Hong Kong: hong kong Announced a two-week ban on incoming flights from eight countries and tightened restrictions on Wednesday as officials feared a fifth wave of Covid-19 infections.
The restrictions were announced as health officials scoured the city for contacts of a COVID-19 patient, some of whom were aboard a Royal Caribbean ship, which was asked to shorten its “cruise to nowhere” and return to port. was ordered.
Flights coming from Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Britain and the United States, including interchanges, will be banned from January 8 to January 21, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam told reporters.
Lam said the government would ban indoor dining after 6 p.m. from Friday and close swimming pools, sports centers, bars and clubs, museums and other venues for at least two weeks. Future cruise trips will be cancelled.
“We have yet to see a fifth wave, but we are on the verge,” Lam said.
The global finance hub has largely stuck to a zero-tolerance strategy by isolating itself from the world and imposing a harsh and costly quarantine regime.
On December 31, the three-month run without community affairs ended with the first local broadcast of the Omicron edition.
Since then, officials have scrambled to trace and test hundreds of people who may have been in contact with a handful of Omicron patients. However, one patient had no known link, raising fears of a larger outbreak.
“We are concerned that there may be a silent transmission chain in the community,” Lam said. “There was a lot of activity before some of the confirmed cases became aware of being infected.”
Lam said the government would not suspend classes for the time being “for the benefit of the children”.
A bank spokesperson said that in response to fears of the outbreak, Standard Chartered plc has started operating in divided teams in Hong Kong.
The latest contact tracing campaign was fueled by a patient dancing with about 20 friends in a central park on New Year’s Eve. Two fellow dancers, one of whom was a domestic help, came back positive in preliminary tests.
The assistant’s employer and eight other close relatives then went on a cruise on 2 January.
As part of its coronavirus restrictions, Hong Kong has limited cruises to short voyages in nearby waters, asked ships to operate at reduced capacity and to allow only vaccinated passengers who have tested positive for the virus. test negative.
The “Spectrum of the Seas” ship, which had returned the day before, was carrying about 2,500 passengers and 1,200 crews aboard. Officials said that nine close contact passengers were isolated from the rest of the people on board and initial tests conducted during the journey returned negative results.
“Spectrum of the Seas is taking appropriate measures under guidelines by the Department of Health,” Royal Caribbean told Reuters in a statement.
The government said nine close contacts had been sent to a quarantine centre, while the rest of the passengers and staff would undergo multiple tests.
Additionally, mandatory testing notices have been issued to people who have been close contacts of recent patients, as well as to dozens of locations in Hong Kong, the government said in a separate statement.
Victoria Park, in downtown Hong Kong, the recently opened M+ Modern Art Museum, ferry pier, restaurants, stores, clinics were among the places listed.
Gabriel Leung, the dean of medicine at the University of Hong Kong and a government adviser, told public broadcaster RTHK that there were probably “five to 10 invisible transmission chains” in the city.
“There’s no time to waste,” Leung said. “We need circuit-breaker measures.”
The restrictions were announced as health officials scoured the city for contacts of a COVID-19 patient, some of whom were aboard a Royal Caribbean ship, which was asked to shorten its “cruise to nowhere” and return to port. was ordered.
Flights coming from Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Britain and the United States, including interchanges, will be banned from January 8 to January 21, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam told reporters.
Lam said the government would ban indoor dining after 6 p.m. from Friday and close swimming pools, sports centers, bars and clubs, museums and other venues for at least two weeks. Future cruise trips will be cancelled.
“We have yet to see a fifth wave, but we are on the verge,” Lam said.
The global finance hub has largely stuck to a zero-tolerance strategy by isolating itself from the world and imposing a harsh and costly quarantine regime.
On December 31, the three-month run without community affairs ended with the first local broadcast of the Omicron edition.
Since then, officials have scrambled to trace and test hundreds of people who may have been in contact with a handful of Omicron patients. However, one patient had no known link, raising fears of a larger outbreak.
“We are concerned that there may be a silent transmission chain in the community,” Lam said. “There was a lot of activity before some of the confirmed cases became aware of being infected.”
Lam said the government would not suspend classes for the time being “for the benefit of the children”.
A bank spokesperson said that in response to fears of the outbreak, Standard Chartered plc has started operating in divided teams in Hong Kong.
The latest contact tracing campaign was fueled by a patient dancing with about 20 friends in a central park on New Year’s Eve. Two fellow dancers, one of whom was a domestic help, came back positive in preliminary tests.
The assistant’s employer and eight other close relatives then went on a cruise on 2 January.
As part of its coronavirus restrictions, Hong Kong has limited cruises to short voyages in nearby waters, asked ships to operate at reduced capacity and to allow only vaccinated passengers who have tested positive for the virus. test negative.
The “Spectrum of the Seas” ship, which had returned the day before, was carrying about 2,500 passengers and 1,200 crews aboard. Officials said that nine close contact passengers were isolated from the rest of the people on board and initial tests conducted during the journey returned negative results.
“Spectrum of the Seas is taking appropriate measures under guidelines by the Department of Health,” Royal Caribbean told Reuters in a statement.
The government said nine close contacts had been sent to a quarantine centre, while the rest of the passengers and staff would undergo multiple tests.
Additionally, mandatory testing notices have been issued to people who have been close contacts of recent patients, as well as to dozens of locations in Hong Kong, the government said in a separate statement.
Victoria Park, in downtown Hong Kong, the recently opened M+ Modern Art Museum, ferry pier, restaurants, stores, clinics were among the places listed.
Gabriel Leung, the dean of medicine at the University of Hong Kong and a government adviser, told public broadcaster RTHK that there were probably “five to 10 invisible transmission chains” in the city.
“There’s no time to waste,” Leung said. “We need circuit-breaker measures.”
,