Ban on multiple household gatherings lifted from today

By The SUN

 

People from more than 2 households may gather again

It’s time to party again – bearing in mind, of course, that the number of Covid infections are still high, meaning a surge in cases is still likely.

A government statement issued late Wednesday said the Executive Council had approved the implementation of the first stage of the relaxation of social distancing measures starting today.

This includes scrapping the ban on multi-household gatherings in a private places and allowing up to four people to gather in public.

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Restaurants will also be allowed to open until 10pm during which they can provide dine-in services, and several venues where people gather in large numbers such as places of worship, amusement parks, cinemas and others, may reopen, although they can only take in up to 50 percent of their capacity.

The government also said mask-wearing will continue to be enforced in all public places, including mass transportation, and even when an individual is engaged in a strenuous activity.

Only in special circumstances will the restriction be lifted, such as when a person is eating, having facial treatment or taking part in a religious ritual.

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The statement said the government’s plan to allow people to take off their masks while exercising in public or are in country parks will form part of the second stage of adjustments to social distancing measures.

Meanwhile, health officials reported 668 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, and said the situation has stabilised.

CHP's Au says no upsurge in cases has been detected after the holidays - yet (File)

Dr Albert Au of the Centre for Health Protection said they have not seen an upsurge in cases but they will continue to monitor the figures because the Easter holidays have just ended.

He also said they received reports that three students and a school staff had tested positive on rapid antigen tests so they did not return to school despite the resumption of face-to-face classes on Tuesday.

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But 12 positive results from an international school that were reported earlier turned out to be false, and were said to have resulted from parents misreporting the test results in the school platform.

Subsequent tests on the students turned out negative results.

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Among the confirmed cases, 13 were imported. Ten patients tested positive on arrival at the airport and three were detected during hotel quarantine.

Two flights were suspended for a week each after arriving on Apr 19 with three or more passengers who tested positive on arrival.

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These are flight TG600 operated by Thai Airways which arrived from Bangkok with three infected passengers and flight (EK384) operated by Emirates which came from Dubai and Bangkok with four passengers who tested positive on arrival.

An additional 10 patients infected with Covid had passed away in the past day, pushing Hong Kong's death toll in the fifth wave of the pandemic to 8,973.