Hong Kong:
Hong Kong is to ban all incoming flights from the United Kingdom from July 1 to curb the more infectious Delta strain of the coronavirus, the economic hub’s government mentioned in a statement Monday.
“All passenger flights from the UK will be prohibited from landing in Hong Kong,” the statement mentioned.
The UK would now be designated in the “extremely high-risk” category of nations, it added, the most serious rating the city has for pandemic travel.
The newest measures more than the Delta variant, initial identified in India, will restrict passengers who have stayed in the UK for more than two hours from boarding passenger flights to the city.
The authorities mentioned they upgraded the anti-pandemic measures in view of the “recent rebound” of the epidemic and the “widespread Delta variant virus strain” in Britain.
The Hong Kong government added that the city also recorded a quantity of instances of the L452R virus strain, a mutation linked to Delta, from men and women arriving from the UK.
The city confirmed its initial regional Covid case involving the Delta variant last week, ending a 16-day streak of zero regional instances.
British authorities have mentioned the Delta variant has grow to be the dominant coronavirus strain on their territory.
Britain was due to completely ease restrictions on June 21, but the emergence of the variant has led to an extension of social distancing guidelines.
Hong Kong has currently banned flights from many other nations more than increasing instances and prominence of the Delta strain, such as the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Nepal and Pakistan.
()