Chui Sai On receiving the Decoration of Honour – Grand Lotus award from Ho Iat Seng
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n the final days of 2019, the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in China. A few weeks later, Macao experienced its initial brush with the coronavirus. The city’s first case was confirmed on 22 January and, from that moment, Macao was part of what became a global pandemic – a pandemic that’s still raging across the world right now. It’s shocking for many people to think that the first day of COVID-19 in the city was a whole year ago. But Macao – thanks in no small part to its quick-acting government
– has not suffered the losses that so many countries and territories across the world have done over the past 12 months. In fact, as we went to print, there had only been 47 COVID-19 cases recorded in the city – 45 of them imported from outside the SAR, according to the Health Bureau (SSM) – with not one person dying as a result of catching the virus. Measures taken by the government since the outbreak include temperature screenings at border checkpoints and entrances
to all public facilities, quarantines for incoming travellers and even border closures at times, including the transport links with Hong Kong. Then there was the cancelling of numerous events last year, the closure of parks and public leisure areas, temporary school and university closures and the strict need for the wearing of facemasks in public alongside the presentation of health declaration forms on entry to public buildings that are still in use today. And the government has also done its best to minimise
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