Hong Kong University's Medicine Dept Warns Against Opening of Bars, Restaurants to Contain Outbreak

While malls and restaurants have been opened in non-containment zones across the country, including the capital, a survey conducted by the department of medicine of Hong Kong University shows that restaurants and bars contributed the most to the outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong.

The findings of the survey suggest that allowing people in enclosed spaces such as bars and restaurants could reverse the gains made during the lockdown and worsen the public health crisis.

The outbreak from a single bar, the survey found, accounted for over 10% of all cases in Hong Kong regardless of the source and over 30% of all local cases acquired in Hong Kong. Among the clusters of COVID-19 contamination, this was the biggest cluster.

People who got infected with the novel Coronavirus from this bar and restaurant spread the virus in all sorts of directions – from families to workspaces.

“The number of individual secondary cases was significantly higher within social settings such as bars and restaurants compared to family or work exposures. This is certainly due to the greater numbers of contacts expected in such settings. Social exposures are therefore at an increased risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission and likely constitute the core behavioural risk factor for superspreading events,” the report stated.

Not just malls and restaurants, with some restrictions, places of worship have also been opened in non-containment zones across the country. Bars have not been permitted to open yet.

On Monday, many patrons shared photos of dining out at restaurants, some of which had placed glass partitions on tables as precautionary measure. Officials including those at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have warned that unlock 1.0 was coming at a time when the country was still “very far away from the peak”.

The report said that “targeted interventions” were required, which would focus, “on reducing extreme numbers of social contacts at high-risk venues such as bars, nightclubs and restaurants, which also appear at increased risk of superspreading events, either via closures or physical distancing policies.”

The report added that assuming local elimination of the infected cases were not possible, “disease control efforts should focus on rapid tracing and quarantine of confirmed contacts, along with the implementation of physical distancing policies or closures targeting high-risk social exposures such as bars, nightclubs and restaurants to prevent the occurrence of SSEs.”