Macau’s Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong U, said Thursday that between 50% and 80% of the city’s population would likely get COVID-19 in the future following a significant easing of pandemic isolation and testing rules.
The new pandemic prevention measures, which follow some of those introduced by mainland China earlier this week, include changing quarantine for arrivals from Hong Kong, Taiwan and foreign nations to five days of hotel quarantine plus three days of home isolation with a yellow health code (previously red), no lockdown of entire buildings when there are confirmed cases, the reversion back to three-day testing of casino staff, and no RAT or NAT testing after entering Macau from the Mainland (although a negative NAT result obtained with 24-hours is still needed upon entry).
The Government will also gradually reduce requirements around NAT testing for those in Macau and move to RAT, will gradually relax the testing requirements for mainland entry into Macau and will follow the national policy to adjust the epidemic prevention measures for entry into Macau from foreign countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
“Starting from this week, the government will start to introduce the new measures so that the public can gradually adapt … the government will not relax all the measures at once,” Ao explained.
Ao said that the symptoms of the Omicron varians are gradually decreasing, but that it remains highly transmissible, so it is important to avoid increasing the medical burden on the community, As such, she asked Macau people to continue protecting themselves as much as possible.
“It is likely that 50% to 80% of the population in Macau will be infected,” she added.
One mainland policy that Macau is yet to adopt is a new provision allowing mainlanders with no or mild symptoms to isolate at home, while many mainland cities have abolished NAT testing completely as well as the requirement to show health codes to enter some establishments.
Ao explained that the introduction of too many measures at the same time would make it difficult for the public to adapt to them, claiming she thought this would cause panic among the public.
At a press conference on Thursday evening, IAG asked whether the new anti-epidemic policy would help the economy and specifically the tourism industry
Ao responded that the adjustment of the pandemic prevention policy would not affect the entry of mainland visitors.
“The original activities will be held as usual, and the pandemic prevention policy for mainlanders entering Macau must be relaxed step by step as the government does not want too many confirmed cases to enter Macau.
“if the number of new cases can be controlled every day, I believe Macau’s economic activities can remain normal.”
