South China Morning Post published this video item, entitled “Asia tightens borders as spread of new coronavirus variant Omicron clouds region’s return to travel” – below is their description.
Since the Omicron coronavirus variant was first identified in South Africa on November 24, 2021, the new strain is being detected in other places around the world. Hong Kong and Australia have reported three and two Omicron cases, respectively. The spread of the variant has prompted a number of Asian countries to tighten restrictions on travellers from southern Africa. The rules are expected to continue hitting the tourism industry, which is already down 70 per cent in 2021 from its pre-pandemic level.
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Omicron variant: Hong Kong tightens entry rules for countries with cases https://sc.mp/9xfb
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In This Story: Hong Kong
Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR), is a metropolitan area and special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta of the South China Sea. With over 7.5 million residents of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. The whole territory was transferred to China in 1997. As a special administrative region, Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China under the principle of “one country, two systems”.