Coronavirus: Hong Kong bars to reopen after weeks of Covid-19 shutdown with Lan Kwai Fong venues lining up cheap deals to attract customers

Lan Kwai Fong founder Allan Zeman issues revenue warning, with social-distancing rules limiting capacity and some drinkers wary of heading out

Bar owners offer free-flow drinking, cut-price cocktails for Friday’s return to business, while staff have been offered Covid-19 testing

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Bars and pubs whose main business is serving alcoholic drinks have been closed since April 3 amid Covid-19 shutdowns. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 9:30pm, 7 May 2020Updated: 3:37pm, 8 May 2020

Bars will reopen across Hong Kong on Friday after a month-long coronavirus shutdown, as Lan Kwai Fong venues prepare to slash prices and the nightlife hub’s founder predicts takings as low as half normal levels.

More than 100 frontline workers have been tested for the virus as part of the Central party zone’s relaunch, which comes as the government eases social-distancing restrictions in response to the improving Covid-19 situation in the city.

Pubs and bars will only be allowed to operate half-full to a maximum of four people per table from Friday, after their emergence as the city’s biggest infection cluster led to a mandatory shutdown of the industry from April 3.

Punters, musicians and their families were among the 103 cases linked to the drinking scene, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of Hong Kong’s infected total, which stood at 1,044 on Thursday.

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Amid excitement within the industry for the return of business, heavy discounts on cocktails and promotions such as free-flow drinking appeared online, along with messages on Lan Kwai Fong to “stay safe, play safe”.

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