(Reuters) – Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:
Singapore extends quarantine-free entry
Singapore said on Thursday it will lift quarantine requirements for all vaccinated travellers from next month, joining a string of countries in Asia moving more firmly toward a “living with the virus” approach.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the financial hub will also drop requirements to wear masks outdoors and allow larger groups to gather.
“Our fight against COVID-19 has reached a major turning point,” Lee said in a televised speech. “We will be making a decisive move towards living with COVID-19.”
Shanghai’s daily COVID caseload at nearly 1,000
New daily COVID-19 cases in the Chinese commercial hub of Shanghai remained close to 1,000 on Thursday as authorities scrambled to identify and isolate asymptomatic infections, though a leading expert said the outbreak was being contained.
The number of cases in Shanghai remains small by global standards, but the densely populated city has become a testing ground for China’s “zero-COVID” strategy as it tries to bring the highly infectious Omicron variant under control.
Steel producers in China’s northern city of Tangshan are likely to have to cut or suspend production in the coming days because of the difficulties getting raw materials, sources said, as transportation comes to a standstill following fresh COVID curbs.
Poland scraps most mask, quarantine rules
Poland will lift the requirement to wear masks in confined spaces, except for health care facilities, and remove quarantine rules for travellers and roommates of infected people, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said on Thursday.
He said the migrant crisis, which erupted as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, did not translate into an increase in coronavirus infections, despite more than 2 million refugees arriving in Poland since Feb. 24.
German institute finds 20 sampled antigen tests also detect Omicron
Germany’s Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) vaccine regulator said an evaluation of 20 antigen tests on the market showed no reduction in their ability to detect the COVID-19 Omicron variant over previous variants.
PEI, which worked with the Robert Koch Institute on the evaluation, said on Thursday that the sensitivity of an “exemplary” sample of 20 tests for professional users was not reduced when compared to their ability to detect the original Wuhan virus and the now supplanted Delta variant.
U.S. airline CEOs urge Biden to lift mask mandate
The chief executives of American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and other carriers on Wednesday urged U.S. President Joe Biden to end a federal mask mandate on airplanes and international pre-departure testing requirements.
The airline executives, including the chairman of Southwest Airlines and JetBlue’s CEO, said in a letter the restrictions “are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment.”
Pandemic-fuelled 2021 population drop in 73% of U.S. counties
The toll of the COVID-19 pandemic was reflected in a natural decrease last year in the population of nearly three-quarters of U.S. counties versus the two previous years, the census bureau said on Thursday.
More than 73% of U.S. counties experienced natural decrease, or an excess of deaths over births, up from 55.5% in 2020 and 45.5% in 2019, bureau data showed.
(Compiled by Linda Noakes; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
