A man looks out a window while in quarantine at the Ramada Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, March 30, 2020. (BRETT PHIBBS / NEW ZEALAND HERALD VIA AP)
ISTANBUL / ANKARA / NEW DELHI / HANOI / JERUSALEM / WELLINGTON / TOKYO – New Zealand's once lauded COVID-19 response took a hit on Wednesday, when a High Court judge ruled a system used to allocate places in border quarantine facilities infringed on some citizens' right to return home.
Citizens looking to return had to either make emergency requests to the government or secure a spot in state quarantine facilities, called MIQ. Due to demand outstripping hotel rooms, a type of lottery system was introduced.
It left tens of thousands of expatriate New Zealanders cut off from families back home. Critics called the system unfair, something that the judgement released Wednesday by High Court Justice Jillian Mallon agreed with.
Mallon said restrictions preventing a person from being able to enter their country for three months couldn't be justified and evidence indicates at least some New Zealanders experienced unreasonable delays.
However, Mallon did find that requiring returning New Zealanders to quarantine was not in itself an unjustified infringement.
The decision is a blow for the government, whose once lauded response to the pandemic has been taking a hit domestically as people push for borders to reopen more quickly and other measures such as mask wearing mandates to be removed.
COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the government welcomed the determination that requiring returnees to quarantine was lawful and acknowledge the court found the quarantine allocation system may have infringed on some New Zealanders rights.
A girl walks past a poster at a vaccination centre in New Delhi on April 10, 2022, after government announced the paid precaution dose against the coronavirus to be available for everyone above 18 years of age at private vaccination centers. (MONEY SHARMA / AFP)
India
After local governments across India lifted all the pandemic related restrictions and even dropped the mandatory wearing of face masks, the country is once again witnessing an increase in the daily number of COVID-19 infections.
For the first time since the devastating second wave that ravaged the country around this time last year, India has for a few weeks early this month recorded daily COVID-19 infections below 1,000 cases a day.
But there is an uptick again at a time when markets have been reopened, businesses returned to normalcy and travel activities resumed to the pre-pandemic levels. Schools and colleges have been open for in-person classes and there is no bar to gatherings.
From March 19 this year, daily COVID-19 cases began to drop below 2,000. On April 3, the daily caseload went below 1,000 cases and it hovered around the mark until April 16.
However, from April 17, an uptick was witnessed, the daily caseload breached the 2,000 mark again and since then the cases have been increasing. On Tuesday, 2,483 new cases were recorded during a 24-hour time span, just weeks after falling to the lowest in nearly two years.
The local government in New Delhi last week made wearing face masks mandatory in public places and brought in a rule to penalize violators with a fine of 500 rupee ($6.53). The order has been reimposed in the city within three weeks of its withdrawal. And some states followed suit.
A man gets a PCR coronavirus test at a private nursing home in Netanya, Israel on Jan 5, 2022. (ARIEL SCHALIT / AP)
Israel
Israel's Ministry of Health on Tuesday confirmed the detection of three cases of new Omicron sublineages of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Two cases of the Omicron sublineage BA.5, and one case of the sublineage BA.4, were discovered among returning passengers at the Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv, according to the ministry.
Israel's first three BA.4 cases were detected among returning passengers at the airport on Monday.
The two new Omicron sublineages have been detected in Botswana, South Africa, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom, according to the World Health Organization.
A man wearing a protective mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walks along a pedestrian crossing on April 20, 2022, in Tokyo. (EUGENE HOSHIKO / AP)
Japan
A Japanese health ministry panel green-lit a plan Wednesday to allow a fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot to initially be given to senior citizens and those with underlying medical conditions.
The plan states that the fourth jabs of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines will be administered to the eligible recipients five months after they have received their third shot, the panel said.
Those eligible for the extra booster shot will comprise seniors aged 60 years old or over and will also include those older than 18 who suffer from certain underlying medical conditions.
"We will examine the scope of coverage while looking at future evidence and the infection situation," Takaji Wakita, head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and leader of the panel, was quoted as saying at its meeting.
South Korea
South Korea reported 76,787 more COVID-19 cases as of midnight Tuesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 17,086,626, the health authorities said Wednesday.
The daily caseload was down from 80,361 in the prior day and lower than 111,297 tallied a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
A man wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 walks along an alley in a commercial area in Istanbul, Turkey on Jan 18, 2022. (FRANCISCO SECO / AP)
Turkey
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkey is ready to lift all measures against the coronavirus, adding that mask wearing will no longer be obligatory indoors.
Speaking after the final meeting of the advisory science council, Erdogan said masks will still be mandated on public transport and in medical institutions until daily new cases drop below 1,000.
"The obligation to use masks in closed spaces has been completely lifted" as the pandemic is "no longer a mass threat," Erdogan told reporters after a meeting of the country's coronavirus science board.
However, mandatory mask use in public transport and hospitals will continue until the number of daily cases drops below 1,000, he noted.
Turkey had previously lifted the requirement to wear masks outdoors and in indoor areas with good ventilation.
Also, in January this year, the government abolished the PCR test requirement for screening purposes and for close contacts of individuals testing positive for COVID-19.
Daily COVID-19 cases in Turkey have dropped to below 3,000 in recent days, from around 15,000 at the end of March. Tests have more than halved in the same period to around 130,000 daily.
Passengers wait for transportation outside the arrival hall of Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on March 15, 2022, as Vietnam announced the return of a visa exemption policy for 13 countries in an effort to kickstart its tourism sector. (NHAC NGUYEN / AFP)
Vietnam
International arrivals entering Vietnam will no longer have to submit health declaration forms starting from Wednesday, the daily newspaper Vietnam News cited the country's Ministry of Health as reporting.
The ministry has submitted an urgent document to the People's Committees of provinces and cities with medical quarantine activities, asking the localities to temporarily suspend the requirement for health declarations, the newspaper reported.
The move is in response to recent reports of prolonged waits and congestion at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City due to the rising number of international arrivals with the country's reopening and the upcoming four-day public holiday which starts on April 30, according to the report.
Previously in mid-March, Vietnam removed the requirements for quarantine and COVID-19 vaccine certificates upon entry for international arrivals with negative COVID-19 tests.