English
International Travel News: British Airways has temporarily suspended all flights to Hong Kong, after a crew member tested positive for Covid amid new Covid variant Omicron scare, according to the reports.
The airline, as reported by the inews, said the member of staff was found to have Covid on arrival at Hong Kong International airport on Saturday, after first testing negative before departure.
The rest of the crew had to isolate for a short period before being cleared to return to the UK.
Due to the suspension of passenger flights, British Airways apologised to travellers for the disruption, and said:
“We have made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend flight to Hong Kong while we review operational requirements for this route. We apologised to our customers who have had their travel plans disrupted and will be in touch to give them options.”
It added it abided by local regulations for every country it flew to, putting the “safety and wellbeing of [its] teams and customers” at the forefront of decisions.
On Friday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) dubbed the new COVID variant B.1.1.529, first detected from South Africa this week, as a Variant of Concern and named it ‘Omicron’.
“The new #COVID19 virus variant – Omicron – has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning. This is why we need to speed up our efforts to deliver on #VaccinEquity ASAP and protect the most vulnerable everywhere,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had tweeted.
The variant, first reported to WHO from South Africa on Wednesday, has also been identified in Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel. Many countries have now started to act swiftly and revise their Covid-related travel restrictions owing to the new deadly variant.
For breaking news and live news updates, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Read more on Latest Articles News on India.com.
