Updated information on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Government tightens social distancing measures and Prevention and Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation gazetted
Updated information on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Government tightens social distancing measures and Prevention and Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation gazetted

In view of the development of COVID-19 in Hong Kong, the Government announced on November 14 that social distancing measures will be tightened. The latest details of requirements and restrictions are as follows:
 
(I) Catering premises and scheduled premises (details at Annex 1)

(1) From 12.00am to 4.59am daily, save for specific premises (details at Annex 2), a person responsible for carrying on a catering business must cease selling or supplying food or drink for consumption on the premises of the business; and close any premises, or part of the premises, on which food or drink is sold or supplied by the business for consumption on the premises. The premises concerned may still sell or supply food and/or drink for takeaway services and deliveries. A person responsible for carrying on a catering business is also required to put up a notice at the entrance to the catering premises to remind customers that food or drink should not be consumed in areas adjacent to the catering premises;
 
(2) No more than two persons may be seated together at one table within bars or pubs as well as clubs or nightclubs; no more than four persons may be seated together at one table within other catering business premises;
 
(3) Members of public must only consume food or drink at the table (but not any other places) within catering business premises. In other words, a person must not consume food or drink and must wear a mask when he or she is away from the table (such as toasting at weddings);
 
(4) The total number of people allowed in catering business premises (including bars or pubs), clubs or nightclubs, and swimming pools will be capped at 50 per cent of the normal seating capacity/maximum capacity of the respective premises;

(5) Members of the public must wear masks when doing exercise in indoor sports premises and public skating rinks, except when there is a distance of at least 1.5 metres or effective partition(s), or when doing certain exercises involving little physical contact;

(6) Other requirements and restrictions on catering business and scheduled premises will be maintained. Amongst others, facilities involving higher health risks such as steam and sauna facilities and ball pits will continue to be prohibited from opening; and
 
(7) The Government will explore to incorporate hotels /guesthouses into the list of scheduled premises, and requirements will be imposed to this newly added scheduled premises, including:
·        limiting the number of guests in each guestroom to four persons (except people living in the same household);
·        requiring all guests visiting guestrooms to register their personal particulars with the hotel/guesthouse operator;
·        conducting body temperature screening on a person before the person is allowed to enter the hotel/guesthouse;
·        conducting cleaning and disinfection of facilities and accessories before the use of the next customer;
·        providing hand sanitisers at the hotel/guesthouse for any person therein;
·        ensuring the guestrooms for hotel confinees and non-confinees must be separated in different floors; and
·        hotel operators must take effective measures to prevent hotel confinees from leaving their guestrooms.

The Government has gazetted the directions and specification under Cap. 599F to implement the above measures in (1) to (6). The above measures will take effect from November 16 for a period of 11 days till November 26, 2020. The Government has also started preparing for the legislative amendment work related to the above new requirements set out in (7).
     
(II) Tightening the visiting arrangement for persons under quarantine in hotels
 
(8) The Department of Health (DH) will shortly disallow visitors for any person under compulsory quarantine in hotels during the quarantine period.  If confinees have the need to replenish goods or food, their friends, family members or hotel staff can place them outside the guestrooms for the confinees to pick up without face-to-face contact.  If a person under compulsory hotel quarantine requires the company of a carer, with the prior permission from DH, the carer also has to be quarantined in the hotel till the end of the quarantine period. The above measures will take effect from November 18, 2020.

(III) Group gatherings
 
(9) Unless exempted, the prohibition on group gatherings of more than four persons in public places will continue during the 11-day period from November 16 to 26, 2020.
 
(IV) Mask-wearing requirement
 
(10) The mandatory mask-wearing requirement under the Prevention and Control of Disease (Wearing of Mask) Regulation (Cap. 599I) will be extended for a period of eleven days from November 16 to November 26, 2020.

Moreover, to further strengthen testing, the Government has published the Prevention and Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation (Cap. 599J) in the Gazette on November 14, which commences at 0.00am on November 15. The Regulation provides the legal framework for the Government to require certain categories of persons to undergo COVID-19 testing, and for specified medical practitioners to require symptomatic patients to undergo COVID-19 testing.  Examples include persons who live or work in specified premises with outbreak of cases, persons of a particular occupation, or persons who are close to completion of the compulsory 14-day quarantine upon their arrival at Hong Kong.  The Secretary for Food and Health (SFH) will publish the relevant notices when necessary taking into account the epidemic development and the testing participation rate.
Please visit the Thematic Website (https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/index.html) regularly for further information and updates.  We would like to solicit your support to disseminate the information to your service users so that they could adopt proper preventive measures.  For more details, please refer to the below press releases and the attached Annex:

Government tightens social distancing measures
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202011/14/P2020111400766.htm


Prevention and Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation gazette
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202011/14/P2020111400767.htm
 
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