Coronavirus: was Carrie Lam’s plan to enforce alcohol ban just a threat to force bars to act?

Chief Executive Carrie Lam rattled the city’s bar and restaurant owners when she warned a new law might force them to stop serving drinks

But even her own advisers question whether the move makes sense, and legal experts point out she is already empowered to take the step

Reading Time:6 minutes

Plans to stop bars, restaurants and nightclubs from serving alcohol have attracted criticism from the government’s own advisers. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 9:30am, 26 Mar 2020Updated: 1:18pm, 26 Mar 2020

A proposal by Hong Kong’s leader to ban bars and restaurants from selling alcohol to limit the spread of the coronavirus has gotten off to a rocky start, with industry figures ready to challenge the move in court and experts noting the law already allows her to immediately impose such restrictions.

But Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor instead decided to float the idea first as a warning to owners to take steps on their own to curb social gatherings, according to government insiders, a course of action a medical expert said had unnecessarily complicated what should be a straightforward decision about public health.

The government could announce the ban as early as Thursday, along with tougher measures to force people to practise social distancing, two sources with knowledge of the situation said. “All options are on the table,” one said.

Lam rattled the industry on Monday by announcing her administration might force the city’s 8,600 restaurants, bars and clubs with liquor licences to stop serving alcohol.

Only days earlier, a cluster of infections were revealed as stemming from the Lan Kwai Fong entertainment district in one of the largest recent instances of local transmission.

Further restrictions such as a reduction in opening hours or a cap on the number of patrons could follow if behaviour did not change, she said.

At least five of Lam’s senior advisers voiced their opposition to the idea on Wednesday. They included former Bar Association chairman Ronny Tong Ka-wah, who suggested limiting public gatherings to four people or else a curfew might be needed if the number of cases, which stands at 410, continued to rise.

Lam did not give a time frame to implement the measure, only saying it would be a new regulation under the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance.

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