Macau Restricts Entry for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong Customers

The escalation of the casino industry is about to continue in Macau. The city has just introduced a ban for visitors from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong to prevent the proliferation of coronavirus.

About the Ban

The local government has recently announced a total restriction for non-residents who had arrived from foreign countries over the past 14 days. The same has been prescribed for international arrivals with the exemption for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. However, the spread of Covid-19 continues in the special China region and the city has decided to impose a complete ban for people coming back from outside Macau. Hong Kong has also introduced total prohibition for persons arriving from international locations including Macau.

Starting from Wednesday, March 25, Macau residents, and citizens of mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan who haven’t visited other countries in the previous two weeks, will have to spend 14 days in quarantine as soon as they arrive in Macau. At the same time, mainland residents who haven’t been abroad including Hong Kong or Taiwan will need to medical scrutiny at a special facility.

Additional Measures

Macau government has just informed the public that it determined the Grand Lapa Hotel as a medical observation location. The hotel includes 435 rooms and will be the eighth venue for medical observation, making the total number of available rooms to 2200.

The chief executive in Macau, Ho Iat Seng, has warned about local casino concessionaires, who didn’t make any offer regarding the Covid-19 situation. It waits to be seen whether the holders of major integrated resorts will offer these facilities for medical use.

He stated:

“The government doesn’t want to utilize hotels in integrated resorts until the last minute but it’s really difficult to find more available hotels at this moment and the government will really appreciate this contribution.”

Ho added:

“When the entire society encounters challenges, we should take and share more responsibilities… What the gaming operators have done, Macau residents see in their eyes and keep in their minds.”

Previous Situation

Macau casinos have been facing problems since China introduced travel restrictions in January with the outbreak of Covid-19 in Hubei. The month after, Macau’s government suspended casino operations for 15 days and brought February’s gaming revenue to the enormous 88% year-on-year decline.

According to the recent report of Macau’s Statistics and Census Service, the number of February visitors in the city fell by 95.6% from the same period last year. If we take a look at the first two months of 2020, the number of visitors dropped 57% year-on-year.

China, on the other hand, is eliminating Covid-19 issues. It has just announced the plan for lifting a lockdown on Hubei province with an insignificant number of new infections. Wuhan residents, however, will have to face travel restrictions until April 8, when the government will reconsider the situation.

Source:

“Macau restricts entry of visitors from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan“, Steven Stradbrooke, calvinayre.com, March 25, 2020.