Macau has cancelled all international flights and all inbound travellers outside of China for 14 days ending 23 January. The only exception is mainland China where residents can continue to visit Macau.

All arrivals to Macau must provide a valid negative Covid-19 PCR test. You may need to undergo medical screening or observation at a designated venue. Restrictions may change at short notice. The 14-day ban on all civilian flights from foreign countries started on 9 January and will be in place until midnight on 23 January following Macau’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre’s announcement last week in response to the surge in Omicron variant infections worldwide which now poses a severe public health threat to Asian nations.

Despite the ban on all international flights, several positive cases of Covid-19 have been detected requiring foreign arrivals to enter strict hotel quarantine. They were mainly from the UK, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand. Macau’s ban on all international arrivals is stricter than measures imposed by Hong Kong that limited its ban to just arrivals from eight countries – Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, the UK and the US.

Hong Kong’s ban started a day earlier, on 8 January. Vaccinated Hong Kong residents who are living overseas can return if they have not been resident in any of the eight countries. Arrivals must undergo between seven and 21 days of quarantine in a designated facility, depending on their vaccination status and travel origin. They are also required to take multiple Covid-19 tests, both upon arrival and throughout quarantine.

Non-residents, meanwhile, are only allowed to travel to Hong Kong if they are not coming from one of 140 countries included in the government’s high-risk Group A category.