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New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has stated her authorities will reintroduce robust Covid-19 restrictions — forcing her to cancel her personal marriage ceremony plans — as Asia-Pacific nations battle to cease the unfold of the variant.
The measures, which embody introduce stricter masks sporting and social distancing guidelines, observe an outbreak of 9 circumstances amongst a household that travelled between Auckland and the South Island to attend a marriage. New Zealand has been closed to international non-residents since March 2020.
The restrictions in New Zealand and different Asia-Pacific nations stand in distinction to the UK, the place Boris Johnson, whose premiership is underneath menace from a Covid-19 occasion scandal, stated final week “Plan B” pandemic measures comparable to sporting masks on public transport could be phased out.
“Our technique is to gradual the unfold of Omicron down,” stated Ardern. New Zealand was one of many final nations to desert makes an attempt to remove the virus by closing borders and imposing strict lockdowns — leaving China as the one massive nation nonetheless pursuing such a method.
The most recent restrictions hit Ardern personally as she cancelled her personal marriage ceremony, which was anticipated to happen within the coming weeks. “Such is life,” she stated, noting that hundreds of New Zealanders had suffered much more devastating experiences through the pandemic.
In neighbouring Australia, which has struggled to supply sufficient assessments to deal with the speedy unfold of Omicron, the day by day fee of constructive circumstances rose to nearly 90,000 final week.
In Hong Kong, greater than 4,000 residents in two public housing blocks have been put into an unprecedented five-day obligatory lockdown following what native pandemic advisers deemed a “superspreader” occasion at one of many buildings.
Greater than 100 folks within the two buildings have examined constructive for the coronavirus, in accordance with officers, after a cleaner who contracted the Omicron variant was believed to have seeded an outbreak.
Carrie Lam, the town’s chief government, stated the federal government was unlikely to raise restrictions forward of Chinese language new yr holidays. She defended the drastic measures as pro-Beijing newspapers within the metropolis warned her authorities that containing the outbreak was a matter of “nationwide security”.
Beijing additionally faces a rising outbreak as China’s capital metropolis on Saturday reported 12 new infections, bringing to 34 the variety of circumstances reported over the previous week. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are set to start in lower than two weeks.
In Taiwan, well being authorities have bolstered monitoring and tracing measures and requested corporations to induce manufacturing facility staff to get totally vaccinated because the native unfold of Omicron has accelerated.
On Saturday, the variety of domestically-transmitted circumstances jumped to 82 as assessments amongst about 1,000 staff in an electronics manufacturing facility turned up 60 positives. On Sunday, the federal government reported one other 52 domestically-transmitted circumstances.
Aside from a comparatively small outbreak in Might final yr, the nation has largely averted group unfold and has reported simply 18,327 infections and 851 deaths in whole from Covid-19.
Japan can be combating what has turn out to be the nation’s sixth wave of infections, with its day by day Covid-19 circumstances topping 50,000 on Saturday, setting a brand new file for 5 consecutive days.
Extra governors are asking the central authorities to position their prefectures underneath a quasi state of emergency to keep away from overwhelming the medical system. The federal government is about to increase the measure to a majority of 47 prefectures as early as Tuesday.
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