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Chinese vice-premier calls for tougher action in Henan’s Omicron and Delta coronavirus hotspots | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3163098/chinese-vice-premier-calls-tougher-action-henans-omicron-and

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Chinese vice-premier calls for tougher action in Henan’s Omicron and Delta coronavirus hotspots
Strict prevention and control measures are needed in Henan as it battles the twin threats of the Omicron and Delta coronavirus variants, Chinese Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan said on Tuesday, capping a trip to the central province.Sun said the Omicron strain spread quickly and was highly infectious, putting containment measures in Anyang, now the centre of the province’s main outbreak, to the test, state news agency Xinhua reported.
“It is necessary to further improve the efficiency of nucleic acid testing and investigations, adopt strict social control measures, block transmission routes as soon as possible, and strictly prevent the spread of the epidemic,” Sun was quoted as saying.Henan reported 118 new local symptomatic cases on Wednesday, up from 87 the day before, according to the National Health Commission.Of those reported on Wednesday, 65 were in Anyang, where the province’s first Omicron case was detected. Meanwhile Xuchang, previously the centre of the province’s outbreak, reported 41 new cases on Wednesday, down from 74 on Tuesday.With the Lunar New Year less than three weeks away, cities in Henan have taken a series of measures to prevent further spread of the disease, including limits on return trips home.
Authorities in Anyang asked people from the city working in other centres not to return home “unless necessary” during the holiday. Anyang’s 5 million residents have been banned from leaving their homes except to get a Covid-19 test since the first Omicron case was diagnosed on Monday.
The patient was a university student who arrived from Tianjin on December 28. Anyang’s health bureau said genome sequencing showed that two of the city’s cases involved the Omicron variant but it was not known how many others were related to the strain.And on Wednesday, Anyang-administered Hua county banned its residents from entering residential compounds other than where they lived.Eleven Anyang officials were punished for poor performance combating the outbreak, including at least two who have been suspended.Authorities in Changyuan, also in Henan, said that anyone returning to the city “without permission from relevant departments” would be put under centralised quarantine at their own expense and could be prosecuted.Provincial capital Zhengzhou reported 12 new cases on Wednesday, up from 11 the day before.
Authorities said on Tuesday that with the exception of various closed and controlled areas, the city had reached “zero social transmission” in three rounds of citywide screening, meaning that all new confirmed cases had been isolated and linked to previously recorded cases.
Chinese city Yuzhou of over 1 million forced into lockdown with just 3 coronavirus cases recorded
In her comments on Tuesday, Sun said the situation in Zhengzhou had stabilised but the risk of community transmission had not been completely eliminated in Yuzhou – within Xuchang – where 1 million residents have been in lockdown for more than a week.She said authorities should ensure that residents in locked-down communities had access to supplies and basic medical care, and their demands were resolved in a timely way.
It follows a flood of public complaints about food shortages and delays in medical treatment in the Shaanxi provincial capital Xian, where 13 million people have been confined to their homes.Chinese province takes on twin coronavirus fronts of Omicron and Delta

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#sante#omicron#delta#zerocovid#deplacementinterne#confinement#depistage#resident#retour#restrictionsanitaire#controle

Vietnam complains China’s border controls to stop coronavirus spreading are ‘overkill’ | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3161810/vietnam-complains-chinas-border-controls-stop-coronavirus

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Vietnam complains China’s border controls to stop coronavirus spreading are ‘overkill’. Vietnam has criticised China’s zero-Covid policies as over the top after tight border controls caused a backlog of thousands of trucks and disrupted trade.“Pandemic prevention measures that Guangxi is applying under the ‘zero Covid’ policy, such as stopping border gate operations or stopping the import of some types of fruit, are overkill,” Vietnam’s trade ministry said after a video call with officials from the southwestern Chinese region on Friday.“This disrupted the supply chain, negatively impacted the development of bilateral trade and caused great losses to businesses and people on both sides.”The trade ministry urged China to take urgent measures to ease congestion at border crossings, including starting a pilot programme to allow fully vaccinated workers to alleviate manpower shortages by loading and unloading the trucks held up at Chinese border crossings, the trade ministry said.Two day ago, Vietnamese deputy foreign minister Nguyen Minh Vu held a phone conversation with Chinese assistant foreign minister Wu Jianghao, during which the two sides agreed to stay in close communication as they worked to resolve the problem, state-owned Vietnam News Agency reported.Trade between China and Vietnam, particularly overland, has been suffering after thousands of trucks were held up at the border following reports that imported Covid-19 cases had been detected in Pingxiang, a border city in Guangxi.Since then, China has stepped up its border controls with its neighbour, which has been grappling with a rise in infections since late November, including 16,000 new cases on Friday.
Dongxing, another border city in Guangxi, announced that it had temporarily stopped clearing cargo to pass through its port of entry on December 21, and four days later Hekou, a border town in Yunnan province, announced similar measures.On the same day, customs authorities at the Friendship Pass between Pingxiang and Vietnam’s Lang Son province urged traders to look for alternative shipping routes as its clearance capacity had been pushed to the limit “due to the development of the epidemic situation outside the country”. China has also imposed a four-week ban on dragon fruit imports from Friendship Pass, the largest road crossing between the two countries, until January 26 after the health authorities in Shanxi province said they had found coronavirus on packaging from Vietnam.
According to the Vietnamese agriculture ministry, in the first 11 months of 2021, the total import-export turnover of agriculture products between the two countries reached more than US$11.3 billion, a 19.5 per cent increase on the same period last year. Vietnamese media reports say many exporters have had to turn back from the border because of the new controls and are now trying to sell the fruit at a lower price at home to limit their losses.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#vietnam#sante#zerocovid#frontiere#circulation#commerce#agriculture#epidemie

Coronavirus: Pakistan ‘sees 5th wave begin’; Singapore’s open-border resolve tested as imported cases soar | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3161837/coronavirus-australia-pm-scott-morrison-monitoring-symptoms

