Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024

‘We will die’: Hong Kong businesses demand immediate easing of Covid-19 rules

‘We will die’: Hong Kong businesses demand immediate easing of Covid-19 rules

Restaurants, beauty parlours plead with Hong Kong government to allow them to open up their premises, after seemingly endless social-distancing curbs.

Hong Kong’s restaurant and beauty industries have issued ultimatums to the government calling for the immediate reopening of premises shuttered by Covid-19 rules, warning of a tidal wave of closures and lay-offs if their demands are not met.

Fifteen groups in the beauty sector banded together on Monday to make their final case for resuming operations, offering to adopt extra health precautions so they could be back in business this week when the existing social-distancing curbs expire.

They said their businesses and livelihoods had reached the end of the road, after three rounds of social-distancing measures imposed during the four waves of infections to hit Hong Kong since its first Covid-19 cases last January.

Federation of Beauty Industry chairman Nelson Ip Sai-hung said the government and its advisers must explain the rationale for a further curbs extension if that was what they intended to do.

He said the administration forced the city’s 10,000 beauty parlours and nail salons to close their doors for more than a third of 2020, even though no infections from the city’s last three Covid-19 waves were associated with the industry. The temporary closures affected 56,000 payrolls within the beauty industry.

“January 21 is our deadline. If the government still fails to let us resume operations or compensate us, I am afraid there will be more aggressive actions among stakeholders,” Ip said.

“We can’t wait any longer because tens of thousands of families of the industry practitioners can’t live on borrowings indefinitely. There is no more money to borrow.”

In exchange for being allowed to reopen, the industry collectively offered to further step up anti-pandemic precautions.

Those proposals included testing beauticians for Covid-19 every 14 days, encouraging customers to undergo screening, and only serving those who made prior appointments to help with contract tracing.

The 10,000 beauty and nail outlets can also act as collection points for specimen bottles to help the government’s testing programme, according to the industry.

Liberal Party lawmaker Peter Shiu Ka-fai said businesses were on the brink of collapse.

“The social-distancing arrangements have been put in place for more than a month and there are still many cases and crowds around,” he said. “Whether the arrangements work, facts speak for themselves.”


For weeks, restaurants have been barred from seating customers after 6pm.


Hong Kong’s Covid-19 cases rebounded on Monday to 107, the highest for a month, bringing the city’s infection total to 9,664, with 163 related fatalities.

In a separate call, one of the city’s largest catering groups, the Institution of Dining Art, said its 700 members, which operated more than 5,000 restaurants, could not afford to miss next month’s Lunar New Year spending rush.

“The lengthy closure is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” the institution’s chairman Ray Chui Man-wai said. “We have missed the peak seasons of the Winter Solstice, Christmas and New Year, and can’t afford to lose the Lunar New Year as well. We will die.”

The current term of social-distancing rules expires on Wednesday. Earlier, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the existing curbs should not be relaxed until at least after Lunar New Year, which falls on February 12, and called for Hongkongers to avoid large family gatherings during the festive season.

Chui said the institution wrote to Lam on Monday, urging her to allow restaurants to have sitting customers until 9pm from Thursday.

He also urged the government to let employers suspend their contributions to employees’ Mandatory Provident Fund for six months to ease their cash flow.

Chui said that existing social-distancing measures did not stop people gathering for takeaways.

“If we can’t serve dine-in services during Lunar New Year, there will be a wave of shutdowns and lay-offs after the festival,” he said.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po warned on Sunday that the city’s unemployment rate between October and December last year would surpass the present 16-year-high of 6.4 per cent, the worst since 2003’s severe acute respiratory syndrome crisis.

Tourism-related industries have been hit hardest from the near lockdown for most of 2020. Food and beverage sectors suffered a jobless rate of 13.1 per cent in November, while retail recorded 7.8 per cent and hotels and hospitality 8.8 per cent. The new unemployment figures are due to be released on Tuesday.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×