The first scheduled maritime ferry service between Macau and mainland China’s Guangdong province since such links were suspended in early August amid a Covid-19 alert across the region, starts on Friday (September 3). That is according to a Wednesday announcement by Macau’s Marine and Water Bureau.
Outbound ferries (example in file photo) will leave respectively from Macau’s Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal and Taipa Ferry Terminal. Inbound to Macau, services will leave from Shenzhen’s Shekou Port.
The earlier suspension of Macau-Guangdong ferries had coincided with an alert starting on August 3, when a Macau family of four was confirmed as infected with the Delta variant of Covid-19. Macau has seen no new cases of Covid-19 infection since then.
The city recently eased Covid-19 test rules for visitors coming either by land from mainland China, or by air.
With effect from the stroke of midnight on August 25, people intending to travel overland between Macau and the neighbouring Guangdong province, in mainland China, must hold a nucleic acid test certificate issued within seven days proving they are ‘negative’ for Covid-19 infection. This rule is also applicable to travel via ferry, according to the Macau government’s travel rules.
Mainland China is currently the only jurisdiction that has a largely quarantine-free travel arrangement with Macau. To date, there are still several districts and communities across an aggregate of six provinces and one city on the mainland, that remain on Macau’s quarantine list. The places are in: Jiangsu province, Henan province, Hunan province, Hubei province, Yunnan province, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, as well as places in the city of Shanghai.
