Letters | A New Year’s wish for an end to Hong Kong’s double standards on coronavirus curbs

Name: No fireworks, few celebrations: 2021 New Year’s Eve in Hong Kong amid coronavirus pandemic
Uploaded: 2021-01-04T23:00:20.000Z
Duration: 3 min 5 s
Description: No fireworks, few celebrations: 2021 New Year’s Eve in Hong Kong amid coronavirus pandemic

Strict social distancing rules for restaurants are in stark contrast to supermarkets and other sectors, highlighting a lack of common sense in Covid-19 prevention measures

Reading Time:2 minutes

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A row of closed restaurants in Causeway Bay on December 10, in keeping with new social distancing rules mandating an end to dine-in services at 6pm to tackle the fourth coronavirus wave in Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

Letters

Published: 7:00am, 5 Jan 2021Updated: 7:00am, 5 Jan 2021

As I walked into the crowded supermarket, along with 20 other people, on New Year’s Eve, I thought about my restaurants, which are only allowed to cater to two people per table, at a distance of 1.5 metres (6 feet), at a maximum capacity of just 50 per cent up to 6pm, under government regulations. If it were not for the masked people, you would think that everything was normal because the supermarket was buzzing!

There was no temperature-taking nor track-and-trace QR code at the door of this supermarket! I took a trolley: I saw no evidence that it had been cleaned or sanitised. I thought about my restaurants – the standards we upgraded last January 26, and the thousands of dollars we have spent providing sanitising gel for our customers ever since.

I watched as people picked up produce, turned it over, examined it, and put it back before picking up the next available item to do the same.

I thought about my operations team who must clean and sanitise their work areas, the management app that allows me to check on the eight checklists we use twice a day, and the walkaround our managers do every hour to ensure the checklists are completed and hygiene standards maintained.

Eighty per cent of our customers are loyalty programme members, and most of the others can be contacted through our automated booking system. I wonder how effective the track-and-trace app recently implemented by the government is?

03:05

No fireworks, few celebrations: 2021 New Year’s Eve in Hong Kong amid coronavirus pandemic

Restaurants and bars in Hong Kong have invested thousands of dollars in equipment, materials and training – implementing stricter policies than in many other industries. I am grateful for the government’s support, but I am disappointed at the lack of common sense when it comes to measures to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 across other sectors.