Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) has announced that cultural venues will once again close due to COVID-19. The closure begins on 15 July and follows a spike in cases since the start of the month.
“Further measures have to be adopted to maintain social distancing,” said LCSD in a statement. “The leisure and cultural venues/facilities reopened earlier will be temporarily closed…until further notice. The recreational, sports and cultural programmes to be held in July will also be cancelled.”
The measure applies to both indoor and outdoor venues.
The statement continued: “All museums, performance venues and music centres…will be temporarily closed. All major facilities of performance venues will not be opened before the end of July; all public programmes at museums will be suspended.”
Hong Kong’s venues originally closed in January, then reopened temporarily in March before being locked down once more. Venues reopened once again in May, before the latest surge – 52 new cases were reported on 13 July alone – caused a change of plans.
LCSD added that details of ticket refunds will be announced soon.