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https://scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3120825/coronavirus-south-korea-eases-curbs-cases-drop-japan-airlines
Asia/ East Asia

Coronavirus: South Korea eases curbs as cases drop; Japan Airlines to cover costs of travellers infected overseas

  • Restaurants and gyms outside the capital Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi province will now be permitted to stay open until 10pm
  • Elsewhere, New Zealand health authorities are investigating a new community infection linked to a quarantine facility
People pray at the Jogye Temple in Seoul on Wednesday. Photo: AP

South Korea is relaxing its social distancing rules, allowing longer opening hours for some retail businesses, as the number of new Covid-19 infections declines.

Restaurants, coffee shops and gyms outside the capital Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi province will now be permitted to stay open until 10pm, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said at a meeting on Saturday.

Karaoke bars, theatres for standing concerts and door-to-door sales will be also allowed in the region.

The rules were eased to “relieve pains of self-employed people,” including owners of restaurants and small businesses, Chung said.

The 9pm closing time will still apply in the greater Seoul area, where 70 per cent of total virus cases in the country have occurred.

Daily virus cases in South Korea dropped to about 300 in the past week, compared with more than 1,000 in late December, after authorities imposed a stricter level of social distancing.

JAL to cover costs of travellers infected overseas

Japan Airlines Co. is offering a service to cover the expenses of its international passengers for their tests, treatment and quarantine if they have become infected with Covid-19 while overseas.

Travellers with tickets until June 30 are eligible to receive the service for free, if they had tested positive outside their country of residence and within 31 days from the departure date of their first flight, JAL said, becoming the first airline in Japan to launch such a programme.

Teaming up with Allianz Group, a major German insurance company, the service, “JAL Covid-19 Cover,” can compensate passengers by up to 150,000 euros (US$181,000) for treatment and up to 100 euros per day in accommodation fees during quarantine for a maximum of 14 days.

For now, the service, which is strictly not an insurance policy and began in late December, targets businesspeople, with JAL hoping the measure could trickle down to others including tourists once travel restrictions are eased, according to its officials.

To receive such support, passengers must contact the airline via a 24-hour hotline before being tested.

JAL’s subsidiary low-cost carrier Zipair Tokyo Inc. will also provide the service for flights between Narita airport, near Tokyo, and Honolulu until March 31.

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Australia’s Victoria sees no new infections

Australia’s second-most populous state of Victoria reported no local coronavirus cases on Saturday for the second straight day, boding well for the Australian Open tennis tournament due to start in Melbourne on Monday.

More than 500 staff and players in the Grand Slam event tested negative for Covid-19 on Friday in retesting required after a worker at their quarantine hotel caught the virus.

Positive cases could have spurred a lockdown, and qualifying matches were cancelled on Thursday while test results were pending. The Victorian government ruled that except for players, masks will be mandatory at Australian Open games, which will be played under a closed roof. Following the most recent case, masks are required in all indoor spaces in Victoria.

“That applies to the stadia at the Australian Open when the roofs are closed, it’s like any other indoor setting,” Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said at a press conference on Saturday.

Public health officials said on Saturday that all immediate close contacts of the hotel worker have so far tested negative for the virus but urged people to get tested even with mildest symptoms.

“I want to reinforce the message that this is not over, that this is wildly infectious,” Victoria’s Health Minister Mike Foley said.

Western Australia, the country’s biggest state where there was a single case of the coronavirus reported a week ago, on Friday evening exited a snap lockdown after reporting no cases for five straight days.

New Zealand probes new local case

New Zealand health authorities said on Saturday they were investigating a new community coronavirus infection, the fourth in two weeks among people who completed mandatory isolation at an Auckland quarantine facility for returned overseas travellers.

The new case was diagnosed in a person self-isolating at home in Hamilton, a city in the North Island of New Zealand, who was released from a two-week hotel quarantine on January 30 after testing negative twice for the virus.

“We consider the public health risk to be low and people in and around Hamilton should not be alarmed,” Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay said.

“We are acting out of an abundance of caution. We are not advising any restrictions or cancellations of events.”

The ministry has recently required all travellers who completed the 14-day quarantine at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland to self-isolate for five more days at home.

Genome sequencing has been carried out to determine if the case has the South African Covid-19 variant, which was reported in three other cases linked to the hotel. Those were New Zealand’s first virus cases in the community in months.

Some community events related to this weekend’s marking of Waitangi Day were nonetheless cancelled in Hamilton, New Zealand media reported.

Additional reporting by Reuters, Kyodo, Bloomberg