Around 31,000 travellers crossed the borders of Macau and Zhuhai municipality in Guangdong province up until Thursday, said the police authorities on Friday.
The numbers represent a drop of 25 per cent in border movements from previous days.
The minimum border crossings recorded before was 42,000 entries and departures.
According to Lei Tak Fei from the Public Security Police (PSP), 16,000 people entered Macau (11,000 residents, 4,900 tourists and three non-resident workers).
Lei also said that 15,000 people left Macau (11,000 residents, 3,000 tourists and 335 non-resident workers).
A year ago, around 100,000 travellers entered Macau daily.
The drop in movements followed new measures imposed by the health authorities on Macau residents that have visited the Guangdong province.
The new measures include a clinical screening of tourists arriving from areas considered to be at risk of the novel coronavirus (Guangdong, Henan, Zhejiang, Beijing, Chongqing and Shangai) in two inspection areas – one in Macau near the border of Portas do Cerco and the other in Pac On, Taipa.
More than 1,500 people passed the inspection, which can take up to eight hours.
According to PSP data, there were 729 people who refused to undergo screening, choosing not to cross the border to Macau.
Since Thursday, all non-resident workers that live in Zhuhai and work in Macau need to be quarantined in the neighbouring municipality before entering Macau again.
Around 22,000 non-resident workers commute daily from Macau to Zhuhai where they live.
Since February 4, the Macau government launched several measures to fight the COVID-19 epidemic in Macau.
For more than two weeks, no new cases have been detected in Macau. From the previous 10 cases detected, six have already been discharged from the hospital and returned to China.
PHOTO © Cheong Kam Ka
