New Year Like No Other 'may Still Spread Virus'

As bars and party rooms remain closed to fend off the coronavirus, more people headed into nature to see in 2021, but an infectious disease expert warned that any festive gatherings would probably lead to more Covid-19 cases.

One man said he spent New Year's Even atop Lantau Peak – where he said more than a hundred people had gathered. He told RTHK that he used to go to bars and it was the first time he celebrated the new year hiking.

A few dozen people gathered on Kowloon Peak to watch the first sunrise of 2021.

On Friday morning, at the promenade near the Penny's Bay MTR Station, there was little sign of people obeying social-distancing rules. Many were in groups of more than two people – the maximum allowed – and some were chatting without wearing marks.

The police also said they arrested more than two hundred people overnight in a crackdown on New Year's revellers breaching social distancing rules.

Scores of officers were on patrol on New Year's Eve to check that licensees and revellers were sticking to pandemic restrictions that forced bars, party rooms and karaoke parlours to close.

Raids on unlicensed bars in Sham Shui Po, Tsim Sha Tsui's Knutsford Terrace and an industrial building in Kwun Tong yielded more than a hundred arrests.

In Yuen Long, officers picked up seventy people in unlicensed bars and at a party room.

Some of the revellers were given on-the-spot fines for breaching social distancing regulations.

The crowds were a concern to infectious disease experts.

Dr Joseph Tsang of the Medical Association said on an RTHK programme that he would not be surprised if the number of new Covid cases goes up again following Christmas and the New Year. He believes the figure will start to climb in the next week.

Dr Ho Pak-leung from the University of Hong Kong also called on the government to fight the virus if it's "at war", otherwise, when other territories begin to reopen borders, Hong Kong may not be ready to join.

The government has so far ordered people living in more than 40 buildings to undergo mandatory tests in light of a spike of cases.