8:30am-9:00am: Vijaykrishna Dhanasekaran, Associate Professor, Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences, HKU’s School of Public Health

8:30am-9:00am: Maurice Kong, Chairman, Institute of Dining Professionals

9:00am- 9:15am: Prof Xiaowen Fu, Associate Dean, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Faculty of Engineering

9:00am- 9:15am: Steven Cheung, founding chairman, Hong Kong Professional Airline Pilots Association

9:15am-9:30am: widened poverty gap

9:15am-9:30am: Terry Leung, Assistant Research and Advocacy Manager, Oxfam Hong Kong 

On our latest Backchat, we're going to talk about the easing of Covid restrictions.

Starting from Thursday, Hong Kong will raise the cap on restaurant dining to 12 people per table while a maximum of 240 guests can attend banquets. At the same time, six patrons will be allowed per table at bars, but a negative rapid antigen test result requirement is still in place.

The government has also relaxed quarantine rules for local air crews – they are no longer required to remain in closed-loop bubbles while overseas.

Some medical experts have said it’s a good time for Hong Kong to further relax social distancing rules, including dropping use of the LeaveHomeSafe app and the limit on public gatherings.

But Undersecretary for Health Libby Lee continued to urge the public to remain patient as the government had to gauge the effects of "0+3" measure for arrivals for at least a few weeks.

After 9:15, we'll look at the widened poverty gap during the pandemic.