Australia and Oceania

Australia’s Omicron surge drives infections record, testing rush

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Australia reported a record daily tally of nearly 50,000 Covid-19 cases Tuesday as the Omicron variant raced through the population and sent people scrambling for tests. While the Omicron surge has apparently left relatively few dangerously ill, it has driven a rush on increasingly scarce self-administered rapid antigen kits and created hours-long queues at centres providing more reliable PCR tests. Australia had successfully suppressed infections for much of the pandemic through […]

Australia fights bushfires in west, floods in east

MAGARET RIVER, Australia (AFP) — Australia battled twin natural disasters Friday, with bushfires cutting through a picturesque west coast region, while serious flooding and heavy rains lashed the country’s east. After weeks of high temperatures, fires flanked the western tourist hotspot of Margaret River — famed for its fine wine and big surf. No homes have been damaged or injuries reported, but flames have been seen over a wide area, sending smoke billowing high into […]

New Zealand plans to phase out tobacco sales

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand announced plans Thursday to effectively ban smoking by progressively lifting the age at which tobacco products can be bought, in a “world-first” bid that means today’s young teens will never be able to buy cigarettes legally. New Zealand currently outlaws tobacco sales to under-18s and Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said that from 2027, the age ban would increase by one year annually to keep the cohort smoke […]

Australia joins US diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia will not send officials to the upcoming winter Olympics in Beijing, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Wednesday, joining a US diplomatic boycott of the event. Canberra’s decision comes amid “disagreement” with China over a slew of issues, from Australia’s foreign interference laws to a recent decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, Morrison said. He also cited human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region and Beijing’s ongoing freeze on ministerial contact with […]

Australia approves Covid vaccine for children aged 5-11

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Sunday cleared the first Covid-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11, with the next stage of its vaccine rollout expected to start in early 2022. Health Minister Greg Hunt said medical regulators had granted provisional approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be administered to younger children for the first time. It follows similar decisions in the European Union, the United States, Israel and Canada. Hunt said the vaccination […]

Australia reports first locally transmitted Omicron case

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Friday reported a student with no history of foreign travel had tested positive for the Covid-19 Omicron variant, the country’s first detected case of community transmission. The case, detected in the country’s largest city Sydney, comes despite a ban on non-citizens entering the country and restrictions on flights from southern Africa, where the variant was first detected. New South Wales Health said “the case has no overseas travel history […]

Lockdowns sink Australian economy in third quarter

  by Andrew BEATTY Agence France Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Pandemic-induced lockdowns caused Australia’s economy to shrink 1.9 percent in the third quarter, a downturn that bucked the trend of a steady recovery in other wealthy nations. The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday reported the country’s second quarterly contraction since the pandemic began — and one of the largest contractions on record — sparked by long-running containment measures in populous states. Sydney, Melbourne […]

Australia detects first Covid Omicron infections

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Health officials said Sunday they had detected the Covid Omicron strain in Australia for the first time in two passengers who were tested after flying into Sydney from southern Africa. The eastern state of New South Wales’ health authority said it had conducted urgent genomic testing and confirmed the new strain was present in the two people who landed in Sydney on Saturday. Both passengers came from southern Africa and arrived […]

Australia bans southern Africa flights over virus concerns

Australia banned flights from nine southern African countries on Saturday, tightening its borders to prevent the entry of the new Covid-19 Omicron variant. Non-Australians who visited South Africa, Zimbabwe and several other nations in the past fortnight will also be barred from Australia, Heath Minister Greg Hunt said. Citizens and residents travelling from the listed countries will have to quarantine for 14 days. “These are strong, swift, decisive and immediate actions,” Hunt told media in […]

WTO’s big conference postponed due to new Covid variant

by Agnès PEDRERO Next week’s World Trade Organization ministerial conference, the global trade body’s biggest gathering in four years, was postponed at the last minute Friday due to the new Omicron Covid-19 variant. The WTO hoped the four-day gathering in Geneva would breathe new life into the crippled organisation, which has been stuck for years trying to make progress on resolving issues like fishery subsidies. New director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was also hoping, against the odds, […]

Three killed in Solomon Islands unrest

The bodies of three people have been discovered in a burnt-out building in the Solomon Islands capital Honiara, police said Saturday, the first reported deaths after days of rioting. The charred bodies were discovered in a store in the Chinatown district of Honiara, with a security guard telling AFP he found the bodies in two rooms late Friday. Police said forensic teams had launched an investigation and were still on the scene but that the […]

Several buildings ablaze in Solomon Islands’ capital riots

HONIARA, Solomon Islands  (AFP) — Several buildings were set alight in the Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara Thursday as thousands of protestors swarmed the city’s Chinatown district in a second day of anti-government riots. Eyewitnesses and local media reported crowds had defied a government lockdown to take to the streets. Live images showed several buildings engulfed in flames and plumes of thick black smoke billowing high above the capital. © Agence France-Presse