(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong will ban flights from eight countries, including the U.K. and U.S., and close bars and gyms as the city seeks to contain the omicron variant of Covid-19.
Germany may also tighten contact curbs to tackle an expected surge in infections in coming weeks, the health minister said, even as protests against pandemic measures spread.
Singapore infections increased at the fastest pace in nearly two months amid the worldwide spread of omicron. A U.S. agency said travel to the Southeast Asian nation should be avoided. Regional governments is India are implementing an increasingly strict set of restrictions as the country finds itself in the grip of another wave of cases.
Key Developments:
- Virus Tracker: Cases pass 294 million; deaths exceed 5.4 million
- Vaccine Tracker: More than 9 billion shots administered
- U.K. risks being consumed by Brexit more than pandemic in 2022
- U.S. schools close in droves as omicron drives staff shortages
- Frustrated test-seekers are overwhelming emergency rooms
- How safe is flying as omicron surges: QuickTake
H.K. to Ban Flights, Close Bars (3:52 p.m. HK)
Hong Kong will ban flights from eight countries, including the U.K. and U.S., and close bars and gyms as the city seeks to contain the omicron variant.
Flights will also be banned from Australia and Canada for two weeks starting Jan. 8, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said at a briefing. Premises including bars, gyms, swimming pools and nightclubs will close starting from Friday for two weeks, while Hong Kong will also restrict dine-in services at restaurants and limit capacity, Lam said.
German Health Minister Sees Tighter Curbs (2:55 p.m. HK)
Germany is poised to sharpen contact curbs to tackle an expected surge in Covid-19 infections in coming weeks as protests against pandemic measures spread.
“A tightening will unfortunately be needed to face the powerful wave that is bearing down on us,” Health Minister Karl Lauterbach was quoted as saying late on Tuesday by the RND media group. He has repeatedly warned of the threat posed by the fast-spreading omicron strain of the virus.
Australia to Fund Some RATs (2:50 p.m. HK)
Australia will fund rapid antigen tests for more than 6 million lower-income earners and welfare recipients as the nation battles a surge of the omicron variant, with more than 64,000 cases recorded on Wednesday.
Federal and state and territory governments will jointly cover the costs of up to 10 tests from pharmacies over three months for those Australians, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
Amid a nationwide shortage and skyrocketing prices at retailers, Morrison also said “price gougers” of rapid antigen tests would be penalized by up to A$66,000 ($47,700) in fines and as many as five years in jail should they charge 120% more than what they paid for them. While the health system was under pressure, case loads in hospitals were generally well within their capacity, he said.
Greenland Introduces Restrictions (2:39 p.m. HK)
Greenland has introduced new virus restrictions after the Arctic island of 56,000 people had a record 198 cases in one day, state broadcaster KNR said.
Corona passports must be presented to attend public events in cities and villages where authorities register contaminations from unknown sources. Gatherings at public indoor venues will also be capped to half of current maximum set by the fire department.
Pakistan Cases on the Rise (2:34 p.m. HK)
Pakistan reported 898 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the highest in almost three months, according to government data. The South Asian nation’s latest wave is “spreading at a great pace” led by the omicron variant, the nation’s virus center said earlier this week.
Hong Kong to Limit Restaurants Operating Hours (2:18 p.m. HK)
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam will announce tightening of social distancing measures, Sing Tao reported.
Lam will hold a press conference at 3.30 p.m. local time Wednesday, according to a government statement.
India Tightens Curbs (2 p.m. HK)
Several Indian states announced tighter movement restrictions after the biggest daily increase in confirmed Covid infections since June 20, as the world’s second-most populous country enters another virus wave. Total tally of infections crossed 35 million, of which 2,135 were caused by omicron, latest data from the government show.
Delhi announced curfews, private companies are permitted to work at half the strength and government employees in non-essential services have been asked to work from home. Similar restrictions were announced in other states. Mumbai may consider a lockdown if daily infections in the city cross 20,000, according to a local media report.
Covid-related deaths rose by 534 taking the total fatalities in India to 482,551. The country has administered 1.48 billion Covid vaccine doses so far.
CDC Cautions Against Travel to Singapore (12:12 p.m. HK)
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday urged Americans to avoid traveling to Singapore entirely, reclassifying its Covid-19 advisory for the city-state and saying the situation there is now “unknown.”
The change stems from a lack of testing data that the CDC used to get from data aggregator Our World in Data. That information hasn’t been updated since Nov. 8, the CDC said in an email to Bloomberg.
The designation came as a surprise in Singapore, which maintains far stricter testing and social distancing measures than in the U.S., and where the city-state’s Ministry of Health posts detailed virus statistics, in English, on its website every day.
