Macau no longer has isolated residential buildings due to the Covid-19 outbreak, after the Chinese region recorded zero new community cases in the last 24 hours, for the fifth consecutive day.
The New Type of Coronavirus Contingency Coordination Center confirmed this Thursday that the isolation and control measures for all buildings have been lifted “red code“.
Macau now has only 15 zones”yellow code“, whose residents are required to periodically perform nucleic acid tests, the center stressed in a statement.
In a separate statement, the center revealed that three new cases were detected on Wednesday, none of them among the local community.
At a press conference, Leong Iek Hou from the New Type of Coronavirus Contingency Coordination Center stressed that two of the new cases were found in medical isolation facilities, and the third was detected in a medical observation hotel.
“They have been there for a few days, so they do not pose a risk to the community.Leong defended.
Macau emerged from a partial lockdown on Saturday, enacted on July 11, in line with Beijing’s zero-case policy.
Macau could reopen on Tuesday, after registering zero new cases
The so-called “phase”consolidation“, which ended on Saturday, will be extended for three days, until August 2, to allow the analysis of all samples collected during a new test of the entire population, over the weekend.
But Leong Iek Hou revealed this Thursday that, if there are no new community cases, from Saturday the population will be able to wear surgical masks outdoors.
Currently, all adults are required to wear face masks.KN95 type or higher standard” when they leave home.
The head of the Public Relations and Police Affairs Liaison Division of the Macau Unitary Police Services said authorities are “try as soon as possible to reach a consensus” with the neighboring city of Zhuhai to reopen the borders with mainland China.
Cheong Kin Ian emphasized that “there is no deadline”, but admitted that the criterion stipulated by the central government – seven consecutive days without community cases – “will be one of the hypotheses.”
On June 28, China’s National Health Commission reduced the quarantine period for anyone entering China from about 21 days to seven at government-designated facilities and three more at home.
At the start of the current Covid-19 outbreak on June 18, Zhuhai imposed a seven-day quarantine at designated hotels for anyone arriving from Macau. But on July 14, the city, which was also facing an outbreak at the time, stopped accepting staff from Macau in quarantine.
The territory, which had registered around 80 cases since January 2020, was hit in June by the worst outbreak faced since the beginning of the pandemic, which infected more than 1,800 people, most of them asymptomatic, and caused six deaths, all elderly with chronic diseases.
Source: Observadora
