Advertisement
Advertisement
Coronavirus pandemic
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern at a press conference in Auckland. Photo: dpa

Coronavirus: Fortress New Zealand to reopen in phases but self-isolation remains

  • New Zealand to begin reopening border after an almost two-year closure, with all travellers required to self-isolate for 10 days, PM Ardern says
  • Elsewhere, South Korea enforces new testing policy, while previously Covid-free Tonga enters first day of lockdown, and cases reach new high in Indonesia and Japan
Agencies

New Zealand on Thursday announced a phased reopening of its border that has been largely closed for two years, but the travel and airline industry said much more was needed to revive the Pacific island nation’s struggling tourism sector.

Vaccinated New Zealanders in Australia can travel home from February 27 without requiring to isolate at state quarantine facilities, while New Zealand citizens in the rest of the world will be able to do so two weeks later, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

Foreign vaccinated backpackers and some skilled workers will be allowed into the country beginning March 13, while New Zealand will allow up to 5,000 international students to enter from April 12.

But all travellers would still have to self-isolate for 10 days, Ardern said.

PM Jacinda Ardern said opening borders in a managed way would allow people to reunite and help fill workforce shortages while ensuring the health system could manage an increase in cases. Photo: dpa

Tourists from Australia and other visa-free countries will not be allowed to enter until July and travellers from the rest of the world will be kept out until October under the plan, which will also require them to self-isolate on arrival.

Ardern said opening borders in a managed way would allow people to reunite and help fill workforce shortages while ensuring the health care system could manage an increase in cases.

“Our strategy with Omicron is to slow the spread, and our borders are part of that,” she said, referring to the highly contagious variant of the virus currently dominant around the world.

Omicron forces NZ’s Jacinda Ardern to call off wedding

New Zealand has had some of the toughest border controls in the world for the last two years, as the government tried to keep the coronavirus out.

Foreigners were banned from entering, and citizens looking to return had to either make emergency requests to the government or secure a spot in state quarantine facilities, called MIQ, through a website. Critics have called the process an unfair, lottery-style system.

The shortcomings of the system were highlighted over the past week by pregnant New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis, who was stranded in Afghanistan after New Zealand officials initially rejected her application to return home to give birth.

Charlotte Bellis, who was stranded in Afghanistan after New Zealand officials initially rejected her application to return home to give birth. She is pictured with her partner Jim Huylebroek in Kabul. Photo: Charlotte Bellis via AP

After international publicity, officials backed down and offered her a spot in quarantine, which she has accepted.

A country of 5 million people, New Zealand has had about 17,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases so far and just 53 deaths.

The self-isolation requirement will prevent any meaningful recovery in tourism demand, said New Zealand Airports Association chief executive Kevin Ward.

“People do not want to fly to New Zealand if they have to spend their first week sitting in a hotel,” he said.

New Zealand reverses entry ban on pregnant woman after outcry

His industry association said analysis by Auckland Airport showed demand from Australia’s visitor market is estimated at just 7 per cent of 2019 levels if the self-isolation requirement remains in place.

A spokesperson for Australian travel agent Flight Centre said the isolation requirement would be a “deal-breaker” for the vast majority of potential travellers.

Ardern said the government will be reviewing the self-isolation requirements.

“It will be a much more meaningful reopening for tourists if they are able to enter with lesser self isolation,” she said.

02:36

Aid to Tonga starts arriving amid looming food and water shortages from underwater volcano eruption

Aid to Tonga starts arriving amid looming food and water shortages from underwater volcano eruption

Streets of tsunami-hit Tonga empty on first day of lockdown

The streets of tsunami-hit Tonga were empty and silent on Thursday on the first full day of a lockdown imposed in the previously coronavirus-free nation after two wharf workers were diagnosed with Covid-19.

“Normally this road would be queuing with vehicles and people, but as you can see all shops are closed, everything is closed – taxi stands, shops, supermarkets, it’s closed,” said local journalist Marian Kupu as she stood at a deserted crossroads in the capital, closed buildings behind her.

“It’s a ghost town here in Nuku’alofa.”

There had been fears an influx of international ships and planes delivering badly-needed water, shelter and food after last month’s devastating volcanic eruption had increased the risk of a pandemic outbreak in the isolated Pacific nation. Tonga had previously recorded only one Covid case.

Aid supplies delivered by the Australian Defence Force are unloaded at Fua’amotu International Airport. File photo: Australian Defence Force via AP

However, the infected waterfront workers were not employed on docks being used by foreign navies to deliver aid, said Curtis Tu’ihalangingie, Tonga’s deputy head of mission in Australia.

The Australian Defence Force’s Chief of Joint Operations, Greg Bilton, said samples from the wharf workers would be sent to Australia for testing to verify the strain’s origin. A further three cases were identified in a family, Tongan radio station BroadcomFM reported on Wednesday.

