According to the Hong Kong government, 14 passengers who traveled on an Air India flight from Delhi to Hong Kong on August 14 had tested positive for COVID-19 by Thursday.
So, as a result of this incident, Air India passenger flights are now banned from landing in Hong Kong until the end of August, he added on Friday.
A passenger from India can only come to Hong Kong if they have a COVID-19 negative certificate from a test carried out 72 hours prior to travel according to rules issued by the Hong Kong government in July.
In a statement to PTI on Friday, a spokesman for the Hong Kong government’s Ministry of Health said: “On an Air India (AI314) flight that came to Hong Kong from India on August 14, 11 passengers were infected with COVID. 19.”
As a result, the department invoked the “Prevention and Control of Disease (Regulation of Cross-boundary Conveyances and Travellers) Regulation (Cap. 599H) on August 17 to prohibit landing of passenger flights operated by Air India for two weeks from August 18 to 31 in Hong Kong”, the spokesperson noted.
“As of August 20, a total of 14 passengers on that flight were confirmed to have infected with COVID-19,” he added further.
The statement did not specify whether these 14 passengers had COVID negative certificates from the tests carried out 72 hours prior to their trip, as required by the rules above.
In India, the total number of cases of coronavirus infection rose to 5/29,823 while the death toll rose to 54,849 and 983 new deaths were reported within 24 hours. This was shown by data updated by the Union Ministry of Health at 8 a.m. on Friday.
Planned international passenger flights have remained suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, special international flights were carried out with the approval of the Directorate-General for Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Air India has been offering special international flights as part of the Vande Bharat Mission since May 6th to help stranded people reach their destinations.
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