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| Dusk till Dawn on Jaffe Rd is one of 4 bars where the infected musicians performed |
The move was announced at the press briefing held today,
Mar. 26, by officials of the Centre for Health Protection, who also said 16
musicians who played at the bars have already tested positive for the
coronavirus disease.
Four of them were included in the 43 newly confirmed cases
today. Three new cases involved staff at the bars (2 men and 1 woman), while
four are customers.
An additional case involving a 20-year-old police officer
could also be linked, as she had reported dropping by one of the bars on Mar.
20.
The bars have been identified as Insomnia in Central, Dusk
Till Dawn and Centre Stage in Wan Chai, and All Night Long in Tsim Sha Tsui.
All four bars are reportedly managed by just one company,
along with nine bands made up mostly by Filipinos who played there regularly. Outside sources named the company as Step By Step.
Consul General Raly Tejada has expressed concern at the
growing number of infections linked to the bars, and suggested the Hong Kong
government do more to stop the spread.
But he stopped short of calling for the bars’ closure, as
what some local lawmakers have been pushing for.
“I do not discount the good job that the HK government and
its health professionals have done specially in the past two months. However,
the situation now is highly alarming. HK government should now employ stronger
health measures under its disposal to arrest the spread of the disease before
it’s too late,” said Congen Tejada.
He noted that “the musicians were under contract and they were just doing their job.”
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| Congen Tejada asks HK to do more to contain the spread of the disease in the bars |
His call came after Finance Secretary Paul Chan warned
businesses of more stringent measures that might be adopted to enforce social
distancing.
Among the measures reportedly being considered by the
government is to order bars and restaurants to close early, or ensure patrons
do not sit close to each other.
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A plan disclosed earlier by Chief Executive Carrie Lam to
forbid the sale of liquor in bars, has been widely criticized as being
insufficient.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of CHP’s communicable disease
branch, said all staff of the entertainment company, which number 124, will be
sent to quarantine centers.
“We will trace all these people and send them to quarantine
centres, as they are considered as close contacts [of confirmed cases],” she
said.
However, she said it would be difficult to trace all of the
bar’s patrons, so people will have to remain vigilant, not only when they go to
bars but also when they go to some “high-risk gatherings” like big parties.
Manuela Lo, chair of the Hong Kong Musicians Union, has also
called on her members to be more careful about hygiene and avoid loitering in
the bars where the infected musicians had played.
But she said another concern is how the musicians who have
fallen ill could be compensated, noting that they were stricken in the course
of work, and were not negligent in any way.
She is also worried that the musicians would have more than
just the illness to worry about, should they lose their jobs if the bars are
closed down.
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| Insomnia in Lan Kwai Fong is where most of the infected staff work |
Of the 43 new cases, 25 are women and 19 are men, aged
between 18-78. An overwhelming majority, or 29 of the new cases,
involved people with recent travel history, including 10 overseas students.
They also included two more newly arrived Filipino domestic
workers. One flew in from the Philippines ,
while the other had been to the United
States
Congen Tejada said only three of the new cases were reported
by the CHP to the Consulate as involving Filipinos.
However, he is also checking on the nationality of the new
cases linked to the bar cluster, as all of the previous seven band members who
were confirmed to have Covid-19, as well as a waitress at Insomnia, were
belatedly confirmed to be Filipinos.
He reiterated a call for Filipinos in Hong
Kong to remain indoors as much possible, amid the recent spike in
cases.
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