Hong Kong bans flights from UK to stop spread of Covid-19 Delta variant

Hong Kong announced plans to ban all passenger flights from the United Kingdom starting from 1 July Thursday to curb the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

Britain will enter a list of countries deemed as extremely high-risk and passengers who have spent over two hours in the country will not be allowed on board a flight to Hong Kong.

It was the second time that Hong Kong had barred arrivals from Britain with the previous ban having ocurred from December 2020 to May 2021.

The government said the ban was due to "the recent rebound of the epidemic situation in the UK and the widespread Delta variant virus strain there, coupled with a number of cases with L452R mutant virus strains detected by tests from people arriving from the UK."

Hong Kong already has bans in place on arrivals from Indonesia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines.

The Chinese special administrative region has recorded over 11,900 cases and 211 deaths because of Covid-19.

Most of the city's recent cases over the past month have been imported.