The Macau government announced today a casino entry ban on people who visited Hubei province during a 14-day period before their arrival in Macau. Hubei's capital city Wuhan is the centre of the mainland's novel coronavirus outbreak.
According to a statement by the Macau Government Information Bureau (GCS), the ban took effect today. The statement also reaffirmed the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau's (DICJ) instruction that all casinos measure the body temperature of their staff members and gamblers at all entry and exit points of their gaming premises According to the statement, there are 405 entry and exit points for gamblers and 47 for staff members in the city's casinos. According to DICJ statistics, Macau's six gaming operators own 41 casinos.
Meanwhile, officials from various government entities revealed during a daily press conference this afternoon about the Wuhan virus threat that 500 tourists from Hubei still remained in Macau. The government has urged tourists from Hubei to leave Macau as soon as possible. The local police have been assisting tourists from Hubei in their departure such as by providing transport from the hotels where they stayed to the main border checkpoint, the Barrier Gate. Late last week, the number of tourists from Hubei in Macau exceeded 1,100, according to the police.
The police said they went to 86 hotels today where they identified around 150 Hubei residents who were taken to border checkpoints to return to the mainland. Four Wuhan residents opted to be taken to a quarantine facility in Coloane for 14 days instead. Reportedly, they told the authorities that have relatives in isolation at a local hospital. Macau has 121 hotels and guesthouses with about 38,000 guestrooms.
Reporters at the press conference raised by issue of Macau's many illegal inns which are particularly popular with tourists from the mainland as they charge much lower room rates than their legal counterparts. The police said that they were always clamping down on illegal inns.
A police spokesman said that at the time of the press conference no-one from Hubei had entered Macau today. Starting today, Hubei residents wishing to enter Macau are required to submit an official health declaration proving that they are corona-free to the local border checkpoint authorities. Besides, only local residents are currently allowed to pass through the e-channels at Macau's border checkpoints.
During the hour-long press conference the officials underlined that all the six confirmed Wuhan virus patients are "imported" cases and so far no local transmission of the virus has been reported. All the six patients are tourists from Wuhan.
The officials also revealed that 15 persons are currently in quarantine for observation including a local woman who returned to Macau from Hubei on January 19 and sought treatment for a sore throat yesterday. Her first novel coronavirus test was negative but as she is regarded a high-risk patient because of her travel history doctors are awaiting the outcome of her second test later this week, according to the press conference.
Meanwhile, Cloee Chao Sao Fong, president of the New Macau Gaming Staff Rights Association, told reporters today that due to the Wuhan virus menace all casinos should be closed for the time being.. She pointed out that all of Macau's cinemas have already been temporarily closed as a precautionary measure. Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said last week that his government would not exclude the possibility of ordering the casinos' temporary closure if the novel coronavirus situation deteriorates.
