|
 Australia to reopen to foreign visa holders
Australia will allow foreign visa holders to enter the country from
December, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday, the latest
step to restart international travel and support its economy. The
rules were relaxed in recent weeks to allow foreign family members
of citizens to enter, and Morrison said this will be scaled up from
Dec. 1 to allow vaccinated students, business visa holders and
refugees to arrive.
The relaxation of the border rules is expected to ease labour
shortages, which threaten to stymie an economic rebound.
Austria powers down public life as fourth lockdown begins
Austria powered down public life on Monday as its fourth national
COVID-19 lockdown began, making it the first western European
country to reimpose the drastic and unpopular measure this autumn.
The government had announced on Friday that it would make it
compulsory to get vaccinated as of Feb. 1, a step few countries have
taken.
This lockdown is the first introduced since vaccines became widely
available. The conservative-led government imposed a lockdown on the
unvaccinated last week, but daily infections kept extending far
above the previous peak reached a year ago.
U.S. expands COVID-19 booster eligibility to all adults
U.S. regulators expanded eligibility for booster shots of COVID-19
vaccines to all adults on Friday, allowing millions more Americans
to get additional protection against the virus amid a recent rise in
infections. For those aged 18 to 49, the agency said individuals may
get the vaccine if they choose to. The CDC also moved to further
clarify recommendations for people aged 50 to 64, suggesting all in
this age group should get a booster, rather than only those with
underlying medical conditions that put them at risk.
[to top of second column] |
 Singapore relaxes tight
COVID-19 social curbs
Singapore's government is easing some of the
tight social curbs it imposed to contain the
spread of COVID-19, after infections stabilised
in the city-state over the past month. From
Monday, limits on social interactions and dining
out will be expanded to five people from the
current rule of up to two vaccinated people,
government ministers told a news conference on
Saturday.
They said the overall infection numbers and
hospital situation have largely stabilised and
improved. Despite all this, compared with
Europe, Britain and the United States, Singapore
still has tight COVID-19 restrictions, including
mandatory mask-wearing in public.
Vaccine passports would allow infections to be missed
Vaccine passports that exempt vaccinated people from regular
COVID-19 testing would allow many infections to be missed, Israeli
data suggest. Researchers analyzed infection rates in citizens
returning to Israel through Ben-Gurion airport, for whom PCR tests
upon arrival are required regardless of vaccination status. In
August 2021, the rate of positive tests among vaccinated travellers
was more than double the rate among the unvaccinated, said Retsef
Levi of the MIT Sloan School of Management, coauthor of a report
posted on the SSRN server ahead of peer review.
The data suggested that limiting frequent COVID-19 testing to
unvaccinated people would "pose potential risks by reinforcing the
misrepresentation that vaccinated individuals are protected from
infections."
(Compiled by Karishma Singh; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content |
