Coronavirus: representatives from Hong Kong’s pubs, nightclubs and karaoke bars want same treatment as restaurants under ‘vaccine bubble’

Industry accuses government of ‘exploiting’ members to encourage people to get jabbed
It wants to operate under same ‘type C’ requirements as restaurants, which does not require patrons to get vaccinated

Hong Kong economy

Ji Siqi

Published: 7:21pm, 12 May 2021

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Industry representatives from Hong Kong’s pubs, nightclubs and karaoke bars have urged the government to align the vaccination-related social-distancing arrangements for the sector with that for restaurants.

The Hong Kong Bar and Club Association, which represents 700 out of 1,100 pubs across the city, said on Wednesday the entertainment venues had no business because of the city’s low vaccination rate, as authorities had mandated that their patrons be vaccinated.

This is despite the fact that most of the employees of these industries have already been inoculated or proved themselves to physically unfit for vaccination.

New ‘vaccine bubble’ to simultaneously relax, complicate rules for bars and restaurants

The entertainment venues also include saunas and party rooms, which were all allowed to reopen after more than four months on April 29 and operate until 2am as part of the government’s “vaccine bubble”.

The bubble eased social-distancing requirements for these industries by tying them with vaccination.

Unlike restaurants, which can opt for different operational modes based on the vaccination progress of their staff and target clients, the employees and customers of pubs, nightclubs and karaoke bars must have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, under the current scheme.

“Over the past two weeks, we have had zero business,” the association’s president Wing Chin Chun-wing said in a press conference in which around 30 industry representatives were present.

The Hong Kong Bar and Club Association says the entertainment venues have had no business since reopening because of the city’s low vaccination rate. Photo: Sam Tsang

“The current rules do not work, they are just exploiting our three industries to attract more people to get vaccinated, and in the end only we are being sacrificed.”

As of Tuesday, about 1.1 million people in Hong Kong had received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 704,601 people – or 10.7 per cent of the city’s population – had also received their second jab.

Chin said he hoped the three industries could be treated in the same manner as restaurants, allowing them to operate under “type C” for eateries of the vaccine bubble, which does not require customers to get vaccinated.

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“The government just wants to put their responsibility [to encourage vaccination] on our shoulders, this is very wrong,” he said.

Around 70 per cent of the staff at pubs have got at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while the figures for nightclubs and karaoke are even higher, at around 80 and 90 per cent respectively, according to industry representatives.

Eddie Lam Siu-kin, a karaoke industry representative, said reopening without customers was even more devastating for them than remaining shut, as they needed to pay full rent to landlords and full salaries to staff, adding more expenses.

“Not open, we will die. Open, we die faster,” Lam said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Call to align ‘vaccine bubble’