Another COVID Blow to Macau – Visitors Locked, All Civilian Flights Banned
- New cases of Delta and Omicron variants emerged in a hotel quarantine.
- The air traffic prohibition ends on January 23rd.
- Additionally, every person who visited the Chinese city of Xian must be isolated.
Prohibition Order Stifles Gambling Giants
Macau’s devastated casino industry took another serious blow when the region tightened its entry requirements for international airport arrivals, right after the COVID-19 Omicron variant emerged across the globe. Inside Asian Gambling reports that a 14-day ban on all civilian flights coming from abroad has been imposed by Macau legislator, in order to reduce the risk of a potential COVID outbreak.
Several positive cases of COVID-19, both Delta and Omicron, were detected in recent days. To make matter worse, it all happened in a hotel quarantine for passengers arriving from Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom.
The prohibition order will last until January 23rd, making Macau ban more strict than measures imposed by Hong Kong, which blocked arrivals from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Pakistan, India, France, and Canada.
The harsh Macau ban comes right after the city of Xian, China, was struck by new 1,800 registered cases of COVID-19. The Chinese decided to extend the lockdown in Xian, and at the moment Macau authorities require all individuals that visited Xian in a recent period to be strictly isolated.
