Hong Kong suspends incoming flights from UK after array of covid cases

Hong Kong is about to ban all of its incoming flights from the UK. This decision is coming after the rise of covid cases due to the spreading of the Delta variant. The UK is about to become classified as one of the “extremely high-risk” countries.

Also, it has the highest rating which Hong Kong has for pandemic travel. This ban will come into effect on 1 July. It will have all passenger flights from Britain.

This ban on incoming flights is coming amidst the political tensions between China and the West. This tension took place due to the crackdown on dissent in Hong HongKong.

This ban means that people who recently spent more than 2 hours in the land of Britain will not be allowed. They cannot board flights to Hong Kong from any of the airports.

As per the city’s authorities, this decision has its base upon the ” recent rebound” of the pandemic in the UK. Also, this is more in effect due to the “widespread Delta variant virus strain” in the country.

There are around 8 of the daily non-stop flights from the UK to Hong Kong, all flying out of London. The flights which are outbound from Hong Kong to the UK will not face the effects due to the upcoming ban.

Despite the high vaccination rate in the UK, new daily cases are still emerging in this country. Most of the new infections have a link with the Delta variant, which got the first detection in India.

Hong HongKong has confirmed its first local Delta virus only in the last week. It is ending up with a 16-day streak with zero new local cases. The city has some of the strictest borders for the world from 2020. It has helped the city to keep the number of infections low throughout the entire pandemic.

The officials have said that this city has recently recorded a growing number of Delta variant cases from the people arriving from the UK. The 1 July ban is the second time in for the city when it has stopped the arrivals of the flights from Britain.

Hong Kong is barring flights from many other countries like India, Nepal, the Philippines, Pakistan. The UK government said, “restricts the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong and constitutes a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration”.

Credits: BBC