Hong Kong announced a series of strict pandemic control measures on Wednesday, including suspending flights from the United States and seven other countries, as it scrambled to control an incipient Omicron outbreak. The new measures will deepen the city’s isolation from the outside world and mark a return to the tough restrictions from the early days of the pandemic. Hong Kong has largely brought the coronavirus under control, but the arrival of Omicron threatens to set off the city’s fifth wave of the pandemic. “Given the very dire situation of the pandemic, we have to grasp this critical moment,” Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said at a news conference announcing the new rules. But the spread of Omicron, including the infection of a person with no clear connections to the city’s first Omicron cluster, evidently forced a change.

Source: thestar January 05, 2022 14:28 UTC