Macau kicked off Monday (11) for the first time since the start of the pandemic in an effort to contain the most serious coronavirus wave ever recorded, and the Hong Kong government has said it is considering adopting the sanitary control system from mainland China. .
The government of Macau, a former Portuguese colony, declared a one-week quarantine starting this Monday, after recording more than 1,500 infections in the past three weeks, despite mandatory testing campaigns in the city of 650,000.
This is the first confinement in Macau in more than two years to end an agreement between the local government and casinos that only establishments where cases of covid have been detected will be temporarily closed.
The announcement caused the share prices of casino operators in the Chinese city to plummet.
The six major groups in the betting industry – Sands China, Galaxy Entertainment, SJM Holdings, Melco International, MGM China and Wynn Macau – saw their shares fall between 5% and 8% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, its main stock index. Hang Seng closed Monday’s session down 2.77%.
Macau is the only place in China where casinos are allowed, but the pandemic has significantly affected this source of income in the semi-autonomous region, which has adopted a “zero covid” strategy similar to Beijing.
From this Monday, residents can only leave the house to buy essentials and test for covid.
Some utilities and commercial establishments, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, may remain open. The carriage may only be used by persons who are authorized or have a code that demonstrates low risk to health.
China uses apps to monitor population and covid outbreaks. Only people with the green code are allowed to move freely.
The city’s new health minister, Lo Chung-mau, announced on Monday that the government of Macau’s neighbor, Hong Kong, plans to adopt the same system.
“What is classified as freedom is sometimes easily mistaken for selfishness,” the minister said.
“Infected people should not have the freedom to go where they want and affect our health,” he added.
Hong Kong is in the process of reform to follow the authoritarian style of government that has ruled mainland China since the massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The Chinese city of Shanghai recorded more than 120 cases of covid over the weekend, including the first of the highly contagious omicron sub-variant BA.
source: Noticias
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