Originally Posted by 889

The key to understanding that last post is that they were having drinks with their meal in a Chinese restaurant.

And the new restrictions don't bar drinks with meals in restaurants. They bar drinking in bars and such.

This is the official rationale for the distinction:

"Sometimes when you go out to eat at a restaurant or a banquet hall you sit further away and can split dishes to eat. But often when you go to a bar, you take off your face masks, have a drink, chat, sometimes people get a bit intimate when they’re drunk, and this will raise the risk of cross infection.”

https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/compone...2-20200323.htm