- Australia detects new UK strain.
- Hong Kong, India and other countries cancel Britain flights.
- Much is unknown about the strain, but experts said current vaccines should still be effective against it.
Australia has detected cases of the new fast-spreading coronavirus strain identified in the United Kingdom, reports WION News.
Mutated COVID variant in Australia
Two travellers from the United Kingdom to Australia’s New South Wales state were found carrying the mutated variant of the virus that Britain has said could be up to 70% more infectious. Both are in hotel quarantine, and the recent spike in infections in Sydney is not linked to this, authorities said.
However, Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt said there are no plans to follow other countries in halting flights from the UK.
Chase told journalists on Monday that Australia’s lodging isolate framework, under which global appearances enter required 14-day observed isolate at committed inns, implied Australia would not be doing likewise.
“Something in Europe is that they have not received a comparable [hotel quarantine] framework,” Hunt said.
Countries battle outbreaks
The new strain has prompted Britain’s European neighbours and several others including Canada and Iran to close their doors to travellers from the country.
Much is unknown about the strain, but experts said current vaccines should still be effective against it.
Asian nations including Japan and South Korea said they were monitoring the new strain even as they battle a rise in infections at home.
Hong Kong banned flights from Britain in a bid to curb already rising case numbers in the dense financial hub. The Chinese special administrative region said on Monday that people arriving from Britain before Dec. 22 would have to quarantine for three weeks instead of two.
India announced a suspension of all flights from the UK until the end of the year and said all passengers arriving from the UK before then will be tested on arrival at airports.
South Korea, which imposes a 14-day quarantine on everyone entering the country, said it was reviewing new measures for flights from Britain, and would test twice those coming in from there before they were released from quarantine.
Next round of curbs
The new strain in Britain comes as cases have surged recently in several Asian countries that successfully contained the pandemic earlier. The spikes have prompted localised lockdowns in some countries and more aggressive testing.
Thailand said on Sunday it was testing tens of thousands of people, and extended curbs on movement, following its worst outbreak yet that began at a shrimp market in a province that is a centre of the seafood industry and home to thousands of migrant workers.
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Source: WION News
