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Saturday, Feb 22, 2025
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‘Vaccine bubble’ still has a long way to go, says restaurant owner
A restaurant owner said the new “vaccine bubble” roadmap introduced by authorities still has a long way to go, with the measures put forward by government officials not being incentives for people to get the jab.
Chairman of the Institution of Dining Art, Simon Wong Kit-Lung, also the chairman of the LH Group of restaurants, said the roadmap would require restaurant staffers to be fully vaccinated in order to carry out the plan.
“Such measure is only a prerequisite for authorities to ease their Covid rules, it is not a real incentive to encourage people to get vaccinated,” he said.
The restaurant owner also said it would be hard to convince staffers who are unwilling to be vaccinated to get the jab.
“We as owners cannot force our staff into getting the Covid jabs just because we want to keep our business running for longer hours. I think most of the restaurants will still be on a 10pm dining curfew for quite some time,” he added.
Wong also commented on the roadmap’s final stage, where customers are needed to be fully vaccinated in order to have the limit on the number of customers per table at restaurants increased to 12.
“If staffers in the dining industry are having trouble to get their first jab in order to reach the first stage suggested on the ‘vaccine bubble’ roadmap, I am not seeing any possibility for us to progress into the second or even the third stage,” he stressed.
“Such measure is only a prerequisite for authorities to ease their Covid rules, it is not a real incentive to encourage people to get vaccinated,” he said.
The restaurant owner also said it would be hard to convince staffers who are unwilling to be vaccinated to get the jab.
“We as owners cannot force our staff into getting the Covid jabs just because we want to keep our business running for longer hours. I think most of the restaurants will still be on a 10pm dining curfew for quite some time,” he added.
Wong also commented on the roadmap’s final stage, where customers are needed to be fully vaccinated in order to have the limit on the number of customers per table at restaurants increased to 12.
“If staffers in the dining industry are having trouble to get their first jab in order to reach the first stage suggested on the ‘vaccine bubble’ roadmap, I am not seeing any possibility for us to progress into the second or even the third stage,” he stressed.
