Coronavirus: first Australian repatriation flight from India lands; Singapore tourism sector races to adapt to new rules

A plane carrying more than 70 Australians fleeing virus-stricken India landed in the country’s north on Saturday, the first since a controversial ban on arrivals ended. The plane touched down in Darwin on Saturday morning after picking up vulnerable passengers from New Delhi, but 72 of its booked passengers were barred from flying after 48 tested positive for Covid-19 and others were deemed close contacts. Initially planned to carry 150 travellers, just over half of those booked were cleared to board the plane, a Northern Territory Health spokeswoman said. Under the arrangement, those who test positive for the virus, or were deemed close contacts, have to remain in India until they return a negative test. Stranded Australians in India feel ‘betrayed, abandoned’ by travel ban The arrivals will quarantine at Outback quarantine facility Howard Springs for at least a fortnight. Earlier this month, the government threatened to jail anyone, including Australian citizens, who breached the travel ban, which expired at midnight on Friday. Around 9,000 Australians are believed to be in India, where hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases are being detected every day, and the death toll is soaring. Since March 2020, Australians have been barred from travelling overseas, and an individual exemption is needed for foreign visitors to enter the country. Australia has no widespread community transmission of Covid-19, but has seen several outbreaks emerge from hotel quarantine facilities, causing disruptive city lockdowns. Singapore’s tourism sector races to adapt to new rules Checking in to a hotel room in Singapore from Sunday could also mean agreeing to random checks from staff to ensure only two guests are in the room at any time. That’s just one example of how the city state’s tourism sector is racing to adapt to the latest restrictions imposed on the local population to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Staycations can go ahead as planned, according to the country’s tourism board, but the experiences on offer will be unlike what customers initially signed up for. Dining-in options at hotel restaurants will be unavailable and luxury hotels are offering in-room “bento boxes” to replace the breakfast many would have enjoyed during their stay. Dining credits will instead be replaced with credits to use for room service. The Singapore Tourism Board announced that there will be industry-wide changes as the republic returns to lockdown-like conditions for four weeks from May 16 to June 13. Capacity at attractions and cruises will be cut to 25 per cent. Shows will allow as many as 100 attendees with pre-event testing. Hotels will only allow two guests per room except when the people are from the same household. Dining-in at food and drink establishments will no longer be allowed, including at hotels or on-board cruises. Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble likely to be delayed after spike in cases One hotel in the Marina Bay area is asking customers to agree to random checks to make sure there are only two guests in each room. People who breach the safety measures may be fined as much as S$10,000 (US$7,506) or jailed for as long as six months, or both, according to the document given to staycationers at check-in. Several hotels and cruises are offering refunds to customers who would rather cancel their bookings in light of the changes. Singapore reported 19 new locally transmitted virus cases on Saturday. The number of unlinked infections – the most concerning because they represent undetected spread in the community – has risen to 16 cases in the past week from 9 cases in the week before. There are currently more than 10 clusters in Singapore, including ones that stem from Changi airport and a hospital. The Singapore Prison Service will be testing about 5,000 inmates, staff, vendors and volunteers after a chef at Changi Prison Complex tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, The Straits Times reported. Religious services will also have to reduce capacity due to the government’s measures, although they will be allowed 100 attendees if attendees test negative for coronavirus before the event. There will be no in-person Mass service this Sunday, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore said in a statement so it can implement the latest measures. Malaysia’s daily deaths jump Malaysian health authorities on Saturday reported 44 new Covid-19 deaths, the highest daily fatality rate so far, while new infections remained above 4,000 for the fourth straight day. The health ministry said in a tweet that 4,140 new cases were reported on Saturday, pushing the total past 466,000 with 1,866 deaths – the third highest infection rate in the region behind Indonesia and the Philippines. Thailand to ease dining curbs in Bangkok Thailand plans to allow restaurants to resume dine-in services in capital Bangkok, a senior official said on Saturday, but opening hours and the number of diners will be limited as the country grapples a third wave of coronavirus infections. Restaurants in dark red zones like Bangkok will be allowed to reopen for dine-in services but at a limited capacity of 25 per cent and will have to close at 9pm, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a coronavirus task force spokesman. Restaurants in dark red zones, which have the highest risk of infection and the strictest restrictions, could previously only open for delivery. The