On Friday, the Hong Kong authorities gave the go ahead for bars, gyms, beauty parlours and cinemas to reopen, as part of the process to ease the major social distancing measures.

Hong Kong has stopped seeing double digit local cases of the coronavirus and has therefore decided to take the next step in order to try to get back to the normal life.

Before entering gyms, people are to be checked for temperature.

American resident in Hong Kong tweeted, “After three weeks without a workout, whatever… let’s just get back to sweating,” as he posted a picture of the long queues of peopling waiting before entering the gym.

Last month, Hong Kong suffered a second wave of the virus, causing entertainment venues to shut down again. The second wave came about as consequence of people from Europe and North America to return back to Hong Kong.

However, the situation was soon controlled as health officials were testing, tracing and treating patients consistently. During the second wave, there were more than 1,000 infections and four deaths.

Despite easing the social distancing measures, the places that will reopen have to ensure that their clients and customers still keep a distance from one another. 

Restaurants are allowed to accept group booking of up to eight people.