In a move that investors hope will calm the incessant protests that have brought Hong Kong's economy to a standstill over the past four months, Chief Executive Carrie Lam and her top advisors are holding an emergency meeting to impose a ban on wearing masks in public.

Lam will hold a meeting of the executive council, her de facto cabinet, to impose the ban as soon as Friday, SCMP reports.

The ban will function under a tough colonial-era emergency law. The hope is that it will end the demonstrations, which have devolved into skirmishes between protesters and Hong Kong police. As demonstrators disrupted China's 'National Day' on Tuesday, HK police were forced to fire six live rounds, one of which struck a teenage protester who was later arrested. Police arrested nearly 270 protesters that day.