new regulations, subject to the prime minister’s approval, should take effect before Monday, he said at a briefing, adding that some 100,000 restaurant operators and staff will be offered vaccines to ensure their safety. Since April, Thailand has been battling its deadliest coronavirus outbreak. It reported 3,095 new infections and 17 deaths on Saturday, bringing total cases to 99,145 and 565 deaths. Of the new cases, 1,163 were in Bangkok. Bangkok, the epicentre of the outbreak, and four other provinces are categorised as dark red zones. Another 17 provinces are in red zones, risk areas where restaurants can serve customers until 11pm and 56 provinces are in orange areas, where there are no dining restrictions. Vaccination drives stutter as new Covid-19 waves hit Vietnam, Thailand Philippines extends travel ban The Philippines has extended a ban on travellers coming from countries with cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in India, its Bureau of Immigration said on Saturday. Travellers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are not allowed to enter the Philippines until May 31, said Jaime Morente, the bureau’s chief commissioner. The entry ban was also extended to the countries of Oman and the United Arab Emirates starting on Saturday, he added. The ban was first implemented on April 29 for travellers from India or those who had recently travelled to the South Asian country. The extension of the ban was imposed after the Department of Health reported that the B. 1.617 variant has been detected in two overseas Filipino workers who returned to the country in April. The two patients – a 37-year-old male and a 58-year-old male – have already recovered and had no other close contacts in the Philippines because they were quarantined on arrival, the department said. The Philippines’ total Covid-19 caseload stood at 1,138,187 on Saturday, after the health department reported 6,739 additional cases. The death toll was up by 93 to 19,051. Vietnam records 165 cases and first death of 2021 Vietnam on Saturday recorded its first Covid-19 death this year, and 165 new community transmissions of the coronavirus, marking the highest number of cases in one day since the start of the pandemic, authorities said. The 89-year-old woman was diagnosed with severe pneumonia due to the coronavirus, but died with “underlying conditions,” bringing the death toll as a result of the virus to 36, the country’s Health Ministry said. The new cases are linked to a 27-year-old man who returned to Vietnam from Japan on April 7, and a Chinese expert entering the nation for work, both of whom tested positive after completing their mandatory two-week quarantine. Vietnam has repeatedly been praised for its response to the pandemic, yet after a month without any community transmissions of the coronavirus, local cases emerged again on April 27. Since then, the country has recorded more than 952 cases, bringing the total coronavirus caseload to 3,816 and 36 deaths since the pandemic broke out in Vietnam in January last year. The country has recorded community transmissions of Covid-19 in 26 out of 54 provinces and cities, including the major cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Support for Japan PM falls to new low Support for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga fell to 32.2 per cent, the lowest since he took office in September, in a poll published by Jiji Press late on Friday. The proportion of respondents saying they didn’t support him rose to 44.6 per cent, the highest level so far, amid growing dissatisfaction over his handling of the pandemic and the vaccine roll-out. The survey is the latest in a series to show flagging support, as Suga faces an election for leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in September and a general election that must be held by October. It comes as the government expands a state of emergency in a bid to control the latest surge in virus cases and presses ahead with plans for the Tokyo Olympics that polls show most voters don’t want. Suga on Friday added three more prefectures to the state of emergency that already covered Tokyo and most of the country’s major urban areas, while the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Saturday that Gifu prefecture would also seek to be added. Why Tokyo thinks its Olympics show must go on – even as Covid-19 booms Under the state of emergency, bars and restaurants are required to close at 8pm and to stop serving alcohol, while businesses are urged to allow people to work remotely. Adding Gifu would mean 44 per cent of Japan’s population is set to come under the state of emergency, which covers Hokkaido, Aichi, Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Hiroshima, Okayama and Fukuoka, as well as the capital. While none of the opposition parties has enough backing to topple the LDP, weak public support could tempt the party to replace Suga. The Jiji poll showed support for the LDP at 21.4 per cent, compared with 4.4 per cent for the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party. Almost 65 per cent of respondents, who were surveyed in individual interviews over May 7-10, said they didn’t approve of the government’s handling of the coronavirus, compared with 17.6 per cent who said they did approve. Almost three quarters said they were dissatisfied with the slow pace of vaccinations compared with the roll-outs in the US and other wealthy nations, as the number of people in serious condition from the virus crept up to a record high of 1,231. Additional reporting by Reuters, dpa, Bloomberg