The current global epidemic is still in a pandemic. According to the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, as of July 31, a total of 328 new local confirmed cases have been reported across the country, which is close to the total of the previous five months and has spread to 14 provinces.  It can be seen that the Delta virus spreads rapidly, which brings greater challenges to prevention and control.  Facing the severe and complex situation of the recent epidemic, Macau International Airport (MIA) attaches great importance to it, strictly implement the prevention and control strategy requirements of "Guarding against imported cases and preventing a resurgence of the outbreak at home."  And adjust the prevention and control standards in time, perform epidemic prevention and control work in accordance with government guidelines, and spare no effort to ensure the safety of passengers and employees.

As an intersection of domestic and foreign travel services, international airports covered wide range of network, and are a key node to prevent the import of epidemics.  As an important international port for entry and exit of Macao, MIA always learns from experience and lessons to avoid becoming a "breakthrough" for the spread of the virus.  In order to further supervise and strengthen the implementation of prevention and control measures at the airport, on August 2, 2021, Dr. Deng Jun, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Macau International Airport Company Limited (CAM), and Executive Directors of CAM: Mr. Chu Tan Neng, Mr. Kan Cheok Kuan, Mr. Lei Si Tai and Mr. Leung Henry Yee Hang led the directors of various departments addressing the recent epidemic prevention and control work at MIA, to conduct inspection on various departments and subsidiaries.

Executive Director Mr. Chu Tan Neng and Ms. Katy Lo, Director of the Executive Committee Office, listened to the report by Mr. Gary Geng, Director of the Airport Operations Department during the inspection. On 31st July, the Airport Operations Department coordinated the Civil Aviation Authority (AACM), the Health Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Menzies Macau Airport Services Co., Ltd. and East Sun Cleaning Services Co., Ltd. to the apron, provide guidelines and assessments on the epidemic prevention and disinfection of mid-to-high-risk flights arriving in Macau from Singapore, and listen carefully to every link including: Aircraft baggage storage, baggage transport belt, passenger baggage disinfection, passenger baggage claim process, areas where staffs put on and take off protective clothing, procedures for putting on and off protective clothing, and disinfection process for in the cabin, etc.  In response to the advice from the Health Bureau, MIA immediately rectified the workflow for handling mid-to-high-risk flights, in order to ensure the safety of front-line employees, the entrance and exit areas of the protective clothing are separated, and bathing equipment is installed to ensure that front-line employees who have been exposed to medium-to-high-risk flights take a bath immediately after disinfection.  Mr. Chu visited the relevant areas during the inspection, and repeatedly urged the frontline staff to perform disinfection work in accordance with the relevant government guidelines, frontline employees need to implement nucleic acid testing every day to ensure early warning and early intervention when an epidemic occurs, and quickly stop the spread of the epidemic.

Executive Director Mr. Kan Cheok Kuan accompanied by Ms. Grace Cheang, Director of Finance and Administration Department and Mr. Michael Chan from Jones Lang LaSalle Macau (JLL), inspected CAM Office Building and the management area of JLL to check the implementation of the epidemic prevention work. To ensure the safety of all staff, JLL further optimized the process of staff’s health code checking when entering CAM Office Building, strengthened the management of the entrance and exit routes, and strictly requires staff to show the most updated health code page, screenshots are not accepted, and only allow personnel with “Green Code” into the building to ensure the safety of the office environment. The elevator buttons in the office building are continuously disinfected and cleaned once per hour. Hand sanitizer is regularly replenished. Meanwhile, Mr. Kan also requested JLL to ensure outsourcing companies to strictly check the health code and temperature of the personnel entering cargo station. Under the protocol between Logistics and General Aviation Development Department of CAM and the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM), JLL is required to register drivers and vehicles entering cargo station for future route tracing. JLL also should work closely with the cleaning service company to ensure that there is no overlap between cleaning personnel, and the working and rest areas are strictly separated to reduce the risk of cross-infection.

Executive Director Mr. Lei Si Tai together with Ms. Winnie Hsu, Director of Planning and Commercial Development Department and Mr. Frank Wu, Director of Logistics and General Aviation Development Department, had site inspection to the airport cargo terminal, Air Macau Food Supply Co., Ltd. (MCS), and Macau Business Aviation Center (MBAC) to check the current epidemic prevention measures and operation status. During the inspection, General Manager of Menzies Macau Airport Services Ltd. (Menzies) Mr. Mark Campbell introduced the advanced prevention measures in response to the pandemic in neighboring regions and the vaccination rate of their employees, which has reached 69% and that of frontline staff has exceeded 50% as of mid-July. In terms of deployment, a special reward plan has been established for frontline staff who participates in handling flights and cargo from medium and high-risk areas. In line with related airport policy, frontline staff are currently arranged to have Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) once a day and Menzies is requited to strictly supervise if the frontline staff who need to come into contact with medium and high-risk flights to wear the first-class (full set) personal protective equipment (PPE) properly and personal disinfection and cleaning works is in place after handling flights. The delegation went to the airport cargo terminal to inspect the prevention measures and disinfection process of imported goods. At present, all imported cargo have to be disinfected at least twice. Especially the imported cold-chain food is strictly handled in accordance with the regulations of the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) which twice disinfection works have to be completed before transporting away from the cargo terminal for distribution, and further disinfection and nucleic acid testing on the cold-chain food packaging will be perform by personnel assigned from IAM outside the cargo terminal. Relevant measures will be implemented in accordance with the epidemic prevention requirements of SAR Government and MIA and they will keep closely interaction with Airport Operations Department of CAM to ensure zero loopholes, said Mr. Mark Campbell.

