A survey by the Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service showed that the pandemic has made young people less willing to socialise, as the group expressed concern that they may be more socially withdrawn.

The service's children and youth service division interviewed a thousand secondary school students in June through an online poll.

Nearly two thirds of them said they do not want to socialise as much under social distancing rules, and that they are worried about removing their masks and seeing others in future.

Nearly half of the respondents said they feel bad about losing physical interaction and not being able to give each other hugs under social distancing.

Lewis Chu, who was in charge of the survey, said on Sunday young people do not know how to resume their connection with people directly, as they have not had much face-to-face interaction without a mask on.

"Wearing a mask cannot feel their friends' responses and it may lead to misunderstanding of their facial expression," he told RTHK.

Chu said he was concerned that as young people had become used to hiding their facial expressions under masks for three years, they would become socially withdrawn going forward and unable to connect with reality.

He said young people should try to gradually open up in smaller groups and then gradually increase the size of the group to make them feel more comfortable in socialising with each other even with a mask on.