Mainland China has announced a first significant step towards life after COVID-19, with the quarantine period for international visitors to be slightly more than halved from 21 days to 10, including seven days in hotel quarantine.
The change was revealed as part of the National Health Commission’s latest guideline on measures against COVID-19 and will require overseas visitors to spend seven days in hotel quarantine followed by three days of medical observation at home. Visitors had previously been required to spend 14 days in hotel quarantine with another seven days of medical observation.
Although there has been no indication of any easing of visa policies between and the mainland and its two SARs – Macau and Hong Kong – the move is still seen as a positive one by gaming analysts, even while Macau is in the grip of its first major outbreak since the start of the pandemic. More than 5,000 people in Macau are in lockdown with the officially announced number of positive cases from the outbreak reaching 414 as of Tuesday at 9am.
In a note, JP Morgan’s DS Kim and Livy Lyu said the easing of border restrictions in mainland China would not move the needle for Macau’s gaming revenues but described the timing as “quite surprising.”
“We and most investors were expecting any meaningful easing to come only after the Party Congress toward year-end and one can say this is a much-needed step in the right direction toward a (very) gradual normalization,” they wrote. “It was a good enough directional signal in our view.”
Bernstein’s Vitaly Umansky, Louis Li and Shirley Yang said the easing was “a step in the right direction” although it changes very little in the short term.
“We need to see what further positive changes are made and when. So far it is clear China is sticking with the Zero-COVID policy.
“With COVID outbreaks easing across China, domestic travel is seeing some uplift … however, the outbreak in Macau and the new ‘6th wave’ in Hong Kong will likely keep current travel policies and restrictions in place for travel between China and HK/Macau until those are brought under control.
“There is still no clarity about when border easing for Macau will occur. In the end these changes are needed to see a rebound for Macau business. We are positive longer term on Macau recovery.”
Macau gaming stocks responded positively to the news, with Galaxy Entertainment Group up 7.9% on Tuesday to HK$47.75, Melco International Development (the Hong Kong-listed parent of Melco Resorts) up 9.5% to HK$6.23, MGM China up 7.7% to HK$4.63, Sands China up 11.7% to HK$18.20, SJM Holdings up 9.8% to HK$3.70 and Wynn Macau up 12.8% to HK$5.55.
