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Journalism of Courage
The Hong Kong government has banned passenger flights from India for 14 days starting Tuesday over fears of the mutant coronavirus. In addition to India, the city administration has also barred flights from Pakistan and the Philippines. It also said that passengers who have stayed in these three countries for more than two hours in transit for a flight to Hong Kong cannot enter for 14 days.
A spokesman for Hong Kong government said: “With confirmed cases involving the N501Y mutant strain detected for the first time in the community in Hong Kong, for prudence’s sake, the Government has applied the criteria of the newly implemented place-specific flight suspension mechanism retrospectively for 14 days on places where there had been imported cases confirmed by arrival tests that carried the N501Y mutant strain. India, Pakistan, and the Philippines all had seven-day cumulative number of relevant cases that reached the relevant criteria in the past 14 days, and the Government will therefore invoke the place-specific flight suspension mechanism for these three places.”
Earlier on Sunday, the administration banned Indian carrier Vistara from flying there till May 2 after its flight from Mumbai on April 18 had three passengers who tested positive upon arrival.
