Hong Kong has banned gatherings of more than two people, the city announced on Monday, July 27.

The new measures will take effect from Wednesday, July 29.

The stricter restrictions is to curb a surge in Covid-19 cases.

The city will ban restaurant dining and make it mandatory to wear face masks in all public places, including outdoors.

The new prohibitions build on measures introduced the week before.

Not wearing mask a problem

Health authorities said the week before that a spike in Covid-19 cases was mostly due to people not wearing masks.

The previous measures had imposed a ban on dining in restaurants after 6pm and saw closures of 12 types of venues until July 28.

These venues include gyms and entertainment centres.

Starting July 22, wearing of face masks is necessary in all public indoor areas, including malls and markets, for two weeks.

Context

Since late January, Hong Kong has seen more than 2,600 people infected.

A total of 20 of whom have died. ​​​​​​​

New infections in Hong Kong have hit triple figures on a daily basis.

More than 1,000 infections have been confirmed since early July.

This new wave of transmissions is more than 40 per cent of the total since the virus first arrived in late January.

This was despite Hong Kong seemingly ending local transmissions for weeks previously.

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