Hong Kong: 49 passengers positive for Covid-19 on a flight arriving from New Delhi

At least 49 passengers on a flight from New Delhi to Hong Kong have tested positive for Covid-19, according to Hong Kong authorities who banned flights from India, the Philippines and Pakistan on Monday April 19.

All of these travelers landed on April 4 in Hong Kong on a flight from the Indian company Vistara.

Read also: Covid-19: India becomes the new epicenter of the pandemic

This figure is all the more important since, since January, Hong Kong has recorded less than fifty daily cases of contamination. The Hong Kong authorities decided Monday, April 19 to ban urgently for 14 days flights from India, Pakistan and the Philippines, three countries classified as "

" and after having recorded for the first time a case local variant of Covid-19.

India is currently facing an outbreak of the epidemic and a new record of contaminations was recorded yesterday Monday, while the 20 million inhabitants of New Delhi are again confined for a week. The aircraft of the company Vistara which transported these passengers had a capacity of 188 people. However, the Hong Kong authorities did not specify how many travelers were on board during this flight. The positive cases were all recorded during the three-week hotel quarantine that all travelers undergo. All passengers must provide coronavirus test results less than 72 hours before boarding.

Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, has managed to contain the pandemic so far, at the cost of some of the most stringent quarantine measures in the world, drastic restrictions and systematic wearing of masks by the whole population. The territory of nearly 7.5 million inhabitants has recorded just over 11,500 cases and 209 deaths linked to the coronavirus. Nearly 10% of the population had received a first dose of vaccine on Tuesday.