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Bars, gyms, beauty parlours and other venues to reopen as Hong Kong eases coronavirus shutdown
- People to be allowed out in groups of up to eight from Friday, while officials reveal return-to-school timetable
- Nightclubs and karaoke lounges will remain shut under the new measures endorsed by the Executive Council
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Hong Kong will start reopening most public entertainment venues and allow people to go out in groups of up to eight from Friday as the city begins easing social-distancing rules, on the back of 16 straight days without a new local coronavirus infection.
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Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced on Tuesday that after more than a month of closures that successfully contained the spread of Covid-19, the time had arrived to relax some measures, while her government also laid out plans to get pupils back into classrooms.
“When the infection situation stabilises, that’s the time for lifting, loosening a bit, so society can operate more normally, especially for businesses and individual behaviour,” Lam said, flanked by six of her ministers at a news conference with a new slogan, “Hope on the Horizon”, forming the backdrop.
“We are now at the stage of lifting, as we have not had local cases for 16 days already and the number of imported cases is very low.”
Tuesday marked the 10th time over 16 days without a new case, and there have been no locally transmitted infections during that period. The city’s total stands at 1,040 cases, with four related deaths.
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