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Hong Kong introduced on Monday that it might raise its ban on flights from 9 nations on April 1, simply one of many restrictions it plans to calm down as consultants and authorities officers say the worst of an Omicron-driven wave may need handed.
Hong Kong’s chief, Carrie Lam, mentioned on Monday that vaccinated residents would solely must quarantine for seven days, down from 14, upon arrival from abroad. The isolation for vacationers had been one of many strictest on this planet and had discouraged many from returning to the Chinese language territory of seven.4 million individuals.
She additionally suspended plans to have each particular person within the metropolis endure P.C.R. testing and moved up a deadline to obtain booster photographs to Could 31. The additional dose will likely be essential to enter public locations, together with supermarkets and procuring malls.
For many of the pandemic, Hong Kong has sealed itself off from the remainder of the world and required vacationers to quarantine for so long as three weeks in a resort, mirroring insurance policies in mainland China.
Then, because the Omicron variant unfold quickly internationally early this 12 months, the federal government banned flights from america, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines in an try and preserve virus numbers near zero. When flights resume from these 9 nations in April, solely vaccinated residents will likely be eligible to return.
Regardless that the brand new measures stay among the strictest on this planet, Hong Kong’s strategy seems to be diverging barely from that of mainland China. Two of China’s largest cities, Shanghai and Shenzhen, stay in lockdown, and thousands and thousands of residents there are required to endure P.C.R. testing in an effort to carry case numbers again to zero.
Greater than 5,000 individuals have died from Covid in Hong Kong, and multiple million circumstances have been recorded since January. Researchers estimate that just about half of the town might have been contaminated by the virus.
The lifting of flight bans comes on the behest of consultants, together with Gabriel Leung, dean of the College of Hong Kong, who mentioned final month that residents are extra vulnerable to an infection from group transmissions than from imported circumstances.
The Hong Kong authorities has lurched from one coverage to a different in tackling the fast-moving Omicron outbreak. Mrs. Lam, the town’s chief, mentioned Monday that she would droop plans for necessary Covid testing, weeks after rumors of a concurrent lockdown triggered waves of panic shopping for and an exodus from the town.
Faculties had been closed for an early “summer time vacation” in February, partially as a result of officers deliberate to make use of campuses for mass testing websites. Mrs. Lam mentioned there was now not a “street map” to conduct mass testing with the outbreak nonetheless raging, however she wouldn’t rule out that choice sooner or later.
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