Macau to extend quarantine period from 14 to 21 days for all arrivals to Macau from Hong Kong and any location outside mainland China or Taiwan

This evening Macau health authorities announced prolonging the quarantine period from the current 14 days to 21 days for all arrivals to Macau from Hong Kong and any location outside mainland China or Taiwan.

The new policy was urgently implemented from 10pm this evening, Monday 21 December.

Quarantine measures imposed on arrivals returning from middle risk areas in mainland China, and from Taiwan, will stay at the current 14 day quarantine period, while arrivals returning from low risk areas in mainland China are still exempted from any quarantine measures.

Health Bureau officials emphasised that Macau has continued to not record any new cases of COVID-19 since June 26.

The imposition of the latest measures is due to the outbreak of a novel strain of the virus in the UK, which may cause a risk to the community in Macau. The new UK outbreak is of a virus strain which is reportedly 70% more contagious than previous strains of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Macau classifies certain areas in Beijing, Chengdu, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Liaoning as middle risk areas as several local transmissions were found recently.