British Airways, the flag carrier of the United Kingdom, has announced that it won’t be flying to Hong Kong on a temporary basis. According to a report from inews, a crew member of the airline was found COVID-19 positive. Add to that the threat of the new COVID variant, Omicron. Upon arrival at the Hong Kong International Airport, a staff member of the airline was found to be COVID-19 positive. During departure, the same crew member had tested negative. Due to this, the rest of the crew on the aircraft has also been isolated for a short period. They will be cleared to return to the UK once they are safe to travel and have tested negative.
The airline said, “We have made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend flight to Hong Kong while we review operational requirements for this route. We apologised to our customers who have had their travel plans disrupted and will be in touch to give them options.”
The new COVID-19 variant being called Omicron is a deadly variant as it has a large number of mutations, some of which are very dangerous. Many countries are barring international travel and have also borough in new guidelines from select international airports.