Macau will not close borders due to Covid-19

Authorities clarified their position about border controls after a passenger coming from Japan tested positive upon arrival at Macau airport.

Macau.- Health authorities in Macau have indicated that that entry policies will not change after reporting the first imported Covid-19 case in almost seven months in the SAR.

A passenger on board of a special flight from Tokyo was reported to have tested positive for Covid-19.

However, the Health bureau said during a special press conference today that the isolated case poses no risk of community outbreak.

Conde S. Januario Hospital Doctor Alvis Lo Iek Long said: “Only one case is a stable and contained situation […] This does not pose a risk of community infection.

“You can rely on all measures were taken, we had prepared for the worse and each passenger arriving in the flights was treated as they were infected. The case will not impact entry or exit policies in the borders. Only if we report community cases would we change these procedures.”

All passengers and crew were provided with medical protection equipment and tested on arrival and luggage was disinfected three times.

The case, just the 47th reported in Macau, involves a 43-year-old woman resident who tested positive after arriving on a flight that landed at 9.18pm on Thursday. She was immediately sent to the Conde de S. Januário Hospital, where she remains in an isolation ward.

All passengers on the special Air Macau flight from Tokyo were asked to present a negative nucleic acid test result emitted in the last 72 hours. The woman had such a test but was found to be infected.

The authorities explained: “No test is 100 per cent accurate in its result, there is always a margin of error.

“Maybe the virus was still in the incubation period and when she carried she was not yet contaminated. Maybe she had been infected but was asymptomatic and had passed the contamination period but showed a spontaneous positive case”.

All 115 people on from two special Air Macau flights, including 16 aircrew staff, are currently under the mandated 21-day medical observation, with most passengers on a designated floor at the Grand Coloane Resort hotel.

According to regulations introduced yesterday, after completing quarantine people are now asked to conduct self-health management for seven extra days. During that time, they are advised to stay at home and avoid going out, with the exception of work or school, and to keep reduced contact with family members and other people.