A growing number of countries are canceling flights to and from the United Kingdom. A new variant of the New Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the United Kingdom, the country confirmed this weekend. British Prime Minister Johnson warned Saturday (Dec. 19) of the threat posed to the country by the new, highly contagious strain.
Senior British health officials say there is no evidence yet that the new variant of the virus is more lethal or responds differently to vaccines. However, the official said the variant of the virus has been shown to spread 70 percent faster.
British Health Minister Matt Hancock (Matt Hancock) said the new variant of the virus “is out of control” and the situation must be brought under control.
The first to cut off air traffic with the United Kingdom is its close relations with the countries, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Israel and Canada. Among them, the Dutch government announced that passenger flights from the United Kingdom would be temporarily blocked from entering the Netherlands from 6 a.m. on Dec. 20 until Jan. 1. The Netherlands is believed to be the first country to cancel passenger flights from the United Kingdom.
China has not announced the suspension of flights from the UK for the time being. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference on Monday in response to a question from Reuters, “China has taken note of the reports and will study them carefully and handle them scientifically and properly to ensure that the flow of people between China and abroad is healthy and orderly”. Reuters reporter’s question is, there are reports that a new variant of the New Coronavirus has emerged in the United Kingdom, many countries in Europe and other places have suspended the entry of British flights. Has the Chinese side taken measures to restrict British flights?
However, Hong Kong, India, Iran and other Asian countries and regions have announced a temporary ban on the entry of flights or passengers from the UK.
Among them, Hong Kong will ban all flights arriving from the UK from 00:00 local time on December 22 until further notice. Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health Chan Siu-chee announced on Monday (Dec. 21) that people who have arrived from the United Kingdom will be quarantined at home for an additional seven days after completing 14 days of mandatory quarantine, for a total of 21 days.
Chan said that in the past 14 days, Hong Kong recorded 1,255 confirmed cases, foreign imports accounted for 80 cases, including 17 cases involving people who arrived from the United Kingdom, accounting for 21% of the overall import cases.
The Indian government announced a ban on flights from the UK from the evening of 22nd local time until the end of the year.
The Iranian government announced on December 20 that flights between Iran and the UK will be suspended for two weeks to prevent new variants of the virus from being brought into Iran.
South Korea and Taiwan have not banned flights from the U.K. for now. South Korea’s top epidemic prevention official said at a regular press conference Monday that the government is closely monitoring the new strain of New Crown variant recently reported in the United Kingdom. He said the results of genome sequence analysis of the new crown virus in more than 1,600 cases in South Korea so far show that the mutated strain has not been found in South Korea.
The official said South Korea is discussing increased testing of people entering the country from the U.K. and plans to test them again before they are released from quarantine to implement stricter prevention and control regulations. He did not say that the entry of British flights should be banned.
Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said that there is no need to ban flights because of the strict restrictions in Taiwan, in addition to the new coronavirus nucleic acid test negative proof, but also require home quarantine extended time, so there is no need to ban flights concerns and plans.
Australia’s New South Wales found a mutant strain of the New Coronavirus that is raging in the UK in two tourists returning from the UK. The New Coronavirus outbreak in Sydney, Australia, is now making a comeback, but state health officials say the outbreak in Sydney is not linked to the two tourists, who were found to have contracted the new variant when they were placed in government-imposed quarantine. Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt was quoted in the media as saying Dec. 21 that there were no plans to follow other countries in halting flights from Britain and that international travelers would only be quarantined for 14 days in special hotels.
The latest figures show that the number of people infected with the new coronavirus is close to 77 million worldwide, with nearly 1.7 million deaths.
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