Macau will close, starting Monday, all non-essential business activitiesincluding casinos, the authorities announced this Saturday, noting that the non-use of KN95 or “higher standard” masks and staying on the street is prohibited.
“[Entre] From July 11 to 18, all commercial services will be suspended, while some essential services for citizens will be maintained, to better control the transmission of the epidemic,” Macau Secretary of Administration and Justice said during the daily health conference.
Citing an order from the Chief Executive, published this afternoon in the Official Gazette, André Cheong said that entities that “provide essential public services”, such as the supply of water, electricity or public transport.
Markets, supermarkets, pharmacies, health establishments and restaurants are also exceptions to the new rules.
“All people must stay home.except for reasons of necessary work and purchase of basic goods for daily life or other urgent reasons,” the order also states, which stresses that, on the street, adults are required “to wear KN95-type masks or of a higher standard. ”.
André Cheong stressed that “this time” staying home or wearing a mask is not “an appeal”, but a “legal requirement” and violation of these rules may be “punishable by imprisonment for up to two years or up to 240 days fine“.
A new series of four rounds of massive tests on the population begins on Sunday to control the current outbreak of covid-19, which has left two dead and more than 1,300 infected.
With this new round, the number of massive tests will add ten in a single month, a strategy that, according to the Secretary of Social Affairs and Culture, which has the Health portfolio, aims to “achieve a dynamic goal of zero infections“.
“[Com] more continuous mass testing, we believe that we will achieve our goal,” said Elsie Ao Ieong.
“According to an analysis of the fourth to sixth rounds of mass testing, we saw a reduction in the cases discovered, specifically in the fourth round. we found 94 caseson Thursday there were 41 cases and on Friday a smaller number,” he added.
The population is also obliged to carry out daily antigen tests and upload the image with the result to an online platform.
Thousands of people are quarantined in hotels and parts of the city are isolated, a number that is also growing daily.
The authorities have stressed that they are following Beijing’s policy of zero cases, but are moving away, for now, from the scenario of general confinement, a common practice inside China.
Source: Observadora
