Sports Fields, Playgrounds, Theatres Set To Reopen

A host of government facilities including soccer and basketball courts, children's playgrounds and cultural venues will all reopen in the next few days as concerns about coronavirus infection continue to ease.

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department says soccer pitches, cricket grounds and basketball courts will reopen on Saturday, after being closed since January due to the pandemic.

Two more swimming pools, in Siu Sai Wan and Wong Tai Sin, will reopen the same day.

Children’s playgrounds will reopen next Monday, as will some fee-charging facilities such as grass soccer pitches, baseball courts and rugby pitches.

All government performance venues will open from Friday but at half their usual capacity and with special seating arrangements in place.

Meanwhile two foreign domestic helpers from the Philippines are among eight new, imported cases of Covid-19 reported on Wednesday.

It comes as the Philippines and Indonesia lift coronavirus travel restrictions, allowing thousands of newly hired domestic helpers to travel to the SAR.

The government was already facing calls from employers and domestic helper support groups to provide quarantine facilities for newly-arrived helpers so they don't have to stay with host families or in hostels.

The six other patients travelled from Pakistan.

The latest cases take the total number of infections reported here to 1120.