Fears of a hard Covid lockdown sparked panic buying in Beijing as long queues formed on Monday in a large central district for mass testing ordered by the Chinese authorities, according to AFP.
China was already trying to contain a wave of infections in its largest city Shanghai, which has been almost entirely locked down for weeks and reported 51 new Covid deaths on Monday.
Downtown Beijing's biggest district Chaoyang, home to around 3.5 million people, ordered mass testing from Monday for residents and those coming to work there -- the area hosts the headquarters of many multinational firms and embassies.
Many of the capital's fitness studios and gyms have cancelled classes or closed. Beijing has also imposed tight controls on entry to the city, with travellers required to have a negative Covid test from within 48 hours.
Pakistan has reported 105 coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 1,527,856.
No new fatalities were reported during this period and the death toll remains 30,369. The positivity rate was recorded as 0.54 per cent while 186 patients are critical.
Pakistan has reported 52 coronavirus recoveries during the last 24 hours, according to the government's portal for tracking the spread of the disease in the country.
The total number has risen to 1,494,050 and the recovery rate is 97.8 per cent.
The tiny South Pacific nation of the Cook Islands has reported its first coronavirus-related death, more than two years after the pandemic erupted.
A 63-year-old woman, who had underlying health conditions, died on her way to hospital on the island of Aitutaki late on Saturday.
"It is with great sadness that I announce that we have just recorded our first in-country death attributed to Covid-19," Prime Minister Mark Brown said in a statement Sunday. "She had had all three anti-Covid vaccinations, but also had several serious underlying health conditions."
Not even one in four people have completely recovered from Covid a full year after being hospitalised with the disease, a UK study indicated, warning that long Covid could become a common condition.
The study involving more than 2,300 people also found that women were 33 per cent less likely to fully recover than men, AFP reports.
It also found that obese people were half as likely to fully recover, while those who needed mechanical ventilation were 58pc less likely.
The study looked at the health of people who were discharged from 39 British hospitals with Covid between March 2020 and April 2021, then assessed the recovery of 807 of them five months and one year later.
China's major financial hub of Shanghai has reported more Covid-19-related deaths, as residents vented their anger over a harsh lockdown and strict censorship online.
The city, battling China's biggest coronavirus outbreak so far, reported 12 new Covid-19 deaths, up from 11 a day before.
On social media, netizens battled against censors overnight to share a six-minute video entitled “The Voice of April”, a montage of voices recorded over the course of the Shanghai outbreak, Reuters reported.
All direct references to the film were removed from the Weibo microblogging service by today morning, though some comments criticising the censorship survived.
An officer wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) disinfects a colleague on a street during a coronavirus lockdown in the Jing'an district in Shanghai on Saturday. — AFP
Hong Kong will allow non-residents to enter the financial hub from May for the first time in more than two years, a small step in unwinding stringent coronavirus restrictions which have turned the city into one of the world's most isolated places, reports Reuters.
Hong Kong's rules for airlines that carry infected Covid-19 patients will also be eased slightly, the government said in a statement, with the threshold for suspending incoming flights rising to five infected passengers from three currently.
A ban on individual airline routes will be shortened to five days from 7.
Foreign travellers will be subject to the same procedure as residents, the government said.
Thailand on Friday announced the end of compulsory Covid-19 tests for vaccinated travellers, as the country steps up efforts to revive its pandemic-thumped tourism industry.
Tight border restrictions helped the kingdom limit infections and deaths in 2020 but brought the tourism sector — which had accounted for about a fifth of the country's economy — to its knees.
Thailand's Covid-19 taskforce said that from May 1, fully vaccinated visitors would no longer have to take a test on arrival and wait in a hotel room for the result.
Taskforce spokesperson Taweesin Visanuyothin said authorities will now only require arrivals to show proof of vaccination and health insurance coverage of at least $10,000. Earlier this month, Thailand dropped the requirement for mandatory pre-arrival Covid tests.
Traditional Thai dancers wearing protective face shields perform at Bangkok's Erawan Shrine, which was reopened after the Thai government relaxed measures to combat the spread of Covid-19 on May 4.—AFP
Shanghai authorities doubled down on their offensive against Covid-19 today, launching a new round of city-wide testing and warning residents their three-week lockdown would only be lifted in batches once transmission is stamped out, Reuters reports.
The Shanghai government said on its official WeChat account, the city's epidemic was showing a “positive trend” and that life in the city could return to normal soon as long as people stuck to strict rules to curb the spread of Covid-19.
