Battling their own surges in coronavirus cases, Asian nations including Japan and South Korea said they were closely monitoring a new super virulent strain of the virus identified in Britain, but none immediately cancelled UK flights.
No Asian country has reported the new strain.
RELATED: Britain faces EU-wide travel ban to curb spread of Covid mutation
South Korea, which imposes a 14-day quarantine for everyone entering the country, said on Monday it was reviewing new measures for flights from the UK, and would test twice those coming in from Britain before they were released from quarantine.
New cases climbed to over 1,000 a day in South Korea several times last week. It reported on Sunday an outbreak in a Seoul prison where 188 inmates and staff were infected.
The country, which has said it is running short of hospital beds, said on Monday Seoul will ban gatherings of more than four people later this week and double hospital beds for critical Covid cases by year end.
Taiwan, which also has a 14-day quarantine, said on Sunday there were no plans to stop flights from Britain.
An Indian government committee tasked with monitoring the pandemic, will meet on Monday to discuss the new strain, local media reported, but there was no clarity on whether flights to the UK would be halted.
The UK is one of 23 countries that India shares an “air bubble” with.
India, which has the second-highest number of cases after the United States, does not currently mandate institutional quarantine for international travellers if they have a negative test result 72 hours before entering India.
Japan, where entry from Britain is already banned in principle, said it would keep in close touch with other countries as well as the World Health Organisation to see how the new type of virus was spreading.