EU to allow fully vaccinated travellers from March – latest updates

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

EU to allow fully vaccinated international travellers from March

EU countries have updated the bloc’s travel recommendations, allowing as of March 1 the entry of fully vaccinated international travellers and those who recovered from Covid-19 within six months.

The amendment to the temporary restriction of non-essential travel to the EU is based on the recent evolution of the pandemic and the increase in vaccination rates, the Council of the European Union, representing EU member states, announced in a statement.

Under the rules, member states should allow the entry of people vaccinated with an EU or WHO-approved jab, recovered from the illness within 180 days and those whose country is on the bloc’s travel list.

Türkiye reports over 86,000 cases

Türkiye has reported 86,070 new coronavirus cases.

According to a chart shared by the Health Ministry, 271 people have lost their lives and 98,199 others have recovered from the disease over the past day.

Italy logs 60,029 cases, 322 deaths

Italy has reported 60,029 Covid-19 related cases against 24,408 the day before, while the number of deaths rose to 322 from 201.

Omicron variant no more severe than original strain: WHO

The BA.2 variant of the Omicron coronavirus strain is not more severe than the original, the World Health Organization has said.

Based on a sample of people from various countries, "we are not seeing a difference in severity of BA.1 compared to BA.2," Maria Van Kerkhove, a senior WHO official, said in an online question and answer session.

"So this is a similar level of severity as it relates to risk of hospitalisation. And this is really important, because in many countries, they've had a substantial amount of circulation, both of BA.1 and BA.2," she said.

UK records 41,130 new Covid cases, 205 deaths

Britain has reported 41,130 new Covid-19 cases and 205 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test, official data showed.

The figures compared to 38,409 cases and 15 deaths reported on Monday.

Hong Kong orders mandatory Covid-19 tests for all residents

Hong Kong will test its entire population for Covid-19 in March, the city’s leader said Tuesday, as the city grapples with its worst outbreak driven by the Omicron variant.

Hong Kong has reported about 5,000 new daily infections since Feb 15, with the number threatening to overwhelm its healthcare system. Since the surge began at the beginning of the year, the city has recorded nearly 54,000 cases and 145 deaths.

Hong Kong reported 6,211 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, and another 9,369 cases that came up positive in preliminary tests.

S Korea says Omicron variant 75% less likely to kill than Delta

People infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant are nearly 75 percent less likely to develop serious illness or die than those who contract the Delta variant the real world data was released by South Korea's health authorities has shown.

A study by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) of some 67,200 infections confirmed since December showed the Omicron variant's severity and death rates averaged 0.38 percent and 0.18 percent, respectively, compared with 1.4 percent and 0.7 percent for the Delta cases.

Dubai airport CEO sees more countries dropping Covid travel testing rules soon

The head of Dubai International Airport, one of the world's busiest, has said he expects more countries to soon start ending rules for vaccinated passengers to be tested for Covid-19.

The United Kingdom does not require vaccinated passengers to take a Covid test, while Gulf state Bahrain this month said those arriving would no longer needed to be tested.

"I do expect across the world, the testing regime for travel will start to disappear pretty quick ly and we're hopeful that there will be an announcement over the next few weeks from many different places," Chief Executive Paul Griffiths said.

India reports 235 daily death toll

India's Health Ministry has said daily Covid-19 cases rise by 13,405.

The country's daily death toll has risen by 235 and total death toll is at 512,344 cases, the ministry said.

Ugandans would face fines, jail for refusing Covid jab

Uganda plans to impose fines on people who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 and those who fail to pay could be sent to prison under a new public health law which lawmakers are scrutinising, parliament has said.

Although the East African country started administering Covid-19 jabs nearly a year ago, only about 16 million jabs have been administered in a population of 45 million, with officials blaming widespread reluctance for the low coverage.

Iran returns donated vaccines because they were made in US

Iran has returned 820,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines donated by Poland because they were manufactured in the United States, state TV reported.

TV quoted Mohammad Hashemi, an official in the country’s Health Ministry, as saying that Poland donated about a million doses of the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine to Iran.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, in 2020 rejected any possibility of American or British vaccines entering the country, calling them "forbidden."

Iran now only imports Western vaccines that are not produced in the US or Britain.

With more than 135,000 total deaths from Covid-19, according to official numbers, Iran has the highest national death toll in the Middle East. 

It says it has vaccinated some 90 percent of its population above age 18 with two shots, although only 37 percent of that group has had a third shot.

Mexico reports nearly 100 Covid fatalities 

Mexico's Health Ministry has reported 98 more fatalities from Covid-19 and 4,832 new infections, bringing the overall death toll to 315,786 and the number of cases to 5,418,257. 

Brazil registers over 300 deaths

Brazil has had 37,339 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 318 deaths from Covid-19, the Health Ministry said.

The South American country has now registered 28,245,551 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 644,604, according to ministry data.

England scraps compulsory self-isolation period for Covid cases

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced all pandemic legal curbs in England would end later this week, urging a shift from government intervention to personal responsibility.

But he faced scientific unease and claims of political calculation to shut down discontent at the restrictions and his premiership within his ruling Conservative party.

Johnson, who has been mired in scandals that have threatened his hold on power, said the legal need for people to self-isolate when infected with Covid-19 would stop from Thursday.

Johnson pushed ahead with the changes despite news that Queen Elizabeth II had tested positive for the first time, calling it "a reminder that this virus has not gone away".

English medic warns new variants could be more resistant to vaccines

England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty has warned there will be new Covid-19 variants and said some of them could be more resistant to vaccines.

Earlier, Britain said it would end all coronavirus restrictions in England including mandatory self-isolation for people with Covid-19 and free testing, drawing skepticism from some scientists and political opponents.

"We all expect... there to be new variants. And some of those new variants will just disappear," Whitty told a press conference. 

"But some of them will cause significant problems."