No Cases Of COVID-19 Last Nine Days, Macau Authority To Reopen Public Services To Entertainment Facilities

Illustration casino in Macau. (Wikimedia Commons/Brenden Brain)

JAKARTA - Macau authorities will reopen public services, entertainment facilities and allow dining in restaurants from Tuesday, authorities said, as the world's largest gambling hub attempts to return to normal life, after finding no cases of COVID-19 for the past nine days in a row. - in succession.

Beauty salons, fitness centers and bars will also be allowed to resume operations, the government said in a statement on Monday.

However, health authorities will require citizens to wear masks when they go out, must show a negative coronavirus test within three days of entering most places.

"There have been no cases of community infection in Macau for nine consecutive days and the risk of the coronavirus spreading has been greatly reduced," he said.

The former Portuguese colony has reported about 1,800 infections since mid-June, when it was hit by the worst coronavirus outbreak that forced casino closures and lockdowns of large parts of the city.

Previously, Macau re-opened its casinos on July 23, when authorities began to relax strict measures that required most businesses and venues to close.

This is the first time Macau has had to grapple with the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

More than 90 percent of Macau's population has received the full dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but is still adhering to China's zero-COVID policy which seeks to curb all outbreaks at almost any cost, at odds with the rest of the world already living with the virus.

Macau alone has only one public hospital which was already overburdened even before the pandemic. While Macau's casinos are open, there will likely be no business for at least a few weeks, analysts say, as strict restrictions remain in place.

Sands China, Wynn Macau, MGM China, Galaxy Entertainment, SJM Holdings and Melco Resorts are the six current casino licensees in Macau. Their license will expire at the end of the year.

They bear the loss as they prepare to bid for new licenses in a business that generated $36 billion in revenue in 2019, the last year before COVID restrictions hit the sector.