Most non-essential industrial and commercial premises in Macau will be allowed to resume operations – on a limited basis – from Saturday (July 23) to Friday (July 29), the city’s government stated in a Wednesday announcement. The government said most such businesses would be able to reopen, and a list of those premises not permitted to resume operations, did not mention casinos.
By Friday, the city will have had a nearly two-week shutdown of non-essential businesses, including casinos, as a countermeasure against Macau’s largest Covid-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic, in early 2020.
GGRAsia has approached the local casino regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, to confirm that casinos will be allowed to restart.
Even if they are, it is not clear they will have many tourist customers. More than 20 provinces in mainland China – including Macau’s neighbour, Guangdong province – are currently reporting clusters of Covid-19 infection, according to mainland media.
On Wednesday, Macau’s Health Bureau issued a set of guidelines for businesses that will be allowed to reopen.
They mentioned the need to implement frequent Covid-19 tests for employees; the need to avoid crowds gathering at premises; and – for non-essential services specifically – that no more than 50 percent of the normal complement of staff should go to the workplace at any one time.
The Macau government had announced on Tuesday that the city might be able to enter from Saturday what it termed a “consolidation period” with regard to Covid-19 countermeasures.
That had been characterised as a point where daily number of new infections were at a level low enough to be deemed acceptable by the authorities.
Macau had a total of 1,783 confirmed Covid-19 cases as of midnight on Tuesday, in the current local outbreak since June 18. A total of 18 new infections was detected on Tuesday.
