Macau isn’t taking its chances on the coronavirus.

The world’s gambling capital has shut down casinos for two weeks to stop the deadly disease from spreading further in the Chinese territory.

Macau’s government said Tuesday that the 15-day closure of the city’s 41 casinos would start at midnight after officials revealed the coronavirus has sickened 10 people there. Other public gathering places such as bars, cinemas, nightclubs and salons will also be shuttered, officials said.

“Of course this was a difficult decision, but we must do it for the health of Macau’s residents,” Macau chief executive Ho Iat Seng said at a news conference, according to the New York Times.

The closures could strike a blow to the economy in Macau, where casinos reaped more than $37 billion in revenue in 2018. The temporary shutdown could cut this year’s gaming revenues by between 5 and 15 percent, gambling consultant Matthew Ossolinski told the Times.

The people stricken by coronavirus in Macau include a 29-year-old hotel worker at the Galaxy casino and resort who caught it at a private Lunar New Year meetup, news reports said.

The Galaxy complex is owned by Galaxy Entertainment Group, which saw the price of its Hong Kong-listed shares drop 2.2 percent Tuesday. Wynn Macau, another casino company, saw a 1.6 percent drop to its Hong Kong stock price.

Ho said Macau had enough financial reserves to support the territory through any trouble caused by the coronavirus outbreak, including a possible government deficit for the current fiscal year.

The coronavirus has not killed anyone in Macau, but it has taken 425 lives in mainland China and one in nearby Hong Kong. Authorities have confirmed more than 20,000 cases in mainland China and at least 180 elsewhere in the world.

With Post wires