Hong Kong will ban evening dining at restaurants and close fitness centres, the city's leader said Tuesday, as part of new measures aimed at stemming a fourth wave of coronavirus infections.

Eight Hong Kong democracy activists including three former lawmakers were arrested Tuesday for their part in a July protest, the latest in a broad crackdown by authorities under a sweeping new security law.

The detained include veteran activist "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, the former chief of Hong Kong's Democratic Party Wu Chi-wai, ex-legislator Eddie Chu and Figo Chan, the organiser of an annual rally marking the British handover of the city to China in 1997.

The New York Times on Wednesday said it was moving its digital news hub from Hong Kong to South Korea as a result of a national security law Beijing imposed on the city last month and trouble obtaining visas.

Hong Kong police said they had arrested at least 180 people Wednesday -- including seven under a new national security law -- as thousands of protesters defied a ban to rally on the anniversary of the city's handover to China.

Hong Kong police cast a dragnet around the financial hub's legislature on Wednesday and fired pepper-ball rounds in the commercial district as they stamped down on protests against a bill banning insults to China's national anthem.

Hong Kong on Friday began to ease major social distancing measures with bars, gyms, beauty parlours and cinemas reopening their doors after the financial hub largely halted local transmissions of the deadly coronavirus.

Queues formed outside gyms in the semi-autonomous Chinese city on Friday morning for employees to check temperatures as people celebrated the return of some normalcy to the city.

Riot police hit Hong Kong's streets on Friday ahead of planned rallies by pro-democracy protesters who were looking to defy restrictions on gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic to voice anger against authoritarian Chinese rule.

Hong Kong endured a third straight day of political unrest over the Christmas period Thursday as police and pro-democracy protesters clashed inside shopping malls.

Cash-strapped carrier Hong Kong Airlines has had seven idle planes impounded at the city's airport after it failed to make payments, authorities said Tuesday, with the firm hit by a plunge in tourist numbers caused by long-running protests.

The Airport Authority announced the seized planes under an ordinance that addresses overdue charges.

The year 2019 saw an explosion of demonstrations across the world as people demanded an overhaul of entrenched political systems and action on climate change.