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HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) – Hong Kong will interrupt dining at restaurants starting at 6 p.m. local time and will close gyms and beauty salons as the government resumes some of the broadest measures since the pandemic began, amid a increasing increase in cases.
“We have no other choice,” said CEO Carrie Lam when announcing the eating restrictions at a weekly press conference on Tuesday (Dec. 8).
He did not say when the new restrictions would take effect.
“We must all be mentally prepared to implement more measures,” he added.
The Asian financial center is struggling to contain its fourth wave of Covid-19 infections, with case numbers often exceeding 100 a day last week, the most since August.
That has led the government to gradually increase its social distancing measures, recently raising fines for those who violate the restrictions and sending public officials to work from home.
All schools have also closed until after the Christmas holidays.
Ms. Lam urged employers to allow work-from-home arrangements and said it was necessary to reduce the flow of people on the streets.
“Unless necessary, stay home, work from home,” he said.
The new wave has already delayed a travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore, a blow to efforts to reopen a city whose economy has been rocked by protests and the pandemic.
The Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble start date, initially set for Nov. 22, will be revised again between Christmas and New Years, Singapore’s Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Sunday.
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