, at the AL, Ho said that the government hopes travel restrictions can be gradually eased during 2022 as long as vaccination rates continue to rise.
“We hope that in the year 2022, with the increase in vaccination rates against Covid-19 and the continuous reinforcement of the prevention of infections, there will be an orderly relaxation of travel restrictions,” the CE said, adding that this measure would contribute to a gradual recovery of the tourism industry and the economy in general.
Ho also acknowledged that although the government would like travel restrictions to ease, “there are still uncertainties in the economic recovery, which mainly depends on the situation of infection prevention and control in Macau, and the main places of origin of tourists.”

Contradictions on quarantine facilities
In apparent contradiction to the LAG22 delivered only moments previously at the AL, the CE said in response to a question from the Times that the government has no intention of building specially dedicated facilities for quarantine in Macau.
“If we need to expand our quarantine facilities, we will cooperate with the hotel industry. Some hotels are willing to cooperate with us and we continue to gather support from the hotel sector. We have no intention to build quarantine facilities from scratch,” Ho said.
Nonetheless, Ho said at the AL that the government did have such an intention, while referring to the chapter dedicated to the relevant points of government policy for the year 2022.
While referring to measures related to strengthening the infection prevention and control system and economic recovery promotion, he mentioned that government will “study the feasibility of building large quarantine facilities.”