Tourists visit the Ruins of St. Paul's in south China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), Oct. 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Cheong Kam Ka)

 
Chinese authorities announced on Tuesday the resumption of endorsement of two-way travel to the Macao Special Administration Region (SAR) from Wednesday, and travelers from Macau to the mainland will no longer be subject to the 14-day quarantine. 

According to the statement released by the National Immigration Administration, starting from Wednesday, local authorities will begin issuing Macau travel endorsements for citizens living in Zhuhai in South China’s Guangdong Province. 

Citizens in Guangdong will be able to get the endorsement from August 26 and all citizens in the Chinese mainland will be able to get their endorsement from September, if the COVID-19 cases continue to be contained in both the Chinese mainland and the Macau SAR.

Macau currently has no COVID-19 cases, and it has had a total number of 46 cases, with all patients having been cured, according to Macau’s Centre for Disease Control. 

On Tuesday the administration also announced that travelers from Macau arriving in the Chinese mainland will no longer be required to go through a 14-day quarantine, as long as they have a negative test result or a negative health code. 

The travel restrictions in Macau have been weighing heavily on the region’s all-important gambling and tourism industry. According to the statistics department of Macau, its gambling industry dropped 61.5 percent in the first quarter of 2020, and the tourism sector shrunk by 63.9 percent. In May the direct revenue from the gambling sector was down by 93.2 percent.

In February, the Macau SAR government required all casinos and all entertainment venues to be closed for 15 days, and despite the resumption from February 20, the industry is still affected by the lack of customers.  

Global Times