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Macau’s government will allow people infected with COVID-19 to quarantine at home starting Wednesday, a key step in easing strict virus control measures at the world’s gaming hub for the first time in nearly three years.
Infected patients will be able to stay home and monitor themselves for five days, health officials said. In a statement on Sunday, the health authority said this will help reduce the pressure on medical resources and maintain the “normal functioning of society.”
The Chinese special administrative region of Macau has directly emulated the mainland’s coronavirus strategy since 2020, as it relies heavily on Chinese tourists to fuel its gambling-dependent economy.
China has also begun to relax its COVID-19 control measures.
read more: China halts Covid-tracing app, cases drop sharply from record high: 7 points
Last week, Macau announced that it would relax its quarantine rules for overseas arrivals, changing to five days of hotel quarantine and three days of home quarantine. At the same time, it ended routine testing of tourists from China and no longer sealed off the entire building when a confirmed case was found.
Macau has kept its borders open with neighboring Chinese city Zhuhai throughout the pandemic, though movement has been limited by permit and testing requirements, among other restrictions. Many people work and live on both sides of the border, commuting to and from get off work every day. The former Portuguese colony of more than 600,000 people has recorded more than 900 COVID cases since 2020, including six deaths.
As much as 80% of the city’s population could be infected with COVID, Macau’s Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture said last week, as isolation and testing rules are greatly relaxed during the pandemic.
This densely populated center has only one public hospital and an already overwhelmed healthcare system. Officials are urging residents not to worry about contracting the virus, as most cases have mild or no symptoms.
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