Hong Kong bans Air India flights till April 24 after 3 passengers found Covid-19 positive

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Hong Kong has banned Tata-owned Air India flights till April 24 after three passengers were tested positive for COVID-19. Following the ban from Hong Kong, Air India has cancelled all its flights to Hong Kong from April 19 to April 24. All three passengers were travelling on AI 316 Delhi-Kolkata-Hong Kong flight on April 16 and were tested positive post arrival in the country.

Passengers from India can arrive in Hong Kong only if they have a COVID-19 negative certificate from a test done 48 hours prior to the journey, according to rules issued by the Hong Kong government, said the official on Sunday. Moreover, all international passengers are required to take a post-flight COVID-19 test at the airport premises in Hong Kong.

#FlyAI: Due to restrictions imposed by the Hong Kong authorities and limited demand on the sector, our flights to Hong Kong & back of 19th and 23rd April stand cancelled. — Air India (@airindiain) April 17, 2022

"The three passengers on Air India's AI316 Delhi-Kolkata-Hong Kong flight on April 16 tested positive for COVID-19 post arrival," the official said. Air India flights from New Delhi and Kolkata have been banned till April 24 by the Hong Kong government, the official added.

"Due to restrictions imposed by the Hong Kong authorities and limited demand on the sector, our flights to Hong Kong and back of 19th and 23rd April stand cancelled," Air India tweeted on Sunday.

Earlier in January, this year, Hong Kong had announced a two-week ban on incoming flights from eight countries, including India, as the world continues to witness a surge in the Omicron variant of COVID-19. 

India reopened international flights from March 27 after a two-year hiatus following the first Covid-19 lockdown imposed back in March 2020.