The current outbreak of COVID-19 in Macau has now exceeded 100 confirmed cases. The Chief Executive, Ho Iat Seng, said that Macau will insist on “dynamic zero,” and that Macau will not close all casinos “across the board.”
Macau’s Chief Executive held a special press conference on Thursday (23 June) afternoon. He said the government will insist on a COVID-zero policy, saying that co-existing with the virus is not desirable.
“Co-existence will affect the willingness of mainland tourists to come to Macau, and now there are not enough foreign tourists coming to Macau, so the public should reconsider whether co-existence is appropriate or not,” Ho said.
“It would be easy for the government to implement a ‘living with the virus’ policy. If the government did this, it would only have to focus on curing affected patients and nothing else. This question is not a simple one for Macau as a whole, particularly from the perspective of its social and economic development.”
At the press conference, some journalists were concerned about whether Macau’s casinos would be closed due to the epidemic in the SAR. Ho Iat Seng said that the government will not close all casinos across the board, for the time being at least, and will consider closing casinos only if there are confirmed patients from casinos. “The government will consider closing the casinos as and when necessary,” he said.
In earlier communications the government said there were five confirmed patients who had been working in casinos. But according to epidemiological investigations, only two were working on the casino floor. “The two confirmed patients were not working from June 15 to 20, so the casinos were not considered for closuhttps://staging.staging.asgam.com/index.php/2022/06/22/confirmed-covid-cases-in-macau-increases-to-71-two-are-casino-dealers-inbound-tourism-now-down-99-7-on-2019/re. The government will continue to discuss this specific situation.”
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