Hong Kong to help expand relax COVID-19 restrictions on bars and restaurants, reopen beaches
28 October, 2020
Hong Kong will reopen public beaches and improve the number of people permitted to sit together in bars and restaurants starting on Friday (Oct 30) as the location continues to unwind strict COVID-19 rules set up in July.
Sophia Chan, the Chinese special administrative region's health secretary, said that six persons would be permitted to sit together in restaurants, up from four. Bars should be able to seat four persons together, up from two.
All dining facilities should be able to stay open until 2am, later than the current midnight closing time.
Chan said public beaches would reopen with social distancing measures, including masks and bans on large gatherings, still set up. The federal government later said in a statement that beaches would officially open on Nov 3.
"The epidemic situation has continued to subside in the last two weeks," Chan told a news briefing. She cautioned that residents had a need to remain vigilant to fight the virus, as you may still find unknown transmission chains locally.
The relaxation of measures comes as the Asian financial hub has maintained single-digit or no new local cases in recent weeks. However, the city has continued to join up imported cases.
"Globally, there exists a worsening epidemic situation that may continue to pose some public health risk to Hong Kong," she said.
The government commenced to relax restrictions on dining, sports facilities and theme parks in September after a mass testing programme organised by the Chinese government found 42 cases.
The programme screened 1.8 million people - almost a quarter of Hong Kong's population.
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