There are no plans yet to bring the 124 local residents stranded in Hubei province, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, back to Macau, Ines Chan Lou, who heads the Macau Government Tourism Office's (MGTO) Licensing and Inspection Department, said today.
However, Chan was quick to add that the local government would not give up on bringing the residents home from the province on which the central government has imposed a lockdown in its fight against the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic.
Chan made the remarks at the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre's daily press conference about the viral threat.
Chan said that bringing the residents back to Macau involved a string of difficulties such as that the residents stay in 18 different places in the province, some of them in remote areas about five hours by car from the provincial capital Wuhan, where 23 of the residents are currently. Hubei, which has a population of about 60 million, covers 194,900 square kilometres, double the size of Portugal
Chan said that for safety and resources management reasons the local government preferred to bring all the residents back to Macau in one go.
Meanwhile, Macau Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) official Isabel Jorge said at the press conference that the outdoor fitness equipment at the city's public parks would be reopened to the public tomorrow. However, she pointed that children's playground equipment would remain off limits until further notice.
Macau's public parks remained closed for a fortnight until Thursday as one of the government's various measures to tackle the COVID-19 threat.
According to Jorge, the Guia Hill cable car will also reopen today.
A police spokesman announced at the press conference that about 5,500 tourists arrived in Macau yesterday. In December 2019 the daily average of visitor arrivals stood at 99,464, according to official statistics.
Government officials have said that since the Chinese New Year late last month the number of visitor arrivals and hotel guests has fallen over 90 percent year-on-year.
Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) official Wong Kin Mou told the press conference that Macau's schools would remain closed for the time being. The schools have been closed since the Chinese New Year holiday in response to the COVID-19 threat. Wong said that pupils' safety was the most important factor for the bureau to consider. He added that the bureau would announce the schools' reopening seven days in advance.
Meanwhile, the Legislative Assembly (AL) has announced that its members will return to work on Monday when the Follow-up Committee on Public Administration Affairs will hold a meeting with government officials on the government's ongoing measures against the COVID-19 epidemic. The legislature's committee meetings are customarily held behind closed doors but non-establishment lawmaker Sulu Sou Ka Hou told reporters today that he had asked the president of the committee to open the meeting to the public.
