Hong Kong has banned flights from eight countries due to the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus
: Governor Carrie Lam announced this.
The ban affects Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States.
"Passenger flights from these countries will not be able to land in Hong Kong and people who have stayed in those countries will not be able to board flights to Hong Kong, including transit flights," Lam told the media.
USE
- Tests after the five-day quarantine are optional: whoever has access can do it, but it is not a requirement. The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) explain why they cut the quarantine for Covid-19 positives from ten to five days and reiterate that testing after isolation is not necessary. The quarantine, however, the US health authorities reiterated, must be followed by the use of the mask for five days in situations of contact with other people. Last week the decision to reduce the quarantine had raised a lot of controversy even the experts, convinced of the need for tests at the end of the quarantine given that many people on the fifth day are still positive, or at least contagious. Criticisms that, however, have not moved the Cdc,according to which the reduction of the quarantine - without requiring tests - is based on scientific data, on vaccinations and on the effects that a longer isolation could have on the mental equilibrium of those forced to quarantine. Health authorities also note that the negative result of an antigen test "does not necessarily indicate the absence of a transmissible virus".
BRAZIL
- The Rio de Janeiro authorities have decided to suspend the traditional parades of the next carnival, due to the progression of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 linked to the end-of-year celebrations.
"The street carnival as it took place until 2020 will not take place in 2022", said the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, in a live broadcast on social networks, anticipating the difficulties in controlling these celebrations in a period of increase of contagions.