The Jockey Club has been forced to shut the public out of Wednesday night’s Happy Valley race meeting as the Hong Kong government comes to terms with a fifth wave of coronavirus cases.

With officials reimposing a raft of restrictions on the city in response to the Omicron variant entering the community, the Jockey Club confirmed there would be no members of the public on track for the first time since March.

“Due to the latest Covid-19 situation in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has just been instructed by the HKSAR Government that we have to substantially reduce the number of attendance to the race meeting tonight [January 5, 2022],” the Jockey Club said in a statement.

“As such, admission for the race meeting at the Happy Valley racecourse tonight is limited to stewards, voting members, owners, members and their guests who have made advance bookings.”

The regression follows one of the biggest crowds of the season, with 16,949 punters descending on Sha Tin for the New Year’s Day meeting, while there were 5,655 at the most recent Valley meeting on December 22.

The Jockey Club will refund all affected customers.