Macau’s Health Bureau is warning that the territory’s pandemic-ravaged casinos would need to close again if any cases of the virus are discovered among visitors and employees at their properties.
Macau has been Covid-free for more than a month, and there have been no locally transmitted cases in four months. So far, some 25,000 of the 50,000 to 60,000 gaming employees undergoing testing have been cleared as negative.
But health officials issued the warning after visitors complained about a new requirement that they submit negative test results from the previous seven days in order to enter casinos. Critics say the requirement is overkill, because no one can enter the territory to begin with until they prove they’re virus-free. Casinos also are required to check the body temperature of every entering guest.
“The gaming industry is the most important industry in Macau,” the bureau said. “Generally, people stay on casino floors for a longer time than other places, so that the risk of spreading the virus would be higher than in other places.”
It added, “Many infected people do not show obvious symptoms. It is hard to guarantee that Macau does not have any hidden patients at this moment.”
The cautious tone was seconded by Macao Government Tourism Office Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, who said that rushing to reinstate visas for mainland Chinese residents to travel abroad as individuals would backfire if the virus returns and Macau and mainland authorities are forced to shut down borders again.
“Obviously, even when it is reinstated, those people will still need to have a test done in order to come to Macau and go back without entering quarantine,” she said. “But it is important to consider that there will also be an ‘if.’ What I mean by that is if there are any Covid-19 cases reported in Macau𑁋community cases, not imported cases𑁋if any case is detected, then (the government) will immediately suspend for 14 days the issuing of visas and the quarantine exemption. That’s why we have to be very careful. We have to avoid that situation from happening.”
Macau’s casinos were closed by government order for two weeks in February to stem the spread of the potentially deadly virus, which at the time had only begun to spill out from China, where it was first identified in December.
A series of border closings on both sides of the border and in Hong Kong, together with stringent containment measures that included mandatory quarantines, have been effective. They’ve since been relaxed, but only gradually and in small increments, and they’ve come at a horrific price for the gaming industry, which has seen revenues plummet as visitation from the mainland, its largest and most lucrative source of gamblers by far, has slowed to a trickle.
Above all, the market has been waiting for the central government to reinstate the travel visas, which were suspended in January. The Individual Visit Scheme, as it’s known, has been the catalyst for Macau’s growth since it was launched in 2003 and expanded over the years to cover 49 cities.
Last year, nearly half of visitors from the mainland entered on the IVS and 72 percent of them came from neighboring Guangdong province, the industry’s single largest feeder market.
“The growth driver for gaming revenue is still the IVS re-issuance,” Credit Suisse analysts Kenneth Fong and Lok Kan Chan said in a recent client note.
