‘It is a witch-hunt for violators’: Macau residents bristle at restrictions as Covid-19 lockdown heads into second week

Social media has been flooded with pictures of residents in white T-shirts emblazoned with red Chinese characters stating “no jobs, no food” but also bearing handwritten messages of support for the government’s pandemic efforts and frontline workers. The photos were taken as residents headed to testing centres around the city, the sole reason aside from buying necessities they are allowed to leave their homes.

Macau on Monday entered its second week of lockdown, which has forced the closure of all non-essential businesses, including its 42 casinos that power its massive economy, leaving streets once bustling with tourists and punters eerily quiet.

Authorities are adhering to the “dynamic-zero” Covid-19 strategy favoured by the central government, which calls for stamping out cases using repeated mass testing and lockdowns, as opposed to the approach of living with the virus adopted by most countries.

While many of Macau’s 680,000 residents backed the government’s efforts, they were at the same time bristling at the restrictions, desperate to know when life might return to normal.

For 37-year-old teacher Mandy*, another week confined to her home meant more discomfort for her two dogs, who were used to regular walks outside.

“My dogs are already four years old, so it is impossible to retrain them [to defecate outside] in such a short period of time,” she said. “They do not know how … at home and can only hold it in.”