Covid-19: Hong Kong halves ban time for airlines with infected passengers

Hong Kong said on Sunday it is shortening the ban on airlines that are found to have carried three or more passengers who test positive for Covid-19 upon arrival, as the number of local cases continues to ease from its peak. Starting on Friday, the ban on individual airline routes will be reduced to seven days, from 14 previously, as part of its ongoing "flight suspension mechanism", the government said. If there is at least one positive test and at least one case of non-compliance with pre-departure testing on any single flight, the airline will also be suspended from flying the route for seven days. "On the premise of continuing the measures to guard against the importation of cases, the government requires that all airlines must stringently enforce the boarding requirements for inbound travelers, so as to reduce the risk of importation of cases as far as practicable," the government said. "And will continue to impose the flight suspension mechanism against specific non-compliant routes based on the streamlined triggering criteria." The change came after the government said last week a ban on flights from nine countries - Canada, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Britain, the United States, France, Australia and the Philippines - would be lifted on April 1. The quarantine period will also be halved from 14 to seven days starting from April 1. The city's flagship carrier Cathay Pacific Airways said it would only schedule one flight per route every 14 days for the nine countries whose flight bans were lifted, on concerns the mechanism could be triggered.<br/>