Three years on, COVID-19 almost forced Becky Zhang’s specialty food business in Macau to collapse. Established by his grandmother fifty years ago, his shop selling pastries and dried beef survives only thanks to residents who bought small quantities to help keep him afloat.
Now, even after the recent reopening of the world’s biggest gambling hub, tourists are down and many businesses are closed, underscoring analysts’ views that the recovery will be uneven and take some time.
“Macau has not seen any improvement since the recent reopening of the city as many people are infected with COVID, many shops are unable to open and no staff are working,” said Zhang, 40.
“Now not even 1% of people come to Macau. Many shops on this street closed because they couldn’t get hold of it… It’s pathetic.
Macau, a Chinese Special Administrative Region, closely followed China’s tough zero-COVID strategy since 2019. But in line with mainland China, it reversed course on December 7 to live with the virus.