Hong Kong summer activities for children cancelled or postponed as Covid-19’s third wave leaves parents nervous over health risks

Education Bureau says tutorial centres will be asked to suspend classes for two weeks from Wednesday

Parent concern group says it is ‘understandable’ that summer tutorial activities have to be cancelled

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Swiss Art Studio are among the activity centres in Hong Kong staying open, but with ramped up hygiene measures including partitions. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 9:00pm, 13 Jul 2020Updated: 1:55pm, 14 Jul 2020

Summer activities for children are the latest casualties of Hong Kong’s third wave of Covid-19, as the government asked tutorial centres to suspend face-to-face activities amid the resurgence of cases over the past week.

An Education Bureau spokeswoman said tutorial centres would be asked to suspend classes for two weeks from Wednesday, hours after Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor introduced the most sweeping social-distancing rules yet.

Education officials announced last week the suspension of face-to-face lessons in kindergartens and schools, bringing forward the summer break by about a week starting on Monday.

A parent concern group said it was “understandable” that summer tutorial activities had to be cancelled. “Children’s health should be our priority. As the pandemic situation continues to worsen, it is necessary to strengthen infection control measures,” said Eiffel Chau, spokesman of Hong Kong Parents League for Education Renovation.

“But we also have to remember that most of our children had already missed out on a lot of school activities over the past months.”