Casinos in Macau will close for two weeks to help contain the coronavirus, Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng announced Tuesday. The date in which casinos will close is to be decided in the next few hours — in principle, they should close starting Wednesday.
Macau, to date, has 41 casinos.
Ho Iat Seng said that the government will meet with the casino operators within the day to call on them not to dismiss workers or reduce their salaries. According to Ho, there is also a possibility that these measures will be extended for a period of months if the situation worsens. He also did not exclude the possibility of closing some of the borders from Macau to Zhuhai.
During the Tuesday press conference, Ho Iat Seng asked the Macau populace to stay home in order to help contain the virus from spreading further.
He also announced that public services will be further reduced, appealing to cafes and restaurants to do minimum services.
The government announced Tuesday that from the 10 cases already confirmed in Macau, 7 of them have been imported and 3 being local.
Since Tuesday morning, there have been no maritime connections between Macau and Hong Kong, with all Turbojet and Cotaijet jetfoils halted.
Connections with Hong Kong are now only possible through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge.