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Coronavirus: Singapore’s open-border resolve tested as imported cases soar
Singapore reported more Covid-19 infections among travellers from abroad than local cases for the first time in nearly half a year, testing the resolve of the city state to keep its borders open amid the worldwide spread of the Omicron variant.There were 260 imported cases reported as of noon on January 1, compared to 187 community infections, according to data released by the health ministry. The last time Covid-19 cases among travellers surpassed local infections was on July 12.While Singapore has chosen to freeze ticket sales via its vaccinated travel lanes until late January, the business hub’s decision to maintain quarantine-free travel for vaccinated people from several countries, including omicron hotspots such as Britain and the United States, is increasingly being tested. Other nations including Thailand halted quarantine-free entry to prevent the spread of the new variant.So far, officials in the city state have also elected to tighten testing requirements for visitors and defer other travel initiatives, while keeping strict domestic virus measures in place, as local clusters of the Omicron variant emerge. Singapore is also depending on further vaccinating what is already one of the most inoculated populations in the world to fend off a potential new wave. About 20,000 children have received their first shot since the vaccination drive for them started on December 27, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#singapour#sante#casimporte#vaccination#quarataine#omicron#grandebretagne#etatsunis

More quarantine hotel rooms needed for arriving domestic workers as manpower shortage could weaken Hong Kong’s economic recovery, labour chief says | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3161864/more-quarantine-hotel-rooms-needed-arriving

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More quarantine hotel rooms needed for arriving domestic workers as manpower shortage could weaken Hong Kong’s economic recovery, labour chief says. Hong Kong should provide more hotel rooms for arriving domestic helpers to serve out their quarantine, the labour chief has said, warning the current manpower shortage could weaken the city’s economic recovery.Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong on Sunday also revealed that the number of foreign domestic helpers had dropped from more than 400,000 two years ago to about 350,000 amid the Covid-19 pandemic – a decline which he said would have a wider effect on the city.
“The impact will not be limited to the relevant families or those people who required caretaking from domestic helpers,” Law wrote on his official blog.
“As some members will have to quit their jobs to take care of their families, the labour market and many industries in Hong Kong are set to be affected. If the situation continues, it may affect the city’s overall economic recovery.”
While no regulations limit the number of domestic workers entering the city, only three quarantine hotels have been designated to handle arriving helpers, creating an effective cap and leading to bidding wars for their services in some instances.With the Omicron variant spreading and more arrivals from various countries required to serve an initial four days of quarantine at the government’s Penny’s Bay facility on Lantau Island, the 1,000 slots originally designated for domestic helpers there will no longer be reserved for them from this month.Instead, arriving domestic workers and those who have not completed their isolation at Penny’s Bay will be moved to the new Regala Skycity Hotel, also on Lantau. It will provide 1,138 rooms in addition to the 1,000 offered by two other properties, the Rambler Garden Hotel and Courtyard by Marriott Hong Kong.Law expected the number of new helpers arriving in the city would not increase drastically in the short term, given most of the new slots provided by the Regala Skycity Hotel in January would be “offset” by those who were originally scheduled to go through their isolation in Penny’s Bay.“The Labour Department will continue to work closely with hotels that are suitable and interested in becoming designated quarantine facilities for foreign domestic helpers. I hope that good news will be announced in the short term,” Law said.
He added authorities would monitor the Covid-19 situation in the Philippines and Indonesia, where most of Hong Kong’s helpers came from.
Cheung Kit-man, chairman of the Hong Kong Employment Agencies Association, said more that 4,000 foreign domestic helpers were waiting to work in the city, with the delay for some longer than a year.“All hotel rooms are fully booked in the coming months,” Cheung said. “If an extra 1,000 quarantine rooms could be provided, I think we can clear the backlog within three to four months.”Cheung estimated that at least 10,000 employers had given up hiring a helper in the past year.But Betty Yung Ma Shan-yee, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers’ Association, said the government should increase the capacity in a controlled manner to avoid community outbreaks of Covid-19.“The scheme should be more flexible – if more imported cases from the Philippines and Indonesia are recorded, the government should not increase the quota,” Yung said.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#travailleurmigrant#domestique#sante#quarantaine#care#philippines#quota#politiquemigratoire#indonesie#pandemie

Japan’s pandemic-era isolation sparks concerns of rising xenophobia amid anti-foreigner backlash | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3161122/japans-pandemic-era-isolation-sparks-concerns-rising-xenophobia

