Zhuhai announced on the 13th this month, people entering Guangdong Province from Guangdong and Macao border with a negative COVID-19 test certificate would not need medical isolation.
On that night, there was a “traffic jam” in the coronavirus testing appointment system of the Health Bureau. Even if the appointment was opened the next morning, 5000 quotas were full in a short time. After five days, the quota increased to 7500 per day.
The reason for the authorities to increase the number of daily testing like “squeezing toothpaste” is “the public needs time to learn and be familiar with the procedure of changing health codes, so as to avoid crowd gathering at Guangdong and Macao border”.
However, when the government intends to limit the quota of COVID-19 testing as a means to control the flow of people at Guangdong and Macau border, it seems that they forget that the flow of migration is mainly mainland employees. They can choose to do COVID-19 testing in Zhuhai, which has 25 designated testing institutions, and the charge only 75 RMB (about 86 Macau patacas), cost about half that compared with Macau.
According to the announcement of the Macau SAR government, the 14-day medical isolation limit for mainland employees (not registered in Zhuhai or not holding valid Zhuhai residence permit) entering Macau will be lifted on the 19th. As a result, on the 21st, the flow of people leaving Macau at the gate is overcrowded, which is the first time that the police have implemented crowd control measures since the epidemic, proving that the restriction of COVID-19 testing quotas will not help to avoid the gather people at the border.
When the relaxation of entry measures becomes a reality, COVID-19 testing can not only meet the requirements of migration epidemic prevention.
*Journalist
