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Various Conditions Of COVID-19 In Hong Kong and Macau

Article by : Helen Nov 10, 2020

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Even though Macau and Hong Kong are located nearby, they handle the COVID-19 situation so differently in some aspects. For example, Hong Kong has managed to reduce the number of positive coronavirus cases just recently, and so, it becomes possible to implement travel policies in some areas. On the other side, Macau has a troublesome situation: the local government is suppressing tourism opportunities and introducing new quarantine measures. The number of visitors in Macau reached nearly 20 thousand people, and on the 30th of October, there were 46 new cases recorded with no deaths. By the way, all 46 people are on the way to recovery.

What’s Going On In Hong Kong?

At the present moment, Hong Kong is recovering from the third wave of coronavirus. The city government said in a statement on Friday (30th of October) that Gross domestic product (GDP) has risen 3%. Stabilization of the COVID-19, refreshing the mainland China economy, strong movements on the financial market — these are the reasons to ease some of the policies about consumer activity and prepare to test a corona corridor with Singapore.

This idea, which apparently means free travel between two countries, is already being discussed, but nothing is set in stone yet. According to the Singapore Tourism Board, 42 tourist spots with over 200 hotels have reopened slowly due to the deal cancellation between Hong Kong and Singapore.

As South China Morning Post reports, the Chief Executive Officer of Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd — Tang Kin Wing «Augustus» — also said the following: «We should be working on making travel bubbles happen. We believe we should be using rapid tests in Hong Kong, and rapid tests in the partnering region in that particular travel bubble.» It seems that the Hong Kong government and airways companies wish to organize corridors with neighboring areas, including Macau. These words are confirmed by Carrie Lam’s statement, where the Chief Executive of Hong Kong says that reviving the air bubble with Singapore is one of their current objectives.

What About Shenzhen Bay Port and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge?

At one of the conferences, Carrie Lam announced the end of the quarantine rules for residents arriving from the Chinese mainland. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong said that they would make arrangements so that Hong Kong residents, who returned to Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland, would be discharged from a 14-day quarantine, effective next month.

Also, she said that they would provide a quota arrangement at the beginning. Carrie Lam highlighted that since they had only the Shenzhen Bay and Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge checkpoints operating, the number of Hong Kong residents allowed to come back would be restricted. The government of Hong Kong hopes that it’s a good start and that personnel from the two places can go back and forth more smoothly and in an orderly manner in the future.

Actions Taken By Macau’s Government

Macau hadn’t been registering new cases of COVID-19 for 212 days till the 30th of October. The local government has recorded 46 new cases of coronavirus on Friday. The city of Kashgar detected more than 100 symptomatic patients on the 25th of October. Thereby, Macau will put all visitors who were in Kashgar in China’s northwestern Xinjiang Province in quarantine for two weeks.

The local government has recently recorded 15 new arrivals, and they intended to put them all in quarantine. However, only 1 person stayed in the city, and another 14 had already returned to China. As we said, after that, Macau health officials didn’t predict a new outbreak, but new cases on Friday have proved their forecast to be wrong.

However, Macau continues implementing its quarantine procedures policy. They hope the number of new cases wouldn’t increase dramatically, and they could protect their citizens from COVID-19. Local government also wants to facilitate the creation of corona corridors with those countries where percentages of new coronavirus cases are low.

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