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Japan’s pandemic-era isolation sparks concerns of rising xenophobia amid anti-foreigner backlash
A campaign against non-citizens voting, amid claims ‘80,000 Chinese people’ could move to Tokyo, followed an unusual US embassy warning on racial profiling. The incidents are feeding worries that Japan is souring on immigration as it approaches a third year of pandemic-driven border closures and economic upheaval
From a ban on new foreign arrivals to a campaign against efforts to let non-citizens vote, a series of developments in Japan is raising new concerns about xenophobia in Asia’s second-largest economy.Lawmakers in the Tokyo suburb of Musashino overruled the local mayor on Wednesday and rejected a bill that would have allowed residents of other nationalities to vote on some issues. The decision came after several prominent Liberal Democratic Party legislators launched a campaign against the plan, with former Vice Foreign Minister Masahisa Sato warning on Twitter that “80,000 Chinese people” could move to the city and influence its politics.
Last month, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government initiated new border controls that ban new entries by foreigners amid concerns about the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Separately, the US embassy in Tokyo issued an unusual warning on December 6 about suspected racial profiling of foreigners by local police – an allegation the government has denied.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government initiated new border controls last month that ban new entries by foreigners.
The incidents are feeding worries that Japan is souring on immigration as it approaches a third year of pandemic-driven border closures and economic upheaval. The government’s ban on arrivals by foreigners who lack existing residency status was backed by almost 90 per cent of respondents in one media poll.“It’s not only in Japan that the pandemic fanned xenophobic sentiments, but this is a country with a long-standing tradition of insular nationalist conservatism,” said Koichi Nakano, a professor of political science at Sophia University. “Already before Covid, nationalism was exploited by some politicians to divert public attention away from real domestic ills that they did not want to deal with. But since last year, there has been an excessive, unscientific, and inhumane focus on ‘offshore measures’, such as the entry ban, by the Japanese government.”
Japan: now open to foreign workers, but still just as racist?While the island nation of 125 million has long been known for its hurdles to immigration, the government had warmed to overseas labour in recent years, because of the need to offset a shrinking workforce. The number of foreign workers in Japan more than doubled to 1.7 million in the seven years to 2020, many of them in the construction and service industries. A poll by national broadcaster NHK carried out in March 2020, before the pandemic took hold in Japan, found that most respondents favoured more immigration. The Tourism Agency still maintains a target of attracting 60 million foreign visitors in 2030.The ban on foreign entries also runs counter to the LDP’s stated goal of bolstering Tokyo’s status as an international financial centre by luring away global companies concerned about Beijing’s interference in Hong Kong. The number of foreign citizens living in Japan fell 2 per cent to 2.8 million in June, compared with six months earlier, according to the Justice Ministry.The response to Musashino Mayor Reiko Matsushita’s proposal to let some 3,000 non-citizens vote in local referendums illustrates the political forces against increased immigration. Matsushita told broadcaster TBS before the vote that she wanted “to make diversity into a strength and realise a multicultural society” in the city of 150,000.
“We’ll create a system whereby people have an opportunity to express opinions on important issues regardless of their nationality,” she said.
It is the people of the country, not foreigners, who have the right to make decisions 70 LDP lawmakers’ statement on proposed voting changes in MusashinoNon-Japanese are not permitted to vote in any local or national elections, by contrast with several countries in Europe, including Britain and Ireland. New York city this month also approved a measure allowing non-citizens to participate in local elections.Japan narrows the path to enfranchisement for immigrants by banning dual citizenship. Still, two other Japanese districts have ordinances similar to the one Matsushita proposed, while more than 40 allow foreigners to vote in referendums under certain circumstances.Besides Sato, who denounced the proposal as “no good”, a group of about 70 LDP lawmakers urged parliamentary action to prevent such efforts from advancing in the future. “It is the people of the country, not foreigners, who have the right to make decisions,” the group said in a statement.Kishida’s top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, declined to comment on the controversy. Meanwhile, with Omicron infections soaring globally and Japan’s daily Covid-19 deaths in the single digits, Kishida has little incentive to ease the border measures. He frequently mentions that the country’s clampdown on entry is the most severe among the Group of Seven nations and told reporters on Tuesday that existing border controls would stay in place for the time being.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#japon#sante#pandemie#frontiere#etranger#nationalisme#immigration#politiquemigratoire#etranger

Coronavirus: Britain, US top exporters of Omicron to Hong Kong so far, with cases expected to surge over Christmas holidays | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3160526/coronavirus-britain-us-top-exporters-omicron-hong

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Coronavirus: Britain, US top exporters of Omicron to Hong Kong so far, with cases expected to surge over Christmas holidays
Published: 3:20pm, 21 Dec, 2021
About a quarter of Hong Kong’s imported Covid-19 Omicron infections so far have been arrivals from Britain, the most from any country, with the United States next in line, a Post review of recent cases has found amid a near-daily detection rate of the highly transmissive variant over the past week.As Omicron continued its global spread, a medical expert on Tuesday warned that a surge of such infections over the next week was all but certain, with residents coming back to the city for the holidays.
“As more residents return to Hong Kong from Britain and the United States, the city will see the number of imported infections increase substantially”, said Dr Ho Pak-leung, an infectious disease expert from the University of Hong Kong.He also criticised the government for waiting until Tuesday to add the United Kingdom to the new highest-risk category, just over a week after the country was found to be the source of two imported Omicron infections.“From the anti-pandemic perspective, it’s not ideal, and will increase the infection risks to Hong Kong,” he told a local radio programme.
Hong Kong on Tuesday confirmed eight new Covid-19 cases, including seven that carried N501Y, a key mutation linked to Omicron. Those infections took the city’s overall tally to 12,541, with 213 related deaths.
Separately, the government announced that all its employees would be required to present proof of Covid-19 vaccination when entering official buildings for work, taking effect in mid-February next year.Since the city’s first Omicron case was confirmed in late November, a total of 19 – all imported – have been recorded.
Five returned to the city from Britain, accounting for 26.3 per cent of all cases. The United States came in second, with four cases, while the rest were spread mostly among African countries including South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.Since December 12, almost every day has included an Omicron infection among the Covid-19 caseload. On Friday, four of the seven cases involved the new variant, the most yet in a single day.Ho on Tuesday warned the city to brace for a surge in such cases as residents flocked home for Christmas from countries where Omicron had already become the dominant version of Covid-19.Britain was added to Hong Kong’s highest coronavirus risk category on Tuesday, meaning arrivals from that country must now spend the first portion of their mandatory quarantine at the government’s Penny’s Bay facility.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#grandebretagne#afriquedusud#kenya#nigeria#sante#omicron#frontiere#circulation#casimporte#variant

Coronavirus: UK lifts Omicron travel ban for 11 African nations | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3159718/coronavirus-uk-lifts-omicron-travel-ban-11-african-nations

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Coronavirus: UK lifts Omicron travel ban for 11 African nations
Countries on the UK’s travel red list include South Africa, Zambia and Botswana. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the measure is less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad as the new variant has already taken hold in Britain
Britain will remove all 11 countries from its Covid-19 travel red list from Wednesday because there is now community transmission of Omicron, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told parliament.The British government added the southern African countries to its red list in late November, meaning that entry was only allowed to UK citizens or residents who then must quarantine in a hotel, in a bid to slow the spread of the new variant.“Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad,” Javid said.
UK’s PM Boris Johnson accused of ‘culture of disregard’ for Covid-19 rules
13 Dec 2021“Whilst we will maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel we will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list effective from 4am tomorrow morning.”Britain requires all inbound travellers to take either a PCR or a rapid lateral flow test a maximum of 48 hours before departure.Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said these testing measures would be reviewed in the first week of January.
What do we know about the new coronavirus variant Omicron?“As always, we keep all our travel measures under review and we may impose new restrictions should there be a need to do so to protect public health,” he said on Twitter.The 11 countries which will be removed from the list are Angola, Botswana, Eswantini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#grandebretagne#omicron#sante#angola#botswana#eswantini#lesotho#malawi#mozambique#namibie#nigeria#africadusud#zambie#zimbabwe#frontiere#circulation#santepublique#restrictionsanitaire

