The medical facilities have been outfitted with ultracold freezers capable of storing the vaccine at around minus 75 degrees Celsius. Once taken out, doses must be kept refrigerated and used within five days.

A further 3.7 million front-line health workers are to begin being inoculated in March, followed by 36 million people aged 65 or older from April. People with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or heart disease and those working at elderly care facilities will come next, and then finally the general population.

New Zealand sees more local cases

New Zealand lifted a snap three-day Covid-19 lockdown in Auckland on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expressing confidence the outbreak in the city of almost 2 million was contained.

“[It appears] that we don’t have a widespread outbreak, but rather a small chain of transmission which is manageable via our normal contact tracing and testing procedures,” she said.

The country reported two new locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, just hours before authorities made the decision on lifting the lockdown.

Auckland in lockdown after UK coronavirus strain found in New Zealand

A family of three – two adults and a child – was diagnosed with Covid-19, with at least two determined to be the more transmissible UK variant. The two latest cases are siblings studying at the same school as the child, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told members of a health select committee.

There are still test results pending on some close and casual contacts of the family, he said.

The Auckland lockdown was the first in the country for about six months, after a hard nationwide shutdown early in the pandemic appeared to have largely eliminated local transmission.

The fresh outbreak prompted neighbouring Australia to suspend an arrangement that allowed New Zealanders to enter Australia without serving a 14-day hotel quarantine period.

Australia’s Victoria to ease curbs

The Victoria state government has yet to say whether spectators will be allowed to return to the Australian Open tennis tournament under the same conditions as before the five-day lockdown. Health authorities will soon settle on a final crowd figure for the final days of the tournament, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said.

“We’ll finish up with crowds at lots of different places,” Andrews said. “We’ll finish up with people being able to move freely because this short and sharp circuit-breaker has worked.”

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The lockdown has been enforced across Victoria, a population of 6.5 million people, to prevent the virus spreading from the state capital.

Most restrictions will be lifted from 11:59pm after no new infection was detected in the latest 24-hour period, Andrews said. Schools and businesses will reopen. The government has also not yet said when flights will resume.

But people will still be required to wear masks and visitors to homes will be limited to five people until February 26 when the last of the state’s 25 active Covid-19 cases will no longer be infectious.

Australia has largely avoided the high rate of Covid-19 cases and deaths seen in other developed countries thanks to border closures and effective contact tracing systems. It has reported just under 29,000 cases and 909 deaths.

India finds new cases of more infectious variant

Cases in India have been falling dramatically and uniformly across the country for months. But the detection of the more infectious variants comes amid some worrying but so far isolated outbreaks.

A cluster of over a 100 cases has been detected in the southern India city of Bengaluru at an apartment complex. Another spike was detected by health officials in several pockets of Maharashtra state, including in Mumbai, the country’s financial capital.

South Korea warning as cases surge

The government relaxed distancing curbs on Saturday to take effect starting this week, after getting on top of a third wave of Covid-19 outbreaks that peaked at around 1,200 daily cases in late December.

But the numbers shot back up in just three days, topping 600 for the first time in 39 days on Tuesday, after a ban on nighttime entertainment facilities was lifted and a restaurant curfew extended by one hour to 10pm.

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Chung said there were signs of lax discipline, singling out nightclubs and people partying at a hotel after the curfew. “We’ve eased distancing to help small business owners maintain their livelihoods, not to keep a slack rein on the virus,” he told a televised meeting.

“The third wave is not over, and some experts are even warning about a potential fourth wave in March or April … now is never the time to loosen up.”

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 621 cases as of Tuesday midnight, from in the 300-400s in the previous few days as testing increased following last week’s Lunar New Year holiday. South Korea’s total infections grew to 84,946 cases, with 1,538 deaths.

Indonesian firms sign up for proposed private vaccination scheme

Nearly 4,000 Indonesian firms, many of them textile companies, have signed up to take part in a proposed scheme that would allow the private sector to purchase Covid-19 vaccines procured by the government and inoculate their staff.

Proponents argue the scheme would speed up vaccinations, kick-start key areas of the economy that have been hammered by the pandemic and lessen the government’s burden as companies would bear the costs of distributing the vaccines and conducting vaccinations.

But some health experts worry about the potential for inequity if workers end up getting prioritised for vaccines over more vulnerable sections of the population.

‘Disaster’: Indonesia’s Covid-19 vaccine roll-out lags roaring pandemic

The scheme was proposed by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry last month and the health ministry is currently working on draft rules but they have yet to be approved.

“The scheme is for the people. Vaccinations would go faster and once herd immunity is reached, the population can be fully mobilised for economic activity,” said Rosan P. Roeslani, the chamber’s chairman.

Factories currently operating at half capacity could return to normal after workers received their shots, he added.

Indonesia is grappling with the worst outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Southeast Asia, reporting more than 1.23 million infections and some 33,590 deaths.

Reporting by Reuters, Kyodo, Associated Press