Australia reopened its “ travel bubble ” with New Zealand on Sunday after the neighbouring country reported no new locally acquired Covid-19 cases, but added new screening measures as it marked its longest infection-free run since the outbreak began. The decision marks the resumption of the only international arrivals into Australia who do not require 14 days in hotel quarantine. Australia had paused quarantine exemptions for trans-Tasman arrivals six days earlier after New Zealand reported its first new case in months. Arrivals from New Zealand “are now judged to be sufficiently low risk, given New Zealand’s strong public health response to Covid-19”, acting Australian Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd told reporters. However, Australia would require screening of travellers from New Zealand before and after flights for the next 10 days, Kidd added, “given there is still a small risk of further associated cases being detected and with an abundance of caution”. The resumption came as Australia marked two weeks without a locally acquired case of the virus, which has infected 29,000 in the country and killed 909. On Sunday, Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government would invite the country’s roughly 5,800 community pharmacies this week to apply for a federally-funded programme to pay them to administer inoculations, along with doctors and hospital health workers. The government plans to start vaccinating priority groups like older and indigenous Australians with a shot developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE from late February. Single case sends Australian city into snap lockdown The Australian city of Perth will begin a snap five-day lockdown after a security guard at a quarantine hotel tested positive for Covid-19, authorities announced on Sunday. Roughly 2 million residents of the city must stay at home as of Sunday evening, as will those living in the nearby Peel and South West regions. A scheduled return of schools on Monday will be delayed, with locals only permitted to leave their homes for exercise, medical care, essential work or to buy food. The new rules follow the first case of community transmission in Western Australia state for 10 months, officials said. China wants Pacific nations’ telecoms assets, but can Australia jam the call? “Our model is to deal with it very, very quickly and harshly … so that we can bring it under control and not have community spread of the virus as you have seen in other countries around the world,” state Premier Mark McGowan said. Authorities believe the man contracted the virus from a returning traveller quarantining in a hotel in Australia’s fourth-biggest city. Cafes, bars and restaurants have been ordered to close, while visits to health facilities are banned and weddings cancelled. The restrictions are the toughest seen in Perth since the early stages of the pandemic, while masks have been made mandatory for the first time. Western Australia kept its borders closed for most of 2020, cutting itself off from the rest of the nation but allowing the state to enjoy many months of relative normality. Philippines welcomes bishops’ offer to help with vaccine drive The Philippines ’ health ministry on Sunday welcomed the offer of a group of Catholic bishops to help in the coronavirus vaccination drive of the government, which is struggling to persuade many Filipinos to get the shots. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has offered to transform church facilities in the country into Covid-19 vaccination sites, and said its members were also willing to get vaccinated in public to help build confidence in the campaign. “Churches really can be alternative sites to areas that lack facility, especially those in hard-to-reach municipalities,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque said in a statement. As Philippines seeks Covid-19 vaccines, ghost of Dengvaxia scandal lingers The health ministry has acknowledged they face an uphill struggle to persuade many people to take the vaccine shots, on top of the logistical difficulties in reaching 2,000 inhabited islands with precarious health systems. “We can offer our church facilities to help in this massive and complicated and very challenging programme of vaccination,” Archbishop Romulo Valles, CBCP president, was quoted as saying on Thursday by the official news service of the CBCP Media Office. At least 5.6 million doses of two international coronavirus vaccines are expected to arrive in the Philippines in the first quarter of the year, the chief of the country’s coronavirus task force said on Sunday. The initial volume is part of the 9.4 million doses of the two vaccines – one developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, the other by AstraZeneca PLC – that are expected to be shipped in the first half, said Carlito Galvez, who also handles the government’s vaccine procurement. Indonesia to receive some AstraZeneca shots via Covax Indonesia will receive as many as 23.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine in the first half of the year, boosting the government’s inoculation efforts as Covid-19 cases and deaths continue to rise by record numbers. The Southeast Asian nation will get the shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the World Health Organization-backed Covax initiative, the Indonesian foreign affairs ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Covax aims to provide vaccines for developing countries. The vaccines will arrive in stages, with 25-35 per cent by March and the remainder in the second quarter, the ministry said, citing a letter of confirmation from Covax. Are anti-vaxxers winning as India, Indonesia press on with inoculations? The shots can be used once the WHO approves the AstraZeneca inoculation for emergency use. The initial allocation for Indonesia is between 13.7 million and 23.1 million shots, the ministry said. President Joko Widodo told officials on Sunday that distancing measures needed to be implemented more firmly and consistently to slow the virus spread, adding that military, police and religious leaders must pitch in. Indonesia reported 12,001 new Covid-19 infections and 270 deaths on Sunday. It currently leads Southeast Asia, with 1,078,314 cases and 29,998 fatalities. Thailand reports 829 new coronavirus cases Thailand reported 829 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, most of which came from Samut Sakhon province south of Bangkok, the epicentre of the country’s recent outbreak. The new tally included seven imported cases that brought the overall number of cases in Thailand to 18,782 since the start of the outbreak in January last year, the country’s Covid-19 task force said. Fatalities remained unchanged on Sunday at 77. Reporting by Reuters, Agence France-Presse