The Guangdong government will resume the approval process for the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) to Macau from this Wednesday 26 August, however Guangdong residents will be able to reserve applications from Tuesday, according to the Guangdong Municipal Public Security Bureau.
The approval process will take seven days, while applications from any areas considered high to medium risk or for those who have stayed in high to medium risk areas within the previous 14 days will not be accepted at this stage, the Bureau said.
The expansion of the IVS scheme from Zhuhai alone to the rest of Guangdong Province can’t come soon enough with visitation numbers to Macau showing only slight improvement last weekend – up from an average of 5,600 visitors per day during the first 12 days of the month to 8,300 on Saturday and 7,700 on Sunday.
Officials of Macau’s Public Security Police Forces expect those visitor numbers to grow more substantially once IVS visas for Guangdong start being approved.
Macau’s COVID-19 testing ability also continues to improve with Kiang Wu Hospital having begun providing 1,000 daily virus tests for the public as of Monday 24 August. The MOP$120 testing fee is identical to the cost of receiving a test at the public hospital.
