LAHORE – Hong Kong will suspend flights from Pakistan, India, and the Philippines from April 20 for two weeks after the mutated strain of COVID-19 was detected in the Asian countries for the first time.
Top health authorities announced Sunday after multiple cases of a highly infectious N501Y mutant COVID-19 strain were detected in the region. Hong Kong government said that the three countries would be classified as “extremely high risk”.
The restriction stem from a rule that Hong Kong has instituted, which was triggered for each of the countries as there had been five or more arrivals with the mutant Covid-19 strain within seven days, it said. The same strain was first detected in South Africa.
Meanwhile, residents have been asked to get Covid jabs at the earliest as only around 9 percent of Hong Kong’s population has been vaccinated so far.
On Sunday, the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority removed Britain from the list of travel restricted countries amidst the sharp rise of new coronavirus strain.
Nearly 10,000 doses of CanSino Covid19 vaccine remain unused in Karachi
