The doors are opening wider for foreign non-resident workers (NRW) as the government dispenses with Covid-19 travel restrictions.
The new measures will allow foreign NRWs to apply to enter Macao from Taiwan or foreign countries, and permit them to come from mainland China without having to apply for entry beforehand.
Leong Iek Hou, who heads the Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Division of the Health Bureau (SSM), said that the government has introduced the relaxations after considering the needs of Macao’s civil society and assessing the city’s Covid-19 situation.
According to Leong, the relaxations announced yesterday will cover three groups of non-resident foreigners with no restrictions on numbers:
1) NRWs (informally known as “blue-card” holders) or those who have obtained an entry permit to work in Macao as a non-resident worker;
2) those who have obtained a permit to work as a professional NRW issued by the Macao Labour Affairs Bureau;
3) professional NRWs’ family members who have obtained a special permit to stay in Macao.
The three groups of non-resident foreigners can enter Macao directly from mainland China starting from Monday, without the need to apply to the SSM.
NRWs in the first or second group who are staying in Hong Kong, Taiwan or foreign countries can enter Macao after their respective employers submit an application to the SSM while applications for the third group will have to be submitted by the professional NRWs.
The application period will start on 24 June, and the SSM will announce details next Friday.
Like all other arrivals from Hong Kong, Taiwan or foreign countries, non-resident foreigners benefiting from the new relaxations will also be subject to the government’s current requirement of 14 days hotel quarantine plus seven days’ self-health monitoring or management upon their arrival.
Like all other arrivals from Hong Kong, Taiwan or foreign countries, non-resident foreigners benefiting from the new relaxations – except the respective family members aged below 12 – must have been fully inoculated against Covid-19 at least 14 days prior.
The government’s Covid-19 vaccination requirements for travellers departing for Macao from Hong Kong, Taiwan or foreign countries apply to those aged 12 or over.
When submitting an application, Leong said, employers must undertake to pay the quarantine hotel fee for NRWs who are unable to do so. The same condition applies in the case of bills for isolation treatment, The Macau Post Daily reported.
Read The Macao News one-stop guide to quarantine here.
