HONG KONG: Macao provides locked down one of the city’s most famous hotels, the Grand Lisboa, after more than a dozen COVID-19 cases had been found there upon Tuesday (Jul 5), with infections distributing rapidly in the tour’s biggest gambling center.
At least 16 other buildings across the special Chinese administrative region also are locked down without one allowed to leave or enter.
The authorities possess placed more than 13, 000 people under quarantine orders as the city battles to contain its greatest outbreak since the pandemic began. Macao provides recorded more than 900 coronavirus infections considering that mid-June, prior to that it had largely already been COVID-free since an outbreak in October 2021.
The Grand Lisboa could be the second casino hotel locked down in recent weeks. Owned by SJM Holdings, which was started by former Macao kingpin Stanley Ho, the Lisboa is one of the city’s most well known landmarks.
Local media demonstrated photos of the resort sealed off with people in protection gear and hazmat fits standing outside. The Grand Lisboa had not been immediately available for opinion.
While the government has stopped in short supply of imposing a full level lockdown in the previous Portuguese colony, observed in Chinese cities such as Shanghai, most services are shut and restaurants can only offer takeaway.
Occupants have been asked to remain at home as much as possible and so are required to take part in three citywide COVID-19 assessments this week. People are furthermore required to take rapid antigen tests in between.
Only Macao’s casinos have been permitted to stay open in a move to ensure job security. The government relies on the industry for more than 80 per cent of its tax revenue along with most of the population utilized directly or not directly by the casino accommodations.
While internet casinos are physically open, there are few patrons inside and only hardly any staff, with many workers asked to stay at home to comply with the particular government’s request.
Macao adheres to China’s “zero-COVID” policy which aims to eradicate all outbreaks, at just about any kind of cost, running counter to a global development of trying to co-exist with the virus.
It still posseses an open border along with mainland China, using its economy firmly hinged to the inflow associated with Chinese visitors.
Read more on: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/macao-locks-down-grand-lisboa-hotel-covid-19-cases-2791706