Coronavirus: Hong Kong may order pubs and bars to close in fight against pandemic, as government warns businesses to prepare for ‘extreme circumstances’

Cases in the city have been directly linked to party hotspot Lan Kwai Fong

Top government adviser says authorities are considering shutdown but rejects calls to close borders to all foreign visitors

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Hong Kong’s pubs and bars could be ordered to close in the fight against the coronavirus. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 2:14pm, 23 Mar 2020Updated: 6:17pm, 23 Mar 2020

Hong Kong’s pubs, bars, and wedding banquet halls could all be ordered to close in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, a top government adviser revealed in a radio programme on Monday.

The operating hours for the city’s public transport could also be cut, but there was no plan to shut the city’s borders, said Dr Lam Ching-choi, who branded calls to do so “unscientific”.

Meanwhile, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah confirmed on another radio programme on Monday that the government would conduct talks with the food and catering sector on closures, adding businesses needed to be prepared for “extreme circumstances”.

Lam, a member of the city leader’s Executive Council, made his remarks shortly before Dr Ho Pak-leung, a top microbiologist from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), called on the government to deny entry to foreign visitors.

A woman sits inside an almost empty restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong, a popular nightlife area in Central, Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

Ho also said residents arriving at the city’s airport should be quarantined in hotels, and calculated that 86 Covid-19 patients, 82 local residents and four foreigners had entered Hong Kong between March 11 and 17, before mandatory quarantine came into effect on March 19.