All Macau Casinos Temporarily Closing Their Doors to Fight Outbreak of Wuhan Virus

Ivan Potocki — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 22:21:40 +0000

Forty-one casino facilities in Macau are temporarily shutting down their operations for a period of at least fifteen days starting from last week. This move came as the city is trying to fight the outbreak of the Wuhan virus which so far has claimed lives of over one thousand people and infected over 40,000 individuals both within China and many other countries including the USA, Australia, Germany, and France among other.

According to one report by GGRAsia issued several days ago, this move was announced by Lei Wai Nong who is the city’s Economy and Finance Secretary before it was fully confirmed via dispatches from Ho Iat Seng who is the Chief Executive of the office. This move applies to all nightclubs, local cinemas, arcades as well as every other place of entertainment with the exception of restaurants and hotels.

Wuhan Virus Outbreak

First recorded in Wuhan back in the early days of December of last year, the Wuhan virus is a highly-infectious strain of coronaviruses which causes severe symptoms that resemble symptoms of pneumonia including severe coughs and high fevers. According to the latest reports by the CDC, the virus has been contracted by over 40,000 individuals in China and many other distant locations such as the United Kingdom, the USA, and many European countries.

It also led to single fatalities in Hong Kong and the Philippines. The city’s Economy and Finance Secretary Lei also detailed that every one of the city’s fully licensed casino companies including the local Wynn Macau Limited and Sands China Limited have already pledged to continue paying salaries to their employee over the course of the fifteen-day closure. In other words, the companies did not ask their workers to take the other route and take unpaid leave.

When it comes to the latest move regarding entertainment facilities shutting down their operations temporarily, it was stated that this only applies to the city’s gaming facilities within its tourism complex. In other words, beverage and food venues alongside hotel facilities will continue with their usual business if they have visitors and if they employ appropriate risk control measures to prevent more people from getting infected.

Macau Officials Will Not Close Border Checkpoints

Reported by GGRAsia as well, the decision to temporarily close Macau casinos came shortly after health officials revealed that Macau had recorded another case of infection several days ago. The patient is a fifty-nine-year-old bus driver who works for SJM Holdings Limited. Regarding this case, the Macau Health Bureau sought to assuage the Wuhan virus fears by revealing that the male patient probably got infected while visiting Guangdong Province.

At the same time, Ho had declared that the city’s health administration did not plan to close Macau’s border checkpoints as this decision would negatively affect the many individuals who live in other parts of China but regularly travel to the city for work. He also added that border checkpoints should remain open to keep Macau supplied with foods. However, several days later, Ho declared that ferry services between Hong Kong and Macau will be suspended which leaves the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macau Bridge as they only way to travel directly between the two areas.

All in all, the fifteen-day closure of Macau casinos will probably lead to a massive 50% drop in Macau’s aggregated gross gaming revenues for the first months of 2020. According to Sanford C Bernstein Limited, the eventual gross gaming revenue figure for Macau casinos could potentially decline by 70% to hit just around $2.8 billion in the case of casinos remaining closed in the months to come.

The post All Macau Casinos Temporarily Closing Their Doors to Fight Outbreak of Wuhan Virus appeared first on GamblersNews.

Macau Health Officials Urging Casinos to Fight the Outbreak of Viral Pneumonia

Ivan Potocki — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 15:01:13 +0000

As reported several days ago, in Macau, a number of health officials have advised the officials of Macau-based casinos to take certain measures including the installment of body temperature monitors and others at their facilities in order to prevent an outbreak of highly-infectious viral pneumonia.

According to one report released by GGRAsia, Macau’s Health Bureau shared this caution after the authority shared the news of several viral pneumonia cases of unknown origins in Wuhan. It was also reported that these cases of viral pneumonia in the city of Wuhan are somehow related to daily air links with services in Macau operated by China Southern Airlines Company Limited and Air China Limited.

Instructions by the Health Bureau and Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau

The same news service also reported that Macau health officials are extremely worried that this highly-infectious condition may very soon enter the gambling capital. Local health officials also worry that if a viral pneumonia outbreak happens in the area, it could be easily spread afield by customers in those forty-one land-based casinos in Macau.

For this reason, the country’s Health Bureau has joined the country’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau in order to instruct casino operators what they should do to fight against a possible viral pneumonia outbreak which is installing temperature monitoring devices at their entrances. Commenting on this news, Director for the country’s Health Bureau Lei Chin-Ion said that casino operators should consider taking further measures such as training their staff to recognize initial symptoms of that highly-infectious condition.

If casino operators in Macau decide to train their staff to recognize viral pneumonia symptoms, they also agree to send their customers who exhibit such symptoms to medical centers and hospitals. The Health Bureau Director also asked casino operators that their employees working at their casino floors ask customers with a fever and other symptoms of viral pneumonia if they have paid a visit to the city of Wuhan recently.

Growing SARS Concerns

Back in 2002, China suffered through an extremely difficult time when an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS appears across many Chinese cities. This 2002 SARS outbreak lasted for nine months. During this time, this bacterial illness infected around eight thousand individuals globally and led to almost eight hundred deaths.

Initial symptoms of SARS are caused by the SARS-CoV coronavirus. Initial symptoms of the disease are very similar to those of flu including fever, lethargy, muscle pain, sore throat, and cough. Once someone is infected with the disease, it can lead to pneumonia including viral pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia and shortness of breath.

Even though no cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome have been reported for over fifteen years, Chinese health officials are extremely concerned over the Wuhan viral pneumonia illness especially as they do not know the origin of the disease. Concerns are even growing bigger as the Wuhan illness remains rather unclear and what health officials know for sure is that certain measures must be taken in order to prevent more people from getting infected. Like SARS, viral pneumonia is caused by viruses that tend to spread very quickly. Symptoms of viral pneumonia and SARS are also very similar including cough, fever, headache, myalgia while different viral pneumonia viruses cause different symptoms.