The Pigeon Express
A multi-million dollar Australian app used to track Covid-19 contacts has been decommissioned and branded “a failure” after identifying only two unique infections. Health Minister Mark Butler urged people to delete the app, calling it a “colossal waste” of taxpayer’s money. COVIDsafe was previously touted “as essential as putting on sunscreen” by former Prime Minister […]
North Korea says everyone who fell sick since the country confirmed its first Covid-19 infections has recovered. On Friday state media reported zero fever cases for a seventh straight day. North Korea refers to “fever” rather than “Covid” patients due to a lack of testing equipment. The country announced its first Covid outbreak in May […]
Visitors to Hong Kong’s annual exhibition of global gourmet food will once again not be allowed to sample the delicacies due to coronavirus curbs, the organiser said Tuesday. Tens of thousands of visitors and hundreds of exhibitors are expected at the five-day Food Expo starting next Thursday in the city’s Convention and Exhibition Centre. But […]
The Chinese metropolis of Wuhan has shut down a district of almost a million people after detecting four asymptomatic Covid cases, as the original epicenter of the pandemic takes no chances in preventing another outbreak under China’s stringent zero-Covid policy. Authorities in Wuhan’s Jiangxia district, home to more than 970,000 people, announced Wednesday its main […]
More than 2,000 tourists have been stranded in a Chinese coastal city after a surge in coronavirus cases. Officials in clocked down urban areas and ordered the mass testing of its 1.9m residents over the weekend. It comes as concerns grow about the impact of China’s “zero-Covid” policy on the world’s second largest economy. Last […]
North Korean state media attributed the COVID-19 outbreak in the country to “alien things coming by wind,” and landing close to the border with the South. Korean Central News Agency said the source of the outbreak was an 18-year-old soldier and a five-year-old child who came into contact with objects near the border. State-run Rodong […]
Millions of Shanghai residents braved sweltering heat Tuesday to wait in line for compulsory Covid tests, as growing case numbers and the emergence of a highly infectious Omicron subvariant spurred new fears of a return to mass lockdown. Shanghai authorities have ordered the majority of the city’s 16 districts to undergo two rounds of testing […]
A trainee police officer tried to fake having COVID-19 by drawing red lines on a lateral flow test, a tribunal has heard. In a bid to stay home from work, Ahmed Anwari told his training officer last December that he could not come in because of a positive lateral flow test result. But his ruse […]
Shanghai will carry out Covid-19 testing on more than half of its 25 million residents this weekend, fueling fears of a return to more stringent restrictions just days after the financial hub emerged from two months of painful lockdown. The mass testing announcements sparked fears of a return to stringent, prolonged lockdown among Shanghai residents, […]
The US will no longer require air travellers to have proof of a negative Covid-19 test before entering the country from abroad. Officials said they were dropping the requirement due to the “tremendous progress” the country had made in the fight against the virus. The travel industry has been pushing for an end to the […]
All Covid-19 travel restrictions have now been lifted for passengers entering the UK. Unvaccinated arrivals will no longer have to take tests and passenger locator forms have been scrapped. It comes almost exactly two years after the first Covid lockdown measures were imposed in the UK. Aviation minister Robert Courts said: “Everything we have worked […]
New Zealand has brought forward plans to reopen its borders to international travellers after a Covid lockout of more than two years. Australians will be allowed to enter the country without needing to quarantine or isolate from 13 April. Fully vaccinated travellers from about 60 countries on a visa-waiver list will be able to arrive […]