The Hong Kong government is taking additional steps to counter the threat of a fresh outbreak of Covid, including closing all theme parks and restricting flights.
According to Reuters, Disney will close its Hong Kong Disneyland park from January 7 to January 20. In all, the park will have been closed five times during the pandemic, most recently for a few days in late 2021.
The outbreak of the quick-spreading Omicron variant is likely to trigger the fifth wave of infections in Hong Kong. While only a few cases have been reported in the past year, Omicron was finally confirmed as having been transmitted locally on December 31, raising fears of a potential outbreak. A two-week flight ban has been imposed on flights from eight countries, including the UK and U.S., as the local government continues its ‘zero Covid’ strategy.
Several nations in Asia, notably Japan and China, have been consistent in imposing strict restrictions whenever the virus appears. China put two cities into lockdown this week after detecting a small number of cases.