People wearing face masks as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus, walk near the check-in counters at Hong Kong International Airport on March 24, 2020. (ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong reported seven new imported COVID-19 cases on Thursday as the government temporarily banned Nepal Airlines flights from Kathmandu.
In a statement issued on Thursday afternoon, the Centre for Health Protection said the new cases involved a man and a woman from Nepal, two women from Pakistan, two male sea crew members from India, and a woman from Indonesia. The city’s tally stood at 12,359.
“Six of the cases involved mutant strains and the viral load of one case is insufficient for a mutation test,” the statement reads.
The CHP added that 47 cases were reported from Oct 21 to Nov 3 and all of them were imported.
The CHP also said that the two patients from Nepal were passengers of a Nepal Airlines flight from Kathmandu that arrived in Hong Kong on Nov 2. One of them also failed to comply with the requirements of the city’s anti-COVID-19 regulations.
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Because of this, the Department of Health prohibited the landing of Nepal Airlines passenger flights from Kathmandu from Nov 4 to 17.