Drastic Covid clampdown

Restaurants can only offer takeaways after 6pm starting tomorrow and commuters must wear masks on public transport or be fined HK$5,000 as Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the most drastic anti-Covid-19 measures amid a rapid surge of local infections.

The cap on customers sharing a restaurant table and social gatherings will go back to four as restaurants remain fertile grounds for infections, with at least three clusters surrounding eateries.

All social-distancing measures announced yesterday will be effective past midnight tomorrow and last until 11.59pm next Tuesday - seven days compared with the previous 14 days.

Lam made the announcement after advancing the weekly Executive Council meeting to yesterday afternoon instead of this morning.

"Measures announced today are the strictest ever in order to curb the rebound of cases," she said.

Regulations imposed when imported cases peaked in March and April will be back in place, with 12 types of premises - covering bars, nightclubs, party rooms, karaoke lounges, bath houses, saunas and gym centers - to be closed.

In addition to banning dine-in between 6pm to 5am the next day, restaurants can only cater to 50 percent of overall capacity while limiting each table to no more than four customers in the remaining opening hours.

The cap on group gatherings will also go back to four people.

This came after the government last Thursday reimplemented the cap and limited restaurants to no more than eight customers sharing a table, after last month completely lifting the restriction while relaxing the cap on group gatherings to 50 people.

A new regulation requiring commuters to wear face masks on public transport will give bus and taxi drivers legal rights to reject unmasked passengers.

Wearing a mask is also compulsory in paid areas of MTR stations. Violators face a maximum fine of HK$5,000.

With two tutor centers having seen tutors and students diagnosed with Covid-19, the Education Bureau has advised tutor institutions to suspend face-to-face classes for two weeks from tomorrow. Detailed guidelines will be spelled out in letters sent to centers today.

Lam encouraged private corporations to adopt work-from-home arrangements to reduce transmission risks in offices, but said she would not put civil servants on similar arrangements.

"The government has to provide public services. Civil servants working from home will cause inconvenience to citizens," she said.

"Instead, the Civil Servant Bureau has instructed the bureaus and departments to adopt flexible working and lunch hours."

Public facilities under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Ocean Park and Disneyland will be closed again after having reopened for about a month.

"In order to pick up silent carriers in the community, we will boost the daily Covid-19 test numbers to 8,000 - next month, when additional manpower and equipment are on board," Lam said.

She said the government is in the final stage of discussion with two mainland private laboratories on testing 400,000 citizens whose occupations are high-risk.

These include elderly-home staff, restaurant workers, taxi drivers and employees of property management companies, all of whom typically come into contact with many people.

More masks will be distributed to citizens and high risk groups, with the government receiving 30 million locally produced surgical masks every month.

Lam also announced tightened border control measures and the requirement for all air passengers from high-risk regions - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa and Nepal - to be tested negative for Covid-19 before they board the plane to Hong Kong.

Airlines sending untested passengers to Hong Kong will be penalized.

Prior to Lam's rules, universities and private companies announced flexible working arrangements for staff.

City University in Kowloon Tong announced on Sunday that staff can choose to work from home this week, and will be allowed flexible hours if they wish to go to work.

University of Science and Technology in Sai Kung will have optional work-from-home arrangements from today. It expects top-level management to implement a rota system for duties that can only be performed on-campus.

The University of Hong Kong in Pok Fu Lam announced it will implement an appropriate work-from-home or roster arrangement.

Hong Kong Baptist University in Kowloon Tong provides flexible working-hours and lunch breaks for staff, starting from yesterday.

Starting tomorrow, Lingnan University in Tuen Mun will exercise flexible working arrangements according to job duties, including duty rosters for colleagues to work in the office and from home, flexible or staggered working and lunch hours.

Utility giant CLP last Friday announced it was resuming its practice during the last local outbreaks in March and April to split staff into teams and let them work at the office alternately.

Hong Kong Broadband Network has asked employees to work from home for two weeks, starting yesterday. While core staffers still have to go back to the office, they should adopt flexible working hours to avoid peak traffic hours.

Sun Life Financial yesterday announced it was closing its Hong Kong office for two weeks and most employees will work from home.