The Health Secretary of the Asian Financial Hub said on Tuesday that Hong Kong will open bars and nightclubs from April 29 for those who have been vaccinated and use government mobile phones.
Sophia Chan told in a press talk that expanded measures and locations for bathrooms and karaoke lounges would be enabled to remain open until 2.00 pm. He said that all employees and customers should receive at least one vaccine dose for operation and should work at half-capacity.
Chan said, “We all hope that life can be normal but we need to take some time to adapt to these new measures.”
The former British colony has recorded more than 11,700 coronovirus cases compared to total developed cities.
Hong Kong has banned non-residents in the city since March 2020, but announced this week that the long-delayed travel bubble with Singapore would begin on May 26, the first bilateral resumption of travel relations with another city.
Authorities tried to encourage residents to get vaccinated, receiving only their first vaccine dose, according to Chan’s announcement, with only 11 percent of the city’s 7.5 million population receiving vaccinations.
The lack of vaccines has slowed down since the launch of the scheme in the Chinese Special Administrative Region in February due to a lack of confidence in China’s Synovac vaccine and anticipation of adverse reactions.
Hong Kong began vaccinating residents in February by taking doses from Synovac and in March began offering vaccines developed by Bioentech, Germany.
BioNTech Shot has shown its bookings to be much larger than Synovac since launching, with two to three times more people on a daily basis, according to government data.
Under the new rules, restaurants in the city will currently be allowed to increase the number of eaters per day from four to six, provided employees and customers have also received their first vaccine dose. They will now be able to have dinner from 10.00 pm to midnight.
The restaurants will set up separate zones for customers who are not vaccinated and those who want to write their contact details on paper instead of registering with the government app. Only four people will be allowed to dine at a table in this segment.
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