Macau’s Secretary for Administration and Justice, André Cheong Weng Chon, said Saturday that the SAR is currently experiencing a COVID-zero period but that this would be followed by a longer “consolidation period”.
Asked by Inside Asian Gaming during the daily 5pm press conference exactly what this consolidation period would entail and which businesses would be allowed to open, Cheong replied, “During the consolidation period, social facilities will be opened gradually, but restaurants will still not be allowed to have dine-in food, and gymnasiums and beauty salons will not be allowed to open.”
However, the government did not explain when the “consolidation period” would end, nor whether casinos would be allowed to reopen. All Macau casinos have been closed since 11 July and will remain so until at least 23 July after the current lockdown measures were extended by five days on Saturday.
Secretary for Economy and Finance Lei Wai Nong explained that, during Macau’s three-year pandemic fight, MOP$167.8 billion (US$20.8 billion) in reserves have been used to support overall operations while various departments have tightened their spending without reducing welfare payments for residents.
It was also announced Saturday that during the extended lockdown period from 18 to 23 July 23 there will be three more mandatory rounds of NAT testing for all residents, one every two days, but the testing timeframe for each round will be reduced from 32 hours to 28 hours.
On Sunday, the government announced latest COVID-19 numbers with confirmed positive cases since the continuing Macau outbreak began on 18 June reaching 1,733. This included 27 new positive cases in the 24 hours to midnight at the end of Saturday 16 July.
Of the 27 new cases, four were found in the community with two of them a close contact, two positive cases in mass testing. The other 23 were found amongst people in quarantine, according to the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center.
As of 8am on Sunday 17 July, a total of 21,225 people have been followed up by the government in their epidemiological investigations. These include 3,249 close contacts, 11,486 “non-core” close contacts, 1,250 “sub-close” contacts, 254 general contacts and 776 accompanying persons.