Green quarantine? Hong Kong hotels under pressure to recycle plastics thrown out by guests spending weeks in Covid-19 isolation | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3159356/green-quarantine-hong-kong-hotels-under-pressure

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Green quarantine? Hong Kong hotels under pressure to recycle plastics thrown out by guests spending weeks in Covid-19 isolation. Experts caution against recycling items from rooms of quarantined guests, citing Covid-19 risk NGO Green Earth estimates hotels have used at least 100 million plastic items during pandemic
Hong Kong’s green groups are alarmed by the large amount of plastic tossed out by hotels where arrivals undergo compulsory quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic.They want authorities, hotels and even quarantined guests themselves to cut the use of plastic water bottles, disposable utensils, tableware and toiletries, and try to do more to recycle.But some medical experts cautioned against sending items from quarantine hotel rooms into the community, citing the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
Green Earth, a charity that has focused on plastic waste since 2016, estimated that at least 100 million such items had been used at quarantine hotels since the pandemic began last year.Hahn Chu Hon-keung, a director of the group, said that assuming all 86,282 travellers quarantined so far had spent 14 days in a hotel, at least 120,000 water bottles and 13 million plastic items such as food containers and cutlery were used every month. Some in fact stayed 21 days.Chu, who underwent quarantine himself last month, said he emailed his hotel before arriving to ask it not to place bottled water in his room. He also requested reusable cutlery for his stay.
The Dorsett Tsuen Wan Hotel, where Chu stayed for 14 days, told the Post the amount of plastic items given to quarantine guests was so large that it had introduced reusable cutlery.It provided bottled water unless guests said they did not want it, and there were kettles for guests to use in their rooms.
The Amber Foundation, a charity which has collected unused hotel toiletries and airline kits for distribution to street sleepers, women in shelters and others, urged quarantined hotel guests to donate unused, sealed items.
How to use Hong Kong’s ‘Leave Home Safe’ app to enter mainland China and Macau quarantine free. Chairwoman Elizabeth Thomson said it used to repackage the donations into toiletry kits for men and women. Since the pandemic, these donations have surged.“We used to put together about 5,000 toiletry kits every year, but in the last month alone, we distributed more than 1,000 kits,” she said.Thomson said quarantined hotel guests could save unused items to recycle rather than leave them behind to be thrown away when they checked out.She said it would help if the Department of Health explained whether everything from the guests’ rooms had to be thrown out or if sealed toiletries such as liquid soap and shampoo could be given away.If there was nothing wrong with the items, the hotels could work with NGOs to recycle them and cut wastage, she added.
“If we try counting the number of plastic waste [items] in a quarantine hotel, it would be horrifying,” Thomson said.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#sante#hongkong#sante#quarantaine#hotel#chine#macau#frontiere#circulation

Separated from sick family members, Hong Kong’s poorest ask why business travellers should visit mainland China before they do | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3159397/separated-sick-family-members-hong-kongs-poorest

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Separated from sick family members, Hong Kong’s poorest ask why business travellers should visit mainland China before they do Quarantine too expensive for many to cross border, local NGO says, urging government to use half of initial travel quota for reuniting families City leader Carrie Lam has previously said business community will take priority when border gradually reopens, something expected to take place after coming Legco poll
Low-income Hongkongers hoping to visit sick relatives in mainland China are calling on the government to give them equal priority with business travellers when the border begins gradually reopening soon.At least 10,000 residents urgently need to reunite with family members, but the city is treating them as an afterthought, according to Sze Lai-shan, deputy director of NGO the Society of Community Organisation (SoCO).“Its inhumane and unfair for those with families in need to be excluded from the [initial] cross-border quota,” Sze said on Sunday while urging the government to reserve half the slots for such visits.Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor last month said business travellers would take priority in the coming quarantine-free travel programme. Sze said numerous families were left disappointed and angry.The programme – initially limited to neighbouring Guangdong province – was expected to be launched shortly after the December 19 Legislative Council election, the Post reported earlier, though only a few hundred people a day were likely to be allowed to cross.At least 80 per cent of low-income families surveyed by SoCO in February indicated that they needed to visit the mainland regularly to take care of their families, with 70 per cent saying coronavirus border controls made helping them impossible.Another 15 per cent complained of being unable to return to attend the funerals of loved ones.At a Sunday press conference, low-income Hongkongers were moved to tears as they described the painful experience of not being able to reunite with ill or dying family members during the 21 months of the border being closed due to coronavirus restrictions.Many said they could not afford the expense of quarantine, including the need to apply for extended leave from work.
Chen Haiyan, a 49-year-old bakery worker, said her father, 93, had a lung condition and was in such a frail state he had fallen several times. Her mother, who was in her 80s and dealing with eyesight issues, did not have the money to take him to a doctor.While her parents had typically taken care of each other, their health issues made it increasingly challenging to do so, according to Chen, who said border restrictions made it impossible for her to help.“My mother keeps asking when she can see me, as she misses me. I told her I want to go back so badly too, but it’s not possible, as quarantine is so expensive and my salary is too low. I can’t give her the money she needs,” said Chen, who works in a bakery.Chan Siu-bing, a resident in her 40s, said her mother in Guangdong had suffered a stroke last month and needed constant supervision, while her father had also recently undergone an operation.Chan, who has underlying health issues of her own, said: “I even took the vaccine in August despite my doctor not recommending it, just so I could go back. But even then, I’m still not allowed to do so.”Chan said she hoped she could soon travel to the mainland with her autistic 16-year-old daughter who was close to her grandparents.In calling for allowing families to cross the border on compassionate grounds, Sze suggested reserving 50 per cent of the any quota for needy residents, while noting the pandemic situation in Hong Kong and the mainland had stabilised in recent months.“In the past two years, [there has been an accumulation of] many family needs. In the beginning, 30 per cent of the quota could go to urgent family matters, and another 20 per cent for family visits,” she said. “Maybe after a certain period, the quota could then be increased.”

