Macau’s casino shares tumbled on Monday as the Chinese city instituted a week-long lockdown to contain the worst of the coronavirus outbreak, while neighboring Hong Kong said it was considering a mainland-style health code system.
Share prices of six gaming conglomerates — Sands China, Galaxy Entertainment, SJM Holdings, Melco International, MGM China and Wynn Macau — fell 6 percent to nearly 9 percent Monday morning.
It is the first casino lockdown in more than two years and overturns an earlier agreement between the industry and the Macau government that only those found to be infected must be temporarily closed.
Macau is the only place in China where gambling is legal, but the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the city’s fortunes as it adheres to Beijing’s zero-Covid model.
Authorities announced a week of lockdowns from Monday after registering more than 1,500 infections over the past three weeks despite multiple rounds of mandatory mass testing of the city’s 650,000 residents.
All residents must stay at home except to shop for essentials and get tested for the virus, with rule-breakers facing up to two years in prison.
Some public services and shops, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, can remain open, and only those with a special permit or low-risk health code can use public transport.
China uses mandatory health code apps to track people’s movements and coronavirus outbreaks. Only those with green codes can move freely.
It’s a system the Hong Kong government is now considering implementing, new health minister Lo Chung-mau said on Monday.
“So-called freedom can sometimes be easily confused with selfishness,” Lo told RTHK radio.
“Infected people shouldn’t have the freedom to go where they want and affect our health.”
Hong Kong is currently being reshaped into the image of the authoritarian mainland after major democracy protests three years ago.
The business hub has focused on a lighter version of the zero-Covid model that has battered the economy and cut the city off internationally for more than two years.
The newly installed government of Chief Executive John Lee, a former security official, has vowed to both root out infections and resume travel both to the mainland and to the outside world.
To that end, authorities may need to use more mass surveillance of the population than on the mainland.
Hong Kong currently uses a less restrictive mobile app than those on the mainland, which keeps a resident’s vaccination record and is used to check-in at businesses and venues.
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