Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, said yesterday that transit services at the Hong Kong International Airport would gradually resume from June 1, according to a report by national media outlet China Daily.
Meanwhile, certain entertainment venues will reopen from tomorrow. As with Macau in March, entertainment facilities were ordered to suspend operations due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Those in Hong Kong were recently given similar orders, but only now are karaoke bars, night clubs, bathhouses and party rooms being given the greenlight to reopen.
Although they will be allowed to resume normal operations, these venues will have to “continue to follow anti-pandemic stipulations,” the national media outlet reported.
The CE’s move to ease the restrictions comes as Hong Kong slowly returns to normal after having no new local cases for 11 straight days and as schools are set to resume in phases starting today.
At present passenger transit remains banned in Hong Kong, normally a major air transport hub for the Asia-Pacific region. The Macau International Airport has also suspended transit services.
The resumption of transit services at the Hong Kong airport will not greatly impact Macau, for either people coming or going from the city. This is because when people are travelling in and out of Macau through the neighboring airport, it is considered a land or sea to air connection, not an air-to-air transit involving passengers alighting one flight and boarding another within the same airport.
As no passenger ferry is currently running between the two Special Administrative Regions, all passengers must enter and leave Hong Kong to travel to Macau, and vice versa. AL
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