Easing Gathering Cap Will Take Time, Legislation: Lo

Health Secretary Lo Chung-Mau said on Friday that relaxing a cap on the number of people allowed to gather in public would take time as it requires amendment of legislation as he pledged to be consistent in implementing Covid restrictions.

Officials revealed on Thursday that they were mulling increasing the limit on the size of public gatherings from the present four to 12, and Lo faced questions at a Legislative Council panel meeting on the rationale for keeping the gathering limit in place, given that up to 12 people can sit together to eat in a restaurant.

“We have to consider the restriction of 599G, and we have to amend the legislation in order to relax the relevant measures, unlike how we do every two weeks when we relax other measures,” Lo said said in response to a question from lawmaker Rebecca Chan.

“We have to stick to the relevant procedures to amend the legislation,” Lo stressed.

However Lo said officials were determined to work towards easing the cap on public gatherings, adding that the government followed the principle of "consistency" in implementing its anti-Covid strategy.

Meanwhile medical experts Wilson Lam and Ho Pak-Leung told separate radio interviews on Friday that the government could go further and scrap the limit on public gatherings entirely, given that limits were in place for the size of groups in premises such as restaurants.

On Thursday, the government announced the further easing of Covid restrictions, including allowing live performances in venues such as restaurants and bars from next week.