Hong Kong third wave: Macau tightens entry requirements for arrivals from city as coronavirus cases surge
- Casino hub’s new requirements follow similar ones by Guangdong, with both requiring travellers from Hong Kong to present negative Covid-19 test results from the last 24 hours
- ‘Our neighbours regard Hong Kong as a place of increasing risk. We can’t blame them,’ a prominent union leader said
With Hong Kong’s third wave of Covid-19 infections showing no sign of easing, Macau has followed Guangdong’s lead in placing tighter entry requirements on arrivals from the city, who, starting on Friday, will have to produce a negative Covid-19 test report issued within the last 24 hours.
Macau announced on Thursday that the new measure would come into force at 6am on Friday, replacing a previous rule that allowed visitors to present a valid negative report issued in the last 72 hours. The requirement for arrivals to undergo 14 days of quarantine will remain in place.
The casino hub’s move came one day after Guangdong announced a similar entry rule for arrivals from Hong Kong.
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In Shenzhen’s case, from 10am on Friday, a valid negative Covid-19 test report issued within the past 24 hours – as opposed to 72 hours, as required since July 17 – must be presented to border officers when entering the city in Guangdong province. Visitors will be denied entry if they fail to provide the documentation.
Arrivals will still have to comply with a 14-day quarantine requirement, imposed on July 17, though cross-border truck drivers are among those exempted from the measure.
We can’t blame them. Hong Kong should try to put the third wave of infection under control as soon as possible
“The number of visitors affected may not be very big, but the message is very clear. Our neighbours regard Hong Kong as a place of increasing risk,” said Stanley Ng Chau-pei, president of the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), which has been lobbying mainland authorities to ease entry curbs on cross-border truckers.
“We can’t blame them. Hong Kong should try to put the third wave of infection under control as soon as possible. Now the central government is offering help in expanding our testing capacity. I hope the opposition politicians [do not] block the anti-epidemic work,” he added.
But Roy Tam Hoi-pong, of the localist party NeoDemocrats, questioned why mainland help was needed in the first place.
“It is not cooperation. It is only a trick by the government to show that China is very caring and is offering help to us,” Tam said. “But we are not short of experts in Hong Kong, and we also have testing facilities.”
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Hong Kong has been in the throes of a third wave of Covid-19 infections since early July. The city reported 265 confirmed cases in the seven-day period from July 9 to 15, then 543 in the following seven-day period, and 870 in the seven days after that. As of Thursday, the city had logged 3,849 confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, Shenzhen has agreed to delay an anti-Covid-19 rule that would have required Hong Kong cross-border trucks to install location-tracking devices for the sake of contact tracing. The rule, which was announced earlier this week, was meant to take effect on Friday.
The cross-border shipping trade has come under scrutiny as one potential weakness in Hong Kong’s epidemic controls, as truck drivers have been one of the biggest groups exempted from mandatory quarantine.
The FTU’s So Pak-chan, who met liaison office officials on Wednesday to discuss the issue, said they were pleased with the concession.
“We are not opposing the measure. But there are more than 10,000 cross-border trucks,” So said. “It takes time for all of them to install the tracking devices.”
Official figures show that in the first five days of August, the daily number of visitors leaving for Shenzhen via the Shenzhen Bay control point ranged from 560 to 2,090, while those departing for Macau via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge checkpoint ranged from 163 to 279. The figures do not include cross-border truckers.
