Briefs | Public swimming pools have no set date to reopen

Government-operated swimming pools have no defined reopening date yet, according to the medical director of the Conde São Januário Hospital, Lo Iek Long, who said that the setting of a date requires an evaluation on the development of the outbreak. He believes swimming is not as dangerous as other activities because normally swimming pools use disinfecting agents in the water. Apart from government pools, swimming pools operated by hotels are closed due to low occupancy and thus low demand. The operation of private swimming pools is at the discretion of their owners, while the authorities are responsible for their water and hygiene conditions only.

Crossings to Zhuhai resume normal schedules

Two border points with Zhuhai, namely the Border Gate and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, will resume full operation schedules following the implementation of shorter operation schedules due to the Covid-19 outbreak in both cities. The Border Gate has resumed its normal hours; opening at 6 a.m. and closing at 1 a.m. the next day. The Macau-Zhuhai side of the Bridge has also returned to opening at 8 a.m. and closing at 10 p.m. daily. Vehicle crossings have also resumed 24-hour operation. Despite the resumption of normal schedules, quarantine measures in both cities remain unchanged. The schedule resumption is believed to assist with the flow of people due to the resumption of schools on both sides of the border.

Number of guests at hotels falls 80% in March

The number of guests checking into hotels and guesthouses plunged by almost 80% in March, even as visitor arrivals fell even faster. A total of 240,000 guests checked into these establishments in March, with the number of guests coming from mainland China (170,000) and Hong Kong (44,000) dipping by 79.8% and 58.8% respectively. The average length of stay of guests extended by 0.5 nights year-on-year to 1.9 nights. Meanwhile, the number of visitor arrivals that month tumbled 93.7% year-on-year to 212,000, with the overnight visitor segment numbering just 125,000. That suggests non-visitors accounted for about half of hotel and guesthouse guests. In the first quarter of 2020, the average occupancy rate of guest rooms stood at 41.4%, representing a decline of 50.5 percentage points year-on-year. Guests of hotels and guesthouses fell by 57.6% to 1,477,000, while their average length of stay went up by 0.1 night to 1.6 nights.