Japan: All flight reservations are suspended

– We have asked airlines not to accept reservations for a month starting from December 1, a representative of the authority tells AFP and adds that existing reservations will not be affected.

The message comes after a second case of the variant was found in the country in a traveler from Peru. The first case was discovered on Tuesday in a man traveling from Namibia.

flying

From SAS, the announcement means no changes, not now anyway.

– For now, we are continuing to fly according to plan, says airline press director Freja Annamatz.

SAS has only one flight per week to Tokyo. In other respects, SAS monitors developments on an ongoing basis, and sees how demand is affected.

The charging part is also an important component of the whole, says Anamatz.

The Japanese government has already tightened entry rules and suspended entry of non-Japanese nationals from ten South African countries.

Quarantine rules for foreign-born citizens and residents have also been tightened in a large number of countries with reference to the virus.

The country began providing additional doses of the vaccine to health care professionals on Wednesday after discovering the worrying type of virus.

Portugal raises its level of readiness

In Portugal, a “state of chaos” (estado de calamidade) prevails as of Wednesday – one of the highest on the scale of the state of emergency in the country. The measure was announced for the second time this year to flatten the growing infection curve. The country’s vaccination rate is among the highest in the world, but hospital admissions have risen since September.

Passenger controls are now being strengthened at airports, ports and border crossings, and negative test results are required of most travelers arriving in the country. Mouth protection requirements have been reintroduced, and covidpass is required to visit restaurants, gyms, cinemas, and hotels.

US actions

The United States may soon introduce stricter testing requirements for international travelers, whether vaccinated or not, due to the omicron variant, which is feared to facilitate the spread of sars-cov-2 virus.

The Federal Agency for Communicable Diseases Control (CDC) announced Tuesday that it is working towards a requirement that all air travelers arriving in the United States be tested at most 24 hours before the flight. Currently, vaccinated people must be fully tested at least three days before departure.

— The CDC is evaluating how to make international travel as safe as possible, including through testing closer to departure and considerations for further testing after arrival and self-isolation, agency chief Rochelle Walinsky, according to the AP news agency.

The United States opened its borders to fully vaccinated people from most countries on November 8.