Hong Kong will ease some social-distancing curbs ahead of schedule this Thursday, including allowing eight diners per table at restaurants, up from the current four, with the city’s leader pointing to an improved coronavirus situation. From Thursday, residents will also be allowed to take off their masks when running or at country parks and outdoor sports venues such as basketball and tennis courts, while swimming pools, beaches and water playgrounds will be reopened. Thirty-eight public pools will reopen gradually from May 12 to 16 to ensure cleanliness and hygiene. “Taking into account that the pandemic situation is under control, I have decided to allow some earlier relaxations, especially for diners per table as Mother’s Day is coming … For some, three generations can dine together,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday. “The weather has been so good recently, it is just unreasonable to ban the public from going for a swim, and it’s also hard to run with masks in hot weather.” The announcement came as the city reported 290 new Covid-19 cases, the second straight day infections were below 300, after falling under that level for the first time in about three months on Monday. Tuesday’s cases, of which 21 were imported, pushed the city’s tally to 1,205,083. Health authorities also reported seven more fatalities, taking the death toll to 9,325. The daily infection figure also included 45 students and teachers, 18 of whom were tested on Tuesday, while the rest underwent tests during the extended weekend break. Meeting the press before the weekly session of her de facto cabinet, the Executive Council, Lam on Tuesday also said the remaining restrictions to be eased in a second stage of relaxations were on track for May 19, including the reopening of all previously closed operations, such as bars, party rooms, karaoke lounges, mahjong parlours, nightclubs and cruises. By that stage, bars will be allowed to operate until 2am with four per table, while restaurants can extend service hours from the current 10pm to midnight. Up to 120 people will also be allowed to attend wedding banquets, from the current 20. An operating capacity limit of 50 per cent for cinemas and some other premises will be raised to 85 per cent. Eating and drinking will also be allowed in cinemas. The government earlier announced a phased easing of restrictions in three stages over three months, but Lam on Tuesday said several indicators proved the city’s pandemic situation was “better than expected”, therefore some measures could be relaxed earlier. Apart from the declining number of daily infections, half of the samples from sewage surveillance also returned negative results on Monday, while the other half carried a low viral load. The positive rate for cases identified in building lockdowns was at a low of 0.2 per cent, while the virus reproductive rate, indicating transmissibility, had been under one for two weeks, Lam noted. “The government was worried earlier that the first-phase relaxations, together with the Easter holiday and the May 1 long holiday would cause a rebound in cases. Luckily, such a situation did not happen and we can move forward with further relaxation,” she said. Hong Kong kindergartens reopen after 4-month Covid-related suspension Lam also said that from Wednesday, the AsiaWorld-Expo treatment facility would be placed on standby mode, while the last batch of mainland Chinese medical workers who provided support for the city would leave this week. Lam will attend a farewell ceremony for the group. The Hospital Authority said most of its staff would return to their original hospital duties as the facility went into standby mode, but some people would stay behind to help with preparations for a possible sixth wave. Visitations to non-emergency departments at 26 hospitals would resume on Friday, the authority said, with each patient allowed one to two visits per week if they fulfilled the two-jab requirement and received a negative coronavirus test result. An arrangement requiring all airport arrivals to take a rapid antigen test (RAT) along with the standard polymerase chain reaction screening (PCR) was expected to start next week, a government source said. The move will mean travellers can proceed to their quarantine hotels pending their PCR results upon a negative RAT, instead of currently waiting hours at the airport. The source explained that it took authorities some time to overhaul workflow at the airport to introduce the new measure. Hong Kong eased other social-distancing rules earlier this month. International travellers have been allowed to fly in since Sunday, and the threshold for suspending incoming flights found to be carrying infected passengers has also been relaxed. Aircrew members can now undergo shorter mandatory quarantine at hotels. Calls for Hong Kong to drop Covid flight suspension rule, while cases fall to 300 But there were calls to allow home quarantine for returning Hong Kong residents or some arriving visitors. Some medical experts have also called for the flight suspension arrangement to be abolished. Meanwhile, health officials had warned of a possible rebound in cases when kindergartens and secondary schools resumed in-person classes on Tuesday. Dr Joseph Tsang Kay-yan, chairman of the Medical Association’s communicable diseases advisory committee, said he was “optimistic” about the city’s Covid-19 situation, as cases continued to subside and no rebound emerged after the Easter holiday. “If we maintain our current anti-epidemic measures, I believe that the caseloads will reach double digits before the next phase of relaxation of social-distancing measures,” he told a radio programme. Asked whether the flight suspension mechanism, under which routes are temporarily banned over the number of infected passengers brought in, could be lifted, Tsang said it would depend on the capacity of quarantine hotels. “We cannot allow too many visitors to come to Hong Kong if there are not enough quarantine hotels,” he said, adding home quarantine should be the last on the list for government consideration. Respiratory medicine specialist Dr Leung Chi-chiu said he agreed the risk of a rebound in cases as a result of further travel restrictions being eased was low. “As long as we do not have new variants getting into our community through relaxation of border controls, the chance and scale of a rebound continues to be limited by the grossly reduced number of susceptible people in our community,” he said. But he also expressed concerns about a previous decision by authorities to suspend extensive contact tracing to focus on a small number of high-risk locations, such as care homes. Leung warned the relaxed contact-tracing measures could make it difficult to detect the emergence of any variants that were unaffected by vaccines and potentially lead to a superspreader event at a restaurant, gym or other premises. Hong Kong economy shrinks by 4 per cent in first quarter after several hard knocks Meanwhile, Ray Chui Man-wai, chairman of catering industry body Institute of Dining Art, welcomed the easing of the cap on diners per table, saying it would boost restaurant businesses on the coming Mother’s Day weekend by 30 per cent. “The further relaxation will send a positive message to society and stimulate consumer sentiment,” he said. “People will feel safe and be in the mood to go out and enjoy Mother’s Day with their families.” Separately, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer confirmed that the “Leave Home Safe” contact-tracing mobile application had been installed with a facial recognition function, but that it had never been used since the app’s launch last year. In a statement late on Tuesday, the office said that to ease public concerns it had contacted the app contractor to remove the function, which was revealed in a media report. It said the function was included in a module the contractor had adopted to operate mobile phone camera lens in the app to support scanning and identifying QR codes. Government officials and police, meanwhile, inspected 1,578 catering premises and 341 other venues during operations on anti-epidemic regulations over the long weekend. Over the same period, 49 catering premises were prosecuted for breaching requirements under anti-epidemic rules. Additional reporting by Ng Kang-chung, Sammy Heung and Cannix Yau