Alvis Lo Iek Long, a clinical director of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, announced during the press conference on Monday that the Macao government will relaunch the new function of adding one’s home address to the Macao Health Code at 11 am today, as the Health Bureau’s technical team had meanwhile “rectified the issue” which previously affected the code system’s server – which resulted in a technical glitch on Christmas Eve when the new function was initially slated to start.
The government suspended the new function of adding one’s address to the Macao Health Code following the 40-minute malfunction on Christmas Eve – when residents were not able to have the health code generated on their smartphones – as the bureau’s technicians could not confirm whether the glitch was due to the new function. Under the initial schedule, residents would have had to add their home address to their Macao Health Code from January 7 – after a 14-day transition period.
The Health Bureau said last week that its technical team had concluded that the malfunction was not due to the new address function, and instead, it was due to the “abnormal” operation of the Macao Health Code system’s server.
Data flow pressure tests
Lo underlined on Monday that the bureau’s technical team has “repeatedly” carried out data flow pressure tests on the Macao Health Code system so as to ensure that the system can continue operating in case a large number of people use the new address function simultaneously.
“After repeated testing, the issue [which previously occurred] in the system has been rectified,” Lo said, adding that the bureau’s technical team has also prepared a number of contingency plans in response to the possibility of the abnormal operation of the Macao Health Code system’s server again.
Lo noted that the bureau has carried out data flow pressure tests on the Macao Health Code system to ensure that the server can process up to 800,000 people using the new address function in one hour. Lo also said that if too many people use the new address function simultaneously, the Macao Health Code system will temporarily suspend the new function so as to prevent a malfunction of the system so that residents can continue getting the code generated on their smartphones, adding that the new function will be resumed once the data flow has reduced to a particular volume.
Lo said that the Health Bureau has decided to relaunch the new address function at 11 a.m. today so as to avoid the peak hours in the morning when residents cross the Macao-Zhuhai borders or enter their workplaces – the time when they are required to show their Macao Health Code.
Lo also said that those who had successfully added their address to their Macao Health Code on Christmas Eve before the suspension of the new function will not have to fill in their address again.
Lo urged residents not to rush to add their address to the Macao Health Code after today’s relaunch of the new function as they will have a 14-day transition period to fill in the address – before the new deadline when residents must start to fill in the address.
In addition to local residents, the new address requirement will also apply to non-locals living or staying in Macao, who will need to indicate the address of the place where they usually stay, such as workplaces, casinos or hotels.
Macao has not recorded a new Covid-19 case for 192 days, while no local case has been confirmed in 281 days.
Meanwhile, Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) official Lau Fong Chi told the press conference that for the time being the Macao government will not launch a special programme to help locals stranded overseas return to Macao. She noted that locals could choose to return to Macao via Tokyo or the Chinese mainland.
Taiwan last week banned all transit flights from the island. Until then, Taipei was a major transit hub for Macao residents travelling during the Covid-19 pandemic.
(The Macau Post Daily/Macao News)
Photo by Exmoo
