Macau Continues Mass COVID-19 Tests: Government Services, Businesses To Restaurants And Schools Closed, But Casinos Still Open

Illustrated casino in Macau. (Wikimedia Commons / Vmenkov)

JAKARTA - The world's largest gambling hub Macau began its second day of mass COVID-19 testing on Monday, with banks, schools, government services and other businesses closed, but casinos remaining open.

Testing of some 600,000 Macau residents is expected to end on Tuesday, coming after dozens of locally transmitted cases were discovered over the weekend.

The former Chinese-ruled Portuguese colony is implementing China's "zero COVID" policy, which aims to eradicate all outbreaks, at any cost, in defiance of the global trend of trying to coexist with the virus.

Most residents have been asked to stay at home, restaurants will be closed for dinner and border restrictions have been tightened. That is, casino revenue is likely to be near zero for at least a week and possibly the coming weeks, analysts said.

The Macau government relies on casinos for more than 80 percent of its revenue, with most of its population employed directly or indirectly by the casino industry.

The latest outbreak came suddenly and has spread rapidly, while the source of its spread remains unknown, Macau chief executive Ho Iat Seng said in a statement on a government website.

The previous outbreak of the corona virus in Macau occurred in October last year. The outbreak in China's neighboring Hong Kong region this year, saw more than 1 million confirmed infections and more than 9,000 deaths, swamped hospitals and public services.

It is known, Macau only has one public hospital with full service every day.

Meanwhile, the Macau Legislature will this week approve an amended gaming law, which will lay the groundwork for what is required of multibillion-dollar casino operators to continue operating.

"Depending on how quickly Macau can contain the latest outbreak, there is a risk of delaying the finalization of the gambling law amendments and subsequent concessions to the tender process," said Vitaly Umansky, analyst at Sanford C Bernstein.