HONG KONG (Reuters) – Macau will reopen public companies and leisure amenities, and permit dining-in at eating places from Tuesday, authorities stated, as the world’s greatest playing hub seeks a return to normalcy after discovering no COVID-19 instances for 9 straight days.
Magnificence salons, health centres, and bars too might be allowed to resume operations, the federal government stated in a press release on Monday.
Well being authorities would require residents to put on masks once they exit and should present a damaging coronavirus check inside three days to enter most venues.
“There have been no community infection cases in Macau for nine consecutive days … and the risk of the spread of the coronavirus has been greatly reduced,” it stated.
The previous Portuguese colony has reported round 1,800 infections since mid-June when it was hit with its worst coronavirus outbreak that pressured the closure of casinos and locked down a lot of the metropolis.
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Macau reopened its casinos on July 23, as authorities started unwinding stringent measures which required most companies and premises to shut.
That is the primary time Macau has had to grapple with the quick spreading Omicron variant.
Greater than 90% of Macau’s residents are totally vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 however authorities have carefully adopted China’s zero-COVID mandate which seeks to curb all outbreaks at virtually any price, opposite to the remainder of the world which is already residing with the virus.
Town solely has one public hospital which was already overburdened even earlier than the pandemic.
Whereas Macau’s casinos are open, there may be possible to be no enterprise for no less than a number of weeks, analysts stated, due to strict restrictions nonetheless in place.
Sands China, Wynn Macau, MGM China, Galaxy Leisure, SJM Holdings and Melco Resorts are the present six on line casino license holders in Macau. Their licenses will expire by the tip of the 12 months.
They’re absorbing losses as they put together to bid for new licenses in a enterprise that generated $36 billion in income in 2019, the final 12 months earlier than COVID curbs slammed the sector.
(Reporting by Farah Grasp and Twinnie Siu; Enhancing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
