Lawmaker Blasts Govt For Extending Covid-19 Curbs

Catering sector lawmaker Tommy Cheung has criticised the government's decision to extend social distancing measures until May 7, accusing the authorities of making decisions based on the guidance of advisers who "do not understand economics".

Speaking to reporters at Legco on Tuesday afternoon, Cheung said he was disappointed with the government's move, and that some of his constituents were suffering because of forced business closures.

Cheung, who is also an executive councillor, urged the government to consider lifting some of the stringent measures on some types of venues like karaoke clubs and bars, for instance by allowing owners so run those venues at half capacity like restaurants currently have to.

He said that given that the number of newly-confirmed Covid-19 cases had gone into single digits recently, with no new confirmed cases at all on Monday, it would not hurt to consider easing some of the measures already in place.

Cheung also criticised the government for failing to strike the right balance between containing the new coronavirus and keeping the economy going, asking "does the word economics exist in their dictionary?"

"I don’t see [any balancing] happening in this particular situation, which is why I say probably they have no economist, people who do not know economics making all these decisions, they’re just going at 'ok, we continue with this stringent measure', it will probably help, I assume it probably will help, but relaxing it may not hurt," he said.

"My constituents – the bars, the karaokes – when you close them for so many days and close them down for another 14 days, not only is it hurting the entrepreneurs, basically you’re hurting all the employees working there [who are] not getting any pay, and I don’t believe this is fair."

Earlier on Tuesday, smaller businesses from the catering sector, accompanied by Civic Party lawmaker Jeremy Tam, were also at Legco telling reporters that they're in desperate need of financial support because they have been left out of both rounds of anti-epidemic relief funding.

Tam spoke on behalf of one stall operator surnamed Lau, who says that he and 50 other businesses at the Dragon Centre food court in Sham Shui Po are unlikely to get a dollar from the government because their landlord holds the licences.

Some stalls are already behind on rent payments because business has gone down, he said.

Tam said: "[Lau] already tried to contact the owner of the Dragon Centre and urged for a reduction on the rental, but of course this is a dead end, and they're not going to reduce rents."

"So obviously, those subsidies will directly go to the landlord, he hasn't heard anything regarding [whether they] would they pass it on and dividing it to 50 shops."

A raft of social distancing measures that included a ban on public gatherings of more than four people and the forced closure of venues such as bars, gyms and cinemas was due to expire on Thursday. But Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that the rules will be extended for another 14 days.

Health Secretary Sophia Chan told reporters shortly afterwards that social distancing restrictions imposed on restaurants will be slightly relaxed, in that they won't have to run at half of their capacity as previously required.

However, others such as requiring customers to wear masks when they're not eating, and keeping at least 1.5 metres between tables, will remain.