Coronavirus: Hong Kong’s local infections hit daily record high, triggering return to tighter social-distancing rules
- Restaurants, bars and some leisure venues must adopt stricter preventive steps on Saturday after 34 community infections emerge
- Most of the latest cases are tied to three clusters, one involving taxi drivers
As part of measures taking effect on Saturday, restaurants must operate at a maximum capacity of 60 per cent and seat just eight people per table, while the cap for bars will be four. Groups visiting gyms, party rooms and karaoke lounges must limit their size to eight.
Our target is not to achieve zero infection, but to control the [number of cases] to the level that our health care system can accommodate
The stepped-up restrictions came as the city battles a third wave of coronavirus infections, with 42 people newly infected, eight of them with recent travel history, taking the tally to 1,365 with seven related deaths.
Most of the latest local cases were linked to clusters involving restaurants, taxi drivers and an elderly care centre, while the source of two cases was untraceable. Another 14 preliminary cases emerged on Thursday night, including ones related to existing clusters, a medical source told the Post.
“Our target is not to achieve zero infection, but to control the [number of cases] to the level that our health care system can accommodate,” Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee said, adding public services and economic activities could not be suspended forever.
