Hong Kong to ban flights from the Philippines, India, Pakistan

Photographer: Justin Chin / Bloomberg

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Hong Kong will ban 14-day flights from India, Pakistan and the Philippines starting April 20, the government said in a statement on Sunday.

A circuit breaker is triggered for each of the countries, as there were five or more arrivals with the N501Y mutant coronavirus strain within seven days, the government said. According to the mechanism, the three countries will be classified as ‘extremely high risk’.

This comes after Hong Kong reported the first two virus variants in the community last weekend.

Related: Hong Kong quarantines 81 tenants after mutant tribe is found

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