The Macau authorities are lowering from seven days to five days the amount of time people arriving from either Hong Kong, Taiwan or “overseas” places must spend in hotel quarantine. But they will now be obliged to undergo an additional three days of so-called “home quarantine”; the latter requirement did not exist previously.
Visitors to Macau will be required to complete the three additional days at a designated hotel.
The measure takes effect from Saturday (November 12), according to a Friday afternoon press conference by the city’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre.
Earlier on Friday, the mainland China authorities had announced they were shortening by two days the quarantine time for international inbound travellers. Under the new rules, quarantine for inbound travellers will be cut to five days at a centralised location plus three days at home, from seven days centralised and three days at home.
To date, mainland China remains the only place to have a largely quarantine-free travel arrangement with Macau. The Macau government has stated on several occasions that its Covid-19 prevention policy is in line with mainland China’s.
Under the new inbound quarantine arrangements, travellers to Macau must on arrival – as before – test ‘negative’ for Covid-19 to qualify for hotel quarantine, otherwise they will go into isolation in a medical facility.
During the three-day period following the five-day quarantine at a designated venue, the inbound traveller’s electronic health code will be ‘red’, meaning they can only leave their respective home or hotel to be subject to a daily nucleic acid test.
Under the seven-day hotel quarantine rule, inbound travellers would need to do immediately after, three days of so-called “self-management” of their health, and keep watch for any Covid-like symptoms.
During those three days, the individual’s electronic health code would be ‘yellow’, meaning they could not enter certain places including government offices, restaurants, and leisure facilities.
