“To a very large extent Macau is handling this problem much better than Hong Kong is,” said social affairs commentator Larry So Man-yum, who highlighted the distribution of masks as one of the most important measures taken by the Macau government so far.

“Most people would go out and rush and buy all masks, so controlling the distribution and making sure that the people from Macau will have 10 masks for 10 days, and that they can get it almost immediately, this is a very positive move,” So said. “Everybody knows it won’t be enough eventually, but it provides some peace of mind. The psychological stability effect for the community is important, so people don’t panic.”

So, who is originally from Hong Kong but has lived in the neighbouring city for more than 15 years, said early measures to stop the flow of people from mainland China had helped contain the crisis.

“I think stopping people from [the city of] Wuhan and [its surrounding province] Hubei from coming in is a good move,” he said, adding that the government was keeping track of how many people from Hubei were in Macau. “These are the basic and important things … Macau is heavily reliant on tourists, but the government has taken measures to protect people’s livelihood and health.”

Singapore closes borders to all Chinese travellers to stem spread of coronavirus

There have been 12 confirmed cases of the virus in Hong Kong and seven in Macau. It has infected almost 10,000 people around the world as of Friday, killing 213.

Residents of Hubei – the epicentre of the deadly outbreak – or those who visited the province 14 days before their arrival in Macau cannot enter the city, unless they have an official medical declaration stating they are free from infection.

On Monday, police searched 86 hotels in Macau and deported about 150 visitors from Hubei, while a family of four opted to go into quarantine.

Hong Kong authorities also barred Hubei residents from entering the city, as well as people who had been in the province in the past two weeks, excepting Hong Kong citizens.

On Wednesday, immigration officers checked 110 hotels in Hong Kong, identifying 15 travellers from Hubei. But because none of them revealed signs of being ill, officials said they only took down their contact details.

Calls for Hong Kong to close its border with mainland China have grown in recent days, including from medical staff, who have threatened to go on strike. Doctors and health care professionals have also pressed the government to deport visitors from Hubei or isolate them for two weeks, following in Macau’s footsteps.

India’s homeopathic ‘cure’ for coronavirus ‘immature and irresponsible’

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Friday announced further precautionary measures but stopped short of banning mainland visitors, as she said that would be discriminatory.

So, the social affairs commentator, said the Hong Kong government had not provided good enough explanations. “Perhaps they are negotiating with the central government. They are making it a political issue instead of a public health one – unlike in Macau. That is the only reason I can think [of].”

Sonny Lo Shiu-Hing, a veteran political commentator and observer of Hong Kong and Macau politics, said “if the Hong Kong government acted a little more decisively, it would have appeased the concerns of the medical staff earlier. But there seems to be a gap in the security measures.”

He explained that the two cities handled the situation differently due to a number of factors, including that Macau was much smaller in terms of population – with about 600,000 residents compared with more than 7 million in Hong Kong.

“Most importantly, perhaps, the Macau government has implemented in recent years big data to deal with travellers in and out of Macau, including facial recognition. They have in their computers the place of origin of travellers from mainland China and foreigners,” Lo said. “Hong Kong seems to be lacking big data, whereas Macau has used it in a more effectively and extensively.”

He noted that measures put in place to control cross-border crime and greater cooperation between the public and private sector in Macau had also been useful to handle the current situation.

Japan bans coronavirus-infected travellers after outcry over lax response

At the same time, Hong Kong’s “response to crisis management is usually quite incremental, relatively slow,” Lo said. “The Hong Kong government has been good at implementing policies but it has been weak at dealing with big crisis, like Sars [the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003]. This time the government is also unprepared because it was dealing last year with the protests.”

To him, Hong Kong’s failure to guarantee masks for residents had to do with poor coordination between different government agencies as well as the apparent absence of an updated emergency plan.

“Bureaucratic coordination in Macau was a problem during typhoon Hato [in 2017, when 10 people died in the city], but Macau has the policy of learning from its mistakes. That is important. The learning policy in Hong Kong is not very prominent,” Lo said. “The Hong Kong government response has been lacking strong capacity in comparison with Macau this time.”

Macau’s streets, as well as shops and areas previously crowded with tourists such as the Ruins of Saint Paul’s, are currently almost empty. Ferries from Macau to Kowloon and Tuen Mun have been cancelled, while hundreds of flights to the mainland have been axed.

Like in Hong Kong, schools are shut and many public and private sector employees are working from home. Casino worker unions have also asked the government to shut down gambling facilities. Although casinos have remained open, operators have shuttered restaurants, cancelled shows and closed cinemas at the venues.

Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng said this week that casinos could close if the virus continued to spread. In the meantime, the government has ordered all casino workers to use masks.

Most casino operators did not respond to queries by the South China Morning Post. But Simpson Lei, a spokesman for Sands China, the Macau unit of American casino operator Las Vegas Sands, said “to safeguard the health and safety of team members and guests, Sands China has implemented a series of preventive measures across its properties – including temperature detection for team members and guests.”