South Korea on Wednesday said people who have received at least one Covid-19 shot will be able to go outdoors mask-free from July. Those fully inoculated will be exempt from private gathering bans and the occupancy ceiling rule at restaurants and cafes. The country on Wednesday recorded 707 new coronavirus cases, the highest over a period of 12 days, as sporadic cluster infections, along with more transmissible variant cases, continued to emerge across the country. As people in Hong Kong reject jabs, what happens to city’s unused vaccines? The additional cases brought the total caseload to 137,682, including 1,940 deaths, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Cluster infections are raging at night spots and religious facilities, with the highly transmissible variant first recorded in Britain taking hold and spreading fast, it said. The KDCA said the number of Covid-19 variant cases reached 1,390, with the UK strains accounting for 1,147. “It is certain that variants become dominant as time passes by. The more tests are conducted, the more British variants will be found,” Preventive Medicine Professor Jung Jae-hun at the Gachon University said. Inoculation efforts have picked up speed in South Korea, making up for delays caused by a tight vaccine supply. A total of 3.9 million people, or 7.7 per cent of the 52 million population, have received at least their first shots. Health authorities say the country can vaccinate up to 1 million people per day in the near future once they ease the supply shortage. South Korea has secured enough shots to fully vaccinate 99 million people, more than enough to vaccinate its entire population. It aims to inoculate 13 million people by the end of June and achieve herd immunity by November. Thousands to get tested after Melbourne stadium alert Thousands of sport fans were told to self-isolate and get Covid-19 tests on Wednesday after an infected spectator attended a match in Melbourne. Australia’s second biggest city is scrambling to contain a growing Covid-19 outbreak, with 15 cases identified so far, including one who attended a match which drew a crowd of more than 23,000 to the famed Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday. The Australian Football League said thousands of fans who sat near the positive case were now required to self-isolate until they received a negative test, while health officials were reviewing CCTV to determine if others had also been impacted. Australian bankers leave Wall Street for Sydney amid Covid-19 The stadium is one of a growing list of venues across Melbourne visited by positive cases, leaving state health officials rushing to test and trace across the city of 5 million, which endured a devastating four-month lockdown after an outbreak last year. AFL games scheduled in Melbourne for the coming weekend are currently allowed to go ahead with fans at up to 85 per cent capacity, but government officials warned public events could yet face fresh restrictions. “We are concerned about the number and the kind of exposure sites, and the next 24 hours are going to be critical if we are going to have to make any further changes,” acting Victoria state premier James Merlino said. Limits on gatherings were introduced and masks made mandatory indoors on Tuesday as the virus cluster grew, while New Zealand introduced a temporary pause on its travel bubble with the state. Antibiotics resistance adds to India’s superbug crisis The Covid-19 variant first detected in India has now been officially recorded in 53 territories, a World Health Organization (WHO) report showed on Wednesday. The report said B.1.617 had shown increased transmissibility, while disease severity and risk of infection were under investigation. It came as concerns for India’s pandemic grew after a study suggested years of the country’s reliance on potent antibiotics for multiple illnesses have brought about a resistance to the drugs. The study, which looked into patients hospitalised during India’s first outbreak who had also developed bacterial and fungal infections, found that a small but alarming proportion of people harboured germs that resist multiple drugs. Why is India facing a vaccine crunch and can it ramp up production? Doctors in India battling to save lives amid a dearth of effective treatments during the pandemic have turned to the medicines they have on hand – often antibiotics that are not used in other countries for Covid-19. The use of antibiotics – especially some that the WHO recommends reserving for the most difficult-to-treat cases – may be “adding fuel to the fire of the already alarming antimicrobial resistance levels”, said the report by scientists at the Indian Council of Medical Research. “Fear of missing a secondary infection and lack of specific therapy for Covid-19 leads to overprescription of antibiotics,” the report said. The research, published in the journal Infection and Drug Resistance , analysed data from 17,534 coronavirus patients admitted to one of 10 hospitals in the council’s surveillance network from June 1 to August 30, 2020. Among these, 640 patients, or 3.6 per cent, had a secondary infection, though the incidence was as high as 28 per cent in some hospitals. Co-infections were caused by multidrug-resistant organisms in about half of the cases. Almost 60 per cent of patients with secondary infections died, compared with about 11 per cent of those who did not pick up another bug, according to the study. Many of those died had underlying health conditions. “It shows that if Covid doesn’t kill you, these secondary infections can,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy in New Delhi, whose group studies antibiotic-resistance patterns globally. Maldives imposes strict curbs The Maldives will restrict movement from Wednesday to curb a surge in coronavirus infections that is putting pressure on the island’s health care facilities, officials said. People will be allowed out for a few hours each day for essential supplies and a strict curfew will be in place from 4pm to 8am the next day, the Health Protection Agency said. The restrictions come as the Indian Ocean island has seen a rise in cases and is struggling with a shortage of medical staff, many of whom come from India which is battling its own deadly wave of infections. “Especially due to the situation in India, which is traditionally the biggest source country, we are finding it difficult to hire new medical professionals to deal with the increased caseload,” Mabrook Azeez, the spokesman for the President’s Office, said. The Maldives reported 1,004 fresh cases on Tuesday with a tally of 58,345 total infections, according to the health agency, with cases concentrated in the capital Male. Last week, daily cases hit a record 2,194, setting off alarm in the tropical island chain with a population of a little over half a million. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said the country had erred in lifting curbs on public movement. “The easing of restrictions in April was not right. I don’t think those decisions were good enough. However, I am not going to put that responsibility on anyone,” he told reporters on Tuesday. The country conducted local council elections in April during which public meetings were held. Family gatherings and congregation also took place in mosques during the holy month of Ramadan. Seventy-one people have died due to Covid-19 complications in May so far, accounting for nearly half of all virus deaths in the country since the beginning of the pandemic, data shows. Pakistan opens vaccination to all adults Pakistan on Wednesday opened up its coronavirus vaccination campaign to everyone aged 19 or older as it scrambles to protect more of its 220 million people. Pakistan initially had to deal with vaccination hesitancy and a shortage of jab supplies and had limited shots to people aged 30 or over. But with purchases and donations from China and allocations from the World Health Organisation and the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, it has now secured more than 18 million doses and is keen to get them out into the population. “We decided to open up vaccination registration for all 19 years and above,” Asad Umar, minister in-charge of supervising anti-Covid operations, said in a post on Twitter. People can sign up from Thursday, he said. “So now registration will be open for the entire national population which is approved by health experts for Covid vaccination,” Umar said. Pakistan has reported more than 900,000 coronavirus infections and some 20,465 deaths. On Wednesday, authorities reported 2,724 new cases and 65 deaths in the previous 24 hours. Reporting by Bloomberg, AFP , Reuters