Hong Kong is requiring Covid-19 tests to enter bars, pubs and clubs, but not restaurants. Quicktake visits nightlife hub Lan Kwai Fong on the first day of the new rule.
The test requirement is intended to slow transmission of the virus by targeting people at loud and crowded venues, where masks are typically cast aside to drink and talk. The move comes as the number of infections in Hong Kong -- which continues to take a harder line on Covid, compared with other parts of the world -- has picked up in recent days. Half a dozen outbreaks, involving as many as 350 people, were tied to the city’s bars, just days after they were allowed to reopen.
The rules are also deterring some customers. The inaugural night of the new requirement saw plenty of vacant tables at bars, which used to be so packed previously that patrons sometimes spilled out into the steep city streets.
There is enough elbow room for playing the system since there were few details about how to carry out the new rules, which went into effect two days after they were announced. Bar owners complained they had little notice and no instructions about what they were supposed to do. There was scant evidence of police in the neighborhood enforcing the testing measures.
There was widespread disbelief that the new approach was likely to have an impact on the case counts, which have increased nearly four-fold to more than 1,000 a day since May when the city’s devastating omicron outbreak seemed to be ebbing.
“It’s just going to put more pressure on bars, which have suffered enough,” said Erwin de Jong, a 35-year-old entrepreneur, who was having a beer with his wife in a restaurant area that didn’t require a test. “It’s very unfair.”
The bar or pub zones in restaurants where alcohol can be served are also subject to the new testing rules, the government announced on Wednesday. Those who want to sidle up to the bar are expected to present a photo of a negative test, labeled with the name of the person who got it, along with details on when and where it was taken. But in many restaurants, it’s hard to delineate the pub-bar and dining zones.
John Lee, Carrie Lam’s successor as Hong Kong chief executive who takes over on July 1, has given little indication of his priorities in a city that’s now caught between adhering to the zero-tolerance approach of mainland China and the more laissez-faire policy of living with the virus adopted in the rest of the world.
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