The Chief Executive of Macau Ho Iat Seng on Tuesday announced more border restrictions, specifically a ban on entry into the territory by residents of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan who have been in any other country or region in the previous 14 days.

The new measures will come into force at midnight on Wednesday.

The head of the government also announced the suspension of all connecting flights at Macau International Airport.

Ho Iat Seng said that “the health services will issue a warning stating that all people who have visited Hong Kong or Taiwan 14 days prior shall be subject to medical observation at a place designated by the health authority.”

Macau residents shall also be subject to quarantine if they arrive from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The same is the case for residents of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but only if they have not been in another foreign country 14 days before.

Ho Iat Seng said he was sure that with these measures “the situation will improve,” but admitted that “it is not possible to predict the future situation. It is unpredictable.”

Ho Iat Seng praised the way the population of Macau had responded to government measures and asked that everyone be, “more optimistic and tolerant.”

The Macau authorities on Monday announced another imported case of Covid-19, bringing the number of infected people to 25 since the beginning of the outbreak of the coronavirus.

This is the 15th imported case detected by the authorities in just over a week, after Macau had gone for 40 days without detecting any infected people.

Ho Iat Seng said that the situation was under control and noted that all new cases are imported and that Macau has managed to avoid local contamination.

Macao registered a first wave of ten cases in February, which have already been discharged from the hospital. After the detection of new cases, all of which were imported, the authorities have strengthened control measures and border restrictions.

Since Thursday only residents of Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China have been allowed into the territory. Even these began to be subject to a compulsory quarantine for two weeks, if they 14 days prior to entry they have been in any territory or country.

More than 2,000 people were sent into quarantine, the overwhelming majority of them distributed to and isolated in eight hotels that the Macau Government decided to convert into quarantine centres.

Hong Kong announced a ban on the entry of all non-residents in the special administrative region of China from Wednesday, as it faced an escalation of cases, which have doubled in a week, totalling more than 350 people infected and four deaths since the beginning of the epidemic.

Macau residents can enter Hong Kong but if they have been in countries with a high epidemic incidence they will be subject to a quarantine period. (macauhub)