Flights to Korea, Japan to resume with restrictions

The government has decided to partially ease travel restrictions, allowing some flights to resume, according to the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).
The government has affirmed that the resumption does not pose much risk, as they will continue to restrict access to the aircraft to people in possession of negative test results for Covid-19.
Questioned by the media on the topic, MGTO representative Inês Chan said, “at this moment, we can forecast that preventive measures will need to remain in force for a long period.”
“Acknowledging this fact, we also need to evaluate the [economic] impacts and to ease some measures to allow economic activities to resume as well,” said Chan.
“We will be ensuring that people continue to be tested as a requirement to board any plane with [Macau as a destination],” stressed the tourism board official yesterday.
According to media reports, Macau’s flagship airline, Air Macau, is one of the companies preparing to resume flights to destinations such as Japan and South Korea, but the MGTO official said there is not yet concrete information on when this should happen.
Chan said the lack of information was partly due to the fact that “each country takes individual measures and decisions.” Although some companies are already taking bookings for some destinations, according to Chan, it is not yet clear whether they will be able to actually make these flights on such dates or whether they will need to be postponed.
Questioned also regarding difficulties experienced by several foreign nationals in leaving Macau and by some residents attempting to return, Chan said, “both entering and exiting Macau is very inconvenient at the moment. We know about several cases, including residents of Hong Kong, who want to return [to the neighboring region] and are finding it a challenge.”
“We have also received requests from a group of Portuguese nationals” about this same matter, the official added.
Chan explained that in all these cases, the negotiations between authorities follow the same procedure and are usually done by way of official consular representations, adding that MGTO only lends its support to these official representations.
Meanwhile, asked to comment on a reported case involving around 150 Vietnamese non-resident workers that were said to be stranded in Macau after being fired in the past few weeks, Chan said no request for help regarding the case had yet been received.