Japan ’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday announced plans to fully lift coronavirus restrictions on March 21 as new infections driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant slow. The Covid-19 restrictions currently in place in 18 prefectures, including the Tokyo area, will end on Monday as planned, Kishida said at a news conference on Wednesday, as his government seeks to cautiously expand consumer activity to help the badly hurt economy get back on track. It will be the first time Japan has been free of virus restrictions since early January. Daily caseloads have steadily declined in Japan in recent weeks after surging to new highs exceeding 100,000 in early February. New cases have fallen by about half. Japan’s quarantine lesson for HK: the state pays, treats you like an adult Kishida has faced criticism that he delayed booster shots until all municipalities were ready, allowing the virus to quickly spread in the country. His government has since opened mass inoculation centres to speed up the booster programme. About 72 per cent of people aged 65 or older have received their third jabs, but overall booster vaccines have reached only one-third of the population. Experts urge caution after the lifting of restrictions due to the possibility of a resurgence of infections. A subvariant of Omicron is gradually replacing the primary strain around the country. Thailand to relax entry rules for tourists Thailand plans to scrap a mandatory pre-arrival Covid-free certificate for vaccinated tourists to support an economic recovery facing headwinds from the pandemic and the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The nation’s main Covid-19 task force will consider on Friday a Health Ministry proposal to waive the RT-PCR test requirement before travelling to Thailand, according to Permanent Secretary of Public Health Kiattiphum Wongrajit. The ministry is also seeking to lower the minimum medical insurance need to US$10,000 from US$20,000, he said. Can Asia’s tourism rebirth happen without the Russians? Travellers will still need to undergo an RT-PCR test on arrival and a self-administered rapid antigen test on day five, Kiattiphum said. Thailand, which is battling an Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 wave, currently requires vaccinated visitors to pre-book a hotel and an RT-PCR test before applying for a visa. They also require a negative RT-PCR test taken within 72 hours of boarding a flight. The Covid-19 task force will also deliberate a road-map for classifying the pandemic as endemic from July, Kiattiphum said, adding it may also waive mask mandate in some places such as public parks. A national state of emergency to handle the pandemic may no longer be required once the outbreak is classified as endemic, he said. New Zealand to reopen its border next month New Zealand will begin reopening its border to the world next month, bringing an end to the “fortress” settings that kept Covid-19 out for much of the pandemic. Vaccinated Australians will be allowed to enter without needing to isolate on arrival from 11.59pm on April 12, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday in Wellington. The border will open to visitors from other visa-waiver countries such as the US, the UK, Japan, Singapore and Germany from midnight May 1, she said. “We’re ready to welcome the world back,” Ardern told a news conference. “Now that we’re highly vaccinated and predicted to be off our Omicron peak, it’s now safe to open up.” ‘People are tired’: New Zealand businesses want to deflate Covid bubble Ardern slammed the border shut two years ago, allowing only citizens to enter and only via managed isolation facilities to ensure they did not carry the virus into the local community. So-called “Fortress New Zealand” largely succeeded in keeping Covid-19 at bay – until the arrival of the highly infectious Omicron variant, which is now spreading rapidly through the population. The border has already been fully reopened to New Zealanders, who can enter from anywhere in the world without needing to isolate. All travellers still need to provide negative pre-departure tests and undertake two rapid-antigen tests within the first week of arrival. The end of border restrictions will be a boost for the tourism industry – once the nation’s biggest export earner – which has been decimated by the two-year absence of foreign visitors. The closed border also cut the supply of migrant labour and created a worker shortage that is impeding economic activity, driving up wages and fuelling inflation. “Reopening in time for the upcoming Australian school holidays will help spur our economic recovery in the short term and is good news for the winter ski season,” Ardern said. “I am proud that New Zealand is a country able in this moment in time to provide a safe place for our tourists to return to.” More than 95 per cent of people aged 12 and over are fully vaccinated and more than 70 per cent of adults have had a booster shot. So far, the pandemic death toll is just 117. Previously, the border was due to open to Australians by July and to all other tourists by October. Ardern said no decision has been made yet on when migrants or visitors from countries that require a visa, such as China, will be permitted to enter. South Korea cases hit fresh record South Korea reported more than 400,000 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a record, as the country continues to ease restrictions despite the Omicron-fuelled wave of infections. Health authorities said 400,741 cases were recorded, the country’s highest daily figure since the pandemic began two years ago. The latest spike in cases is the “last biggest challenge” facing the country, Sohn Young-rae, a senior health official, told a press briefing. The government had anticipated caseloads in this ballpark, he said, adding that they believed they were nearing the peak of the Omicron wave. “If we overcome this crisis we will step closer to returning to normalcy,” he added. South Korea leads the world in newly reported cases in the last seven days, according to WHO data, with 2,358,878 cases, followed by Vietnam with 1,795,380. The vast majority of South Korea’s eligible population has been vaccinated and boosted, and despite the record number of infections in the country of 52 million people, death rates remain very low. The country has also continued to relax its social distancing rules, under pressure from small businesses and self-employed Koreans who say years-long Covid-19 restrictions had pushed their businesses to the brink. South Korea now has a 11pm curfew for businesses and a six-person limit for private gatherings. It will lift mandatory quarantine on arrival for fully vaccinated visitors from March 21. The government is expected to decide whether to further relax or keep the current distancing guidelines on Friday. Hong Kong’s virus suppression policy risks becoming a zero-Covid trap Visitors to travel freely in Vietnam Vietnam is allowing foreign arrivals with proof of a negative Covid-19 test to travel freely in the country upon entry. International tourists are only required to have negative PCR tests within 72 hours or negative quick tests within 24 hours before their arrival, the Health Ministry said. With a negative result in hand, no period of self-isolation is required. Visitors who have arrived without one must take one within 24 hours after entering and can then leave their accommodation in case they are not infected, the ministry said. They are not required to have a double-vaccinated certificate but must use an approved Covid app during their stay in Vietnam. Children under 2 years are not required to have a Covid-19 test. On Tuesday, the Vietnamese government reinstated a visa exemption rule – introduced before the pandemic – that would allow citizens from 13 countries to stay in the southeast Asian nation for 15 days without a visa. Vietnam’s international border slammed shut to tourists in March 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. For a long time, only Vietnamese nationals and international experts working in the country were able to board flights to Vietnam. Reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse, dpa