Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past three years, you would be well aware of China’s covid-zero policy and the unmitigated disaster that has been for the Macau gaming industry.
Thankfully, over the past week or so it has become patently obvious that mainland China (and, by extension, Macau) has done a complete 180, with covid-zero being abruptly dismantled step by step. We are not there quite yet, but the writing is on the wall. All of Macau is gleefully awaiting the demise of the despised Macau 5+3 day quarantine and self health management for arrivals to the SAR, but the sense on the ground is that this is just a matter of time, and hopefully not much of it!
I recently travelled from the Philippines to Hong Kong and on to Macau and had to endure the discombobulation and befuddlement caused by the spider’s web of covid-zero rules such a journey entailed. Over a 14 day period this included a three-day mandatory medical surveillance in Hong Kong, a mandatory three-day self-health monitoring period in Hong Kong (which would have been four days but I left Hong Kong to travel to Macau), a five-day mandatory hotel quarantine in Macau, a three day mandatory red-code self health management in Macau, 20 mandatory covid tests (11 NATs and 9 RATs), 29 mandatory temperature readings, additional unavoidable covid-zero related expenses of US$968, an estimated 20 hours of administrative work and printing out and completing 20 documents totalling 31 pages.
Thankfully some of these requirements have already been relaxed!
As I navigated my way through this 14 day covid-zero maze, I decided to document it all on video. My initial reasoning was to highlight the enormous inconvenience the zero-policy created for travellers, but now that covid-zero seems to be on the way out, I still think it’s worth publishing the videos as a historical record and cautionary tale.
For the TLDR version, you can just watch the seven minute introduction at the start and/or the two minute conclusion at the end.
Or, if you’re an absolute glutton for punishment, slog your way through the entire 4.5 hours shot over 14 days! Enjoy!
| 0:00:00 | THE BEGINNING |
| 0:06:51 | DAY 1 |
| 0:20:23 | DAY 2 |
| 1:00:44 | DAY 3 |
| 1:11:08 | DAY 4 |
| 1:16:35 | DAY 5 |
| 2:01:45 | DAY 6 |
| 2:15:58 | DAY 8 |
| 2:45:23 | DAY 10 |
| 3:03:37 | DAY 11 |
| 3:20:56 | DAY 12 |
| 3:49:56 | DAY 13 |
| 4:00:34 | DAY 14 |
| 4:26:19 | THE CONCLUSION |
