Part 3 : Dealing with the pandemic ICE365 Macau report
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DEALING WITH THE PANDEMIC
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WHEN MUCH OF China had gone into lockdown at the start of 2020 , Macau was ramping up measures to protect citizens and visitors from Covid-19 .
Temperature checks for visitors were put in place at its casinos from January , with a mandatory mask order for staff enforced from 22 January , followed by similar rules for patrons from 1 February . Four days later , Executive Order 27 / 2020 was passed . This compelled all 39 casinos in the SAR to shut for 15 days from 5 February , to slow the spread of Covid-19 .
These actions , Alidad Tash argues , effectively preceded measures taken around the world to mitigate the pandemic : “ Macau was the first to shut casinos down , launch contact tracing and introduce masks even before the World Health Organisation guidance came through ,” he says . “ It did so because it still remembered SARS , which devastated Macau and Hong Kong in 2002 .”
Wieners says Macau deserves credit for its approach . While a population of around 680,000 is relatively easy to manage , the speed at which it shut its borders to non-residents and implemented health and safety protocols was very effective , he says .
“[ Because ] of these measures Macau has not had an internal Covid-19 case since April 2020 ,” Tash points out . “ There have been a few people caught at the border , but internally nothing has happened since April 2020 .”
It was not until September 2020 that a travel bubble was formed with China , meaning mainland residents were free to visit without having to quarantine . At the time of writing , there was still a two-week quarantine order in place for Hong Kong visitors , rising to three weeks for Taiwan . Entry from all other countries is prohibited .
This significantly reduced visitation . From 39.4 million visitors in 2019 , Macau welcomed just 5.9 million in 2020 , an 85.0 % year-on-year drop . Numbers are not expected to rise significantly , Siara notes ; at a briefing in February , the director of the Macao Government Tourism Office ( MGTO ), Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes , said Macau is aiming for 6-10 million visitors in 2021 .
ICE365 Macau report June 2021