#Covid-19#migration#migrant#hongkong#chine#sante#migrationtherapeutique#frontiere#circulation#quarantaine

Coronavirus: Hong Kong authorities set to unveil health code system, paving way for mainland China border reopening | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3158032/coronavirus-hong-kong-authorities-set-unveil

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Coronavirus: Hong Kong authorities set to unveil health code system, paving way for mainland China border reopening

Hong Kong authorities are set to unveil a Covid-19 health code system on Thursday, paving the way for the long-awaited reopening of the city’s border with mainland China later this month, the Post has learned.
Sources said the government would reveal details of the scheme, which would allow travellers to cross the border to Guangdong province and Macau without needing to undergo quarantine.The development comes after a meeting with mainland officials last week, during which the city was told it had met the “basic requirements” for border reopening, with only a few obstacles remaining, such as a health code app and further tightening of quarantine rules for aircrew.The move will bring the city more in line with mainland travel rules, but Hong Kong’s health code system is not expected to have a movement-tracking function, unlike the version across the border because of residents’ privacy concerns. A source said testing earlier this week of conversions of the Hong Kong health code to the Guangdong and Macau versions – needed when travellers cross from one jurisdiction to another – had been “very successful”, and a dry run of border openings had also been conducted and went smoothly.Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, said he had learned from government and industry sources that authorities would not require all residents to integrate the existing “Leave Home Safe” risk-exposure app with the one for health codes, only travellers to the mainland would have to do so.
To generate a health code, users will have to provide their real name and home address, as well as upload their vaccination record and Covid-19 test results.Users will have to export their visit records from the Leave Home Safe app over the past 21 days into a file, which will then be uploaded to the website. A self-filled health declaration form will also be needed.
Once all the information is uploaded to the webpage, it will generate a colour-coded QR code, and the data will be sent to relevant government departments. The code will be scanned by border officers for those who need to travel to the mainland.Fong said he believed the Hong Kong version of the health code would not have real-time global positioning system (GPS) tracking because of technical limitations.The mainland version can store users’ travel history and generate a colour-coded warning system based on exposure risks to Covid-19 patients.Another component is the “itinerary code”, which tracks a user’s whereabouts using mobile phone signal data. This code makes use of data from three major telecoms companies on the mainland – China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile.It can show which countries or mainland cities a user has visited in the past 14 days. The code also captures the user’s movements with precision and stores the information for use by the authorities.
But a code scheme has proved a controversial issue in Hong Kong, especially if it carries a movement-tracking function, over privacy concerns. The Leave Home Safe app, launched over a year ago last November, is a Covid-19 exposure notification device that allows users to scan QR codes outside buildings before entry and has since been made mandatory at government premises.Neighbouring Macau has its own health code system for border-crossing arrangements with Guangdong province and is regarded as a model for Hong Kong.Macau’s code does not have a tracking function, but generates coloured QR codes which indicate a person’s risk level based on their health status, possible contact with Covid-19 patients and travel history. The QR code, updated daily, is required to be displayed when people enter large public venues.It also allows users with negative test results to switch over to Guangdong’s health code system when they cross the border, but the two apps are not directly linked.Last Saturday, Macau launched a bus pass scheme that required passengers to register with their names to tap contactless stored-value cards when boarding a bus. Officials said the scheme could allow better Covid-19 contact tracing, and as of 10am on Tuesday, more than 165,000 people had registered online. It is uncertain this higher standard of tracing in Macau will increase pressure for Hong Kong to follow suit.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#macau#hongkong#sante#QRcode#tracking#droit

World scrambles to contain Omicron coronavirus variant | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3157621/world-scrambles-contain-omicron-coronavirus-variant

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World scrambles to contain Omicron coronavirus variant
The emergence of a coronavirus variant with a large number of mutations could pose new challenges for China but too little was known about the strain, according to one of the country’s top respiratory disease specialists.
Chinese media reported Zhong Nanshan’s assessment of the Omicron variant on Saturday as countries around the world scrambled to contain the variety first found in southern Africa and identified on Friday by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a variant “of concern”.The WHO cautioned countries against “hastily” tightened travel restrictions.
A number of jurisdictions, from the European Union, to the United States, Hong Kong and Russia, tightened limits on travellers from countries in southern Africa.Dozens of confirmed cases have been identified in South Africa, Hong Kong, Botswana, Belgium and Israel, while suspected cases have been reported in the Czech Republic and Germany.Dutch officials said 61 people on two flights from South Africa to Amsterdam tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday, but it was not clear if they were infected with the new variant. China did not announce any new travel restrictions in response to the variant but the country has one of the strictest restrictions on border entry and flights. It has also introduced a flight suspension mechanism if there are more than five positive cases on board.
Sanjaya Senanayake, associate professor of medicine at the Australian National University, said Omicron was troubling because of its high number of mutations. Research indicated that it had 32 spike protein mutations, compared with the 13 to 17 seen in the more prevalent Delta variant.
“Some of these mutations can increase transmissibility of the variant, while others can help it evade the immune system: a worrying combination,” he told the Australian Science Media Centre. In a post on the website of Imperial College in London, Neil Ferguson, director of the college’s MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, said such a number of mutations in the spike protein gene was “unprecedented”. According to the WHO, early signs indicate an increased risk of reinfection from Omicron compared to other highly transmissible variants – meaning people who have had Covid-19 and recovered could be at greater risk of catching it again with Omicron.The WHO said studies were under way in South Africa and other countries to better understand the variant in terms of transmissibility, severity and any impact on the use of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.US infectious disease chief Anthony Fauci said that while the reports on the new variant threw up a “red flag”, it was possible that vaccines might still work to prevent serious illness.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#sante#variant#omicron#circulation#frontiere#monde#OMS

Coronavirus: Hong Kong further tightens quarantine rules on arrivals from 8 African nations in fight against new ‘Omicron’ variant | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3157589/coronavirus-unvaccinated-hongkongers-could-find

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Coronavirus: Hong Kong further tightens quarantine rules on arrivals from 8 African nations in fight against new ‘Omicron’ variant. City residents returning from South Africa, Botswana and six other nations must spend the first of three weeks of quarantine at a government facility
Hong Kong has further tightened quarantine rules for its residents arriving from eight African countries following the detection of a new, highly infectious coronavirus variant, requiring them to complete the first week of their mandatory confinement in a government facility. The Centre for Health Protection said on Saturday that Hong Kong residents arriving from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia and Zimbabwe would immediately be sent to Penny’s Bay quarantine centre. The measure takes effect on Sunday.