“I do think it’s bizarre,” said Ooi Eng Eong, a professor of emerging infectious diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School, adding that Singapore tests so much that “we know more than what most people look for.”
Another Chinese City Locked Down (12:10 p.m. HK)
China’s central province of Henan, which reported four confirmed cases on Wednesday, locked down another city of 7.9 million people after it detected one patient who didn’t show symptoms.
Municipal government of Shangqiu has asked all residents not to leave the city unless necessary, and tightened restrictions including shutting down indoor public venues, according to local authorities. The lockdown order came after the province shut Yuzhou city and its capital Zhengzhou earlier this week. A total of 41 domestically transmitted cases were reported across the country, according to the National Health Commission.
Meanwhile, Tonggu county in the east Chinese province of Jiangxi found traces of coronavirus in batch testing of 10 people returning from other provinces, according to a statement from local government.
Separately, China’s Covid-19 health code system that strictly governs people’s movements crashed in Xi’an this week, worsening conditions in the locked-down city where the country’s worst outbreak since Wuhan has been unfolding.
Djokovic Exemption Stokes Anger (11:33 a.m. HK)
A decision to exempt some tennis players at the Australian Open from vaccine rules — including Novak Djokovic — has sparked criticism in host city Melbourne, which endured one of world’s longest lockdowns.
Djokovic, who has previously criticized vaccine mandates, is among a handful of competitors granted medical exemptions for the tournament, the first of the four annual Grand Slam events, which begins Jan. 17, according to organizers.
Medical workers were among those to complain at the decision on social media.
Sinovac Over BioNTech in H.K. Vaccine Surge (11:27 a.m. HK)
More Hong Kong residents are getting their first Covid-19 vaccinations, though the majority are receiving a Chinese immunization that studies have shown gives inadequate protection against the recently arrived omicron strain.
The city administered about 18,000 initial injections on Tuesday, the most in four months, as the highly-transmissible variant began spreading in the community and a looming expansion of the vaccine mandate led many people to fear losing access to restaurants and leisure facilities. The jump in first doses outpaced the roughly 16,400 booster shots given.
The rising demand shows progress is being made against vaccine hesitancy in Hong Kong, a problem particularly among the elderly.
Nine in 10 Indonesians Have Antibodies (10:23 a.m. HK)
Almost nine in 10 Indonesians have developed antibodies against Covid-19, a survey showed, even as the country lagged behind its Asian neighbors in vaccination rates.
About 86.6% in the survey tested positive for SARS-CoV2 antibodies, said Wiku Adisasmito, spokesman for the Covid-19 task force. Some 73.2% of those with the antibodies had never been vaccinated and had no confirmed history of coronavirus infections, he said in the statement. The survey was held in 100 cities across the nation in November and December.
Thailand Cases Rise (10:15 a.m. HK)
Thailand reported 3,899 new Covid cases on Wednesday, the highest number since Dec. 11, as the country braces for an omicron-driven surge. The Southeast Asian nation is expected to see an increase in new infections following a peak travel period during the New Year holiday.
The government has already ordered state employees to work from home for two weeks to reduce the risks of infections, while schools have been advised to hold classes online as necessary.
Hong Kong Bans Five More Flight Routes (9:53 a.m. HK)
Embattled flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., as well as Air India Ltd., Air Canada, Thai Airways International Pcl and Philippines AirAsia have had routes suspended from Jan. 4 to Jan. 17, the government said. That’s the most flights Hong Kong has banned in a day since omicron emerged in November.
Hong Kong is rushing to plug holes that have seen the highly infectious omicron variant finally break through the city’s defenses, banning five more individual airline routes — including those from Seoul, Vancouver and Delhi — after discovering infected passengers.
Singapore Infection Rate Jumps (9:45 a.m. HK)
Singapore’s week-on-week infection growth rate, a measure tracking the spread of Covid-19 in the community, rose above 1 for the first time in almost two months as omicron variant cases in the city-state increased.
The rate increased to 1.09 from 0.95 the previous day, the Ministry of Health said late Tuesday on its website. The measure reached 1.04 on Nov. 12 and had fallen to a low of 0.52 on Dec. 24 before climbing again.
H.K. First Case From Unknown Source in Months (8:36 a.m. HK)
Officials in Hong Kong have disclosed the first preliminary positive case of Covid-19 from an unknown source in almost three months, a worrying sign as the city works to contain an omicron cluster.
The city’s health department suspects that the patient, an unvaccinated worker in the North Point area of the city, carries the omicron variant, although whole genome sequencing still needs to be conducted to confirm if that’s the case, according to a government statement on Tuesday.
The news raises the possibility that coronavirus may be spreading in the increasingly isolated Asian financial hub via routes of transmission that local health officials haven’t been able to trace.
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