Covid information stay: Hong Kong expects border with China to reopen in February, New Zealand sees document excessive Covid circumstances | World information

Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam mentioned on Friday she anticipated the border with mainland China to largely reopen in February subsequent yr as the 2 governments persist with their zero Covid-19 insurance policies, public broadcaster RTHK stories.

Regardless of barely recording any native coronavirus circumstances in current months, authorities within the international monetary hub have tightened up quarantine and affected person discharge guidelines to persuade Beijing to permit cross-border journey.

Lam instructed the South China Morning Put up that probably the most urgent matter was for Hong Kong’s enterprise neighborhood to have the ability to take industrial journeys to the mainland with out present process quarantine.

Hong Kong is following Beijing’s lead in retaining strict journey curbs, in distinction to a worldwide pattern of opening up and residing with the coronavirus.

Worldwide enterprise foyer teams have warned Hong Kong might lose expertise and funding, in addition to aggressive floor to rival finance hubs reminiscent of Singapore, until it relaxes its restrictions on journey.

Lam has repeatedly mentioned opening the border with mainland China, Hong Kong’s most important supply of development, was her precedence.

Welcome again to right now’s stay Covid protection and a cheerful Friday to all.

I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the highest tales from internationally.

Earlier than I get began, right here’s a run down of what you might need missed.

As China and Hong Kong proceed to pursue strict zero Covid insurance policies, it doesn’t seem that the border between the 2 will open any time quickly.

Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam mentioned on Friday she anticipated a reopening would start in February subsequent yr, public broadcaster RTHK reported.

Regardless of barely recording any native coronavirus circumstances in current months, authorities within the international monetary hub have tightened up quarantine and affected person discharge guidelines to persuade Beijing to permit cross-border journey.

In the meantime, over in New Zealand a second individual contaminated with Covid-19 has died whereas isolating at dwelling alone, because the nation recorded 163 new circumstances in the neighborhood – its highest ever each day quantity.

The person, who was in his 50s, was not too long ago handled in hospital and discharged himself on 3 November. Ambulance medics discovered him in his dwelling in Mt Eden, a central Auckland suburb, on Friday morning.

It’s the second demise of a Covid-19 constructive man self-isolating at dwelling this week, and the fourth demise through the August outbreak. Thirty folks with Covid-19 have died in New Zealand because the begin of the pandemic.

• Europe is as soon as once more at centre of the Covid pandemic, the World Well being Group has mentioned. Instances are at near-record ranges and 500,000 extra deaths are forecast by February. Uneven vaccine protection and a leisure of preventive measures have introduced Europe to a “crucial level” within the pandemic, WHO says.
• Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam mentioned on Friday she expects the mainland China border to reopen in February subsequent yr as the 2 governments persist with their zero Covid-19 insurance policies, public broadcaster RTHK stories.
• The Chinese language journalist jailed over Covid reporting final yr is “near demise”, her household say.
• The UK has change into the primary nation to approval an oral antiviral tablet to deal with Covid. Almost half 1,000,000 doses of molnupiravir, a tablet that may be taken twice each day at dwelling, are due for supply from mid-November and will likely be given as a precedence to aged Covid sufferers and people with specific vulnerabilities, reminiscent of weakened immune methods. The drug will initially be given to sufferers by way of a nationwide examine run by the NHS.
• Central and Jap Europe are grappling with spiralling coronavirus circumstances with a number of international locations hitting new each day information within the areas, which have decrease vaccination charges than the remainder of the continent. Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia reported their highest ever numbers of each day circumstances, whereas different international locations registered probably the most infections in months.Most Central and Jap European international locations have vaccinated about half of their populations or much less, which is decrease than the European Union common of some 75%.
• Understanding the origins of Covid-19 stays a key focus of the Biden administration and that they’ll proceed pushing for solutions, The White Home mentioned.
• A examine suggests UK Covid circumstances could have peaked for this yr. The examine, which estimates the variety of Covid circumstances in the neighborhood from the knowledge that customers go online an app, discovered a transparent decline in circumstances in under-18s since mid-October, with an infection charges levelling off in most different age teams although nonetheless climbing in 55- to 75-year-olds.
• Latvia will permit companies to fireside employees who refuse to both get a Covid vaccine or switch to distant work, from 15 November because the nation battles one of many worst Covid waves within the EU.
• US vaccine mandates for personal sector employees are set to start on 4 January. President Joe Biden will start imposing the mandate that private-sector employees within the US be vaccinated towards Covid or be examined weekly.