Hong Kong police have arrested two flight attendants for allegedly breaking COVID-19 rules after they were reportedly linked to a local outbreak of the omicron variant.
The flight attendants, who are said to have worked for Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific air carrier, face a fine and six months in jail if convicted, Bloomberg reported.
Hong Kong police did not name the airline in their statement but Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam later identified them as former staff of Cathay Pacific.
Lam alleged on Tuesday “there is evidence showing they have violated [epidemic regulations],” according to the Bloomberg.
The statement from Hong Kong police said “they had conducted unnecessary activities” on Dec. 25 and 27, while they were supposed to be under home quarantine after returning to the city, according to Agence France-Presse.
“They were both subsequently tested positive for Covid-19 Omicron variant, and have been discharged from hospital upon completion of treatment,” it added.
The emergence of the omicron variant in the area was traced to the crew’s home quarantine breach, AFP reported.
Cathay Pacific had announced earlier this month that two of its aircrew, who tested positive for the omicron variant, were fired for breaching coronavirus regulations.
Hong Kong, which has a “zero COVID” policy, has seen a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Its health agency reported 385 positive cases of COVID-19 in the past 14 days, most of which were “imported” from other countries, officials said in a news release on Friday.
Hong Kong had previously banned flights from the U.S. and other countries earlier this month and The Associated Press added that most of the new omicron cases were linked to several Cathay Pacific crew members who broke isolation rules and dined at restaurants and bars in the city before testing positive.
Hong Kong International Airport announced that starting mid-January it was temporarily suspending incoming commercial flights from 150 countries, including the U.S., for close to a month, according to a notice posted on its website.
The decision was made “in order to control the spread of the highly infectious omicron variant.”