A 14-day quarantine is no longer necessary for passengers arriving in Russia from Hong Kong and several African countries, Russia’s sanitary watchdog said on Tuesday.
The new document, posted on its website, revokes the watchdog’s resolution of December 4, 2021, imposing obligatory self-isolation for people arriving from Hong Kong, South Africa and several other countries in the south of this continent. Apart from that, these people will not have to undergo two tests for the coronavirus infection.
The quarantine requirement imposed in a bid to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, applied to people arriving from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Swatini, South Africa, and Hong Kong.
On November 26, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the B.1.1.529 variant identified in South Africa as a "Variant of Concern" and assigned it the Greek letter omicron. In its statement, the WHO noted that "this variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning."
