HONG KONG (Reuters) – A hotel-casino in the Chinese city of Macau, the world’s biggest gambling hub, was closed by authorities on Tuesday with 700 people confined inside due to a case of coronavirus infection, reported the television channel TDM.
This new confinement comes as the special administrative region carries out a massive two-day screening campaign among its more than 600,000 inhabitants, after discovering dozens of locally transmitted cases of infection over the weekend.
Footage obtained by the TDM channel and trade publications shows police in protective gear sealing off the compound to prevent people from entering or leaving.
The Fortuna, a casino owned by SJM Holdings, the empire created by Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho, was run by businessman Sio Tak Hong, who was arrested last year on suspicion of bribery and money laundering .
Neither the hotel nor the government has yet responded to requests for comment.
The last wave of coronavirus contaminations in Macau, which has never experienced quarantine or large-scale confinement, dates back to October 2021. Dozens of cases have been recorded since the weekend, a balance sheet which remains however well in below the number of daily infections observed in other cities of the country, in particular in Hong Kong, where the number of contaminations has exceeded a thousand cases in recent days.
The former Portuguese colony adheres to the so-called “zero COVID” strategy, which aims to quickly detect and isolate infected people.
Most Macau residents are being asked to stay home, restaurants have been closed and border restrictions have been tightened, meaning casino revenues are expected to be at their worst for at least a week and likely weeks. to come, according to analysts.
(Report Farah Master; French version Diana Mandiá, editing by Kate Entringer)
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