Macao health officials have indicated that the peak of the current Covid-19 outbreak may have passed.
On Monday, the Social Welfare Bureau stated that “according to the numbers of infected staff and users of the homes for the elderly, recovery, and children and young people, as well as employees of the Institute of Social Action, the outbreak of Covid-19 of the present phase has already met its peak, with a decrease in the number of new cases arising per day among staff and users residing in social facilities.”
On Sunday night, health authorities mentioned a decrease in the number of patients seen in the last few days at the community outpatient clinics.
“In the last two days, the number of users who went to the community outpatient consultation clinics for treatment decreased compared to the number in the previous days, when there was a peak of about 3,800.”
These figures seem to confirm the Health Bureau director’s estimate. On 21 December, Alvis Lo said that the outbreak’s peak should be reached “within one or two weeks”.
According to the data made available since 14 December, when authorities started to publish only symptomatic cases, there has been a decrease in the number of cases from a daily peak of almost 100 to just between 30 and 50 in recent days.
However, health workers are still struggling to carry out their tasks while feeling the full forces of the pandemic. Up to 40 per cent of health workers at Kiang Wu Hospital are infected with Covid-19, according to the private hospital’s management.
The deputy director of the hospital, Cheung Chun Wing, said on Monday that this number is almost permanent, because as soon as one group of employees tests negative, another group tests positive.
Dr Cheung added that the hospital had suspended all non-urgent activities in order to concentrate human resources on patients with Covid-19.
“The situation has been improving in the last few days. Initially, around 800 patients were treated per day, who sometimes had to wait between six to eight hours to be seen by a doctor, but presently they only wait four hours,” said Cheung.
On Friday, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Ao Ieong U, said that according to government estimates, about a quarter of the health personnel of the Public Health Services had also been infected.
