Hong Kong cancels Britain flights
Australia said on Monday it had detected cases of the brand new virulent coronavirus strain recognized in the United Kingdom, while Hong Kong said it could suspend Britain flights.Two travellers from the uk to Australia's New South Wales state were found carrying the mutated variant of the virus that Britain has said could be up to 70% more infectious. Both are in quarantine, and the recent spike in infections in Sydney aren't associated with this, authorities said.
The new strain has prompted Britain's European neighbours and many others including Canada and Iran to close their doors to travellers from the united states.Much is unknown about the strain, but authorities said current vaccines should still be effective against it.
Asian nations including Japan and South Korea said they were monitoring the new strain even while they battle a spike in infections in the home.Hong Kong became the first city in your community to ban flights from Britain in a bid to curb already rising case numbers in the dense financial hub.
The Chinese special administrative region said on Monday that persons arriving from Britain before Dec. 22 would need to quarantine for three weeks rather than two.South Korea, which imposes a 14-day quarantine on everyone entering the united states, said it had been reviewing new measures for flights from Britain, and would test twice those coming in from there before these were released from quarantine.
New cases climbed to over 1,000 a day in South Korea many times the other day. It reported on Sunday an outbreak in a Seoul prison where 188 inmates and staff were infected.The united states said on Monday Seoul will ban gatherings greater than four persons later this week and double hospital beds for critical COVID-19 cases by year end.Taiwan, which also offers a 14-day quarantine, said on Sunday there have been no plans at present to avoid flights from Britain.
An Indian government committee tasked with monitoring the pandemic met on Monday to discuss the brand new strain, but didn't offer clarity on whether flights to Britain will be halted.Britain is among 23 countries that India shares an "air bubble" with. India's health minister said the country was prepared to cope with the brand new strain and that there is you don't need to panic. [L1N2J109M]
Japan, where entry from Britain is already banned in principle, said it would retain in close touch with other countries as well as the World Health Organization to see how the new kind of virus was spreading.The new strain in Britain comes as cases have surged recently in a number of Parts of asia that successfully contained the pandemic earlier. The spikes have prompted localised lockdowns in a few countries and more aggressive testing.
Thailand said on Sunday it had been testing tens of thousands of people, and extended curbs on movement, after its worst outbreak yet that started at a shrimp market in a province that is clearly a centre of the seafood industry and home to thousands of migrant workers.
Thailand, the first country outside China to report COVID-19 cases, has so far reported just 60 deaths from the virus among its 70 million population. On Monday, the united states confirmed 382 new infections, mostly migrant workers.A large number of employees in South East Parts of asia such as for example Singapore and Malaysia have already been infected in dormitories and factories, revealing often unsanitary living and working conditions even while overall numbers in these places have largely been contained.
Australia, where cases in Sydney have flared in recent days, on Monday cancelled a large number of domestic flights.New South Wales, which reported 86 new local cases since Thursday, ordered greater than a 250,000 people in Sydney's northern beaches area right into a lockdown, and urged persons who had visited venues where confirmed cases were found to get tested and self-isolate.These cases are not area of the UK strain. Australian health authorities said a virus strain in northeastern Sydney matched a traveller from america, but how it got from the airport to the city was puzzling.
