Multiple investment banks predicted last week that overall casino revenue would reach a range of MOP4 billion to MOP6.2 billion this month, which will fall short of the monthly average of over MOP10.8 billion predicted by the Ho government.

“For now the budget remains unchanged, but it is a figure that we all need to work hard together to achieve,” Ho told media before attending a government banquet in celebration of the forthcoming Lunar New Year. “We have to observe how the situation will play out after [travel among mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau] resumed.”

Despite taking a wait-and-see approach towards the gaming performance, the city’s leader made it clear that no more consumption pass campaign is on its way. Since early 2020 when Covid struck the city, several rounds of campaigns were rolled out to galvanise local ID holders into spending money using a pass that contained subsidies from the government.

Macao Government Tourism Office Acting Director Cheng Wai Tong said on a separate occasion earlier today that between 40,000 and 50,000 visitors would descend on the city each day during the week-long Lunar New Year holidays, a level which he said is about 24 per cent of that of 2019.

The city’s leader believes that the return of inbound tourists during that festive period will not set off another wave of Covid infections, explaining that at least 70 per cent of the local population have contracted the coronavirus.

However, the chief executive added that further domestic flare-ups of cases in the long run were still possible, calling for local residents to go for booster shots to increase immunity from the ongoing pandemic.

“Health is in the hands of the residents themselves” said Ho. “There is not much protection the government can provide, the only two protections we can provide are vaccines and medications.”

When asked about whether there would be sufficient manpower to tackle possible Covid outbreaks in the near future, the city’s leader said that the medical complex slated to phase in services under the supervision of the Peking Union Medical College Hospital on Cotai in the second half of the year would double the existing workforce and facilities.

By Aries Un