Hong Kong bans flights to and from Nepal

KATHMANDU: The Hong Kong government has banned Hong Kong-Nepal flights.

Hong Kong will stop allowing passenger flights from Nepal to land in its airport from Saturday.

The Hong Kong government has taken precautions and continued its policy of keeping the coronavirus out despite the reduction in virus cases in the Asian financial hub.

The ban is proactive as virus cases are being reported in other countries. Flights to Hong Kong from India, Pakistan, the Philippines and other countries at high risk of corona infection are banned. The Hong Kong government has been alaramed as the coronavirus infection has intensified in Nepal as well.

Earlier, passengers coming to Hong Kong from Nepal used to come to Hong Kong carrying 48-hour PCR test report and followed a provision of mandatory quarantine for 21 days after re-examination.

Nepal will be specified as extremely high-risk over Covid-19 under a flight suspension mechanism aimed at preventing imported cases, the Hong Kong government said on Thursday night in a statement.

According to the Hong Kong government, if five or more visitors from the same place test positive for Covid-19 with the N501Y mutant strain in seven days, all passenger flights from that place will be prohibited from landing in Hong Kong for two weeks.