Hong Kong To Lift Flight Ban on India, 8 Other Countries in April This Year

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(Photo: Altered by The Quint) 

Hong Kong will resume international flights from nine countries, including India, in April 2022, Carrie Lam, the chief executive of the city, said on Monday, 21 March, news agency AFP reported.

After the Omicron variant became the dominant strain of COVID-19 in January, local authorities implemented travel restrictions from nine countries, deeming them to be "high-risk".

However, despite the flight ban, the city witnessed a massive surge in infections, with 10 lakh cases and 5,600 deaths recorded within three months.

Apart from India, the ban was extended to the United States, the United Kingdom (UK), France, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Later, Nepal was added to the list as well.

The flight ban, also known in the city as a "circuit breaker", will be removed from 1 April, Lam said at a press conference.

"The circuit-breaker... is inopportune now," she was quoted as saying by AFP.

"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 administration had been blamed for ineffective handling of the COVID-19 crisis, as the city's population was flooded with unclear guidelines regarding mass testing and lockdown measures.

The announcement comes amid a surge in infections in China, South Korea, Vietnam, and other countries.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the global surge could be attributed to the BA.2 COVID-19 variant, which is more infectious than the BA.1 variant.

(With inputs from AFP.)