GGRAsia – Macau sets 48-hour Covid test rule for mainland air arrivals

Macau sets 48-hour Covid test rule for mainland air arrivals

Jul 29, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

With effect from the stroke of midnight on Saturday (July 31), people intending to enter Macau on a direct flight from mainland China must hold a nucleic acid test certificate issued within 48 hours proving they are ‘negative’ for Covid-19 infection.

The announcement was made on Thursday by the head of Macau’s Health Bureau, Alvis Lo Iek Long. The measure covers flights arriving in Macau from any mainland Chinese city.

The measure comes amid a rise in the number of local Covid-19 infection cases reported on the mainland. Part of the new cases are said to be connected to a cluster that originated at Nanjing Lukou International Airport in Jiangsu province.

Mainland China is the only place to have a largely quarantine-free travel bubble with Macau, amid existing travel restrictions as countermeasures against Covid-19. Currently, all people travelling to Macau via a direct flight from the mainland, must hold a ‘negative’ test for Covid-19 issued within seven days prior to their arrival.

New places on quarantine list

The Macau authorities have also added new locations – spread across three Chinese provinces – to the list of places where departing travellers must do a 14-day quarantine on arrival in Macau.

New locations added to the list include a number of places in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, namely Guanghua subdistrict in the Qingyang district; and Shiyang subdistrict in the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone.

In addition, those who have been to the cities of Zhangjiajie or Changde in Hunan province, or to Nanjing in Jiangsu province, are also required to undergo compulsory medical quarantine upon arrival in Macau, the local authorities said.

The quarantine requirement has been applied from different dates according to each location. This means a number of people already in Macau – namely those that had been to Zhangjiajie starting from July 17 – have been required to report to the local authorities to undergo compulsory quarantine.

The Macau government had already updated its quarantine-on-arrival list over the weekend. At the time, it added locations spread across four Chinese provinces – namely Jiangsu, Yunnan, Liaoning and Sichuan – to the list of places where departing travellers must do a 14-day quarantine on arrival in Macau.