Macau’s gaming operators are now requesting all guests entering any of the city’s casinos to wear a protective face mask. The new measure – following guidance from the city’s gaming regulator – came into effect on Saturday, February 1, according to a Sunday statement by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, a body also known as DICJ.
The statement said that guests that do not comply with the latest measure would be asked to leave the gaming floor. Starting from a fortnight ago Macau casino workers have also been instructed by the local gaming regulator to wear protective face masks.
The measure is the latest in a growing list of moves aimed at preventing the spread of a newly-identified coronavirus. The Macau government announced on Friday fresh measures on the ongoing fight against the local incidence of the novel coronavirus.
Macau confirmed on Sunday a new case of novel coronavirus infection, taking to eight the tally of such cases recorded in the city. The new case involves a local resident but the infection has been classified as an imported case as the authorities suspect she had been infected while travelling in mainland China, according to a government press release.
China’s National Health Commission said on Monday morning there were more than 17,200 confirmed cases within the country as a whole, and that the national death toll stood t 361. Sunday saw the first confirmed fatality outside China, in the Philippines – a Chinese man from Wuhan, a city in the mainland’s Hubei province identified as the epicentre of the coronavirus.
Macau casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) declined by 11.3 percent in January, the month that included the Chinese New Year holiday, according to official data. The decline coincided with the city’s government announcing on January 22 – just before the holiday – that Macau had recorded its first imported case of the viral pneumonia.
The public health alert – combined with local and national restrictions on inbound tourism to Macau, in order to halt the spread of sickness – coincided with a 78.3-percent fall in visitor arrivals to Macau during the Chinese New Year holiday period compared with the equivalent festival in 2019.
