Coronavirus: Hong Kong relaxes social-distancing rules on local tour groups and weddings, as city records five new Covid-19 cases

Wedding ceremonies will be allowed up to 50 attendees, though food and drink will not be permitted, while travel agencies given checklist to abide by

But civil rights group questions why relaxations are being allowed when a four-person cap on public gatherings that has effectively ended all protests remains

Reading Time:4 minutes

A couple poses for wedding photos with friends and relatives in Hong Kong. Photo: Felix Wong

Elizabeth Cheung,Olga WongandVictor Ting

Published: 10:30am, 20 Oct 2020Updated: 11:20pm, 20 Oct 2020

Hongkongers will be able to join local tours of up to 30 people each and wedding ceremonies of no more than 50 guests starting from Friday, officials revealed on Tuesday, as five new Covid-19 cases were recorded.

But while Hong Kong’s leader said the city had not met the criteria necessary to relax social-distancing measures further, a civil rights group questioned why the larger gatherings should be allowed when public assemblies remained capped at just four people, a de facto ban on protests.

Hong Kong has now recorded 5,261 confirmed infections, with 105 related deaths.

Travel agencies taking advantage of the newly unveiled rules must implement a series of infection-control measures while operating tours, or risk losing out on subsidies or their right to run groups locally.

Tour groups and wedding ceremonies were previously subject to caps of four and 20 people, respectively.

At an afternoon press conference, health minister Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee said the government was adopting targeted measures to help gradually restore the city’s social life, noting that zero infections was not a realistic target until a vaccine was available.

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