The Chief Executive, Mr Ho Iat Seng, today said the Government would persist with existing epidemic control measures in order to ensure the protection and safety of the Macao public.

Mr Ho talked about Macao’s epidemic prevention and control strategies on the sidelines of a reception to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).

The authorities in mainland China and Macao had mutually endorsed quarantine-free travel for residents of both places. Under the existing mechanism, in the event that COVID-19 cases were reported in a particular place on the mainland, the Macao SAR Government would immediately require any people visiting from a ‘medium-risk’ place to undergo a 14-day period of medical observation upon arrival in Macao, Mr Ho noted.

The Government has been reviewing its epidemic prevent and control measures, Mr Ho stated. A nucleic acid test certificate with a negative result for COVID-19 was for now the only requirement imposed by the mainland authorities to assess the health condition of people arriving at the mainland’s boundaries. Macao would likewise continue with such a single requirement for inbound travellers, Mr Ho explained.

Macao had recently seen a daily average of 300,000 cross-boundary traveller movements, he noted.

Regarding COVID-19 vaccine supply in Macao, the Chief Executive disclosed that Macao had sourced supplies of three vaccines. The cost would be around 500 patacas per person. Mr Ho stressed vaccination would be on a voluntary basis and the three vaccines were less likely to be available in Macao at the same time due to the intense demand worldwide.

The Government’s ongoing scheme for supplying protective face masks to the Macao public – in place since the early phase of the COVID-19 alert – had cost more than 200 million patacas. Only when the disease was deemed to be controlled within Macao, and vaccines were available in the city, would the Government reassess whether to continue the face mask scheme.

In other comments, Mr Ho stated a public consultation on a new public tender for Macao gaming rights was likely be held in the second half of 2021, in accordance with a current timeline for work related to that issue.

The concessions or sub-concessions of the six current gaming operators will expire in June 2022.

Work relating to the public consultation had been delayed due to the pandemic, Mr Ho said. The Government was currently following up on work relating to a legal framework for the tender process and had been liaising with the gaming sector to garner its views.

When asked about the upcoming seventh Legislative Assembly election, the Chief Executive said the Government was hoping to ensure the event could be held successfully next year as scheduled, notwithstanding the pandemic. With the experience accumulated from the past six editions, the Government believed election preparations would become better and better. It was nonetheless a challenge to try to estimate now how developments regarding the pandemic might unfold next year and how these developments would affect the election, he added.