The Hong Kong Government has announced the following new social distancing measures for restaurants/caterers and bars, extending the hours of dine-in services for catering businesses to 2am, increasing the number of people allowed to sit at one table and increasing the total number of people allowed in catering business premises, which will come into effect on 30 October 2020 until 5 November 2020.
With Halloween approaching, all catering premises are reminded that any person within the premises must wear a mask at all times except when consuming food or drink at the table, body temperature screening must be conducted before a person is allowed to enter and hand sanitisers must be provided.
Here is the summary below:
Restaurants/Caterers:
Restaurants are allowed to extend the hours of dine-in services to 2am, however:
1) All restaurants must remain at 75% capacity
2) No more than 6 people may sit at a table
3) There must be a distance of 1.5m between tables or a partition may be used to separate tables
4) From 2am to 4:59am, restaurants are only allowed to offer takeaway services
Bars/pubs
1) All bars/pubs must remain at 75% capacity
2) No more than 4 people may sit at a table
Please see below for the formal announcement:
Catering Business
The relevant requirements include:
(a) A person must wear a mask at any time within any catering premises except when the person is consuming food or drink on the premises;
(b) Body temperature screening on a person must be conducted before the person is allowed to enter the catering premises;
(c) Hand sanitisers must be provided at any catering premises for any person at the premises;
(d)The number of customers at any catering premises at any one time must not exceed 75% of the normal seating capacity of the premises.
(e) No more than six persons may be seated together at one table within any catering premises, except for a bar or pub, where no more than four persons may be seated together at one table;
(f) Tables available for use or being used by customers within any catering premises must be arranged in a way to ensure there is a distance of at least 1.5 metres or a partition which could serve as an effective buffer between one table and another table at the premises;
(g) Extend the hours of dine-in services for catering businesses to 2am and maintain other infection control measures.
For more details, please refer to the following press release from the Hong Kong Government.