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Coronavirus pandemic
Hong KongHealth & Environment

Coronavirus: Hong Kong restaurants fear revenues could fall 20 per cent under vaccine passport scheme

  • Catering sector lawmaker warns of ‘earthquake-like’ impact on business revenue from tougher vaccination requirements for eateries and bars
  • A vaccine passport scheme demanding at least two-thirds of diners in a restaurant to have minimum of one shot could launch in January

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Hong Kong will require two-thirds of diners in a restaurant to be vaccinated against Covid-19 from January at the earliest. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Ng Kang-chung,Lo Hoi-ying,Yvonne Mengping LaiandElizabeth Cheung
Hong Kong’s restaurant industry has warned takings could nosedive by 20 per cent if a Covid-19 vaccine passport plan goes ahead, while some residents say they will wait to see the scheme’s impact before deciding whether to get inoculated.
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The Post has learned that the requirement for at least two-thirds of diners in a restaurant to have received a minimum of one vaccine shot could be introduced as early as next month.

Exemptions will only be given to people aged 12 or below and those with medical proof they are unfit for vaccination. The aim of the government initiative, which requires staff to be fully vaccinated, is to boost Hong Kong’s inoculation rate.

The change would effectively extend the measure currently in force for 15 per cent of the city’s restaurants – those operating under the so-called Type D mode where a maximum of 12 diners per table is allowed – to all 16,000 of Hong Kong’s licensed eateries and bars.

Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, the legislator representing the catering sector who also sits on the Hong Kong leader’s cabinet, said he expected an “earthquake-like” impact on business revenue.

“There is no urgency for this measure. We are not having thousands of new cases like in some overseas countries. We only record a few imported Covid-19 cases every day,” Cheung said.

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The Executive Council member said he feared turnover could plummet by as much as a fifth should the government press ahead with the vaccine passport scheme.

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