Beauty Industry Stages Online Protest Over Closures

Thousands of beauty parlour operators and their staff staged an online protest on Thursday, demanding that the government let them resume work.

Beauty parlours were among various businesses forced to close again last month, amid another wave of coronavirus infections.

The chairman of the Federation of Beauty Industry, Nelson Yip, said beauty parlours have been ordered to shut three times since the pandemic began, with the closures already lasting more than 100 days in total.

He said this is unfair, being as there haven't been any Covid-19 outbreaks in the sector.

"It's a humble request. We want to work. We want to support our families," he said.

Yip said the sector had already put in place infection control measures, the standard of which were above those required by the government.

He urged the administration to compensate operators and staff if it continues to stop them from working.

A customer, Elaine, also spoke during the online protest, expressing worries that the beauty parlour she regularly visited might go out of business.

She said she had pre-paid a lot of money for services.