The Public Security Police (PSP) announced in a statement yesterday that they recorded 5.917 million visitor arrivals last year, an 85 percent drop from 2019.
The police recorded 69.55 million entries and exits by locals and visitors at the city’s border checkpoints last year, a 64.2 percent decrease from 2019, the statement said.
The statement said that for last year the police recorded the highest number of entries and exits on January 18 at 638,284, the highest entries and exits a day last year.
The statement pointed out the number of entries and exits at the city’s checkpoints had “quickly” dropped since late January last year due to the implementation of COVID-19 border entry curbs, before the number started to recover in May with the gradual resumption of travel between Macau and Zhuhai.
Macau recorded its first COVID-19 case on January 22 last year.
Macau’s immigration service is run by the Public Security Police.
“When the COVID-19 epidemic in Macau and neighbouring regions became serious in late January, the Public Security Police immediately rolled out COVID-19 measures [at the city’s border checkpoints] in line with the Macau government’s COVID-19 prevention work,” the statement said.
The statement pointed out that the mainland authorities suspended the issuing of Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) and group tour permits on January 29 for mainlanders to travel to Hong Kong and Macau. Foreign nationals without a Macau ID card have been barred from entering Macau since March 18, the statement noted.
The statement said that after Guangdong imposed quarantine for arrivals from Macau on March 27, the number of entries and exits at Macau’s border checkpoints “hit a record low” of 3,794 the next day.
The statement said that the police recorded only 427,000 entries and exits at the city’s checkpoints in April, a 97.4 percent year-on-year decline.
The statement also said that the police only recorded 233 visitor arrivals on March 29 last year, in contrast to the average number of visitor arrivals of over 107,000 per day in 2019.
‘Joint effort by residents & government’
The statement said that Macau’s COVID-19 prevention measures have been effective in bringing COVID-19 under control thanks to the joint effort by residents and the government. Macau’s schools resumed in-class teaching in phases from May 4, the statement noted.
The statement pointed out that the Macau Health Code and the Guangdong Health Code have been mutually recognised since May 11, when Macau and Zhuhai began to mutually recognise each other’s nucleic acid test (NAT) results, allowing the gradual relaxation of border entry curb measures between the two cities. The quarantine requirement imposed on non-resident workers from the mainland was first jointly relaxed by the Zhuhai and Macau governments on that day, when non-resident workers holding a Zhuhai ID card or residence permit began to be exempted from the quarantine measure so that they can commute between the two cities, the statement noted.
The quarantine requirement was later lifted for all non-resident workers from the mainland on July 19.
The statement pointed out that Guangdong lifted its quarantine requirement for arrivals from Macau on July 15. The relaxation of border entry curbs between Guangdong and Macau “caused the number of [Macau’s] entries and exits to recover, on average, to” 142,000 per day in July, the statement said.
“The joint COVID-19 prevention and control work by the Zhuhai and Macau governments have successfully created the conditions for the resumption of people movement between the two cities,” the statement said.
The whole mainland lifted its quarantine requirement for arrivals from Macau on August 12, the statement noted.
The statement pointed out that the issuing of Individual Visit Scheme and group tour permits for Zhuhai residents also resumed on August 12, after which the resumption was extended to all Guangdong residents on August 26. The issuing of the travel permits for all mainlanders finally resumed on September 23, which the statement said boosted the recovery of the number of visitor arrivals to Macau.
The statement said that the average number of visitor arrivals recovered to over 7,300 per day in August.
The statement said that the average number of Macau’s entries and exits recovered to 299,000 per day last month, a 44.9 percent year-on-year decrease, while the number of visitor arrivals per day, on average, stood at around 21,000, a 78.5 percent year-on-year percent drop.
The statement said that the police recorded 30,796 visitor arrivals on New Year’s Eve, while the number of entries and exits stood at 340,019 on November 20, both setting daily records since the implementation of COVID-19 prevention and control measures in Macau early last year.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows PSP officers helping travellers convert their Macau Health Code to the Guangdong Health Code on their smartphones outside the Barrier Gate border checkpoint.
