The arrivals hall of Hong Kong International Airport.
Photographer: Justin Chin / Bloomberg
Photographer: Justin Chin / Bloomberg
Sign up here for our daily coronavirus newsletter on what you need to know and subscribe to our Covid-19 podcast for the latest news and analysis.
Hong Kong will ban flights from India, Pakistan and the Philippines for 14 days from April 20, the government said in a statement on Sunday.
A circuit breaker agreement was triggered for each of the countries, as there had been five or more arrivals with the N501Y mutant coronavirus strain in seven days, the government said. Under the mechanism, all three countries will be designated as “extremely high risk”.
This comes after Hong Kong reported the first two cases of virus variants to the community over the weekend.
Related: Hong Kong quarantines: 81 tenants after encountering a mutant tension