Hong Kong Bans All Non-Residents, Says Bars Can’t Serve Alcohol

(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong will ban non-residents from visiting for 14 days and prevent bars from serving alcohol as the city sees a second wave of imported coronavirus cases.

The travel measure will take effect starting on midnight Wednesday, the city’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in a news conference on Monday. Hong Kong will also halt all airport transit services and impose harsher punishments for quarantine violators, she said.

“To anyone who intends to breach the quarantine orders, anyone who still wants to go out and meet up with friends, can you not be restrained for some more time so Hong Kong can win this battle?” Lam said, fighting back tears.

Hong Kong has seen imported coronavirus cases spike as foreign and local residents returned from overseas ahead of a government deadline last week imposing a mandatory 14-day quarantine on all arrivals.

Before the virus spread in the U.S. and Europe, the city had initially managed to contain the outbreak by closing schools, tracing the contacts of infected people and gradually imposing greater travel restrictions.

Amid last week’s looming deadline, residents arriving in Hong Kong from abroad pushed Hong Kong’s daily tally of new confirmed cases to 48, the highest since the outbreak began.

Hong Kong reported 39 new cases Monday, bringing the city’s total to 356 cases. That’s still fewer than Singapore, which had initially won praise for its effective containment measures.

Contact editor Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)