The Latest: Hong Kong to ban flights from UK to curb virus

HONG KONG — Hong Kong says it will ban all passenger flights from the U.K. starting Thursday as it seeks to curb the spread of new variants of the coronavirus.

It said in a statement Monday that the U.K. has been classified as “extremely high risk“ because of the “recent rebound of the epidemic situation in the U.K. and the widespread delta variant virus strain there.”

Under the classification, people who have stayed in the U.K. for more than two hours will be restricted from boarding passenger flights to Hong Kong.

It is the second time that the Hong Kong government has banned flights from the U.K., following a restriction imposed last December.

The ban comes amid heightened tensions between the U.K. and China over semi-autonomous Hong Kong, which was a British colony until it was handed over to China in 1997.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC

— Australia battles variant clusters; Sydney and Darwin are in lockdown

— Portugal and Spain announce new restrictions on travelers from Britain

— Bangkok, 9 provinces restrict movements to curb rising cases

— As variant rises, U.S. vaccine plan targets ‘movable middle’

— Bruce Springsteen marks the return of live shows on Broadway

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Follow more of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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