“Malaysia is Singapore’s closest neighbour and the two countries share deep and warm relations. The Causeway was one of the busiest land borders in the world before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted our cross-border activities,” Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said. “The launch of the Vaccinated Travel Lane (Land) is a big step towards reconnecting our people and economies, and will further enhance our bilateral relationship.”

From November 29, travellers can cross the land border by using designated bus services. There will be 32 such services a day operating from Singapore to Malaysia and another 32 in the other direction and ticket sales begin at 8am on November 25.

Thousands of Malaysian workers were trapped in Singapore when Malaysia last year shut its borders on March 18. The lockdown was only announced on March 16, forcing workers to decide if they wanted to stay in Malaysia with family or remain in the city state for work. The Singapore government then scrambled to match workers to temporary accommodation facilities in the city state.

Prior to the upcoming vaccinated travel air and land lanes, workers could commute under a separate scheme but under strict rules, such as a stay-home isolation period. There is also an arrangement that facilitates emergency visits, given the close familial ties that some in Singapore have with Malaysia.

New Zealand to lift border in five months

Along with its geographic isolation, the South Pacific country enforced some of the tightest pandemic restrictions among OECD nations, limiting the spread of Covid-19 and helping its economy bounce back faster than many of its peers.

But an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant earlier this year has forced a shift in strategy, with the main city of Auckland now only gradually opening up as vaccination rates climb.

Fully vaccinated international travellers will be allowed to enter the country from April 30, 2022 onwards, with the reopening staged over time, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told a news conference.

Fully vaccinated New Zealanders and residence visa holders in neighbouring Australia can travel home from January 16, while inoculated New Zealanders and residence visa holders most from other countries will be allowed in from February 13.

“A phased approach to reconnecting with the world is the safest approach to ensure risk is carefully managed,” Hipkins said.

“This reduces any potential impacts on vulnerable communities and the New Zealand health system.”

Travellers will no longer be required to stay at state quarantine facilities, he said, but other measures will be put in place including a negative pre-departure test, proof of being fully vaccinated, and a Covid-19 test on arrival.

South Korea posts record 4,116 new cases

In a tiny rural church in a town of 427 residents in Cheonan city, south of Seoul, at least 241 people linked to the religious community had tested positive for coronavirus, a city official said on Wednesday.

Many of the congregation were elderly in their 60s and above and were unvaccinated, the official said. Just 17 out of the 241 confirmed cases had been vaccinated.

“I believe it’s the church’s anti-government beliefs that refrained the believers to get the vaccine,” the official said, adding that the town was put under a lockdown.

The church opened in the early 1990s and has ever since become larger with communal living facilities of its own.

The religion is not officially registered as a sect, however, the ritual act the pastor performs is known as the so called “imposition of hands on eyes”, a practice of poking two eyes to rid of secular desire, Jung youn-seok, a head of cult information resources think tank said.

“Such act is extremely dangerous and nonbiblical. It is an outright ban in Korean Christianity,” Jung said, adding that the pastor’s mother was a powerful figure and was ousted from Christian community in the 1990s for practicing identical rituals.

Calls to the church from Reuters went unanswered.

The outbreak is a small portion of the national total, but is an example of a cluster with a high concentration of cases.

Shincheonji was a church at the centre of the first major coronavirus epidemic outside China early 2020, with at least 5,227 people linked to its 310,000 followers infected after attending a service in the city of Daegu.

South Korea this month switched to a “living with Covid-19” plan aimed at lifting rigid distancing rules and ultimately reopening after reaching vaccination goals last month.

Looking at the metropolitan Seoul area alone, the situation is critical enough to impose an emergency plan at any time, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a Covid-19 response meeting on Wednesday.

He called on health authorities to classify the patients accordingly based on the severity of the symptoms and make use of self-treatment options for mild or asymptomatic cases.

Less than 20 per cent were treating themselves at home last week, Kim said.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) had said the emergency plan may be imposed if and when the nationwide ICU bed capacity surpasses 75 per cent or depending on the risk assessment that reviews medical response shortfalls, surge in number of elderly patients and uptake in booster shots.

India’s home-grown vaccine shows limits

The findings suggest that Covaxin, a shot co-developed by India’s state-funded health research agency and local company Bharat Biotech International Ltd., is less effective than initially thought.

02:20

Hong Kong microbiologist blames 'selfish' mask for Covid-19 cross infection at quarantine hotel

Hong Kong microbiologist blames 'selfish' mask for Covid-19 cross infection at quarantine hotel

Philippines gives free food to boost jab drive

Duterte ordered government workers to “use all available resources” during the vaccination drive from November 29 to December 1. He also directed soldiers and police to help deliver the vaccines, and even asked local officials to give fast-food treats to those who will get inoculated.

“I am authorising all governors and mayors, just spend money. I will replace that some day,” Duterte said in remarks aired late Tuesday.

The Southeast Asian nation will have to increase its daily vaccinations by seven times to achieve its target for the three-day drive, with a current average of 691,800 doses per day. The Department of Health earlier said 160,000 volunteers are needed for the drive.

As of November 23, more than 33.5 million people out of a population of 109 million have been fully vaccinated, Duterte said. The country has also started vaccinating minors, and more than 3 million kids aged 12 to 17 years old have received the shots.

The Philippines has eased most of the movement restrictions in the capital and other key areas as infections decline. It was at the bottom of Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking for a second straight month in October.

To further speed up inoculations, Philippine business groups also appealed that they be allowed to use their vaccine stocks as boosters.

“We no longer have a shortage, and with such a large stockpile, we risk having vaccines expire and go to waste,” said the groups of businessmen, money market and foreign exchange traders, outsourcing companies, insurers and other executives.

Reporting by Kok Xinghui in Singapore, Reuters, Bloomberg