Lagatar24 Desk
Hong Kong, March 21: Hong Kong will resume international flights from nine nations, including the United States and the United Kingdom in April.
Following the discovery of the highly transmissible Omicron form in January, authorities rapidly imposed flight bans from eight nations deemed high-risk, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and India, as well as a ninth, Nepal, in February.
Despite strengthening social distancing measures, infections spread quickly in Hong Kong, with more than a million illnesses and 5,600 deaths recorded in just three months.
On Monday, Lam announced that the nine countries’ flight bans, known as “circuit breakers,” will be lifted beginning April 1.
“The circuit-breaker … is inopportune now,” she said.
“The epidemic situations in those countries are not worse than Hong Kong’s, and most arrivals did not have serious symptoms. To extend the circuit-breaker will add to concerns and anxieties of Hong Kong residents stranded there,” she added.
Lam’s government has been chastised for its handling of the Covid problem, as well as for sending mixed messages about mass testing and lockdown measures.
Fear of being caught in an unexpected lockdown fueled panic, prompting inhabitants to empty grocery shelves and precipitating a record-breaking evacuation of both foreign and local citizens. Notably, Hong Kong had a net outflow of more than 134,000 persons by the middle of March.
