More than half of Tokyo’s hospital beds set aside for Covid-19 patients were occupied on Tuesday, a level that officials have previously flagged as a criterion for requesting a state of emergency. The capital and most of Japan are now under curbs to contain record coronavirus cases driven by the contagious Omicron variant. Tokyo has set aside almost 7,000 hospital beds for Covid patients, and admissions have risen sharply this month, reaching 50.7 per cent on Tuesday. New infections numbered 14,445. Governor Yuriko Koike had said 50 per cent bed usage would be a threshold for requesting an emergency declaration from the central government. But last week she told reporters such a request would not be automatic, and would also take into consideration the opinions of health experts and the number of serious cases. On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the government was not currently considering declaring a state of emergency. The current curbs empower regional governors to order restaurants and bars to shorten their business hours and stop serving alcohol. A full state of emergency, not used in Japan since September last year, would involve stricter measures, such as fines for non-compliant businesses as well as attendance limits at sporting events and concerts. Hong Kong hospital chief warns of ‘tsunami-like’ outbreak after Lunar New Year Thailand restarts quarantine-free tourism Thailand expects to welcome hundreds of thousand holidaymakers a month with the kick-off of a quarantine-free visa programme that’s set to serve as a model for tourism-reliant countries balancing safe border reopenings with economic revival. Starting Tuesday, visitors of any nationality can apply for quarantine-free entry into Thailand, provided they are fully vaccinated. The government expects between 200,000 and 300,000 travellers to take advantage of the so-called Test & Go programme in February alone, with the numbers expected to swell in the following months. The wider reopening – a previous quarantine-free programme was restricted to visitors from only about 60 countries – is part of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s push to adopt a “living with the Covid strategy” to rescue the pandemic-battered economy. About a fifth of gross domestic product before the virus came from tourism-related activities. Thailand moved up 18 places in Bloomberg’s latest Covid resiliency ranking with its ramp-up in vaccinations and taming of the Omicron-fuelled outbreak. Prayuth’s government expects 5 million foreign visitors this year, with most arrivals expected from Europe and the US, and the numbers may reach 9 million if Chinese and Indian tourists return, according to spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana. ‘Like a bomb has hit us’: Omicron punctures hope for Thai businesses The outlook will remain hazy for the next few month, especially in terms of attracting travellers from China, the biggest group of visitors to Thailand before Covid-19, according to Tim Leelahaphan, a Bangkok-based economist at Standard Chartered. Still, the reopening should help Thailand swing back to a current-account surplus of about 1.5 per cent of GDP this year, although the level will be below the average before the pandemic, he said in a report. Thailand has experimented with several plans over the past two years to revive the travel sector, which attracted 40 million foreign tourists and generated more than US$60 billion in 2019. About 350,000 visitors took advantage of the first phase of the Test & Go programme before it was suspended in late December to prevent the spread of Omicron variant. “Thailand is among the world’s top tourist destinations because of all the beautiful attractions and the value for money,” said Burin Adulwattana, chief economist at Bangkok Bank. “But the government should try to instil confidence among travellers that the policies won’t change again.” US warns against travel to Singapore The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday advised against travel to a dozen countries because of high rates of coronavirus infection, including Singapore , Philippines Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Kosovo and Paraguay. The CDC now lists nearly 130 countries and territories with Covid-19 cases as “Level Four: Very High.” It also added Anguilla, French Guiana, Moldova and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to its highest level on Monday. The US State Department also raised its travel advisory for Mexico and some of the other nations listed by the CDC to “Level 4: Do Not Travel.” Since mid-December, the US government has added more than 60 countries and territories to its list of places to avoid, citing the Omicron variant. The CDC also raised travel warnings for 11 countries and territories to “Level Three: High” that urges unvaccinated Americans to avoid non-essential travel: Bhutan, Brunei, Comoros, French Polynesia, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Liberia, Nepal and Oman. It now lists about 53 countries and territories at High.” The CDC lists 16 countries at “Level 2: Moderate” or “Level 1: Low” and 40 other destinations are listed as unknown. The US agreed last month to lift travel restrictions on eight southern African countries that were imposed in November over Omicron, including South Africa. ‘Cure cannot be worse than disease’: why Singapore changed its Covid-recovery plan Australian PM faces grilling over pandemic Australia ’s prime minister faced up to criticism of his leadership on Tuesday, saying his government had been too optimistic about the impact of coronavirus vaccinations leading to disappointment and exhaustion when the Omicron variant hit. Scott Morrison faces an approval rating falling to its lowest level in two years with an election due in four months and public confidence battered by widespread shortages of rapid antigen tests as Omicron cases surged past 1 million over the summer. In an address to the National Press Club in Canberra, Morrison said he would take the criticism that came with the leader’s job. “I haven’t got everything right,” he said. Morrison said his focus had been on balancing health objectives with the economy, and Omicron had changed the rules, disrupting supply chains and causing a shortage of tests. In early January, Morrison had said his government was adopting a “push through” approach to the pandemic instead of returning to lockdowns. “As we went into the summer we were too optimistic perhaps,” he said, adding this had heightened the disappointment people felt when vaccinations did not stop Omicron’s spread. Responding to criticism that his government had not anticipated the need for more tests, Morrison said it had been the responsibility of the states, in Australia’s federal system, to supply Covid tests through most of the pandemic. He acknowledged public frustration and, in an election pitch, said the country needed a leader with experience to persevere. Australia’s pandemic death rate was among the lowest in the world and it had a high vaccination rate despite a delayed roll-out, he said. Authorities reported 77 deaths on Tuesday, down from a record 98 hit last Friday, and just over 35,000 new cases. Hospitalisation has remained steady at about 5,000 for the last few days after peaking at just under 5,400 a week ago. Throughout the pandemic, just over 3,800 people have died of Covid-19 in Australia. Morrison highlighted the strength of the economy, with Australia maintaining a AAA credit rating, and said more people were in work than before the pandemic, with an unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent. The federal government will offer extra payments worth up to A$800 (US$564) to staff of care homes for the elderly, he announced, as more than 1,200 nursing homes deal with Covid-19 outbreaks that killed hundreds of people in January and led to staff shortages. He also announced an A$2billion plan to boost manufacturing by commercialising research. “We need to find and develop a new breed of researcher entrepreneurs in Australia,” Morrison said. The science agency CSIRO will get A$150 million to expand a venture capital programme backing start-ups. Another A$296 million will be allocated over the next decade to universities to fund 1,800 PhDs and 800 fellowships with an industry focus. South Korea posts record 18,343 cases South Korea reported 18,343 new Covid-19 cases for Monday, a highest daily record, amid the spread of the Omicron variant, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Tuesday. Reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg
