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SYDNEY: Australia said on Monday (December 21) that it had detected cases of the new virulent strain of coronavirus identified in the UK, while Hong Kong said it would suspend flights to Britain.
Two travelers from the UK to Australia’s New South Wales state were found to carry the mutated variant of the virus, which Britain says could be up to 70 percent more infectious. Both are under quarantine and the recent surge in infections in Sydney is unrelated to this, authorities said.
The new strain has prompted Britain’s European neighbors and several other countries, including Canada and Iran, to close their doors to travelers from the country.
Much is unknown about the strain, but experts said current vaccines should still be effective against it.
Asian countries, including Japan and South Korea, said they were monitoring the new strain even as they battle spikes in infections at home.
Hong Kong became the first city in the region to ban flights from Britain in an attempt to curb the growing number of cases in the dense financial center.
China’s special administrative region said Monday that people arriving from Britain before December 22 would have to self-quarantine for three weeks instead of two.
People are being tested for COVID-19 at a temporary test site set up in front of a train station in Seoul on December 21, 2020 (Photo: Reuters / Kim Hong-Ji).
South Korea, which imposes a 14-day quarantine on everyone entering the country, said it was reviewing new measures for flights from Britain and would test twice as many as those arriving from there before they come out of quarantine.
New cases rose to more than 1,000 a day in South Korea several times last week. On Sunday he reported an outbreak in a Seoul prison where 188 inmates and staff were infected.
The country said Monday that Seoul will ban gatherings of more than four people later this week and double hospital beds for critical COVID-19 cases by the end of the year.
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Taiwan, which also has a 14-day quarantine, said on Sunday that there were no plans at this time to stop flights from Britain.
An Indian government committee tasked with monitoring the pandemic met Monday to discuss the new strain, but did not offer clarity on whether flights to Britain would be suspended.
Britain is one of 23 countries with which India shares an “air bubble”. India’s Health Minister said the country was prepared to deal with the new strain and that there was no need to panic.
Japan, where entry from Britain is already banned in principle, said it will stay in close contact with other countries and with the World Health Organization to see how the new type of virus spreads.
BATTLE OF AUSTRALIA, THAILAND
The new strain in Britain comes as cases have recently increased in several Asian countries that managed to contain the pandemic earlier. The spikes have led to localized lockdowns in some countries and more aggressive testing.
Thailand said on Sunday it was examining tens of thousands of people and extended restrictions on movement, after its worst outbreak yet that started at a shrimp market in a province that is a center of the fishing industry and home to thousands of migrant workers.
Thailand, the first country outside of China to report COVID-19 cases, has so far reported only 60 deaths from the virus among its population of 70 million. On Monday, the country confirmed 382 new infections, mostly migrant workers.
Thousands of workers in Southeast Asian countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia, have been infected in dormitories and factories, revealing often unsanitary living and working conditions, even as overall figures in these places have been largely contained.
Vehicles queue up as medical staff administer COVID-19 tests at the Bondi Beach test center as Sydney experiences an outbreak on December 21, 2020 (Photo: Reuters / Loren Elliott).
Australia, where cases in Sydney have flared in recent days, canceled dozens of domestic flights on Monday.
New South Wales, which has reported 86 new local cases since last Thursday, ordered more than 250,000 people in the Sydney North Beaches area locked up and urged people who had visited places where confirmed cases were found to be made. the test and isolate yourself.
These cases are not part of the UK variety. Australian health authorities said a strain of the virus in northeast Sydney matched that of a traveler from the United States, but how it got from the airport to the community was puzzling.
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