During the inspection, General manager of Macau Catering Services Company Limited (MCS) Ms. Judy Kang introduced to the delegation that all frontline staff who involve in catering service for flights from medium and high-risk areas are required to wear the first-class (full set) PPE, which the used PPE will be properly wrapped up with disinfection and disposed to the designated disposal bin outside the company building and the cleaning company will arrange for further disinfection and delivery for disposal. In terms of the food waste treatment, the food waste must be collected for disinfection and properly wrap up before entering the company building whether it come from low, medium or high-risk regions and the cleaning company is responsible for arranging disinfection and delivery to disposal properly. At the meeting, CAM delegation has also provided suggestions that deployment should be plan according to the risk level of the arrival flight, in which arrangement of catering service and food waste disinfection for flights from medium and high-risk areas required to be handling by dedicated team, and minimize manual intervention on procedures to reduce infection risk. Afterwards, the delegation also inspect the various working areas of MCS building, such as the loading dock, the food waste disposal area, and the food processing and food truck placement area, in which MCS has separated the catering trucks depends on the risk level of flights.

Executive Director Mr. Leung Henry Yee Hang instructed Mr. Sandro Kou, Director of Infrastructure Development Department (IFD), to inspect the south extension construction site. All personnel entering the site are required to present their health code, wear masks and register their personal data and temperature. Delivery personnel should present their health code and disinfect hands with alcohol when entering the site. The site will be disinfected regularly and goods entering the site will be disinfected. In terms of the epidemic prevention and control reporting mechanism, the IFD strictly requires the manager to provide the total number of staff entering the site, as well as health code, body temperature and travel records of the past 14 days of all staff entering the site every day. If the health code of the staff entering the site is "Yellow Code", the staff will immediately sent home and not be allowed on site. Other staff will be screened. If they are found to have close contact with the "Yellow Code" person, they should undergo nucleic acid testing immediately depends on the situation. If any staff or site worker notices any abnormal situation in terms of epidemic prevention and control, they must immediately report to their superior without delaying.

Same day afternoon, Dr. Deng Jun, Chairman of the Executive Committee of CAM, also conducted random inspections on the handling procedures for employees of Menzies Macau Airport Services Limited (Menzies) and Macau Catering Services Co., Ltd. (MCS) who participated in high-risk flights, and went to the cargo terminal for on-site inspections. Dr. Deng suggested that the communication between the two companies and AOD is suggested to be more closely, and the allocation of epidemic prevention resources should be discussed at any moment if needed. Dr. Deng also had an on-site inspection of MCS's working areas, including food catering loading area, kitchen truck placement area, and kitchen waste disposal area, he then suggested to assign staff to handle food catering, meal collection arrangement and kitchen waste disinfection from medium and high risk areas according to the risk of the flight area, and to minimize the number of layers of human intervention in the process so as to reduce the risk of infection. After that, Dr. Deng consulted the General Manager of SEMAC Security Company to have a better understand of the operation status and handling procedures, and went to Macau Business Aviation Center (MBAC) to have a better vision of the current situation of business aviation operations. Dr. Deng hopes to raise the vigilance of each unit regarding epidemic prevention, and to reduce man-made error.

In response to the current situation of pandemic, excepting the aforementioned frontline staff and construction companies staff who perform Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) once a day or every three days according to the level of closeness. Additionally, all personnel works in CAM Office Building is required to have NAT every seven days, in order to further lower the risk of spreading the pandemic.

Executive Director Mr. Chu Tan Neng listened to the report by Mr. Gary Geng, Director of the Airport Operations Department and other front line staffs at area staff changing PPEs.

Executive Director Mr. Kan Cheok Kuan inspected CAM Office Building and the management area of JLL

Executive Director Mr. Lei Si Tai inspected the airport cargo terminal regarding the relevant epidemic measure and status

Director of Infrastructure Development Department (IFD), Mr. Sandro Kou inspected the south extension construction site.

Chairman of the Executive Committee of CAM, Dr. Deng Jun, conducted random inspection at Macau Catering Services Co., Ltd. (MCS)