Tests for locals will facilitate cross-border living, health officials say

Covid-19 tests will be conducted on cross-border students and teachers, as well as Macau residents who need to move between Macau and the mainland, Tai Wa Hou, coordinator of border medical checks of the Health Bureau (SSM) announced yesterday.
Under this new scheme, the local authority will consider cross-border students and people residing and working on different sides of the border as having the need to move across the border.
This group of Macau residents can register for a test from May 7. The first test will be free-of-charge, with subsequent tests priced at MOP180 per test. In order frequently cross the border, a new test must be taken every seven days. These tests will be required for cross-
border students and teachers for the foreseeable future, health officials said.
Tests will be conducted in collaboration with the China Certification and Inspection Group (Macau) Co. Ltd., a state-owned enterprise providing inspection services.
The Special Administrative Region government has been notified by its Zhuhai counterpart that the Covid-19 test stations at the city’s border frontiers will be removed starting tomorrow.
The commencement of the Macau test scheme will therefore connect seamlessly with the closure of the test scheme in Zhuhai.
To take the test, Macau residents must possess three identification documents, namely the Macau ID card, the Mainland Travel Permit, and the Mainland Residence Card, which must be issued in Zhuhai or Zhongshan.
The Mainland Residence Card is issued in many cities on the mainland. However, Macau ID holders who have registered normal residence in, for example, Guangzhou or even Shanghai will not be eligible for this scheme.
Figures from the government estimate that there are 15,000 cross- border students and workers holding Macau ID card, who are eligible for this scheme. The SSM will set a daily quota of 4,000 tests per day.
Bookings are necessary for the test, which will be conducted at the Taipa Ferry Terminal, near the Immigration Service Building of the Public Security Police Force, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. every day.
Once a sample is taken, certification will be issued to individuals as evidence they have taken the test. Twenty-four hours later, the test result will be posted on the Colored Health Code platform.
People who take the test can cross the border between Macau and Zhuhai with either the test certification or the negative test result, shown as a green code on the Colored Health Code platform.
The authority has not disclosed whether there will be an end date for the scheme.
Previously, the government has mandated such tests for teachers, employees of social welfare organizations and fishery workers returning to Macau.
Yesterday, the SSM disclosed that the next phase of testing will be conducted on new residents to group housing facilities, such as aged-care homes and prisons.

Mask distribution scheme to last through May

The Macau government has made assurances that there is sufficient supply of face masks for the public distribution scheme to continue for the remainder of the month. In a statement issued yesterday, the government said it would monitor the general supply of masks for standard purchase in local shops, and take this into consideration this when reviewing whether the public distribution scheme should continue. The scheme, which is currently in its 11th round, makes packs of 10 face masks available to residents and non-resident workers every 10 days at a fixed price of 8 patacas per pack. As of yesterday, Macau had not recorded any new Covid-19 cases for the prior 28 days. The total number of confirmed cases recorded in Macau stands at 45.