The Macau authorities said on Sunday that there would be no change to the 24-hour validity rule for a Covid-19 test applicable to people intending to enter the city via any boundary checkpoints with neighbouring Guangdong province. The measure was introduced on March 18 because of an outbreak of Covid-19 infections on the mainland.
The measure states that people travelling from Guangdong – including via land checkpoints with Zhuhai city – must hold a nucleic acid test certificate issued within 24 hours proving they are ‘negative’ for Covid-19 infection.
The announcement that the rule was being kept in place was made on Sunday by Macau’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre. It said the decision took into consideration the pandemic-related situation in neighbouring places, in particular in Guangdong’s capital city, Guangzhou.
The Macau authorities said that Guangzhou’s health authorities had confirmed at least 11 new Covid-19 infections on Saturday, with some of the cases linked to a new sub-variant of the Omicron variant of the virus.
Macau’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre said that, according to a preliminary assessment, it was likely that a “community transmission” had taken place in some areas of Guangzhou that are currently in lockdown. Such occurrence might make it possible for “further spreading of the virus in Guangzhou,” added the statement.
In recent days, Macau has expanded the list of places in mainland China where departing travellers will be subject to a period of quarantine, including several locations in Guangdong province.
Any travellers inbound to Macau that had visited certain places on the mainland would have to do quarantine at a “designated venue” for a minimum of seven days, counting from their date of departure from the relevant areas, up to a maximum of 14 days.
Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) tally in March was the lowest since September 2020, with investment analysts suggesting that the tightened border policy was “the main dragger of poor GGR”.
