Hong Kong bans flights from India, 7 other nations until Jan 21

Beijing/Hong Kong: Hong Kong on Wednesday reimposed some of its toughest COVID-19 restrictions, banning flights from eight countries including India until January 21, in a bid to arrest the rising number of Omicron cases.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced that travellers from eight countries -- Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, the UK and the US, including via transit -- are banned from returning to the city for two weeks starting Saturday, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong is reimposing some of its toughest COVID-19 restrictions across the board covering social activities and international travel, setting a 6-PM curfew on all dine-in services and banning flights from eight countries as it braces for a fifth wave of infections amid Omicron fears, the Post report said.

Hong Kong, a major aviation hub and financial centre, is a Special Administrative Region of China.

Lam said that the tougher rules were necessary with the city on the verge of a wider Coronavirus outbreak following the community detection of an unlinked Omicron

case.

There has been rapid change in the pandemic situation which has caused us to be worried. We will announce today fast, decisive and precise measures to cut the transmission chains, Lam told reporters at a press conference.

The two-week ban on passenger flights will be effective until January 21.

Travellers who were recently in those countries or had transited through them will be barred from returning to the city for

two weeks.