Coronavirus: Hong Kong cabinet to rethink strategy for combating outbreak as cases jump by 43

Top advisers to chief executive will meet on Friday to consider dropping controversial proposal banning alcohol sales in favour of other measures

The new steps, which may come as soon as this weekend, would follow a dramatic rise in local transmissions tied to network of musicians who play across the city

Reading Time:5 minutes

Customers drink at the Centre Stage bar in Wan Chai following the Covid-19 outbreak. Photo: Sam Tsang

Lilian Cheng,Elizabeth CheungandNatalie Wong

Published: 4:07pm, 26 Mar 2020Updated: 8:36am, 27 Mar 2020

A public backlash is forcing Hong Kong’s government to reconsider a controversial plan to ban the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants and seek other ways of enforcing further social distancing, as the city faces the threat of a worsening coronavirus crisis.

Sources on Thursday said Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor would hold a special meeting of her advisers in the Executive Council on Friday afternoon to discuss the possibility of scrapping the alcohol ban and rolling out tougher measures against public gatherings.

Hong Kong recorded 43 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, the third-highest single-day surge and mostly involving people returning from overseas, while a community cluster of infections involving bars was becoming more worrying with 124 people revealed to be at risk. The city’s tally now stands at 453.

Lam rattled the food and beverage industry earlier this week by announcing that Hong Kong’s 8,600 bars, restaurants and nightclubs holding liquor licences might be forced to stop serving alcohol after some members of the public flouted calls to limit socialising. Owners complained the proposal unfairly targeted them, while medical experts and even Lam’s own top advisers said it would prove ineffective.

Exco members might drop the ban in favour of other strategies to better enforce physical distancing, including reducing the opening hours of restaurants and shops, and controlling the size of gatherings.

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