Tongans had queued outside banks and petrol stations on Wednesday ahead of the lockdown which started at 6pm.

“Tonga has been hit with two disasters,” said Fe’iloakitau Tevi, chief of staff at Tonga’s foreign affairs ministry.

“One is of course the eruption and the second one is the discovery of the Covid-19 cases. There is a lockdown and I think it’s a good thing. We need to be tracking and doing tracing of those who were in contact with the first two Covid cases.”

A resident gets a Pfizer Covid-19 booster jab at a vaccination centre in Quezon city, Philippines. Photo: AFP

Philippine leader Duterte isolates after Covid exposure

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is self-isolating after being exposed last weekend to a member of his household staff who had Covid-19, but Duterte has twice tested negative following the exposure, his spokesman said Thursday.

The 76-year-old leader continues to work while in quarantine and remains in communication with his Cabinet members to address urgent issues and pandemic-related concerns, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said.

Duterte has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and received his booster shot last month.

Nograles confirmed social media reports that Duterte went to the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in suburban San Juan district in the capital region but said the visit was for a “routine medical check-up only.” He did not say when Duterte went to the hospital or provide other details.

Duterte, whose stormy six-year term ends in June, has acknowledged in the past that he has various health ailments, including recurring migraines, as a result of a past motorcycle accident and drinking. But he said his most serious health concern is Barrett’s oesophagus, a condition thought to be caused by stomach acid flowing up into the oesophagus.

The Philippine constitution requires presidents to publicly disclose any serious illness and Duterte’s aides have defended his refusal to release medical bulletins about his health in the past by saying he has not had any serious medical problems.

02:14

South Korea’s small business owners shave their heads in protest against curfew to contain Covid-19

South Korea’s small business owners shave their heads in protest against curfew to contain Covid-19

South Korea expands rapid testing

South Korea on Thursday began enforcing a new coronavirus testing policy centred on rapid testing as health officials reported a record number of new infections following the Lunar New Year holiday.

The 22,907 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency marked a second straight day of over 20,000 new infections and about a five-fold increase from daily cases seen in mid-January, when the highly contagious Omicron variant first became the country’s dominant strain.

Long lines snaked around testing stations in the capital Seoul and other major cities, where most people were provided rapid antigen test kits to use under the supervision of health workers, who then approved lab tests for anyone who tested positive.

A medical worker passes by people as they wait for their coronavirus test at a makeshift testing site in Seoul. Photo: AP
Since the start of the pandemic, South Korea’s testing regime had centred on PCR lab tests, which are considered most accurate but require a large number of health workers to administer nasal and throat swabs, and hi-tech machines to analyse samples.

The new testing regime that started Thursday expands the use of rapid testing and is aimed at saving PCR lab tests for high-risk groups, including people in their 60s and older or those with pre-existing medical conditions.

Some experts have opposed the new policy, saying that rapid tests aren’t sensitive enough to reliably detect omicron infections and raising concerns that transmissions could worsen if people who return false negative tests continue to venture out in public.

Wave of K-pop stars test positive for Covid-19 amid surge in South Korea

But health officials say the country must concentrate lab tests and other crucial medical resources due to the speed of infections driven by omicron. Officials are also expanding at-home treatments and have eased quarantine periods for virus carriers and people who come in close contact with them, citing concerns about major disruptions at workplaces and essential services if large numbers of people are constantly placed under quarantine.

While omicron is spreading much faster than previous versions of the virus, the rates of hospitalisation and death have so far been lower than cases linked to delta, senior KDCA official Lim Sook-young said during a briefing. Virus patients in their 60s or older accounted for around 8 per cent of recent infections, she said, possibly reflecting protection provided by booster shots.

More than 85 per cent of South Korea’s 51 million people have been fully vaccinated and more than 53 per cent have received booster shots.

Indonesia cases reach six-month high as Omicron spreads

Indonesia added the highest number of Covid-19 cases in almost six months as the more transmissible omicron variant spreads throughout the country.

The government reported 27,197 new infections on Thursday, the most since August 14. Daily deaths reached the highest since October 21 as 38 people succumbed to the disease. Cases have picked up rapidly from less than a hundred in late December.

Indonesia is refraining from imposing strict movement limits despite the surge in infections, resorting instead to calling people to avoid gatherings and reducing in-person schooling to half capacity. The government is nearly doubling the number of hospital beds dedicated for Covid-19 handling as it braces for cases to reach as high as 285,000 a day.

Japan’s daily Covid cases top 100,000 for first time

Japan’s daily Covid-19 cases exceeded 100,000 for the first time on Thursday as the country struggles to contain a sixth wave of infections, driven by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The cumulative total of coronavirus cases in Japan had topped three million as of Thursday, according to a Kyodo News tally based on local government releases.

Reporting by Reuters, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Kyodo

12