By Daisy CL Mandap
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Bands will be back in bars starting Friday
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Christmas came early this year for many musicians in Hong Kong. This is because after nearly seven months of being sidelined by pandemic fears, the city’s musicians will be back to on stage starting this Friday, Oct 30.
“Feeling awesome! ”, said an ecstatic Manuela D. Lo,
chairman of the Hong Kong Musicians Union, shortly after Secretary for Food and
Health Dr. Sophia Chan announced the
good news.
“All musicians can have a blessed Christmas (because of
this),” Lo added.
In her much-anticipated announcement, Dr. Chan said: “Live
performances and dancing activities will be allowed to take place in catering
businesses subject to the implementation of suitable infection control
measures.”
The health chief also said that restaurants will now be
allowed up to six people per table, while bars and nightclubs can seat a
maximum of four people, from the present two.
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Dr Chan at a news conference to announce the relaxed rules
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In addition, the catering businesses will be allowed to
operate up to 75 percent capacity, up from the current 50 percent, and extend
their opening hours from midnight till 2am.
Other leisure and sports facilities like theme parks,
swimming pools and performance venues will also be allowed to admit people up
to 75 percent of their capacity.
But the government decided to stick to the rule allowing no
more than four people to gather in public, saying the plan is for a “gradual
and targeted” relaxation of distancing measures.
Dr Chan made her announcement as no new local infection was
again reported today, Oct 27. All five new Covid-19 cases involved people
returning from overseas, four of them from India,
and one from France.
All eight new cases reported yesterday were also all
imported, while on previous days, there was often only one locally acquired
case detected, a sure sign that the current wave of infection has eased.
But in a separate address today, Chief Executive Carrie Lam
announced she was pressing with an inquiry into the legality of making Covid-19
tests mandatory, in the wake of warnings from health experts that a deadlier
fourth wave could occur this winter.
Dr Chan explained, “generally speaking, we urge the public
not to gather (still). This is important).
But for musicians, worries over the heightened restrictions
are trumped by their joy at being able to go back to work and play music once
more.
An HKMU member who was part of a small group Lo created to
lobby support for the long-standing call of musicians for live performances to
resume, said that all bands will be celebrating on Friday.
“No more karaokes,” he joked, and no more cat and mouse games
with the police, which had been zealously checking on bars to ensure the
government’s social distancing protocols were followed.
Lo and her group of advisers had previously held talks with
Tommy Cheung, catering sector in the Legislative Council, who later set up a
meeting for them with top health officials.
During the talks, the HKMU stressed that the musicians were
willing to propose their own safety measures, like singing with masks on,
bringing their own microphones and not interacting with patrons during their
performances, just to start working again.
Bars across Hong Kong were
first closed on Apr 3 this year, after the coronavirus spread across four
nightspots in Central, Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui, leaving more than 20
musicians infected, and about 50 others in quarantine.
The bars were allowed to reopen briefly in July, but were promptly
shut again after a third and deadlier wave swept across the city.
On Sept 18, bars were allowed to resume business, but with
no live shows still.
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Lo says the resumption of live music is an early Christmas gift to musicians
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In a letter Lo sent to Cheung on Oct 1 asking for help, she
said an estimated 1,000 musicians had been left jobless for nearly seven months
by the bar closures.
She said “we have been unfairly shown to be the carriers of
the virus, when we were in fact, victims,” referring to health data showing
that bar patrons were the first to show signs of the disease, indicating they
had infected the musicians.
“And yet, we are the ones who have suffered the most from
that incident. Bars and pubs are always among the last to reopen when the
government starts relaxing social distancing measures, and even when they are
allowed to do business again, very strict regulations are put in place,
including a ban on live shows.”
Now that she and her fellow musicians will soon be back at
work, Lo has only one more wish, and that is, for them to continue performing
in the months and years ahead. “Hopefully, continuous na,” she said.
