Coronavirus: Philippines returns 13 million residents to lockdown; Australia targets 80 per cent vaccination
- From August 6-20, residents of Metro Manila cannot leave their homes except for essential shopping
- Meanwhile, the Australian government has tied the reopening of its borders and ending lockdowns to vaccination rates
The lockdown, locally called “enhanced community quarantine”, will be in place for Metro Manila from August 6-20, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
Dine-in services in restaurants will not be allowed, and religious gatherings will be suspended during the period. Personal care services such as salons and barber shops will only operate at 30 per cent of capacity, Roque said.
Indoor recreational establishments may not operate, while outdoor tourist attractions can only accept 30 per cent capacity, he added.
The lockdown was announced two days after experts called for a two-week “circuit-breaker lockdown” to prevent a “catastrophic” surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Delta variant.
A new surge was already in its early stage in Metro Manila, with at least 1,000 cases daily, said OCTA Research Group, an independent think tank that produces forecasts on the spread of Covid-19 in the Philippines.
According to projections by OCTA, the daily cases of Covid-19 in Metro Manila could spike to up to 13,000 by the end of August if current quarantine restrictions were not heightened to a hard lockdown.
The Philippines’ total Covid-19 caseload was at more than 1.58 million on Friday, when the Department of Health reported 8,562 additional cases nationwide. The death toll was up 145 to 27,722, it added.
Roque said despite the strict lockdown in Metro Manila, vaccination against coronavirus will not be suspended.
“Vaccinations are crucial to build a wall of defence against the Delta variant and to protect the population,” he said. “Vaccinating individuals in this trying time is an essential health activity.”
More than 7.8 million Filipinos or over 7 per cent of the country’s total estimated population of 109 million have been fully vaccinated since the government launched the vaccination drive in March.
Australia targets 80 per cent vaccination
Australia will reopen its borders and end lockdowns when 80 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed on Friday, sketching a long road out of “Fortress Australia” virus restrictions.
A year-and-a-half after Australia cocooned itself from the rest of the pandemic-ravaged world, Morrison unveiled a series of targets he said could begin to be reached by the end of the year.
In March 2020, Australia took the unprecedented step of almost entirely closing its borders to foreign visitors and banning its globetrotting citizens from leaving.
Sixteen months and several lockdowns on, there are currently around six million Australians under stay-at-home orders – most living in Covid-hit Sydney – as authorities battle to get back to “Covid zero”.
Scarcely 14 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated, prompting growing anger.
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The conservative prime minister indicated that when 70 per cent of eligible adults have received two doses, vaccinated residents will have more freedom from domestic restrictions and a limited number of international students and economic visa holders will be allowed to enter the country.
“I believe we can get there by the end of the year,” Morrison said, without setting a firm target date.
When 80 per cent of eligible adults have been fully jabbed, vaccinated Australians will again be allowed to travel to safe countries overseas.
Borders will also be reopened to citizens from safe countries who have received one of the vaccines approved by Australian regulators, and mandatory two-week hotel quarantine requirements will be eased.
Morrison – who faces re-election within the year – avoided setting a time frame for the targets, insisting it would depend on when Australians choose to get vaccinated.
“The timelines are now in the hands of all Australians,” Morrison said.
Phuket bans inbound domestic travellers
Phuket is at the heart of efforts to revive Thailand’s tourism industry, a major revenue earner that has been devastated by the pandemic.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat said the new travel rules will restrict movement to Phuket from elsewhere in Thailand, meaning foreign visitors who stay on the island will not be affected.
Tourists who have stayed on Phuket for more than 14 days will be allowed to leave for other parts of Thailand and can re-enter Phuket only if they have international flights booked from the island’s airport, Tanee said.
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An order signed by Phuket’s provincial governor said exceptions would also be made for medical supplies and personnel and supplies of fuel, money and food.
Operating hours have been restricted for some venues on Phuket and some have been ordered to close as authorities try to limit any impact from the rise in infections across the country.
Thailand has in the last few months been struggling with its worst Covid-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, first detected in India.
The national Covid-19 task force reported 17,669 cases and 165 deaths on Thursday, both record highs. It said 21 of the fatalities had died at home.
More than 1,200 people are waiting for hospital beds and over 6,000 have called a hotline in the last week requesting treatment, health authorities said.
“We don’t know where to put the sick people any more, the ER (accident and emergency) units in many hospitals have to be temporarily closed because they no longer have bed spaces,” Department of Medical Services head Somsak Akksilp told a news conference.
There are more than 37,000 hospital beds, including in makeshift field hospitals, in Bangkok and surrounding provinces, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
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Japan to extend state of emergency in Tokyo
Existing states of emergency for Tokyo and southern Okinawa island should be extended to August 31, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is spearheading Japan’s pandemic response, told a panel of experts.
The experts are expected to sign off on the proposal and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to announce it formally later on Friday.
The Japanese capital announced a record 3,865 daily infections on Thursday, up from 3,177 a day earlier. Daily cases nationwide topped 10,000 for the first time, domestic media reported.
Noting that the health care system was already under strain, Nishimura said: “By creating a strong framework for the region as a whole, we want to suppress the spread of the virus by all means”.
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Organisers on Friday reported 27 new Games-related Covid-19 cases including three athletes, bringing the total infections associated with event since July 1 to 220.
Suga and Olympics organisers have denied there is any link between the Games and the recent sharp spike in cases.
Athletes and other attendees from around the world must follow strict rules to prevent any spread of the virus within the “Olympic bubble” or to the wider city. Spectators are banned from most venues.
But experts worry holding the Games has sent a confusing message to the public about the need to limit activities to contain the virus as the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads.
Less than 30 per cent of residents of Japan are fully vaccinated. Nishimura repeated that all those who want to get vaccinated should be able to do so by October or November.
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India reports most new cases in three weeks
India was battered by the Delta variant of the virus in April and May but the rate of spread of infections later eased off. It has again been rising, with higher numbers in seven of the past eight days.
The nationwide tally of infections has reached 31.57 million, according to health ministry data. Deaths rose by 555 overnight, taking the overall toll to 423,217.
Medical experts said a third wave of coronavirus infections was likely to hit India by October, though it would be better controlled than the devastating April-May outbreak.
Health experts have called for faster vaccinations to stave off another big surge.
The government estimates that 67.6 per cent of the 1.35 billion population already have antibodies against the coronavirus, with nearly 38 per cent of the adult population of about 944 million people having received at least one vaccine dose.
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The disease’s estimated reproduction rate, or R value, has also inched up in the past week.
The R value hit one on July 24 – meaning on average, every 10 people infected will infect 10 other people – for the first time since May when daily infections were near a peak of 400,000.
The southern state of Kerala announced a new lockdown on Thursday while movement restrictions are in place in some northeastern states reporting a rise in infection rates.
Other places, including the capital New Delhi, have recently reopened most economic activities.
Reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg
