Two hotels in Fisherman’s Wharf — Legend Palace Hotel and Rocks Hotel, with a total of 296 rooms combined — will close starting Sunday for commercial reasons and to help the fight against the coronavirus.
In the last two days, Four Seasons, St. Regis, Conrad, Sofitel Ponte 16 and Grande Harbor — a total of 1,957 rooms combined — have closed.
Inês Chan from the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said Saturday during a press conference that all hotels consider these closures a non-permanent situation.
Chan said that despite the government’s calls for the population to remain at home and away from large concentrations of people, banquets and parties continue to take place attended by many people.
“I want to remind of the call made by the Macau government for residents not to leave their homes and stay in Macau to support efforts that are made to prevent the spread of the virus in Macau,” she said.
During the press conference, it was also reported that more than 24,000 people cross the border between Macau and the municipality of Zhuhai daily.
A thousand cases of the new coronavirus have been confirmed in Guangdong, 21 of which are in the Zhuhai municipality.
From Saturday onwards, Macau residents with a history of having been to the mainland 14 days prior will be quarantined for two weeks upon arrival in Hong Kong.
The Macau health authorities have meanwhile announced that for the fifth consecutive day, there have been no new cases of the coronavirus in Macau, either in visitors or in residents.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Macau has registered 10 cases of the virus infection — 7 from visitors from Hubei and 3 from Macau local residents. On Thursday, one of the patients from Hubei — after half a month in the hospital — was considered cured and discharged, returning to mainland China.
Until 16th of February, all civil servants will be exempt from work, according to an executive order signed by Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng.
In the executive order, Ho Iat Seng said the measure is on account of the evolution of the new coronavirus epidemic.
Only civil servants in essential departments will work. According to the government, all other civil servants must stay at home and avoid going out.
The government of Macau employs around 32,000 civil servants. This is the second consecutive week that the government has suspended work for Macau civil servants.
All 41 casinos are closed, the maritime connections between Macau and Hong Kong have stopped, cinemas and other entertainment are closed, sports activities and pavilions closed, buses have cut working hours and residents are requested to use masks all the time.
Cars and vans with loudspeakers are circulating both in Macau and in the Islands of Taipa and Coloane asking residents to stay at home.
“The Macau government strongly urges: The epidemic prevention work has reached a critical moment; please stay at home, don’t assemble. Let’s work together for epidemic prevention” are the phrases repeated in Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Portuguese.
(The Macau Post Daily/Macau News)
PHOTO © Macau Daily Times
