Workers Stadium medical station to be moved to Macau Forum

A staff member tests the body temperature of a customer at a branch of Bank of China in Macau

The provisional medical station at the Macao Federation of Trade Unions Workers Stadium, located right beside the Border Gate, will be relocated to the Macau Forum due to capacity concerns, Leong Iek Hou, coordinator of the Health Bureau’s (SSM) Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), announced yesterday.

Data shows that the number of checks conducted each day at the two medical station facilities of the Workers Stadium and the Taipa Ferry Terminal has climbed to more than 3,000. Both venues can only accommodate a maximum of 1,000 people at one time.

The Public Security Police Force (PSP), which assists the SSM with the transportation of people, said it escorted more than 1,600 people to the Workers Stadium and 2,000 to the Taipa Ferry Terminal on Tuesday.

“Auditoria A and B at the Workers Stadium can accommodate at maximum 400 and 100 people at one time [respectively]. The Taipa Ferry Terminal has a capacity of 500,” Leong said. “At peak hours, there is no space to accommodate all users. Therefore, we need a larger space.”

The Macau Forum station will be in use from 8 p.m. today. The Macau Forum has more than 7,000 square meters of space, with over 4,000 seats.

When questioned as to why a new medical station was being sought, the SSM official said that medical staff at the Workers Stadium are currently being separated and working across two auditoria. At the Macau Forum, they will be able to work in the same auditorium, improving communication and lowering the pressure on the workers.

Leong added that Workers Stadium will be on stand-by. “It depends on the number of people required to be checked,” Leong said. “If the number increases significantly, we may need to make the Workers Stadium a third location.”

On Tuesday, two Macau residents began their quarantine periods, as they had been to Italy in the past 14 days. So far, 58 people have been quarantined after travelling to highly infected areas such as Italy and South Korea, including two Koreans, three mainland Chinese and 53 Macau residents.

Three days before Macau’s first repatriation mission in Wuhan, Hubei province, the Tourism Crisis Management Center (GGCT) recorded a total of 180 Macau residents in Hubei. Sixty of them will be returned to Macau by the Air Macau flight that has been chartered by the local government for the coming Saturday. They will be taken straight to the quarantine facility on Coloane Alto upon arrival.

Yesterday, the St. Regis Hotel in Cotai resumed operation. Its neighboring property, the Conrad Macao, remains closed. A total of seven short-term accommodation providers are not in operation, which equates to about 1,000 rooms.

Meanwhile, Pousada Marina Infante is considered by the tourism authority as operating, even while it is used by the government as a designated hotel for quarantine.

The MGTO has also conducted spot checks at entertainment venues – licensed by the Office – which were allowed to resume operation from March 2. It has checked about 30 venues, and no violations of the SSM hygiene and health guidelines were detected.

Furthermore, the tourism regulator recorded that only 60% of all venues have reopened.

In terms of border crossings, the PSP recorded 61,000 crossings in total yesterday, with 31,000 inbound and 30,000 outbound. The majority of border crossings are still being made by local residents, with 22,000 inbound and outbound respectively. The government has been discouraging people from crossing.

Some 8,100 inbound and 7,200 outbound crossings were made by non-Macau residents, including Hong Kong ID holders. Among them, 3,600 were mainland Chinese and 3,800 were Hong Kong residents.