At least 49 passengers on a new flight between New Delhi and Hong Kong tested positive for the coronavirus, Hong Kong officials said on Monday. Flights from India, the Philippines, and Pakistan are banned.
All of the positive passengers flew to Hong Kong on April 4 on a 188-seat Indian operator Vistara, although officials did not say how many passengers were on board.
During Hong Kong's mandatory three-week detention period, passengers showed positive results.
All travelers flying to Hong Kong from 25 high-risk locations, including the United Kingdom, South Africa, India, Pakistan, and the United States, must also provide a negative diagnostic test before boarding, performed less than 72 hours before departure.
The number of infections on the flight is very significant since Hong Kong currently registers less than 50 daily coronavirus cases.
Hong Kong authorities imposed a two-week ban on all flights from India, Pakistan, and the Philippines, calling them "extremely high risk" countries for COVID-19.
Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, was one of the first places to be infected with the coronavirus. Still, harsh entry conditions, strict social distancing measures, and widespread use of face masks have helped to keep coronavirus infections to just over 11,000, with 209 deaths. So far, 9.8 out of 7.5 million people in Hong Kong have been vaccinated against covid.
For its part, India faces a serious increase in infections, with hospitals at a critical point, so the government has had to reimpose restrictions, including a one-week lockdown in its capital, New Delhi, where 20 million people live.
New record for deaths in India
The country registered a new record of deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday, 1,761 in the last 24 hours, while the number of infections experienced a slight drop, although it remained above 250,000.
According to the latest data from the Indian Ministry of Health, the total number of deaths from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic increased to 180,530. At the same time, the 259,170 new infections pushed the total number to 15.3 million. Yesterday, more than 273,000 cases of coronavirus had been registered, a record in the Asian country.
The second most affected country in the world in absolute terms, after the United States (32 million cases), has experienced a spectacular increase in infections in recent weeks in the framework of a second wave of the pandemic, and since last Thursday, registers more than 200,000 infections daily.
The situation has led the Government of New Delhi to impose confinement of the population until next Monday due to fear of a collapse of the health sector due to the critical lack of intensive care beds and oxygen in hospitals.