Visitors wear face masks as they walk outside the Venetian casino hotel resort in Macao on Jan 22, 2020. (ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP)

MACAO - All non-resident work permit holders, except the residents of the Chinese mainland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and China's Taiwan region, will be barred from entering Macao starting from midnight of March 19, Macao SAR's Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng announced on Wednesday.

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Macao reported two imported COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, involving an Indonesian relative of a non-resident worker from Jakarta, and a Filipino non-resident worker from the Philippines

The further update on local entry restrictions came as Macao reported two imported COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, an Indonesian relative of a non-resident worker from Jakarta, and a Filipino non-resident worker from the Philippines.

The 42-year-old woman from Indonesia and the 31-year-old man from the Philippines arrived in Macao via Hong Kong through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. 

The chief executive made the decision in accordance with the Basic Law of the Macao SAR and the Law on the Prevention, Control and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, a communique by the Macao SAR government said.

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Macao had not reported any COVID-19 cases for 40 consecutive days until Sunday. Since then it had five new cases, all of which were imported ones.