How Macau’s health care system was primed to beat the pandemic, despite only opening a medical school months ago
On January 22, Macau’s first Covid-19 case was confirmed: a 52-year-old woman from Wuhan who had taken the high-speed rail to Zhuhai and crossed into the Chinese special administrative region a few days before.
Macau’s chief executive, Ho Iat-seng, who had been sworn in only a month earlier as the city commemorated the 20-year anniversary of its handover from Portugal, announced the creation of the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre, which replaced the Interdepartmental Working Group Against Pneumonia of Unknown Cause he had set up just two weeks earlier, on January 5.