All foreigners can enter Macau from Sunday, local authorities announced on Thursday, putting an end to a pandemic prevention and containment measure implemented almost three years ago.

"The measures limiting the entry of people with foreign passports to Macau (...) are eliminated, that is, the entry measures will return to those applied before 2019, before covid-19," said the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong U, at a press conference.

Also quoted by Lusa, the official noted that, as of Sunday, "health management control measures" at the entrance to the territory will be eliminated.

In addition, said Elsie Ao Ieong U, anyone arriving in the administrative region from abroad - with the exception of Hong Kong and Taiwan - must present "a certificate of a rapid antigen test or nucleic acid test for covid-19 with a negative result carried out within 48 hours".

All passengers arriving in the territory and wishing to enter the interior of China within seven days are also required to present a test certificate within 48 hours.

Macau closed its borders to foreigners without resident status in March 2020.

In April last year, the territory lifted border restrictions on Filipino workers, university students and foreign teaching professionals, such as Portuguese teachers. The exemption was later extended to workers from Indonesia.

In May, the region approved the entry of all non-resident Portuguese into the territory, as well as foreign spouses and minor children of local residents.

Four months later, non-resident workers and family members of residents, as well as travelers from 41 countries, were allowed in.

Macau, which, like the rest of mainland China, followed a 'zero covid' policy, relying on mass testing, confinement of risk areas and quarantines, announced in early December that it was canceling most of the prevention and containment measures, after almost three years of strict restrictions.

As of January 4, 2023, 250,000 people, or 37% of the local population, had confirmed through an online platform that they were infected, said the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, pointing out, however, that there were those who did not declare the disease and that, therefore, the number of people affected "could be very distant".

"According to our monitoring and our estimates, we consider that 70% of the workers and professionals in the health system have been infected. As for students, we have around 50 to 60% and teachers around 70%, so the total infected population in Macau is around 60% to 70%," he said.

According to the Macau Health Services, 63 people have died from covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.