The Drinks Business
24 February 2021
By Alice Liang
Representatives from the Hong Kong bar industry gathered at a press conference on 21 February and urged the government to allow them reopen. In the last six months alone 210 bars in the region have closed, accounting for 15% of the entire industry.
Since late November 2020, Hong Kong was under the shadow of the fourth wave of the pandemic and the government tightened the social distancing measures once again by cutting off restaurants’ dine-in service time at 6 pm and shuttering the operations of bars entirely.
As the situation is getting contained lately, the government lifted the regulations and allowed restaurants to extend their dine-in services from 6pm to 10pm from 18 February. Venues like gyms, cinema and amusement parks can also resume operations, but not bars and pubs.