Macau eases Covid-19 rules for travel to China
Travellers are no longer required to provide a negative Covid-19 test when travelling from Macau to mainland China via sea or air.
Macau.- The Macau Health Bureau has reported that from today (November 8), travellers departing for mainland China via sea or air no longer need to provide a negative Covid-19 test result. However, travellers are reminded to check the requirements for Covid-19 tests at their intended destinations.
Previously, authorities had extended the validity of negative Covid-19 tests for those intending to travel between Macau and the neighbouring city of Zhuhai from 24 hours to 48 hours.
On Monday (November 7), more than 7,400 new local Covid-19 infections were reported across the mainland in the last 24 hours. Guangdong Province reported 2,649 positive cases, most of them in the provincial capital, Guangzhou.
As an ongoing policy, anyone intending to travel to Macau from an area classified as “high risk” must be quarantined at a designated facility upon arrival. The “high risk” list now includes 25 of mainland China’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions and major cities, according to the latest data from the Macau Novel Coronavirus Response Coordination Center.
Package tours have not yet resumed in Macau
A Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) spokesperson has confirmed that only individual travellers had been arriving in Macau from the mainland, and that they grouped together upon landing in the city.
The resumption of package tours from mainland China to Macau had been delayed due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak in Guangdong province. However, Macau Tourist Guide Association president Angelina Wu Wai Fong, had said she was confident package tours were going to resume this month.
Macau’s GGR for the first ten months of 2022 stands at MOP35.72bn. In October, the city reported GGR, from MOP2.96bn (US$366.3m) to MOP3.90bn (US$482.3m). It’s the second month of improvement after Macau’s Covid-related shutdown in July.
