Coronavirus: Malaysia to open borders April 1, New Zealand changes tactics after logging nearly 24,000 cases
- The Southeast Asian country will also transition to the endemic phase of Covid-19 starting next month
- Meanwhile, after logging a record nearly 24,000 infections New Zealand is coming to terms the virus would remain in the country permanently
“Citizens with valid travel documents can enter and leave the country as they did before the pandemic, and foreigners can also move in and out of Malaysia without the need to apply for MyTravelPass, which will be abolished,” and the country will also transition to the endemic phase of Covid-19 from next month, Ismail Sabri said in a televised address.
The prime minister said visitors, as well as Malaysian returnees, who are fully vaccinated are not required to undergo quarantine upon arrival.
They, however, must undergo a RT-PCR test two days before departure and a rapid test (RTK) upon arrival.
The country’s borders have been shut since March 2020, while entry of foreign workers has been frozen due to the pandemic.
Nearly 98 per cent of Malaysia’s adult population are fully vaccinated, while more than half have received booster shots.
Although the country’s daily cases have shot up past the 30,000 mark due to the recent Omicron outbreak, 99 per cent of the infections are mild or asymptomatic.
New Zealand changes tactics
It was the latest sign of just how radically New Zealand’s approach to the virus has shifted, moving from elimination to suppression and now to something approaching acceptance as the omicron variant has taken hold.
Experts say New Zealand’s sometimes counterintuitive actions have likely saved thousands of lives by allowing the nation to mostly avoid earlier, more deadly variants and buying time to get people vaccinated. The nation of 5 million has reported just 65 virus deaths since the pandemic began.
But virus hospitalisations have been rapidly rising, hitting a record of more than 750 on Tuesday and putting strain on the system.
Across the country, the explosion in cases has left people stunned. Just a month ago, case numbers were around 200 per day.
Singapore minister recovering from Covid-19; NZ warns Omicron won’t be last variant
Professor Michael Baker, an epidemiologist at the University of Otago, said the variant had proved as ferociously infectious in New Zealand as it had in other countries.
He said cases appeared to be plateauing or even starting to dip in the largest city of Auckland, while still rising elsewhere.
While much of the world was breathing a sigh of relief after two years of terrible problems, Baker said, New Zealand was at its worst point yet in the pandemic and was coming to terms with the fact the virus would remain in the country permanently.
Indonesia scraps Covid tests for domestic travel
Indonesia will not require domestic travellers to show a negative test result for Covid-19 if they have been fully vaccinated, as the country continues to ease virus curbs.
The decision will be set out in a ministerial rule to be issued soon, said Coordinating Minister for Investment and Maritime Affairs Luhut Panjaitan, who oversees the pandemic response for Java and Bali.
Bali on Monday welcomed its first foreign tourists under relaxed coronavirus rules that no longer require arrivals to quarantine, part of a broader easing of curbs in Indonesia after infections declined.
The government could lift all quarantine requirements for international visitors on April 1 or earlier if an ongoing trial in Bali proves successful, he added.
Japan lobbyists wants tourists back ‘now’
Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, the country’s largest business lobbying group, requests that the government plan the nation’s exit strategy from the pandemic immediately, according to a policy paper it released on Monday.
The government should declare Covid is endemic as soon as possible and move on, it said.
The Japanese government enforced an entry ban on non-resident foreign nationals in late November due to the global spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Japan is easing border measures in phases, letting 5,000 people enter the country daily as of March 1 from the previous total of 3,500 people. The limit will increase to 7,000 on March 14.
Reporting by Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Star
