Hong Kong Changes Covid-19 Rules Again

Chan says they need to protect the elderly

Outgoing Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said over a week ago that Covid-19 social-distancing restrictions would not change until the change of leader on July 1.

But now with the rising number of cases that could hit 1,000, Lam's administration is saying that from Thursday, those people who patronise bars and clubs should test negative for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours before entering.

Patrons need negative test for bars, night clubs

There have been 350 infections since bars and clubs reopened last month.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee told a daily pandemic briefing that this new measure needed to be taken because the number of cases are rising.

"It is important for us to not allow this spread to go wild," she explained. "Because of this spread goes wild, then there is always the possibility of going into our elderly community. And this is our priority group we have to protect, as we learn from the previous experience of the fifth wave."

How does people going to nightclubs and bars have any connection with elderly people?

And if the government wants to protect the elderly, perhaps it should get more of these seniors vaccinated, because only 27 percent of them are double jabbed. That is an appallingly low number. In Canada people 80 and over who have two doses is at 98.5 percent.

How are the authorities going to protect the elderly by getting bar and nightclub customers to present a negative Covid-19 test? Seems like a massive stretch to solve the issue.

It's so easy to fake a negative RAT result

Also -- has the government thought how bars and clubs would police this? How easy is it to present a picture of a negative rapid antigen test from days earlier -- or even someone else's photo of a RAT?

On Twitter people were sarcastically saying they could make a quick buck selling negative RATs, but it would be even easier to get a picture of a negative RAT result?

It's absolutely ridiculous and at the same time will make bars and clubs suffer even more when they are struggling to climb out of the red after months of being shut because of the pandemic. How is someone getting infected from a bar different from a restaurant, where eight people can sit at a table for hours until midnight?

It boggles the mind...