#Covid-19#migrantt#migration#afriquedusud#hongkong#sante#variant#omicron#quarantaine#afrique#circulation#frontiere

South Africa complains flight bans are ‘punishment’ for it detecting Omicron, new Covid-19 variant | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/article/3157617/south-africa-complains-flight-bans-are-punishment-it-detecting-omicron-new

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South Africa complains flight bans are ‘punishment’ for it detecting Omicron, new Covid-19 variant. Many nations have banned flights from countries in southern Africa; South Africa government says ‘science should be applauded, not punished’ . South Africa has complained it is being “punished” for detecting a new Covid-19 variant which the World Health Organization has termed a “variant of concern” and is more transmissible than the dominant Delta strain. The decision by a host of countries to ban flights from southern Africa following the discovery of the Omicron variant “is akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker,” the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.“Excellent science should be applauded and not punished,” it said, adding that new variants had been discovered in other parts of the world.“Each of those cases have had no recent links with Southern Africa, but the reaction to those countries is starkly different to cases in Southern Africa,” it said.The variant was first discovered in South Africa and has since been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.UK bans travel from South Africa after emergence of new heavily-mutated Covid-19 variant
A minister in the German state of Hesse said on Saturday that the variant had very probably arrived in Germany, in a traveller returning from South Africa. Czech health authorities said they were examining a suspected case of the variant in a person who spent time in Namibia.
South Africa said its “capacity to test and its ramped-up vaccination programme, backed up by a world-class scientific community should give our global partners the comfort that we are doing as well as they are in managing the pandemic”.Anxious travellers thronged Johannesburg international airport, desperate to squeeze onto the last flights to countries that had imposed sudden travel bans. Many had shortened their holidays and rushed away from South African safaris and vineyards. “It’s ridiculous, we will always be having new variants,” said British tourist David Good, passport in hand. “South Africa found it but it’s probably all over the world already.”The main countries targeted by travel shutdowns include South Africa, Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.Scientists are now racing to determine the threat posed by the heavily mutated strain, and whether current vaccines should be adjusted. Markets and oil prices around the world plunged on Friday as news of the latest setback in the fight against the pandemic sank in.
US President Joe Biden said countries should donate more vaccines and give up intellectual property protections to manufacture more doses worldwide.
“The news about this new variant should make clearer than ever why this pandemic will not end until we have global vaccinations,” he said.The WHO said it could take weeks to understand the variant and cautioned against imposing travel curbs while scientific evidence was still scant.But many countries around the world, including the US, Australia and Japan, moved to try to clamp down on the new variant by restricting flights.EU officials agreed in an emergency meeting to urge all 27 nations in the bloc to restrict travel from southern Africa, with many members having already done so.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#sante#afriquedusud#variant#omicron#circulation#frontiere#restrictionsanitaire#vaccination

Coronavirus: Omicron variant fears prompt Australia, Japan, Philippines, Thailand to impose new travel curbs | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3157590/coronavirus-omicron-variant-fears-prompt-australia

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Coronavirus: Omicron variant fears prompt Australia, Japan, Philippines, Thailand to impose new travel curbs. The restrictions are similar to those brought in by Singapore, Hong Kong and elsewhere after the discovery of the new variant triggered global alarm on Friday
Australia imposed new restrictions on Saturday on people who have been to nine southern African countries, a day after the Philippines made a similar move, as the new Omicron variant raises concerns about another wave of the coronavirus pandemic.Effective immediately, the Australian government will ban non-citizens who have been in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, eSwatini, the Seychelles, Malawi and Mozambique from entering and will require supervised 14-day quarantines for Australian citizens and their dependents returning from the countries, said Health Minister Greg Hunt. These restrictions also apply to people such as international students and skilled migrants arriving from countries with which Australia has travel bubbles, who have been in any of the nine countries within the past 14 days.Anyone who has already arrived in Australia and who has been in any of those countries within the past 14 days must immediately isolate and be tested.The Australian government will also suspend all flights from the nine southern African countries for two weeks.
Meanwhile, Japan said it would tighten border controls for the southern African nations of Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia, requiring a 10-day quarantine for any entrants, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
The new rules, taking effect from midnight, come a day after Japan tightened border controls for those arriving from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Lesotho.
The Philippines has also suspended flights from South Africa and six other countries – Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, eSwatini, and Mozambique – until December 15, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said in a statement on Friday night. Passengers who have visited any of these countries in the 14 days before their arrival will also be temporarily barred from entry, he said. Earlier in the day, the Philippines had announced the reopening of borders to tourists from what it considers low-risk areas, as part of an easing of restrictions after weeks of declining coronavirus infections.Thailand said on Saturday it would also ban the entry of people travelling from eight countries – Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe – from December.
“We have notified airlines and these countries,” senior health official Opas Karnkawinpong told a news conference. “Those that have already been approved to enter the country from these eight countries will be ordered to undergo an additional 14-day mandatory quarantine, starting now,” Opas said.People from other African countries who have already secured approval to visit Thailand will be subject to 14 days in hotel quarantine. No African countries are on a list of 63 nations eligible for quarantine-free travel to Thailand which started this month, Opas said.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#afrique#australie#japon#philippines#variant#omicron#sante#circulation#frontiere#quarantaine#bulledevoyage

Coronavirus: Thailand among 6 countries added to Singapore’s quarantine-free travel lane | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3157442/australia-investigates-new-covid-19-variant-found-south

