Vaccine passport: Macau can only negotiate with mainland

The possibility of a Covid-19 vaccine passport system being established in Macau to ease travel restrictions was under discussion yesterday at the regular Covid-19 press briefing.
To the questions from the media on the topic, the coordinator of Vaccination Plan, Tai Wah Hou said, “In Macau, we already have made some preparations [for this] and we have a card that records the inoculations. We hope that eventually this card can be used as a passport to cross the borders, but on these matters, we also depend on decisions from the other side of the border.”
“Currently we can only negotiate with mainland China for the passport,” Tai added, advancing that such negotiations are still ongoing and there is no date set for a final decision.
He was also questioned on whether a Covid-19 vaccine passport would ease the border restrictions, such as exempting vaccinated people from presenting negative Nucleic Acid Tests (NAT) results, the same official noted that the two things are completely separate and unrelated.
“These are two different things. Vaccinations and the NAT are not connected in any way. All people arriving into Macau, and especially those coming from areas of high incidence [of the disease] need to be tested and to continue to undergo all the procedures [that include quarantine in isolation],” Tai said. “Vaccination does not mean they can’t get infected. What the vaccine does is to reduce the risks of infection and a lot of the risk of serious consequences, including death, in the case of infection,” he explained. RM