Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
The Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) is preparing to consolidate all flights into the main terminal building, and close a newer concourse that sits between the two runways, as passenger flights into and out of the city have dropped by two-thirds, sources said on Friday.
The Airport Authority will seek to temporarily close the building, known as the midfield concourse, though no final decision has been reached as discussions with affected stakeholders, such as retailers, were ongoing, the South China Morning Post quoted the sources as saying.
The daily number of passenger flights flying in and out of Hong Kong has dropped from 1,050 to around 340, with more flight cuts expected in the coming weeks. On Wednesday, HKIA handled 160 departing passenger flights, possibly the lowest since the 2003 outbreak of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), when air travel in and out of Hong Kong all but stopped, the South China Morning Post reported.
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On Tuesday, HKA closed its flagship Club Autus airport lounge at the midfield concourse “until further notice” and its transit passenger facilities were moved to the main terminal.
The death toll in China’s novel coronavirus has gone up to 2,236 with 118 more deaths reported, mostly from the hard-hit Hubei province, while the overall confirmed infection cases have climbed to 75,465.
Hong Kong has confirmed the virus in 62 patients, two of whom have died. The first infections were largely found within people who had travelled to the epicentre in China’s central Hubei province.
Thailand, which has imposed no such restrictions, reported a 90 per cent slump in arrivals from the mainland this month, a gut punch to an already beleaguered tourist sector which makes up nearly a fifth of the economy.
In 2003, 299 Hong Kongers were killed by an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) — 40 per cent of the global total fatalities.
The novel Coronavirus outbreak has caused alarm as it has crossed global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic.
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