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Coronavirus: Thailand among 6 countries added to Singapore’s quarantine-free travel lane. The city state also restricted travel from seven African countries after a ‘potentially more contagious’ Covid-19 variant was found in South Africa Scientists are concerned the new strain could evade the body’s immune response and make it more transmissible
Singapore on Friday extended its quarantine-free travel lane scheme for visitors vaccinated against Covid-19 to six more countries in a bid to regain its international aviation hub status.The inclusion of Cambodia, Fiji, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey to the Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL) programme brought the number of nations the city state has such arrangements with to 27.The move came even as Singapore tightened border restrictions with seven African countries after the “potentially more contagious” B.1.1.529 Covid-19 variant was detected in South Africa.
The island nation currently has no cases linked to the strain.Singapore’s civil aviation authority said the 27 countries under the VTL scheme contributed to about 60 per cent of its total arrivals before the pandemic.
It added that Cambodia, Thailand, Maldives and Sri Lanka were popular tourist destinations among Singaporeans.Singapore still hoping for Hong Kong travel bubble, health minister says
24 Nov 2021Travellers from Thailand would be able to enter Singapore under the arrangement from December 14. Those from Cambodia, Fiji, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Turkey can visit two days later.With these new lanes, the daily quota under the VTL would be increased from 10,000 to 15,000.Transport Minister S. Iswaran told reporters that Singapore has to be “very mindful” of the evolving virus situation and that it was closely monitoring the emergence of new variants of concerns even as it looks to reopen its borders.“We must expect that in a dynamic situation like this, and with the pandemic evolving, that settings may change.”Singapore is seeing about 2,000 Covid-19 infections a day but authorities have pledged to treat the virus as endemic and would progressively open up given its high vaccination rates.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#singapour#ambododge#fiji#maldives#srilanka#thailande#turquie#sante#frontiere#circulation#bulledevoyage#vaccination#frontiere#variant

Coronavirus: India reopens to foreign tourists after 20-month ban; | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3156062/coronavirus-maori-tribe-tells-new-zealand-anti-vaxxers-stop

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Coronavirus: India reopens to foreign tourists after 20-month ban;
After halting tourist visas in March last year, India is now allowing quarantine-free entry to fully jabbed visitors from 99 reciprocating countriesIndia reopened its borders to mass foreign tourism, ending a 20-month clampdown as coronavirus infections across the country remain low and vaccination rates rise.After halting tourist visas in March last year, India is now allowing quarantine-free entry to fully inoculated travellers from 99 reciprocating countries. The government only requires such tourists to monitor their health for 14 days after arrival.Since last month tourists on chartered flights were already being granted entry and Indian authorities expanded that to arrivals on commercial flights on Monday.
Many Indians have already been flocking to domestic tourist hotspots in recent weeks, such as the western coastal state of Goa and the mountainous north, as a deadly second Covid-19 wave faded out after triggering peak infection rates of more than 400,000 cases a day in early May.
Families also gathered together this month to celebrate Diwali, the country’s largest festival, with new cases staying well below 15,000 a day.India’s immunisation campaign has also gathered pace, with more than a billion vaccine doses administered, and antibody surveys suggest that most Indians have already been exposed to Covid-19.While national infection levels have in recent weeks touched lows last seen earlier in the year, there are concerns that the easing of curbs risks a complacency similar to when India experienced an ebb between its two major waves.
The lowering of restrictions places the travel industry “in a very good position,” Rajni Hasija, director of tourism and marketing at the Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corp Ltd., said on a post-earnings call earlier this month. However, she added a note of caution. “The risk of the third wave is still not completely behind.”

#Covid-19#migration#migrant#inde#sante#economie#tourisme#frontiere#circulation#vaccination#mobiliteinterne#diwali

Coronavirus: Singapore official hopes for quicker Hong Kong, mainland China reopening; | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3155634/coronavirus-singapore-official-hopes-quicker-hong-kong

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Coronavirus: Singapore official hopes for quicker Hong Kong, mainland China reopening;
Monetary Authority of Singapore chief Ravi Menon said strict border restrictions may impact business ties between the Asian financial hubs
Elsewhere, a government council said Malaysia will reopen its borders to international visitors by January 1 at the latest
Singapore’s central bank chief would like Hong Kong and mainland China to open up quicker and more decisively over the next year as their strict border restrictions may impact business ties between the key Asian financial hubs.“I would hope that China and Hong Kong will be able to open up faster over the next year,” Monetary Authority of Singapore managing director Ravi Menon said in a recent interview, responding to a question on whether the city state can gain from the different border situations.
As Singapore has strong ties with both, “not being able to travel to these places without considerable frictions, does stand in the way of strengthening our business links.”The divergence between Singapore’s strategy of living with the virus and the zero-Covid policy still pursued by mainland China and Hong Kong has become more stark in recent months.
Singapore and Malaysia agree to quarantine-free vaccinated travel lane
8 Nov 2021 While Singapore has been establishing several vaccinated travel lanes, including with the US and parts of Europe, mainland China and Hong Kong have stuck to strict border measures, notably lengthy quarantines on arrival.Earlier plans for a travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore had been shelved repeatedly as the cities saw a rise in infections. Eventually, Hong Kong said it will not pursue such a travel lane due to the two cities’ differing Covid-19 strategies.Hong Kong is instead prioritising opening its borders with mainland China first. Menon said that when Singapore opens up, it wants to strengthen links to all geographies, and both mainland China and Hong Kong are important parts of these ties.
China was the island nation’s largest merchandise trading partner last year, while Hong Kong and Singapore compete as key financial hubs in the region.“I’d very much hope that they would be able to open up more decisively over the course of next year,” said Menon. “That’d be good for Asia. That’d be good for Singapore.”

