Coronavirus: Hong Kong to keep social-distancing rules for two more weeks, sources say, as health chief warns of ‘new normal’
- City will maintain containment strategy but some minor changes, such as allowing religious gatherings or karaoke lounges to reopen, are possible, insiders say
- While recognising people want life to return to normal, health minister warns containment strategy going forward might need constant adapting to reflect risk level
But authorities may allow some minor rule relaxations, such as larger gatherings for religious purposes or karaoke lounges to reopen, provided enough precautions are taken, according to two sources familiar with the situation. Schools would also resume classes in phases beginning next week as scheduled, they said.
The city reported three new imported cases, all returnees from Pakistan, on Sunday, taking the tally to 1,055, as health minister Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee warned people they might have to get used to living with the virus.
“As experts suggested that the virus may not be eliminated completely and could become endemic, Hong Kong has to rethink how to embrace the ‘new normal’,” Chan told a radio programme.
Hong Kong went 23 days without recording a local transmission until last week when a married couple and one of their granddaughters tested positive for Covid-19, triggering a massive round of testing for the immediate community.
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Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection, said the first batch of 1,000 saliva tests, including of 970 residents at Lei Muk Shue Estate in Tsuen Wan, where the grandparents lived, and Cheuk Ming Building where their granddaughter lived, came back negative. Some stall owners in Market Street, where the man fixed watches, were also given the all-clear, as were staff at a tutorial centre where the granddaughter visited.
