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HONG KONG (REUTERS) – Hong Kong extended a mandatory quarantine from an additional seven days to 21 days for all visitors outside of China, beginning Friday (December 25), in an intensified effort to prevent the spread of a new variant of the new coronavirus.
The authorities also banned all people who have stayed in South Africa in the last 21 days from boarding for Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has already banned all flights arriving from the UK since Monday, and the city said on Wednesday that two students who returned from Britain would likely be infected with the new supervirulent strain of Covid-19.
In a statement at midnight on Friday, authorities said that people who have stayed in places outside of China during the 21 days before their arrival must undergo a 21-day mandatory quarantine in hotels designated for quarantine.
“Given the drastic change in the situation of the global pandemic with the new variant of the virus found in more countries, it is necessary for the government to introduce decisive measures immediately … to ensure that no case escapes from the net even in very exceptional cases where the incubation period of the virus is longer than 14 days, “said a government spokesman.
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