And while some Shanghai districts tightened restrictions on movement, officials in neighbourhoods that met criteria for people to be allowed to leave their homes were still preventing them from doing so, fuelling anger and frustration among residents who have endured weeks of lockdown.
The Biden administration has said it is extending a requirement that non-US citizens crossing land or ferry terminals at the US-Mexico and US-Canada borders must be vaccinated against Covid-19.
The requirements were first adopted in November as part of reopening the United States to land crossings by foreign tourists after the borders had been closed to most foreign visitors since March 2020.
Unlike international air travellers headed to the United States, people travelling at land or ferry crossings do not need to provide a negative Covid-19 test.
Shanghai authorities have said tough restrictions would remain in place for now even in districts which managed to cut Covid-19 transmission to zero, prolonging the agony for many residents who have been stuck at home for most of this month.
That sober assessment, prompted by an unexpected rise in the number of cases outside quarantined areas, came after health officials earlier in the week had fuelled hopes of some return to normal by saying that trends in recent days showed Shanghai had “effectively curbed transmissions”.
An official from the Chongming district, an outlying island area, said most curbs would be kept in place, although it has reported zero cases outside quarantined areas and 90 per cent of its 640,000-or-so residents were now in theory allowed to leave their homes.
“For those in prevention areas, we have to continue to ensure that they don't become 'free to fly' areas,” deputy governor Zhang Zhitong said, referring to neighbourhoods which meet the criteria for residents to be allowed to go outside.
People in protective suits unload boxes labeled soy sauce from a truck, following the coronavirus outbreak in Shanghai, China on Thursday. — Reuters
Moderna plans to submit an application to the US health regulator for emergency use authorization (EUA) of its Covid-19 vaccine among kids between the ages of six months to five years by end of the month, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Omicron variant was predominant during Moderna's pediatric trial, and the drugmaker said two doses were around 38 per cent effective in preventing infections in 2 to 5-year-olds and 44 per cent effective for children aged 6 months to under 2 years.
Last week, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech said a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine produced significant protection against the Omicron variant in healthy children from ages 5 to 11.
Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 and those aged 5 through 11 who are immunocompromised.
New Delhi authorities have made the wearing of masks compulsory again after Covid-19 infections rose in the Indian capital in recent days, Reuters reports.
“In view of the rise in Covid positive cases recently and as advised by the experts, it was decided to enhance testing, focus on vaccination coverage of targeted population and ensure strict enforcement of Covid appropriate behaviour,” Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal said on Twitter.
Delhi accounted for more than 30 per cent of the 2,067 new infections that India reported on Wednesday, taking the country's running total to more than 43 million. Deaths nationwide rose by 40, mostly from the southern state of Kerala, lifting the total to 522,006.
Japan’s health ministry on Tuesday formally approved Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, a fourth foreign-developed tool to combat the infections as the country sees signs of a resurgence led by a subvariant of fast-spreading omicron.
According to AP, the ministry approval comes the day after its experts panel endorsed use of Novavax’s protein vaccine, which is designed with similar technology used to fight diseases such as the flu and hepatitis B, for the first two shots and a booster.
Health Minister Shigeyuki Goto told reporters that Novavax product adds variety to the choices available and could appeal to those who are hesitant to use Covid vaccines such as Pfizer’s and Moderna’s, which are designed with newer technologies.
Jabs using Novavax vaccine are expected to start as early as late May.
Taiwan may see domestic Covid-19 infections top 10,000 a day by the end of the month, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said, calling on people to exercise caution and stick to wearing face masks.
The island of 23 million people moved early to control the pandemic, adopting measures such as largely closing its borders and tracing contacts of those infected, but it has seen a rise in infections since the beginning of the year, reports Reuters.
The 13,164 domestic cases since January 1 have been driven by the more infectious Omicron variant, though more than 99 per cent have shown only mild symptoms or none at all.
Daily cases are likely to keep going up, Chen told a daily news conference at which he announced a further 2,386 domestic infections.
Canada's government said on Tuesday it had no plans to stop requiring masks on planes after a Florida judge struck down a US version of the law, according to Reuters.
“We are taking a layered approach to keeping travelers safe, and masks remain an incredibly useful tool in our arsenal against Covid-19,” a spokesperson for Canada's Transport Minister wrote in an email.
The spokesperson confirmed masks will be required on Canadian airlines and on flights that depart from or arrive in Canada. The federal government also requires travelers to wear masks and track close contacts for 14 days after arriving in Canada.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle struck down the U.S. mandate, which required masks on airplanes, trains and in taxis, among other locations, saying the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had exceeded its authority.
