Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng made a positive assessment of the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre Centre work in preventing the Covid-19 pandemic in the city, stating in a review meeting that its efforts prevented the city to register any local community case for 265 consecutive days.
The Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre Centre was established by the CE on January 21, to operate directly under the head of government, with Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao as vice-chair, with the city’s first case confirmed the day after.
In total Macau reported a total of 46 Covid-19 cases, with no imported case reported for more than 170 consecutive days.
The CE also noted that guidelines and support from the Chinese Central Government, provinces and cities in Mainland China, allowed Macau to recover reciprocal mobility of people, with the current average number of daily entries and exits in the SAR exceeding 300,000 people.
Despite the lack of new cases, the CE noted that the novel coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, with many uncertain factors in the neighbouring areas, urging public services must maintain maximum alertness and carry put pandemic control measures rigorously.
He also gave instructions for the need to maintain good coordination and collaboration in the work of purchasing vaccines and vaccination between the competent services, in order to minimize the concerns of the population and allow them to understand the options available.
This week health authorities revealed that they will purchase 400,000 Covid-19 vaccines from each of the three pharmaceutical companies, namely Sinopharm, AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTEch, with the first 800,000 doses to arrive in the first quarter of 2021.
Vaccines will be administered in the SAR on a voluntary basis and free of charge.
Meanwhile, Secretary Elsie Ao indicate din the meeting that in addition to consolidating the effectiveness obtained in the prevention and control of the pandemic, the Macau SAR government also needs to improve the response mechanism, make plans and preparations for emergency situations, as well as, strictly monitor the evolution of the pandemic, and optimize the capacity for prevention, detection and medical treatment.
Authorities plan to apply a pandemic control measure used in the mainland, which includes dividing the city into different areas that could allow for a more targetted approach in case of possible cases being detected.
