The gradual change from the ‘zero cases’ policy of covid-19 in China to “coexistence” with the new coronavirus “is just a matter of time”, defended a Macau deputy today.
In September, the director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stressed that the number of deaths from covid-19 has fallen to the lowest level since March 2020, recalled Ron Lam U Tou.
Thanks to the increase in vaccination, most countries have already eliminated quarantines for travelers, “so that the economy can recover as quickly as possible”, said the deputy, in the period before the agenda in a session of the Legislative Assembly of Macau.
Lam said he believed that China would also change its policy, “sooner or later”, although Chinese leader Xi Jinping defended, on October 16, the ‘zero cases’ strategy of covid-19, at the opening of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China.
The deputy recalled that the “coexistence” with covid-19 has led to an “overload of the health system and high mortality rates, pointing out as an example the neighboring Chinese region of Hong Kong, where “more than 9,000 elderly people died due to to the new coronavirus”.
Lam called on the government to review the contingency plans, facing “the problems and shortcomings” recorded during the worst outbreak of covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, in June and July, which caused six deaths and more than 1,800 cases.
On 22 September, the leader of the Macau Government, Ho Iat Seng, revealed that there were more than 6,000 elderly people over the age of 80 who “still” were not “vaccinated”.
According to official data released today by the Macau Health Services, 91.97% of the population has been vaccinated against Covid-19, although 3.5% have only received one dose and 40.6% two doses.
Macau follows the zero-case policy imposed by Beijing, which consists of isolating all positive cases and close contacts, strict border control, mass nucleic acid testing campaigns and the confinement of entire neighborhoods or cities.
So far, the Chinese special administrative region has recorded six deaths and 2,532 infected (793 confirmed cases and 1,739 asymptomatic) linked to the new coronavirus.
