With the aim of encouraging community-wide vaccination, gaming operator MGM has invited medical staff from the Health Bureau (SSM) to set up an “outreach delivery point” at MGM COTAI for its employees and their families to get their COVID-19 jabs.
According to an MGM statement last week, the outreach delivery point will run for two days until today. The statement noted that 1,200 staff signed up for the jab, and around 90 percent of them chose Sinopharm. The statement also said that after the two days, with other staff members who have already been vaccinated, around 40 percent of the MGM staff members will have been jabbed.
MGM China Holdings Limited President, Strategic and Chief Financial Officer and Non-Executive Director Kenneth Feng Xiaofeng was vaccinated at MGM COTAI yesterday. After the jab, he talked to reporters and said that he felt “good”. He said that he would continue to encourage staff members to get vaccinated.
When asked whether he will follow other gaming operators and roll out monetary rewards for staff members who have been inoculated against the novel coronavirus, Feng said that he will continue to monitor the community’s demand and government’s expectations to determine whether rolling out other schemes can encourage more staff to get vaccinated.
An MGM receptionist surnamed Luo told reporters he believed that by being vaccinated, he would be able to protect himself, his family members and the guests he serves. Luo said that he wanted to urge more people to get vaccinated and help achieve herd immunity.
Another MGM staff member, surnamed So, said that having the outreach delivery point at MGM increased her desire to get vaccinated. She said that she did not feel any discomfort after getting her first jab.
MGM’s summer outlook
Meanwhile, Feng told reporters that he has no plans to lay off staff to cut costs, and neither had he decided whether to increase his employees’ salaries this year. Feng said that he would think of ways to cut costs but the most important thing right now was to figure out how to attract more customers. He also said that he expected to host big events to attract mainland visitors to MGM.
The company owns two casino-hotel resorts in Macau, one in Nape and the other in Cotai.
Feng said that he had high hopes for the summer period, adding that if mainland visitors turned out to be willing to travel during the next few months, he believed that the gaming revenue would increase accordingly. He added that in the past few months he saw a rising trend in gaming revenue.
MGM China Holdings Limited President, Strategic and Chief Financial Officer and non-executive Director Kenneth Feng Xiaofeng gets his first COVID-19 jab at the MGM COTAI Ballroom yesterday. Photo: Prisca Tang
