After banning all foreigners from Macau, the measure is now extended to residents of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan who visited foreign countries 14 days before arriving at the territory’s borders.
The measures will take effect at 00:00 on Wednesday (16:00 today in Lisbon).
In a press conference, the head of the government also advanced the suspension of connecting flights at Macau International Airport.
Ho Iat Seng explained that the health department can exempt some people from complying with the prohibition measures and added that “health services will issue a warning that all people who have visited Hong Kong or Taiwan 14 days before are subject to medical observation and [em local] designated by the health authority ”.
Macao residents will also be quarantined if they come from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The same is true for residents of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but only if they have not been in another foreign country 14 days before.
Macao authorities announced on Monday another case of contagion from covid-19, bringing the number of infected people to 25 since the outbreak of the new coronavirus.
This was the 15th case detected by the authorities in just over a week, after Macau had been 40 days without identifying any infection.
Despite the new wave of cases, Ho Iat Seng said the situation was under control, noting that the new cases are all imported and that Macau has managed to avoid local contamination.
Macau recorded a first wave of ten cases in February, which have already been discharged. After detecting new cases, all imported, the authorities reinforced border control measures and restrictions.
Since Thursday, only residents of Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China have been allowed to enter the territory. Even these became subject to a mandatory two-week quarantine if they had been in the previous 14 days in any territory or country.
More than two thousand people were placed in quarantine, the overwhelming majority distributed and isolated in eight hotels that the Macau Government decided to convert into quarantine centers, at a time when many Macau residents are returning to the territory.
Today, Hong Kong announced a ban on entry to all non-residents of the Chinese semi-autonomous region as of Wednesday, due to the escalation of cases, which doubled in the space of a week, totaling more than 350 infected and four killed since the beginning. of the epidemic.
The new coronavirus, responsible for the covid-19 pandemic, has already infected more than 345,000 people worldwide, of whom more than 15,100 have died.
After appearing in China in December, the outbreak spread across the world, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic situation.
The European continent is the one where the highest number of cases is currently emerging, with Italy being the country in the world with the highest number of fatalities, with 6,077 killed in 63,927 cases. According to Italian authorities, 7,024 of those infected are already cured.
China, apart from the territories of Hong Kong and Macao, where the epidemic emerged in late December, has a total of 81,054 cases, with 3,261 deaths recorded.
The countries most affected after Italy and China are Spain, with 2,182 deaths in 33,089 infections, Iran, with 1,812 deaths in a total of 23,049 cases, France, with 860 deaths (19,856 cases), and the United States, with 390 deaths (31,057 cases).
Several countries have adopted exceptional measures, including the quarantine regime and border closure.
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