Hong Kong’s caterers will need government assistance to survive a new round of COVID-19 restrictions likely to take effect any day now, industry insiders have warned.

Restaurants were expected to lose HK$7 billion to HK$8 billion (US$903 million to US$1 billion) of revenue in December as a result of the curbs, said Simon Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades.

Those new controls, to include a dine-in ban from 6 p.m. and no more than 20 people in a banquet, would mean restaurants missing out on the peak season of December, when the industry could normally fetch between HK$11 billion and HK$12 billion, he said.

Hong Kong is struggling to combat its fourth wave of COVID-19, and is set to put the measures announced on Tuesday into force on Thursday. Businesses are bracing themselves for the repercussions as the government has been firm lately about eschewing more wage subsidies.

Instead, targeted measures would be provided “to help those suffering great losses,” the city’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan said on Monday.

About 2,000 restaurants had closed in November and 1,000 others were tipped to shutter for good this month, Wong the restaurateur said. He feared the unemployment rate in the industry could rise from the current 14.8% to 16%.

Wong urged the government to help restaurants, bars and other food and beverage providers to survive the “big disaster.”

Simon Wong Kit-lung, chair and chief executive of the LH Group, hoped the government could compensate for the industry’s loss. He said people in catering had expressed grief in social media groups as soon as the government made the announcement on Tuesday.

The industry had no say in the government’s restrictions, nor did he have any views on them, he added. Businesses could only accept whatever measures the government had decided on and find their own way out “in a humble way.”

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