Gov’t urges civil servants to avoid travel

The government is urging civil servants to avoid traveling during the upcoming Chinese New Year due to the new outbreak in the neighboring regions.
In an announcement, the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre said that civil servants at all levels of government should cooperate with the SAR’s epidemic prevention arrangements, safeguard the public interest, and ensure the provision of public services.
Public servants are being called upon to stay put in the region as much as possible during the Spring Festival holiday and at the peak of the holiday travel season in the mainland, and are being asked to avoid going outside of Guangdong Province.
If such civil servants are absent from work in Macau or places outside of Macau due to changes in the local epidemic situation, the absence may be deemed unjustifiable.
At the peak of the pandemic last year, civil servants who work in non-essential services were exempted from work for a period of time.
Heads of different government departments were responsible for making a decision on the number of civil servants to be included in the exemption.
Meanwhile, in Zhuhai, the authority doled out special allowances for their employees to encourage them to stay in town during Chinese New Year, which starts on February 12.
Such moves aligned with the municipal government’s travel advisory, which strongly advises residents and workers from other provinces in Zhuhai to avoid unnecessary travel during the festival.