Starting April 1, travellers who have been fully vaccinated overseas and registered their vaccination history with South Korea ’s Q-Code website will be able to enter the country without a seven-day quarantine period. Travellers who have completed a two-dose vaccine series at least 14 days before their trip will be considered fully vaccinated. A one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will also be accepted. If more than 180 days have passed since a traveller completed their initial vaccination series, they will need a booster shot to be considered fully vaccinated. Overseas travellers will receive a QR code through the Q-Code system, which can be scanned at immigration, according to the Korea Tourism Organisation’s website. The Q-Code system will ask for information such as a passport number, departure country, airline, phone number and vaccine records. Travellers arriving by plane will need to show proof of a negative PCR coronavirus test taken no more than 48 hours before departure. Children under the age of 6 do not need a coronavirus test to enter. Coronavirus: How South Korea is beating Covid despite 600,000 new cases a day Unvaccinated travellers and all travellers from Pakistan , Uzbekistan, Ukraine , and Myanmar – regardless of vaccination status – are still required to quarantine. The easing of restrictions comes as South Korea faces its largest Covid-19 surge yet. The 429 deaths reported on Thursday were nearly 140 more than the previous one-day record set on Tuesday. Fatalities may further rise in coming weeks considering the intervals between infections, hospitalisation and deaths. The 621,266 new coronavirus cases diagnosed by health workers were also a record daily jump, shattering Wednesday’s previous high of 400,624. That pushed the national caseload to over 8.2 million, with more than 7.4 million cases added since the start of February. The outbreak has been significantly bigger than what had been forecast by government health authorities, who maintain that Omicron is nearing its peak. Officials in recent briefings have said Omicron is no more deadly than seasonal influenza for vaccinated people and less dangerous than the Delta strain that hit the country hard in December and early January. While 1,159 virus patients were in serious or critical conditions as of Thursday, government officials said the medical response remains stable following efforts to expand resources since the Delta outbreak, which has brought the number of Covid-19 intensive care units to 2,800. Our toughest moment will likely come in late March or early April Jaehun Jung, Gachon University College of Medicine Jaehun Jung, a professor at Gachon University College of Medicine in Incheon, said South Korea’s hospital system could buckle if the number of serious Covid-19 cases reaches 1,800, as the number of ICUs being used at hospitals tends to be 50 per cent higher than the daily number of seriously ill Covid-19 patients announced by the government. “Our toughest moment will likely come in late March or early April,” he said. “One encouraging sign that the growth in serious illnesses has been actually slower than expected, which possibly shows the effectiveness of oral antiviral treatments”. Lee Sang-won, a senior Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency official, said during a briefing that health authorities feel “apologetic” over the explosion of Omicron cases that has been bigger than they expected. Around 70,000 of the new cases reported on Thursday were infections that were mistakenly omitted from Wednesday’s tally, and that the real daily increase would be around 550,000, Lee said. Australia wants to start living with Covid-19 ‘like the flu’, PM says He said a highly transmissible Omicron subvariant known as BA. 2 also seems to be driving up infections. About 26 per cent of the country’s recent cases have been linked to BA. 2, up from around 17 per cent last month, Lee said. Omicron has forced South Korea to abandon a stringent Covid-19 response based on mass laboratory tests, aggressive contact tracing and quarantines to focus limited medical resources on priority groups, including people 60 and older and those with pre-existing medical conditions. Thailand scraps pre-arrival testing as cases jump Thailand will scrap a pre-arrival Covid-free certificate requirement for vaccinated foreign visitors even as it reported record new infections, as more countries ease border controls to benefit from a rebound in global travel. Visitors to Thailand will now be required to undergo only an RT-PCR test on arrival and a self-antigen test on day five, according to Chote Trachu, permanent secretary of the Ministry Of Tourism and Sports. Previously, travellers needed to carry a Covid-free certificate issued within 72 hours of boarding a flight. The nation’s main Covid-19 task force, headed by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, also agreed to extend a nationwide state of emergency to handle the most recent outbreak by two months through to the end of May, Chote said. Thailand is easing tourist curbs as countries from Australia to the Philippines and Indonesia join nations opening up borders after more than two years. The Southeast Asian nation is counting on the return of tourists in large numbers to sustain a nascent economic revival. Thailand reported 27,071 new cases on Friday, a record daily count, as an omicron-fuelled Covid wave sweeps through much of the country of almost 70 million people. It also reported 80 new deaths, the highest daily fatalities since Nov. 5, official data showed. Asia’s tourist hotspots roll back curbs Southeast Asia’s tourist havens from Bali to Bangkok are moving to further reopen, rolling back Covid-19 restrictions to attract more visitors and bolster growth in their tourism-reliant economies. Vietnam on Thursday waived quarantine rules for all international travellers, building on earlier efforts including allowing limited group tours after two years of stringent curbs. The Philippines and Malaysia will also allow quarantine-free entry to all fully vaccinated travellers from April 1. In Indonesia , the government is set to give an update on its virus measures on Monday, after saying that it would lift quarantine measures for international travel in April or sooner following a trial run in Bali. What to do in Bali now the ‘Island of the Gods’ is quarantine-free Tourism accounted for 12.1 per cent of Southeast Asia’s economic output and employed 42 million workers in 2019, according to the Asian Development Bank. Then the pandemic hit and plummeting visitor arrivals pushed more people into poverty and unemployment. Covid-19 infections have eased in places like the Philippines and Indonesia, but remain elevated in Vietnam and Thailand. The good news is that vaccination rates are improving across the region, allowing further reopening. In Singapore , the target is to open to all fully vaccinated travellers sooner rather than later, as part of a push to restore passenger volumes to at least 50 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels this year. Thailand is considering scrapping its Covid-19 testing requirement after stakeholders called rules for quarantine-free entry “cumbersome”. Cambodia has also dropped testing requirements before and upon arrival, the Khmer Times reported. New Zealand hopes for Australian tourist boost New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is making a play for Australian tourists as she prepares to open the border to foreigners for the first time in more than two years. Appearing on Australian breakfast shows on Friday, Ardern said New Zealanders will welcome back Australians with open arms when the border opens to them on April 13, despite the friendly rivalry between the two nations. “I cannot remember a time when we’ve been so excited by the prospect of seeing so many Australians,” she told Seven Network’s Sunrise programme. “You can expect to get the warmest welcome possible.” New Zealand is hoping Australians will flock across the Tasman Sea to revive its ailing tourism industry – the nation’s biggest foreign exchange earner before the pandemic, bringing in 20 per cent of total export receipts. Historically, Australians have accounted for 40 per cent of international arrivals, with around 1.5 million visiting each year. Ardern was interviewed from Queenstown, the picturesque ski resort on New Zealand’s South Island that has been particularly hard hit by the absence of foreign visitors. It’s banking on Australians returning for the ski season, which is due to start in June. “It’s quick and it’s convenient, we offer an amazing skiing destination,” Ardern said. Omicron brings pandemic reality home to ‘Fortress New Zealand’ Vaccinated Australians will be able to enter New Zealand without needing to isolate from 11:59pm on April 12. They must provide a negative pre-departure test and complete two rapid antigen tests in the days after arrival. The border will open to visitors from other visa-waiver countries such as the US, the UK, Japan, Singapore and Germany from May 2. New Zealand slammed its border shut in March 2020 and, apart from a brief travel bubble with Australia in 2021 and corridors with some Pacific islands, it has been largely closed to foreigners since. Reporting by Tribune News Service, Associated Press, Bloomberg