Try four weeks of The Spectator absolutely free. And for this month only, you'll receive a Spectator wireless phone chargerpart series on stories from countries turned upside down by COVID-19.

I'm Kate Andrews.

This podcast features our panel, based around the world, who select a story each week that gives you an inside look at what's happening outside their windows.

Sylvia Cerelli Borrelli is reporting from Rome and the land correspondent for the Financial Times.

Jennifer Creary is reporting from Hong Kong and managing editor of the Hong Kong Free Press.

And Nick Gillespie is reporting from New York City, an editor-at-large

for Reason magazine. Welcome all. So, Jennifer, I'm going to start with you because you've brought

the good news this week, and then I fear that the stories brought by our panelists start going downhill

from there. Tell us what's happening in Hong Kong, the stories in the

Asia Times. That's right. So on Friday, Hong Kong relaxed its social distancing measures and

allowed certain businesses to reopen with restrictions. So those included bars, gyms, beauty parlors,

that are basically allowed to operate on a condition that they

maintain certain hygiene standards. So that's essentially testing the temperature of customers

when they come in, ensuring that there's alcohol gel available at counters. And also that they adhere

to a cap on the maximum number of customers that they accept in one go to eight.

And so that cap was initially, it was lifted from four.

So that's an accordance with newly relaxed public gathering restrictions.

So this was primarily triggered by more than 20 consecutive days without a local infection.

So all of the recent new coronavirus cases have all been important.

We spoke about this in our previous episodes, but those travellers have been tested upon arrival

and then subsequently sent to quarantine or medical facilities. So at the moment, our current

tally stands at 1,44 infections with four deaths. So that's relatively

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