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Health officials are telling the public to treat Covid as ‘just another infection’

Dr. Leong Iek Hou, from the Communicable Disease Prevention and Disease Surveillance Unit, says Covid is now ‘a disease like flu’.

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Dr. Leong Iek Hou, from the Communicable Disease Prevention and Disease Surveillance Unit, says Covid is now ‘a disease like flu’.

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PUBLISHED

UPDATED: 21 Dec 2023, 11:32 pm

The public should no longer be “overly concerned” about Covid-19 and treat it as just another respiratory infection. That’s the message from Dr. Leong Iek Hou of the Communicable Disease Prevention and Disease Surveillance Unit.

Speaking yesterday on TDM’s Chinese-language radio station, she said “We have normalised the way we handle the new coronavirus” and that “we should consider it a disease like flu”.

Her remarks were backed up by the deputy head of the Conde de São Januário Hospital emergency service, Chang Tam Fei, who told the broadcaster that new infections would be treated as regular respiratory tract disease.

[See more: Macao issues new Covid-19 vaccination recommendations]

There were an average of 500 officially reported cases a day last week, but Leong said that the data did not fully reflect the real number of infections.

New mask-wearing, vaccination and reporting guidelines have been drawn up to combat Macao’s current Covid surge.

The Social Welfare Bureau has also made the wearing of an N95, KN95 or FFP2 respirator mask mandatory for anyone visiting a senior care facility, rehabilitation centre or drug rehabilitation facility.

 

UPDATED: 21 Dec 2023, 11:32 pm

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