A sharp spike in emergency department visits by patients presenting flu-like symptoms has sparked concern that Macao is in the throes of a major influenza outbreak.
Health officials told public broadcaster TDM that an average of 600 people are being treated each day in emergency departments, many of them juveniles. Average wait times have doubled to six hours.
The patient volume is about 60 percent higher than usual, TDM said, with the rise attributed to lowered immunity following three years of compulsory mask-wearing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
[See more: Health officials are denying suggestions that Macao is covering up its pandemic death toll]
Speaking on local radio, Leong Iek Hou, the health official in charge of the prevention of communicable diseases, said children in particular “had less opportunity to come into contact with viruses in the environment, including influenza. This means that their immunity may be lower now”.
He called on vulnerable individuals to get flu jabs “as soon as possible” and stressed that “We are still at the peak these days”.
According to a senior doctor at the Centro Hospitalar Conde de São Januário, the current outbreak can be expected to last for a month.
