Hong Kong to lift flight ban in India, 8 other countries

Hong Kong, March 21: Hong Kong will resume international flights from nine countries including India, the United States and Britain in April, informed the city leader, Carrie Lam on Monday.

Following the discovery of the highly transmissible Omicron variant in January, Hong Kong authorities swiftly imposed flight bans from eight countries deemed high-risk, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and India, and later from Nepal in February. Despite strengthening social distancing measures, infections spread quickly in Hong Kong with more than a million cases and 5,600 deaths recorded in just three months.

However now, Lam has said that the flight suspensions were “no longer timely,” as the pandemic situation in the listed countries was often “no worse than Hong Kong.”

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According to Lam's press address on Monday, flight bans will be lifted from Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States from April 1.

Lam's administration has been criticised for its handling of the Covid-19 crisis, as well as for sending mixed messages about mass testing and lockdown measures. Fear of being caught in an unforeseen lockdown fueled panic, prompting residents to empty grocery shelves and causing a record-breaking exodus of both foreign and local citizens. Hong Kong had a net outflow of more than 134,000 individuals by the middle of March.

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-PTC News