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 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.
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.
New cases climbed to over 1,000 a day in South Korea several times
last week. It reported on Sunday an outbreak in a Seoul prison where
188 inmates and staff were infected.
The country said on Monday Seoul will ban gatherings of more than
four people later this week and double hospital beds for critical
COVID-19 cases by year end.
Taiwan, which also has a 14-day quarantine, said on Sunday there
were no plans at present to stop flights from Britain.
Britain is one of 23 countries that India shares an "air bubble"
with. India's health minister said the country was prepared to deal
with the new strain and that there was no need to panic.
Japan, where entry from Britain is already banned in principle, said
it would keep in close touch with other countries as well as the
World Health Organization to see how the new type of virus was
spreading.
[to top of second column] |
 AUSTRALIA, THAILAND BATTLE
OUTBREAKS
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.
Thailand, the first country outside China to report COVID-19 cases,
has so far reported just 60 deaths from the virus among its 70
million population. On Monday, the country confirmed 382 new
infections, mostly migrant workers.
Thousands of workers in South East Asian countries such
as Singapore and Malaysia have been infected in dormitories and
factories, revealing often unsanitary living and working conditions
even as overall numbers in these places have largely been contained.
Australia, where cases in Sydney have flared in recent days, on
Monday cancelled dozens of domestic flights.
New South Wales, which reported 86 new local cases since Thursday,
ordered more than a 250,000 people in Sydney's northern beaches area
into a lockdown, and urged people who had visited venues where
confirmed cases were found to get tested and self-isolate.
These cases are not part of the UK strain. Australian health
authorities said a virus strain in northeastern Sydney matched a
traveller from the United States, but how it got from the airport to
the community was puzzling.
(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Singapore; Additional reporting by
Ben Blanchard in Taipei, Josh Smith and Sangmi Cha in Seoul, Renju
Jose in Sydney, Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai, Kiyoshi Takenaka in
Tokyo, and Farah Master in Hong Kong; Editing by Lincoln Feast,
Himani Sarkar and Toby Chopra)
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