No new daily COVID-19 cases in Macao for first time in over a month

HONG KONG: Authorities in Macao reported no brand new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday (Jul 27) for the first time since mid-June, after the city’s most severe outbreak of the disease led to a 12-day closure of casinos and secured down most of the planet’s biggest gambling centre.

The tally of infections since Jun eighteen stood at 1, 816, the government said in a statement, as the city grapples with the fast-spreading Omicron version for the first time.

“No additional positive situations were reported in Macao within 24 hours yesterday, ” this said on its website.

Macao’s casinos reopened a week ago, as it began unwinding stringent measures that will had shut most businesses and premises. All casinos were shut on Jul 11 for the first time much more than two years.

But cinemas, wellness clubs and beauty parlours remain shut, with daily coronavirus tests required of the population of more than six hundred, 000. They must furthermore stay home except for immediate tasks, such as work and shopping, the federal government has said.

Greater than 90 per cent associated with residents are completely vaccinated but regulators are following China’s “zero-COVID” programme associated with curbing all breakouts at almost any cost, contrary to efforts in the rest of the world, which is living with the virus.

Casinos, though open, are seeing little business as the curbs unwind slowly. They are racking up losses ahead of bidding next month for new licenses in an industry that earned revenue of US$36 billion in 2019, the last year before COVID-19 curbs.