Hong Kong executive employees given a replacement: Gain vaccinated or pay for assessments every 3 days
From CNN’s Eric Cheung in Hong Kong
Hong Kong will mandate all executive employees to be totally vaccinated towards Covid-19, or in finding tested for the virus every three days, authorities equipped on Tuesday.
The news rules will reach into enact on January 3, the assertion acknowledged.
Staff who bear a medical certificate to level to they are unfit to derive Covid-19 vaccinations can bear the costs of the assessments reimbursed, whereas other employees will want to pay for them at their have expense.
The manager acknowledged the unusual measures are in step with “the rising collection of infection cases appealing mutant strains of Covid-19 with excessive transmissibility within the sector.”
Hong Kong has followed mainland China in adopting a “dynamic zero-Covid procedure,” closing its borders for quite quite a bit of the pandemic to non-residents and instituting strict quarantine necessities for returning residents.
It has to date no longer recorded any within the community-transmitted cases of the Omicron variant.
Australia rules out unusual Covid lockdowns despite rising cases and Omicron fears
From CNN’s Helen Regan and Hilary Whiteman
For two years, Australia steer clear off the worst of the coronavirus pandemic due to the strict border controls and extended lockdowns.
However Covid cases for the time being are rising within the nation, with the Omicron variant posing a brand unusual threat commended as states and cities were starting place to loosen restrictions.
On Tuesday, the nation’s most populous articulate reported its most life like most likely unusual day after day caseload of the pandemic, and Australian Top Minister Scott Morrison known as an emergency Nationwide Cupboard meeting to talk about the rising infections.
However he acknowledged one key message he’ll be telling articulate premiers is a return to lockdowns, tight social restrictions and fines for violating them is now not any longer the answer.
“We’ve received to in finding previous the heavy hand of executive and now we bear received to treat Australians as adults,” Morrison acknowledged at a news convention in Queensland Tuesday.
“We’ve to cross from a convention of mandates to a convention of accountability. That’s how we stay with the virus into the long depart.”
Recent Zealand delays border reopening over Omicron concerns
From CNN’s Sophie Jeong
Recent Zealand acknowledged Tuesday it was pushing help its phased border reopening by a few month over concerns about the Omicron variant.
Explaining the decision in a assertion, Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins acknowledged:
Waiting till the tip of February will elevate Recent Zealand’s total protection and gradual Omicron’s eventual spread.
There’s absolute self perception here’s disappointing and can upset many holiday plans, alternatively it’s well-known to space these changes out clearly this day in teach that they’re going to bear time to rob into story these plans.
Hipkins acknowledged Recent Zealand’s Cupboard has agreed to a group of alternative precautionary measures to abet Omicron out of the neighborhood. They consist of lowering the interval between a 2nd Covid-19 vaccine dose and a booster shot from six months to four months and growing the mandatory length of protect for returning vacationers from seven days to 10 days in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ).
