In this Sept 13, 2016 file photo, tourists look at a replica of the Eiffel Tower after the opening of the Sands mega resort The Parisian in Macao. (ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP)
The Macao Special Administrative Region government will reopen some entertainment and leisure venues such as gyms, cinemas and bars from Aug 18, saying that no more cases were reported after a local family became infected with the COVID-19 virus earlier this month.
The locations were closed from Aug 5 to stamp out the flareup, the city’s first cluster of local cases in more than a year. The city has not recorded any new cases for 13 straight days since the four family members tested positive for the more transmissible Delta strain. The Macao SAR government has stepped up testing of all residents and is requiring people to have a negative result to leave the city, in response to the spread of the strain.
The city has not recorded any new cases for 13 straight days since the four family members tested positive for the more transmissible Delta strain
Arrivals have so far only recovered to less than 10 percent of 2019 levels and quarantine requirements remain for those coming from many places, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and parts of the Chinese mainland, where most visitors come from.
Other venues that will reopen from Wednesday include theaters, indoor amusement parks, game arcades, beauty salons, karaoke parlors and nightclubs, the government said in a statement Monday.
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“The decision to allow these facilities to resume operations takes into consideration the improvement in the epidemic situation,” authorities said, adding that it “is aimed at supporting a gradual resumption of normal economic activities and normal life in the city.”
Casinos had stayed open. The world’s biggest gaming hub has not shut down the gambling sector since an unprecedented 15-day suspension in February 2020.