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Agencies

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested positive for Covid-19, his office said on Saturday, days after he was vaccinated against the disease.
“At this point, the prime minister’s office can only confirm that the honourable prime minister has tested positive for Covid-19 and has self-isolated, we will release more details in due course,” his office said.
The 68-year-old Khan received a shot of the Chinese-produced Sinopharm vaccine on Thursday, as the country battles a third wave of the virus.
The South Asian nation of 220 million is seeing a sharp rise in the coronavirus infections.

Philippines reports record 7,999 new cases
The Philippines on Saturday recorded 7,999 new coronavirus infections, the second straight day that the country posted a record high in daily cases.
In a bulletin, the health ministry said total confirmed cases have risen to 656,056 while confirmed deaths have reached 12,930, after 30 more were recorded on Saturday.
The Southeast Asian nation is battling a renewed surge in infections, including those of the new and more transmissible variants, delaying the further reopening of its pandemic-stricken economy.
Filipinos go hungry amid ‘double whammy’ of job losses, rising prices
“The country’s recorded Covid-19 cases remain high. Better to stay home if going out is unnecessary,” the ministry said.
The Philippines also logged 114 Covid-19 cases because of new coronavirus variants, including six infections of the home-grown P.3 variant, after a new series of genome sequencing on 150 samples.
It reported 46 new infections of the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in Britain, and 62 cases of the B.1.351 variant discovered in South Africa. This brings cases for those variants to 223 and 152, respectively.
The Philippines has the second-highest Covid-19 cases and deaths in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia.

Tokyo 2020 organisers to refund some 600,000 Olympic tickets
Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics will refund around 600,000 tickets for the Games and another 300,000 for the Paralympics, the chief executive of the organising committee said.
Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto made the comment at a news conference on Saturday after organisers said they would bar international spectators from entering Japan for the Olympics because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The move was expected and rumoured for several months. Officials said the risk was too great to admit ticket holders from overseas during a pandemic, an idea strongly opposed by the Japanese public.
Tokyo Games creative chief wanted to dress plus-size celeb as ‘Olympig’
Japan has attributed about 8,800 deaths to Covid-19 and has controlled the virus better than most countries.
“In order to give clarity to ticket holders living overseas and to enable them to adjust their travel plans at this stage, the parties on the Japanese side have come to the conclusion that they will not be able to enter into Japan at the time of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” the Tokyo organising committee said in a statement.
IOC President Thomas Bach called it a “difficult decision”. “We have to take decisions that may need sacrifice from everybody,” he said.
The ban on fans from abroad comes just days before the Olympic torch relay starts on Thursday from Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan. It will last for 121 days, criss-cross Japan with 10,000 runners, and is to end on July 23 at the opening ceremony at the National Stadium in Tokyo.


Thailand to cut quarantine time for visitors
Thailand will shorten the mandatory quarantine period for foreign travellers from next month but deferred a decision on recognising vaccine certificates for easier global mobility amid a spike in global virus cases.
A panel chaired by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha on Friday approved curtailing the quarantine to 10 days from two weeks starting April 1, Traisuree Taisaranakul, a government spokeswoman, told reporters in Bangkok.
The country may stop enforcing quarantine altogether from October 1, although the group delayed a decision on cutting isolation period to seven days for vaccinated tourists as recommended by an expert group last week, officials said.
In Thailand, vaccine inequality fears grow as private hospitals eye profits
A shorter quarantine is expected to make Thailand – famed for its palm-fringed beaches, temples and backpacker culture – more attractive to millions of foreign tourists and is seen as a key step toward a wider reopening.
Still, tourism-reliant Thailand’s reluctance to fully ease curbs point to the dilemma faced by authorities in balancing the need to protect people from fresh outbreaks while bolstering economic activities.
The pandemic has devastated Thailand’s tourism industry, which provided more than US$60 billion in revenue from about 40 million foreign visitors in 2019.
A government campaign to boost travel by locals through hotel and air travel concessions has failed to make up for the slump in earnings as strict quarantine rules have kept most foreign travellers away.


