Hong Kong on Wednesday banned all arrivals by air travelers from eight countries, including France, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Covid-19 contaminations are increasing across the world.
The other countries affected are India, Pakistan, Australia and the Philippines, Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam told reporters.
“Passenger flights from these countries will not be allowed to land in Hong Kong and individuals who have stayed in these countries are no longer allowed to board flights to Hong Kong, including connecting flights,” he said. she said.
Other measures announced Wednesday in Hong Kong include a ban on large-scale public events and the closure of 15 types of businesses, including bars, nightclubs, gyms and beauty salons.
A ship cruising off the coast of Hong Kong with 3,700 people on board, the “Spectrum of the Seas”, was at the same time forced to return to port due to the presence on board of 9 contact cases of a source of contamination at the same time. Omicron variant, according to authorities.
Records of contamination
These announcements come as Covid-19 contamination is on the rise across the world: nearly 890,000 cases in 24 hours in the United States, 270,000 in France, more than 200,000 in the United Kingdom …
Israel announced on Wednesday that it had recorded nearly 12,000 new cases in 24 hours, a new record of contamination since the start of the pandemic.
Mexico registers 15,000 cases per day, passing the mark of four million cases of Covid-19. Argentina had 81,000 new cases on Tuesday, almost double the previous day.
Many personalities are among the new “positives”: from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden to Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, including Paris goalkeeper SG Gianluigi Donnarumma and defender Lucas Hernandez from Bayern Munich, where no less than eight players are affected.
The departure of the selection of Senegal for the African Cup of Nations, scheduled for Tuesday evening, was postponed to Wednesday, because of three cases of Covid detected in the workforce.
Djokovic summoned to explain himself
In this context, the medical exemption granted for him to participate in the Australian Open to Novak Djokovic, who has never communicated on his vaccination status, arouses indignant reactions in the country, where the president of the federation of tennis urged him to reveal the reasons for the exemption.
“It would certainly be helpful if Novak explained the conditions under which he applied for and obtained an exemption,” Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley, also director of the year’s first Grand Slam of the year, told reporters on Wednesday.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison even threatened to send the star player “on the first plane” if he did not provide “evidence to support” the waiver.
The controversy is also raging in France where President Emmanuel Macron has said he has decided to “piss off” the unvaccinated.
Parades hanging in Rio
In Brazil, the second country in the world most bereaved in the world by the pandemic after the United States, the authorities in Rio de Janeiro decided on Tuesday to suspend the traditionally massive street parades of the next carnival at the end of February.
The wave of the epidemic, relaunched at the end of 2021 by the arrival of the Omicron variant, more contagious than the previous ones even if its severity seems limited, is leading to an increase in absences for illness. A phenomenon that causes dysfunctions in several sectors, including that of health.
At least six hospitals across the UK said on Tuesday the situation could affect priority care.
In China, the city of Zhengzhou (center) on Wednesday began screening its 13 million inhabitants after a few cases of Covid, the confined metropolis of Xi’an announcing for its part the “control” of a recent outbreak of infection.
This article was published automatically. Sources: ats / afp