HONG KONG : Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that the country will exclude the large supermarkets and pharmacy chains, as well as other businesses from the next round of government wage subsidies, who remain “unaffected” from the fifth-wave of Covid-19 outbreak.

The Hong Kong government planned to release a new round of financial support to local employers under the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) to support the businesses and safeguard the employment amid the city’s worst coronavirus outbreak and surging unemployment rate, Hong Kong Free Press reported citing Carrie Lam’s press briefing on Friday ESS scheme was launched in 2020 to provide the employers with subsidies to help them retain staff who might have become redundant for the employers during the first year of the pandemic. Dairy Farm Company Limited, Kowloon Motor Bus Company, HKT Services and many more companies were the biggest recipients of the ESS scheme.

Previously, the Hong Kong government omitted Airport Authority Hong Kong and the MTR Corporation, government-subsidized universities and social welfare organisations, as well as civil servants from the scheme.

Lam further said that those earning over Hong Kong Dollar 30,000 per month would not be able to take the benefit of the scheme.

“The monthly subsidy amount for each full-time employee is set at Hong Korean Dollar 8000,” Lam was quoted as saying by HKFP

She further stated that the scheme will cover the three-month period between May and July and will benefit up to 1.3 million workers.

According to a statement released after Lam’s briefing, any supermarket and pharmacy chain, property management company, bank, financial institution, delivery business, a telecommunications firm, private hospital and land developer will be excluded from the support scheme if it employs over 50 staff. (ANI)