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SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia is likely to remain shut to visitors until late 2022, the country’s trade and tourism minister said Friday, as another global coronavirus surge smashed hopes of a quick reopening. Minister Dan Tehan said a wave of cases on the Indian sub-continent showed Australia’s near blanket ban on arrivals was still essential to keep the country Covid-free. Since March 20, 2020, Australians have been barred from travelling overseas and a hard-to-get […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Sydney’s first local Covid-19 cases in more than a month left health authorities scrambling to trace their origins on Thursday, but they stopped short of ordering Australia’s most populous city into lockdown. A man in his 50s and his wife have tested positive for the virus, triggering warnings for a string of locations around the city that they visited while believed to be contagious. They are Sydney’s first recorded cases of […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — An Australian court on Wednesday agreed to hear a challenge to the country’s controversial ban on citizens returning home from coronavirus-hit India. A federal court said it would urgently hear a case brought by a 73-year-old man living in Bangalore who wishes to return. Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week banned arrivals from India, which is recording hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus infections each day. Under the measures, Australian citizens […]
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AFP) — Papua New Guinea’s prime minister launched a nationwide coronavirus vaccine roll-out Tuesday, hoping to quell a runaway outbreak and counter widespread public hesitancy about jabs. James Marape said a batch of 100,000 vaccines had arrived in Papua New Guinea and would be distributed countrywide, as he urged sceptical health workers and the general public to get vaccinated. “We want to reduce and prevent deaths of our people,” he […]
by Neil SANDS WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand’s differences with China on human rights are becoming “harder to reconcile”, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday, after Wellington faced criticism for failing to challenge its largest trading partner. Ardern’s government has taken flak over its meek criticisms of China’s rights record, leading to accusations New Zealand is a weak link in the US-led Five Eyes intelligence network. In a speech at a China Business […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Sydney was enveloped in a thick bank of hazardous bushfire smoke Monday, forcing authorities in Australia’s largest city to scale back controlled forest burning nearby. Ferries were cancelled and the city’s five million residents were told to stay indoors if necessary, as air pollution levels spiked. Levels of hazardous PM 2.5 pollution — particles that can seep deep into the lungs and cause respiratory illnesses — were among the worst in […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia announced Wednesday it would upgrade military bases in its far north and expand joint drills with US forces after warnings about the “drums of war” beating in the Pacific region. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a plan worth more than half a billion US dollars to revamp four military training facilities in the remote north over the next five years. The package of upgrades is more extensive and more costly […]
SUVA, Fiji (AFP) — A Covid-19 outbreak that forced Fiji’s capital into lockdown after the island nation avoided transmission for a year was confirmed as the Indian variant Tuesday, with health officials saying they feared a “tsunami” of cases. The Pacific country had largely dodged community transmission before a cluster emerged this month centred on a quarantine facility in Nadi, the city that is home to Fiji’s international airport. The permanent secretary for health and […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Tuesday announced a temporary ban on direct passenger flights from India, as the South Asian nation grapples with a massive surge in coronavirus infections. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the suspension would remain in place until at least May 15 due to “clearly present” risks of travel from India, leaving thousands of Australians — including high-profile cricketers — stranded. It follows similar moves by countries including Canada, the United […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian authorities on Monday lifted a snap three-day lockdown of Perth, but faced pointed questions about how the coronavirus leaked from a quarantine hotel for returning travellers. Stay-at-home orders for Perth and surrounding areas will expire at midnight Monday, after just two people contracted Covid-19 out of thousands tested in the region. “It was a circuit breaker we needed to limit community spread and keep our community healthy,” Western Australia state […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand authorities revealed an Auckland airport worker had tested positive for Covid-19 Tuesday, although Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it would not affect a newly opened travel bubble with Australia. Confirmation the cleaner at New Zealand’s largest airport had contracted the virus came barely 24 hours after the transport hub hosted joyful scenes as families reunited following the launch of the quarantine-free bubble. Ardern said the cleaner worked on […]
PORT VILLA, Vanuatu (AFP) — Vanuatu slapped travel restrictions on its most populous island Monday after tests confirmed a body that washed ashore on the largely coronavirus-free Pacific nation was infected with Covid-19. Government sources said the deceased was a Filipino sailor whose vessel had left Port Vila a day before his body was found washed up near a village about five kilometres (3.1 miles) outside the city on Sunday 11 April. The man’s crewmates […]
