‘Covid rules could extend to more premises’

A government minister said on Saturday that social distancing restrictions could be extended to cover more types of establishments, when the Executive Council discusses strengthening anti-pandemic measures next week.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Friday that her executive council will discuss the matter on Tuesday in light of the worsening Covid situation in Hong Kong.

Speaking on an RTHK programme on Saturday, civil service chief Patrick Nip said the discussion would include covering more premises and they would also consider further reducing the number of people allowed on each table at restaurants.

He did not say what types of business could be affected. The anti-epidemic regulations have so far seen the closure of many leisure venues, including cinemas, gyms and mahjong parlours, while restaurants must stop serving dine-in customers after 6pm.

Nip says the key is to reduce the flow of people in the community and cut chains of transmission.

“When we decide on what sort of social distancing measures are required, basically we will look at the outcome and the effect of such measures, whether it would effectively reduce the flow of people in the community so as to achieve our objective of cutting all these transmission lines,” the official said.

On the government’s plan to impose a vaccine mandate on new residents of care homes for elderly and disabled people from March 14, Nip said authorities want to boost vaccination among care home residents to protect them against Covid.

Doctors can give professional assessments and people unfit for vaccination can be exempted, he said.