China asks Guangdong residents not to travel for New Year

Due to an increase in Covid-19 cases, the government has asked residents to stay in the province during the Chinese New Year holiday.

China.- The risk of a new wave of Covid-19 infections in Guangdong province has led authorities to asked residents to stay in the province during the Chinese New Year holiday, a period when many would normally travel to Macau.

China’s State Council has designated February 11 to 17 inclusive as the Chinese New Year holiday period for 2021.

According to data from Macau’s Statistics and Census Service, visitors from Guangdong province represented nearly 60 per cent of Macau’s mainland Chinese visitors for the first eleven months of 2020.

From January to November, Macau received nearly 2.4 million visitors from Guangdong, representing 57.8 per cent of an aggregate 4.15 million mainland Chinese arrivals.

Overall, Macau recorded 5.24 million visitor arrivals for the January to November period.

Huang Fei, deputy director of Guangdong’s Health Commission, said: “As the condition for [Covid-19] prevention and control work is now challenging and complicated, we would encourage companies to – in accordance to their production status and the will of their employees – flexibly arrange the holiday period for their staff and direct them to stay within Guangdong during the Chinese New Year break.”

He added: “We would suggest the public should not to leave Guangdong unless it is necessary to do so.”