Coronavirus: clusters at 2 Hong Kong nightspots spark calls for no further easing of social-distancing rules in city’s bars and clubs

The emergence of Covid-19 clusters putting 1,400 patrons at risk at two nightspots in Hong Kong’s core financial district has sparked calls from a government pandemic adviser for a halt to any further easing of social-distancing rules in bars and pubs.

The two separate outbreaks, which infected 26 bar-goers in total in Central over the weekend, coincided with a government announcement that it would tighten Covid-19 testing requirements for arrivals while easing its flight ban mechanism from June 1.

Hong Kong logged 237 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, including 37 imported cases. No new Covid-related deaths were recorded.

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Dr Albert Au Ka-wing of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said 11 customers who had visited the Iron Fairies and J. Boroski bar on Hollywood Road between 9pm on May 21 and 2am the next day were found to be infected.

Inside the bar people had removed their masks, while dancing and drinking, he said. “We suspect there may be a superspreader or an infectious person who entered this bar on that night and caused the outbreak.”

Au said a compulsory testing order had been issued to patrons and he expected more cases.

The previous day a cluster was uncovered in the nearby Zentral nightclub in the Lan Kwai Fong area, with the outbreak growing to 15 cases as of Sunday. The patients had visited the club between the night of May 21 and early the next morning. Three had also infected family members.

Au said the “Leave Home Safe” contact-tracing app had recorded about 700 patrons visiting each nightclub over those hours, adding that transmission risks were high, but no connection between the premises had been found.

“We have not found any patients who had visited both of the nightclubs … Initial investigations show there were two outbreaks in two different places on that night,” he said.

Opening hours of bars, pubs and nightclubs were recently extended to 1.59am under the second phase of easing social-distancing rules, while live performances and dancing remain prohibited.

The government last week said the next round of relaxation of social-distancing rules would take place on June 2, adding that officials would inspect specific premises to check whether vaccine pass requirements were followed during holidays after that date.

According to an earlier announcement in March, under the third phase of easing all restrictions on opening hours, capacity and number of diners on each table on all specified premises including restaurants and bars will be lifted.

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Government pandemic adviser Professor David Hui Shu-cheong said the measures should not be relaxed in bars and clubs in light of the weekend outbreaks.

“Bars and clubs are notoriously of high [transmission] risks. The customers may take their masks off for a long time and they may talk loudly with the loud background music. They are also very close to each other,” he said.

“The government has to look at whether the bars had violated social-distancing rules and see the infectious rate among those 1,400 people.”

But the clusters might not lead to larger outbreaks, Hui said. “Those 1,400 people have to undergo compulsory testing and the vaccination rate has increased, which can provide a certain degree of immunity barrier.”

Infectious disease expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu said the total number of infections in the clusters could remain in double digits as no new coronavirus subvariant was involved.

“The subvariant in the two clusters seems to be the dominant strain in Hong Kong so not a lot of people were infected, which has limited the scale of the outbreaks,” he noted.

Leung urged the authorities to have discussions with the industry to ensure operators complied with social-distancing rules before further relaxation.

The city’s Covid-19 tally now stands at 1,212,095 cases, with 9,376 related deaths.

In a separate development, the government announced that the city’s flight suspension mechanism would be eased slightly from June 1 while Covid-19 testing requirements for travellers would be tightened.

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Authorities revealed that if the mechanism was triggered for the first time within 10 days as a result of passengers who failed to comply with boarding conditions, airlines would be fined HK$20,000 (US$2,550) and receive a warning, instead of the flight route being halted immediately for five days under current rules.

The decision was made to “encourage airlines to do their best in checking passengers’ compliance of boarding conditions while avoiding the disruption to airlines’ operations and the journeys of inbound persons”, a government spokesman said.

Under the updated policy, flight routes to Hong Kong will be banned for five days only if the airline declines to pay the penalty during the first instance, and if the boarding conditions are violated again within the 10 days.

Boarding conditions refer to the situation where three passengers on a flight test positive and at least one or more fails to show all the required documents related to their health condition and travel history, according to a government source.

The new arrangement would not be applied in the other scenario that would also trigger the flight suspension mechanism, where five or more passengers, or 5 per cent or more of those on the flight, tested positive by arrival, the source added.

The change comes despite earlier remarks by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor that border controls were unlikely to be relaxed before the current administration’s term expired on June 30.

From June 1, travellers who entered the city on or after May 24 and have completed their quarantine will also be required to undergo an additional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on the ninth day of their arrival. Under the current arrangement, passengers arriving from overseas or Taiwan have to conduct a daily rapid antigen test and a PCR test on the fifth and 12th days of their arrival.

The CHP’s Au said the extra test could help detect patients who were infected during quarantine and had a longer incubation period earlier.

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Hui said with the extra test, adequate supply of quarantine hotels and higher vaccination rate, the new arrangement for the flight suspension mechanism would not impose higher risks of transmission in the city.

“At least people will not be stuck overseas due to the flight suspension mechanism,” he said. “The test on the ninth day will be safer and prevent any infected individuals from spreading the virus to the community.”

Meanwhile, civil service chief Patrick Nip Tak-kuen, who is in charge of the city’s inoculation drive, said the mass vaccination programme could cease to be free in the future as authorities would decide whether to start charging for jabs later.

He estimated about 600,000 people had received their second shot more than six months ago but had yet to get a third jab. His remarks came just two days ahead of the launch of the third phase of the vaccine pass scheme.

Under the third phase of the scheme, which takes effect on Tuesday, only residents who are triple-jabbed or have a suitable exemption are able to enter various premises, including restaurants, supermarkets and government facilities.

Official statistics show that as of Sunday, more than 3.8 million people had received a third jab, or 56.4 per cent of the population aged 12 and above who are eligible for the booster shot.

Nip urged those who had not received their third dose to do so as soon as possible.

He said authorities would suspend operations at several community vaccination centres from June 1 but aimed to keep the daily inoculation capacity at 70,000 shots.