Coronavirus: Hong Kong booze ban may wipe out thousands of bars and restaurants

HONG KONG - The normally packed streets of Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong bar district were virtually empty on Monday night . So too was a popular Italian eatery in Wan Chai, a neighborhood known for some of the city's best restaurants and nightlife. In the SoHo area frequented by expat bankers and lawyers, the crowds were unusually thin.

On Tuesday, Singapore followed that move by announcing a shutdown of all bars, cinemas and religious services as of midnight on Thursday. While the UK also recently shut down eateries and pubs, Boris Johnson's government has pledged to pay rent and 80 per cent of staff salaries for the duration. Lam said Hong Kong would"certainly consider" measures to help the establishments affected, but she didn't elaborate.

Other major metro areas, including New York City and San Francisco, have effectively shut down restaurants and bars or limited establishments to takeout and delivery as the virus spreads globally. Italy, Spain and France have implemented blanket closures. "I can't count how much money we're losing," the manager said Monday night, identifying himself as Mr Chan as he wasn't authorized to speak about the alcohol ban. The government's move"will kill our business a lot because our business is mainly connected to selling alcohol. We are an Italian restaurant and if you come to an Italian restaurant and you don't drink wine or alcohol, it's really useless. Everyone in town is really worried about this.

"I think we have a responsibility to encourage people to enact social distancing - and since local media started pointing the finger at Lan Kwai Fong, customers aren't coming anyway," said Ravi Beryar, operations manager at Rula Live, a music and sports bar."But my staff need to know how long it'll be until we reopen, and my landlord needs to know."

"The problem that my tenants have, and many of the operators have, is that if you can't serve alcohol they'll go out of business because they're bars or clubs," he said."That's the only thing they sell."

Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Coronavirus: Hong Kong to ban all tourist arrivals for 14 days from March 25Hong Kong has seen imported coronavirus cases spike as foreign and local residents returned from overseas.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Source: The Straits Times - 🏆 8. / 63 Read more »

Divisions among Hong Kong expats over coronavirus responseHONG KONG (AFP) - As Hong Kong suffers a new spike in coronavirus infections, anger and recrimination have broken out among the city's expatriates over whether enough of their well-heeled community is taking the outbreak seriously enough.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Source: The Straits Times - 🏆 8. / 63 Read more »

COVID-19: Macau announces new restrictions on Hong Kong, China visitorsHONG KONG: Macau's leader Ho Iat Seng said on Tuesday (Mar 24) that visitors from the Chinese mainland, neighbouring Hong Kong and Taiwan who have ...
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »

Hong Kong: Stocks end sharply higher[HONG KONG] Hong Kong shares rallied Tuesday, in line with an Asia-wide advance, after the Federal Reserve announced a huge bond-buying package aimed at providing support to the US economy during the coronavirus crisis. Read more at The Business Times.
Source: BusinessTimes - 🏆 15. / 51 Read more »

Hong Kong to ban all tourist arrivals, weighs suspension of alcohol sales
Source: TODAYonline - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

Hong Kong to ban all tourist arrivals, weighs suspension of alcohol salesHong Kong said on Monday it was banning all tourist arrivals to the global financial centre amid a spike in imported cases of the coronavirus, as it joins cities worldwide in the battle to contain the spread of the disease. The government also said it was studying whether to suspend the sale of alcohol
Source: YahooSG - 🏆 3. / 71 Read more »