Asia monitoring new UK strain, no flights cancelled yet
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Tuesday
August 16, 2022

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2022
Asia monitoring new UK strain, no flights cancelled yet

Coronavirus chronicle

Reuters
21 December, 2020, 01:35 pm
Last modified: 21 December, 2020, 01:37 pm

Related News

  • Britain’s opposition Labour Party demand energy price cap freeze
  • UK pushes ahead with Rwanda migrant scheme as small boats keep coming
  • Cash-strapped Britons give up pets as living costs soar
  • More cash needed to save Britons from destitution in energy crisis, PM contender Sunak says
  • Drought in England, fires rage in France as heatwave persists

Asia monitoring new UK strain, no flights cancelled yet

No Asian country has reported the new strain

Reuters
21 December, 2020, 01:35 pm
Last modified: 21 December, 2020, 01:37 pm
FILE PHOTO: A woman wearing a protective face mask walks in a shopping district, amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak in Tokyo,​​ Japan, July 2, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
FILE PHOTO: A woman wearing a protective face mask walks in a shopping district, amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak in Tokyo,​​ Japan, July 2, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Battling their own surges in coronavirus cases, Asian nations including Japan and South Korea said they were closely monitoring a new super virulent strain of the virus identified in Britain, but none immediately cancelled UK flights.

The new strain could be up to 70% more infectious, the United Kingdom has said, prompting its European neighbours and several other countries 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. No Asian country has reported the new strain.

South Korea, which imposes a 14 day quarantine for everyone entering the country, said on Monday it was reviewing new measures for flights from the UK, and would test twice those coming in from Britain before they were released from quarantine.

European neighbours shut doors to Britain as new coronavirus strain spreads

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, which has said it is running short of hospital beds, 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.

An Indian government committee tasked with monitoring the pandemic, will meet on Monday to discuss the new strain, local media reported, but there was no clarity on whether flights to the UK would be halted. The UK is one of 23 countries that India shares an "air bubble" with.

India, which has the second-highest number of cases after the United States, does not currently mandate institutional quarantine for international travellers if they have a negative Covid-19 test result 72 hours before entering India.

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 Organisation to see how the new type of virus was spreading.

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 this year. The spikes in cases 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 the country's 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 coronavirus 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.

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.

Top News / World+Biz

Asia / new coronavirus strain / Coronavirus / UK

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • This is how people are choked with rising cost of living
    This is how people are choked with rising cost of living
  • Illustration: TBS
    Anwar Group: From comb maker to owner of 20 companies
  • Photo: TBS
    Uttara crane accident: Case filed against Chinese contractor for negligence 

MOST VIEWED

  • File Photo: A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Vaccine Covid-19" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken April 10, 2020. Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
    Variant-adapted Covid vaccine wins first approval in Britain
  • Southern hemisphere to get first mRNA vaccine facility
    Southern hemisphere to get first mRNA vaccine facility
  • North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un greets health workers and scientists struggling with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic during a photo session in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this undated photo released on August 10, 2022 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). KCNA via REUTERS
    North Korea lifts mask mandate, distancing rules after declaring Covid victory
  • A motorist passes by a mural of frontline workers against coronavirus at RK Puram in New Delhi on July 25. Delhi’s Covid-19 recoveries have outstripped new cases on almost all days this month barring a few exceptions, after ramped-up containment and testing efforts over the past month or so. (Sanchit Khanna / HT Photo)
    Delhi to enforce mask mandate again after spurt in Covid cases
  • A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell
    US CDC no longer recommends students quarantine for Covid-19 exposure
  • In this file photo taken on March 2, 2019, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi. Photo: Hindustan Times
    Kim Jong Un's sister warns Seoul of 'retaliation' over Covid

Related News

  • Britain’s opposition Labour Party demand energy price cap freeze
  • UK pushes ahead with Rwanda migrant scheme as small boats keep coming
  • Cash-strapped Britons give up pets as living costs soar
  • More cash needed to save Britons from destitution in energy crisis, PM contender Sunak says
  • Drought in England, fires rage in France as heatwave persists

Features

Illustration: TBS

Anwar Group: From comb maker to owner of 20 companies

36m | Panorama
TBS Sketch

Bangabandhu and the spirit of Liberation War were killed in 1975

17h | Supplement
The macabre multicide: How we failed our supreme leader

The macabre multicide: How we failed our supreme leader

20h | Supplement
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with his eldest daughter Sheikh Hasina and his grandson Sajeeb Wazed at his Dhanmondi residence. Photo: Achieve

The darkest night of 15 August

22h | Supplement

More Videos from TBS

Indian FM Jaishankar's video shown at Imran Khan's rally

Indian FM Jaishankar's video shown at Imran Khan's rally

41m | Videos
Experts advise on uniform exchange rate to deal with dollar crisis

Experts advise on uniform exchange rate to deal with dollar crisis

41m | Videos
Public pay homage to Bangabandhu

Public pay homage to Bangabandhu

12h | Videos
What will happen if Ukraine's Zaporizhia nuclear plant explodes?

What will happen if Ukraine's Zaporizhia nuclear plant explodes?

13h | Videos

Most Read

1
Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 
Banking

Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 

2
From left Afzal Karim, Murshedul Kabir and Mohammad Jahangir
Banking

Sonali, Agrani and Rupali banks get new MDs

3
Photo: TBS
Bangladesh

5 crushed to death as BRT girder falls on car in Uttara

4
Dollar price drops by Tk8 in kerb market
Economy

Dollar price drops by Tk8 in kerb market

5
Representational Image. Photo: Collected
Bangladesh

Air passengers should plan extra commute time to airport: DMP

6
Photo: Collected
Transport

Will Tokyo’s traffic model solve Dhaka’s gridlocks?

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2022
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]