The Macau government extended today its quarantine measures for arrivals to all of the 26 nations in the Schengen Area as well as the UK, US, Egypt, Australia, Russia, Canada, and Brazil.
The measure, which takes effect at 0:00 on Tuesday, was announced during the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre's daily press conference about the COVID-19 epidemic.
Arrivals from four Schengen Area countries - Germany, Italy, France and Spain, as well as South Korea, Iran and Japan have been subject to the 14-day quarantine measure for some time already.
While local residents arriving from any of the high-risk countries can opt for home quarantine, non-locals must go into quarantine at a hotel designated by the government at their own expense.
The 26 Schengen Area countries are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Officials at the press conference also announced that many of Macau's about 3,000 students enrolled in universities and colleges abroad, around 1,000 of them in the Schengen Area, have expressed their intention to return to Macau in the wake of the deteriorating novel coronavirus situation overseas. The officials cautioned the students to carefully prepare their return flights, considering the possible health risks involved.
A statement by the Health Bureau (SSM) tonight urged local students keen to return to Macau to reduce the number of stopovers.
Macau's airport does not offer direct intercontinental flights, because of which most residents flying back home from destinations outside Southeast and East Asia transit in Hong Kong. From today, all returning local students must go into mandatory home quarantine for 14 days, according to the SSM statement.
The US, Canada, Australia, the UK and Portugal are the most popular foreign destinations for students from Macau.
