By Zhou Bajun | China Daily Asia | Updated: 2021-01-06 09:45 Share CLOSE Sophia Chan Siu-chee, secretary for food and health of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, addresses a ceremony to welcome the arrival of the mainland nucleic acid testing team at Metropark Hotel Kowloon in Hong Kong, on Sept 3, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen, a new variant of the novel coronavirus was identified and is now spreading in the UK; while a slightly different one has been found in South Africa. Last week Hong Kong recorded the first case of the new variant on a person from the UK. Even Japan and South Korea, which successfully contained the spread of COVID-19 early on, are now overwhelmed by a resurgence of the pandemic. The situation is so bad Japan has temporarily closed its doors on all non-resident arrivals from overseas.