Two airlines banned over imported Covid cases

Health officials have banned Turkish Airlines and Philippine Airlines flights to Hong Kong for 14 days after three passengers each arriving from Istanbul and Manila tested positive for Covid-19.

The six were among seven new imported cases on Sunday.

The seventh case involved a man, 68, who tested positive for the L452R mutant strain while in quarantine upon his return to the SAR on Wednesday from a visit to the UK – the day he developed symptoms such as coughing and a sore throat.

Residents of Sunrise in Discovery Bay, where he lives, are required to get tested because the patient was there during the incubation period.

People living at 208 Shek O Village were also put under a mandatory test order, as a re-positive case was found living there after her quarantine period ended on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old’s specimen collected on Friday tested positive again after she was infected in Portugal earlier this month.

The fully-vaccinated woman, who was found to be carrying the L452R mutant strain, had not shown any symptoms since returning to Hong Kong on August 19.