Hong Kong authorities have announced a 14-day ban on flights from eight countries, including Australia, amid the latest Omicron outbreak. Carrie Lam, the Beijing-appointed Hong Kong leader, announced on Jan.5 that incoming flights from Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, France, the Philippines, India, and Pakistan will be banned from midnight on Jan. 8 until Jan. 21. This comes as new clusters of Omicron appeared in the past week, with Hong Kong recording its first local Omicron transmission on the last day of 2021, which was a breach of one of the world’s most rigid COVID-19 restrictions. The city had recorded 114 Omicron infections as of Tuesday when the first untraceable case emerged in almost three months. A total of 12,690 confirmed cases, including 213 deaths, were reported on the same day. Lam said the epidemic situation in Hong Kong had worsened sharply in the past 24 hours. As …