Coronavirus: Hong Kong urged to curb inbound travel from India as nation linked to most of city’s 17 new Covid-19 cases
- Eleven of Saturday’s infections originated from India, prompting fresh questions over reliability of the country’s testing
- Flights from Delhi and Chennai banned for two weeks after bringing in cases this week
A government source said talks were ongoing with India’s representatives in Hong Kong to reduce the risk of infected passengers arriving in the city, as health experts raised questions over the reliability of testing in the country.
All of Saturday’s confirmed infections were imported, 11 of them arriving from India. Two of the new infections came from Indonesia, and one each from the Philippines, Pakistan, Morocco, and France. The city’s case tally is 5,237, with 105 related deaths.
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A 14-day ban on flights operated by Air India from Delhi, and Air Vistara from Chennai, took effect on Saturday, after they brought in 10 infected passengers on Thursday.
It was the third such suspension against Air India after the city’s health authorities barred the carrier from running Delhi-Hong Kong services from August 18 to 31, and September 20 to October 3.
But infected passengers continue to arrive from India despite the country appearing on Hong Kong’s high-risk list since late July, a designation requiring travellers from the country to present a negative PCR test result for Covid-19 before boarding a flight to the financial hub. Ten other nations, including Britain, the US, France and Nepal, are also on the list.
Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a government adviser on the pandemic, said there could be inaccuracies with the tests conducted in India. “It remains unclear with the reliability and sources of the tests there,” he said.