New Crown Epidemic｜Six categories of places such as beauty urge not to close business across the board

The government tightened anti-epidemic measures at the beginning of the month. A total of 15 types of premises need to be closed. Legislative Council Wholesale and Retail Member Shaw Ka-fai, together with representatives of six types of industries including beauty, massage, bathroom, and Majong Tianjiu entertainment premises, held a press conference today (18th). Ask the authorities not to "one-size-fits-all" for the closure of the premises, and call on the authorities to "stop the sidelines if there is an accident."

Industry representatives also suggested that for large-area closed premises, compensation methods such as restaurants should be referred to, and the compensation should be calculated according to the area.

Shao Jiahui emphasized that he believes that the industry supports the government's promotion of vaccine bubbles. He also pointed out that he has been in close communication with the government authorities and sent letters to the authorities to raise the industry's demands.

Wu Siren, chairman of the Hong Kong Friendship Chamber of Commerce, said that the industry is ready and believes that as long as the government launches the vaccine bubble, they can resume business immediately.

He also hopes that the government will remove the industry from the regulation of scheduled premises, so that they no longer need to suspend business due to confirmed cases in other industries.

Shaw Ka-fai and representatives of six industries, including beauty, massage, bathroom, and Majong Tianjiu entertainment venues, demanded the introduction of vaccine bubbles so that they can resume business immediately.

(Photo by Liang Pengwei)

Shao Jiahui expressed his gratitude to the government for its anti-epidemic work. He mentioned that the support measures will be rolled out soon, which will enable some people to receive assistance before the Chinese New Year.

However, it is questioned why it still seems to be "one size fits all" in the past. Many industries are unable to start work under the new wave of epidemics, and they call on the authorities to deal with it by "stopping for a while when things go wrong".

Wu Siren: The vaccine bubble can be resumed immediately next week

Wu Siren said that the difference between their place and the place where they play Mahjong Tianjiu is that they must provide food to be profitable.

He mentioned that the industry is currently only open until 11:59 pm. He hopes that the bar industry can be open until late at night, otherwise the income will be limited by the operating hours.

He also mentioned that they had no sparrow services for 272 days.

Wu Xu said that the total subsidy of 250,000 yuan earlier was only equal to one month's rent, but additional equipment was needed to meet the requirements of hygiene and fresh air equipment.

Wu Siren mentioned that there has never been a confirmed case in the industry. He also said that if the government launches a "vaccine bubble" on February 24, they can resume business immediately. Other industries have been diagnosed and need to shut down.

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Six types of premises require subsidized staff salaries and rents according to the situation

Yang Huijun, chairman of the Education Bureau's Qualifications Framework Beauty and Hairdressing Industry Training Advisory Committee, read out a joint statement by six industry representatives who attended the meeting, urging the authorities to stop "one size fits all" requiring business closures, and would like to implement vaccine bubbles as soon as possible, directly subsidize staff salaries according to the situation of the premises, and Rent, accurate compensation according to the situation of the premises, re-examining the regulation of Cap. 599F with the industry, and formulating a mechanism for long-term epidemic prevention measures.

Yang Huijun pointed out that there are 11,000 beauty salons and nail centers in Hong Kong, with nearly 80,000 practitioners. He mentioned that many self-employed people in the industry have not received government subsidies. In the past two years, the industry has been asked to close even if there is no outbreak.

She mentioned that beauty salon practitioners have a full set of equipment and separate compartments, and they are also the first in the industry to use "safe travel".

Yang said that the government cited reducing the flow of people as the reason for the closure, but most of their work is one-to-one service, and called on the government to reconsider the epidemic prevention restrictions.

Beauty salon directors worry about the loss of staff

Huang Jingming, director of a beauty salon who also belongs to the beauty industry, pointed out that they have achieved "120 points" and there is no outbreak group, so they feel helpless to be closed across the board.

She mentioned that she had discussed with the landlord whether rent reduction was possible, and understood the difficulties faced by the landlord. She emphasized that the government subsidies were only a drop in the bucket. The company had already lost more than 10% of its staff, and many service chains with associated work were affected.

She believes that there is no wave of bankruptcy in the industry, but the situation affects the healthy development of the industry, and she worries that practitioners who choose to leave will not return to the industry in the future.

Huang called on the government to provide compensation to employees affected and without income, at 75% of the amount recorded by the MPF.

Other premises in attendance included representatives of the sparrow house, bathroom, family entertainment centre, etc.

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