The Government has dedicated its utmost effort to preparations for the arrival in Macao on Thursday (21 January), of a flight carrying home a total of 115 Macao ID holders that originally departed from an aggregate of 13 overseas countries and regions.

The Air Macau service will be from Tokyo, Japan, and is acting as a connecting flight home for some people returning from places considered “high risk”, such as the United Kingdom and Portugal.

Officials representing the Government’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre disclosed – during a regular press conference on Monday (18 January) – the Centre’s plan to ensure the safety of the returnees, and the health of the public.

The Centre was fully prepared regarding the risk that people on the flight might have COVID-19 – including a new strain of the virus – and could import infection to Macao. All the returnees would be screened and tested on arrival. Anyone testing positive, or who had been in close contact with any of the travellers testing positive, would be transferred to a designated public health facility for medical observation. The other returnees would go to a hotel for 21 days of general medical observation. On that basis, the risk of spreading the virus within the community would remain low, and there would be no need to initiate the mechanism to suspend movement of people between the mainland and Macao.

The Government’s plan was aimed to create closed-loop conditions for management of risk. It covered the following steps:

- Before the start of each Macao ID-holder’s intended journey home from overseas, the Government had sent them – via online communication platforms – some epidemic-control advice, including the documents and materials they would need for immigration clearance, and safety guidance for the journey. They were also urged to prepare – and wear during their journey – their own protective equipment. Examples were: N95 face masks or surgical face masks; protective clothing; face shields; protective goggles; and disposable gloves.

- Before boarding the aircraft at the start of their journey, they would be required to present a valid nucleic acid test certificate – issued within 72 hours – proving they had tested ‘negative’ for infection. They would also be required to undergo a health assessment and a body-temperature test. In addition, in view of the fact some returnees were taking multiple flights prior to getting to Tokyo, a seating safety plan had been arranged for the flight from Tokyo, in order to minimise cross-infection risk.

- Returnees would be required to wear protective gear for the entire length of their journey, and reduce wherever possible eating, drinking or using the bathroom. Snacks would be prepared in advance for each passenger, in a bid to minimise interaction between them and the cabin crew.

- On arrival in Macao, the aircraft would park at a designated section of the airport tarmac, and passengers would disembark in a designated order, so as to reduce contact between the various passengers and the aircraft crew. Returnees would be required to undergo a nucleic acid test while at the airport. Test results would be available within two hours after collection of samples. If a passenger tested positive for infection, that person, and all those people identified as having had close contact with that person during the flight, would be sent to the Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane for health monitoring.

Passengers testing negative would then be transported to a designated hotel, for a 21-day period of medical observation. They would be staying in the same hotel and on the same floor, but in separate rooms. They would each receive a total of four nucleic acid tests during the medical-observation period, namely: on arrival; on the fifth day; on the 12th day; and on the 20th day.

As of Monday, Macao had not recorded any new local COVID-19 case for 295 consecutive days.

There has been a total of 46 confirmed COVID-19 patients in Macao since the start of the pandemic, and all of them have been released from medical care. Of the aggregate, 44 were classified as imported cases and two were local but associated with imported cases.

Macao has had zero COVID-19-related deaths and zero infections among medical staff.