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Hong Kong coronavirus: restaurants fill up for Mother’s Day, but few switch to ‘vaccine bubble’ scheme
- Only 300 restaurants meet the government’s rules for accepting tables of six and offering dine-in service till midnight
- With many staff still not vaccinated, most eateries are sticking with the previous arrangements for now
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Hong Kong’s new “vaccine bubble” scheme arrived just in time for Mother’s Day on Sunday, but restaurant owners are not cheering yet.
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Although many have seen an increase in Mother’s Day reservations, they say their bookings are nothing like they were last year, let alone before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Many are also grappling with the requirements for the various categories of the vaccine bubble scheme, which allows restaurants to accept more customers and offer dine-in services longer depending on the vaccination status of patrons and staff.
As of Thursday, only around 300 of the city’s more than 16,000 restaurants had met the requirements for the new “type C” arrangements, according to Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades.
Restaurants in this category can have up to six diners per table and offer dine-in services until midnight, provided their staff have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and their customers use the government’s risk-exposure app “LeaveHomeSafe”.
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