Plans to reopen the borders between Hong Kong and Macau have been put on hold after Hong Kong recorded a single new local case of COVID-19 on Thursday, ending its 16-day streak of no new infections.
The new case is a 27-year-old airport worker living in Tai Po. His apartment block was subsequently locked down and all 2,100 residents tested, with all having since returned a negative result.
It is the first case found in Hong Kong after 16 consecutive virus-free days and comes just days after an agreement had been reached for Macau to ease mandatory quarantine requirements for arrivals from its neighboring Special Administrative Region should Hong Kong reach 28 straight days without any local cases. That clock is now to be reset.
More positive is the situation in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, which has recorded no new local cases since 20 June following a recent outbreak that saw Macau reimplement tight border restrictions.
The Macau SAR Government said Thursday it has been in discussions with the Guangdong government over resetting the validity period for negative test results shown by arrivals into Macau back to seven days after it was reduced to just 48 hours on 8 June.