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#singapour#chine#hongkong#malaisie#asie#sante#frontiere#circulation#bulledevoyage#vaccination#politique

Universities tell stranded international students to prepare for return to campus in China | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3155587/universities-tell-stranded-overseas-students-prepare-return

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Universities tell stranded international students to prepare for return to campus in China. Duke Kunshan University and New York University Shanghai have both sent out emails saying they could be allowed back in time for next semester. Borders have been closed to most foreigners since March 2020 and no official announcement has been made on reopening to international students
New York University Shanghai told international students it is confident they will be able to attend campus next semester. Photo: Shutterstock New York University Shanghai told international students it is confident they will be able to attend campus next semester. Two international universities in China have told their overseas students to prepare for a return to campus as early as March, after they were shut out of the country because of the pandemic.While there has been no official announcement on when China’s borders will reopen to foreign students, Duke Kunshan University in Suzhou and New York University Shanghai have both sent out emails saying they could be allowed back on campus in time for the next semester. China’s borders have been closed to most foreigners since March 2020, with special exemptions granted for work or family reasons, as part of its zero-tolerance strategy to Covid-19. That has left many of the country’s half a million international students stranded overseas and unable to attend classes in person. International students have taken to social media to appeal to Chinese authorities to grant them visas so they can return to the country to continue their university studies, including via the Twitter campaign #TakeUsBackToChina. But at present, the only international students receiving China visas are from South Korea, after the two countries agreed in July last year to resume issuing student visas. South Koreans make up about 10 per cent of China’s international students.
The email from DKU, addressing students and parents, advised students to get vaccinated and prepare their visa applications.“The DKU leadership understands that China is now working on a detailed plan to facilitate international students’ safe entry to the Chinese mainland. Early indications suggest that this procedure, once finalised, will allow students to enter gradually in groups over time to ensure suitable and sufficient quarantine measures,” according to the email, which was posted on Twitter on Monday by a reporter with Duke University’s student newspaper, The Chronicle.
There was no date for when students might be able to start applying for visas or when they might be able to enter China, but the email said the progress was “encouraging”.
International students received a similar email from NYU Shanghai on Monday, saying it was confident they would be able to attend campus next semester. Sent by David Pe, the dean of students, it said they should work with their academic advisers in the coming month to register for classes in Shanghai, get vaccinated, and begin looking at direct flights. The email, which was also posted on Twitter, said students would have to complete a 21-day quarantine period before the end of January.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#sante#etudiantinternational#retour#vaccination#quarantaine#economie#politiquemigratoire#circulation#frontiere

Coronavirus: Hong Kong may restrict movements of quarantine-exempt aircrew in light of Cathay pilots’ infections | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3155516/hong-kong-axe-new-zealand-only-low-risk-covid-19

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Coronavirus: Hong Kong may restrict movements of quarantine-exempt aircrew in light of Cathay pilots’ infections Health officials say they are worried about the infections of the two aircrew staff because they had high viral loads and were highly transmissive. But Cathay Pacific warns any tightening of cargo aircrew quarantine rules may force it to cut flights, not just harming airline but also choking city
Hong Kong authorities may restrict the movements of local aircrew who are exempt from quarantine on their return from overseas, after two cargo pilots tested positive for Covid-19 and triggered the isolation of 120 pupils linked to the family of one of them.
The infection of the two pilots, who were among five cases confirmed on Wednesday, sparked fears the city’s negotiations with mainland China on fully reopening the border would be delayed. But the aviation industry also hit back strongly on any potential tightening, with Cathay Pacific warning the move would disrupt the global supply chain.Local health officials expressed concern about the cases.“We are rather worried about the infections of these two aircrew members … as they had high viral load and were highly transmissive,” said Dr Albert Au Ka-wing, principal medical and health officer of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection (CHP).Centre controller Dr Edwin Tsui Lok-kin warned the risk of community spread was “relatively high”.“We will work with Transport and Housing Bureau colleagues to further review if there is a possibility to consider further restricting the movements of exempted persons, [such as] aircrew, in Hong Kong,” he said, adding authorities would also look into “locations of isolation or quarantine”.Tsui said the government would try to strike a balance between public health needs and cargo and aviation operations.He conceded that if Hong Kong were to adopt a total closed-loop system in managing people exempted from quarantine, such as having specific transport to take arrivals back to their isolation place, much effort would be involved. Relevant government departments would need to look into the feasibility of such an approach.
Cathay Pacific said any tightening of cargo aircrew quarantine rules could force it to cut flights, not just harming the airline but also choking the city and affecting global supply chains.“Tightening the travel restrictions for aircrew operating cargo services would significantly impede our ability to continue to mount these important flights,” an airline spokeswoman said.
Aircrew would need to volunteer for closed-loop operations, flying for three weeks and living in airport hotels throughout, but Cathay already had a shortage of pilots and cabin crew volunteering to fly and spend considerable time in quarantine. Staff have expressed concerns about being separated from families for a long time.The bureau said it “attaches great importance to the concerned cases and will maintain close communications with the CHP and the airline”.Earlier in the day, health experts had called for tighter quarantine arrangements for aircrew to close any remaining avenues of coronavirus transmission in Hong Kong.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#chine#frontiere#circulation#sante##quarantaine#restrictionsanitaire

Coronavirus: Malaysia and Indonesia plan to open travel lane; | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3155489/four-asiatic-lions-test-positive-covid-19-singapore-night

Coronavirus: Malaysia and Indonesia plan to open travel lane; Fully-vaccinated would be able to fly between the two nations next year
Libraries, museums and zoos in New Zealand’s biggest city were also allowed to receive visitors amid a pickup in vaccination rates

Malaysia and Indonesia plan to allow fully-vaccinated travellers to fly between the two nations, just days after a similar agreement was struck in one of the world’s busiest air routes.The Southeast Asian neighbours may start vaccinated travel lanes from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Jakarta and Bali, according to a joint briefing by Malaysia Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo on November 10. The two countries aim to finalise and implement the plan early next year.“Reopening borders safely is important in balancing between the need to open up and revive the economy and take care of the safety and control aspects of public health,” Ismail said in a statement after the briefing. The arrangement will prioritise fully-vaccinated people travelling for official, business, medical or humanitarian reasons, he said.The initiative would mark Indonesia’s first vaccinated travel lane, and Malaysia’s second, as the Southeast Asian neighbours move to ease Covid-induced border curbs. Malaysia is also in discussions with Brunei and Thailand to provide more quarantine-free travel options, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said on Twitter.Malaysia and Singapore this week agreed to start a vaccinated travel lane from November 29. Malaysia’s rapid vaccination progress has allowed it to lift a ban on interstate trips for fully inoculated citizens, and the country is set to reopen the tourist haven of Langkawi islands to overseas visitors next week under a pilot project.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#malaisie#singapour#frontiere#sante#circulation#vaccination#tourisme#economie#santepublique#business#circulationtherapeutique