India records spike in infections
India reported 40,953 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the biggest daily jump in nearly four months, with its richest state and economic backbone Maharashtra accounting for more than half the infections.
Deaths rose by 188 to 159,404, the health ministry reported, underscoring a resurgence of the virus in the world’s third worst affected country, after the United States and Brazil.
Some regions in India have already reimposed containment measures, including lockdowns and restaurant closures, and more are being considered.
Asia once led the coronavirus battle. Why is it behind on vaccines?
Doctors have blamed the fresh infection wave on people’s relaxed attitude to mask-wearing and other social distancing measures, warning that hospital wards were swiftly filling up in states like Maharashtra.
Maharashtra reported a record 25,681 cases, including 3,000 in the financial capital of Mumbai, over the past 24 hours.
The state of 112 million people has imposed a lockdown in some districts and put curbs on cinemas, hotels and restaurants until the end of the month. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray warned that a wider lockdown is an option, according to local media.
Covid-19 forces India’s moviemakers to scout for new places to shoot
The rise in India’s Covid-19 cases peaked at nearly 100,000 a day in September, and had been falling steadily until late last month.
In addition to Maharashtra, the Indian states of Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh all reported a surge in new cases.
The government has announced plans to inoculate 300 million people, or a fifth of the population, by August. Yet only 42 million have been vaccinated so far, while the world’s biggest vaccine maker has gifted or exported almost 60 million doses.
Additional reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP


Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotels sees ‘bleisure’ boom after pandemic curbs, CEO says

US could require US$15,000 bonds for some tourist, business visas

China’s Shenzhen, Guangzhou airports hit record highs, surpass pre-Covid passenger levels

Landmark US Chinatown survived Covid, anti-Asian violence – but tariffs pose new threat

Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus: Pakistan PM contracts Covid-19; Tokyo Olympics bars overseas spectators

Pakistani PM Imran Khan receives a dose of Covid-19 vaccine in Islamabad on March 18, 2021. Photo: Xinhua

(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 1, 2020, the Olympic rings are reinstalled at the waterfront in Tokyo. - Overseas fans will be banned from this summer's pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, organisers said on March 20, 2021, in a bid to reduce virus risks and convince a sceptical Japanese public the Games will be safe. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

Commuters wear face masks and shields to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus as they walk along a busy street in Manila, Philippines on Friday, March 19, 2021. The Department of Health reported over 7000 new COVID-19 cases today, the highest number since the pandemic hit the country last year as it struggles to contain an alarming surge in coronavirus infections. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Coronavirus: Australia aiming to create travel bubble with Singapore by July

A Singapore Airlines aircraft parked at Changi airport. Photo: Xinhua

Why Israel is partying like it’s 2019, while most of Asia is stuck in 2020

It’s party time (nearly) at Atlanta TLV in Tel Aviv. Photo: Handout

Vaccines. Image: SCMP

Nir Mamon, resident DJ and manager at Atlanta TLV in Tel Aviv. Photo: Handout

Asia once led the coronavirus battle. Why is it behind on vaccines?

A medical worker in South Korea holds up a syringe containing AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: DPA

A nursing home worker receives the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at a health care centre as South Korea starts a vaccination campaign against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Seoul, South Korea February 26, 2021. REUTERS/Heo Ran

Monks and nuns wear protective masks during health screening before receiving their first dose of China's Sinovac Biotech vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the parking lot of Grand Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana

Coronavirus: Filipinos go hungry amid rising pork prices, inflation and job losses

A meat seller at a market in Makati, the Philippines. Pork is a staple of the nation’s diet. Photo: AFP

African swine fever has sent pork prices rocketing in the Philippines. Photo: AFP

Trapped in Macau: the Singaporeans and Malaysians desperate to get home

Gavin Chin and his wife are among dozens of Malaysians and Singaporeans who have been trapped in Macau.

Casinos and hotels stand illuminated at night on the Cotai strip in Macau, China on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. Macau casino stocks retreated after Typhoon Mangkhut forced a 33-hour shutdown of the worlds biggest gambling hub, a halt that's estimated to cost operators including Sands China Ltd.and Wynn Macau Ltd. as much as $186 million in revenue. Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg

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Asia

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Coronavirus


PM Imran Khan tested positive for Covid-19 two days after he received a shot of the Sinovac vaccine
Elsewhere, the Tokyo Olympics organisers have decided to bar overseas fans, while the Philippines reported a record 7,999 new cases in the past day



Imran Khan received a shot of the Chinese-produced Sinopharm vaccine on Thursday, as the country battles a third wave of the virus.
