- Hong Kong Disneyland has reopened after nearly five months of closure during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Japan's government has urged citizens to install the coronavirus-tracing app, launching on Friday, pledging that the system’s not invasive.
- Activists say single-use plastic waste in Thailand ballooned during the coronavirus lockdown as demand for home food deliveries soared.
Hong Kongers wearing Mickey Mouse ears and facemasks flocked back to Disneyland on Thursday as the city's park reopened after nearly five months of closure during the coronavirus pandemic.
Visitors queued up in blazing summer heat for the park's reopening, submitting to temperature checks at the entrance.
Signs plastered across the park and large stickers on the ground reminded visitors to maintain social distancing as they queued for rides.
Disney's parks across the globe have been hammered by the coronavirus and Hong Kong's is only the second to re-open after Shanghai.
Tourism operators are desperate to restart business, trialling different forms of social distancing as lockdowns ease.
AFP
Chinese county restricts travel as Beijing races to contain virus
Travel restrictions were placed on nearly half a million people near Beijing on Thursday as authorities rush to contain a fresh outbreak of the coronavirus with a mass test-and-trace effort and lockdowns in parts of the Chinese capital.
Another 21 cases of the virus were reported in the past 24 hours in Beijing, the National Health Commission said, taking the total number to 158 since a fresh cluster was detected last week after months of no confirmed local transmissions.
One case was also recorded in the neighbouring city of Tianjin and two more in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing - prompting travel restrictions to be placed on Anxin county, home to around 460 000 people, banning most traffic going in and out of the area.
Around 30 residential compounds are under lockdown. But officials said on Thursday that the travel restrictions did not mean they were going to force the whole city to stay home.
China also reported four imported cases on Thursday as Chinese nationals returned from abroad.
AFP
Japan urges citizens to install virus-tracking app
Japan's government on Thursday urged citizens to install the country's first coronavirus-tracing app when it launches this week, pledging that the system would not invade users' privacy.
The smartphone app, which like those in many countries relies on Bluetooth tracking and the permission of users, will launch on Friday.
"This is an important tool to protect your lives, so please install it," Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of the government's coronavirus response, told a press conference.
The software will record encrypted data from users of the smartphone app when they come within a certain distance of each other.
When users who have tested positive for the coronavirus register their information voluntarily, other users who have come within a metre of them for at least 15 minutes will be notified.
The app, developed under health ministry supervision, will not record data that could identify individuals, such as phone numbers or locations, so "you can use it with a sense of safety", top government spokesperson Yoshihide Suga said this week.
AFP
COVID-19 most new cases in the past week:
— AFPgraphics (@AFPgraphics) June 18, 2020
Brazil: 150,770+
US: 139,110+
India: 67,480+
Chile: 66,530+
Russia: 50,860+
Pakistan: 35,220+@AFP pic.twitter.com/uBrGAZQfhU
Food deliveries during virus lockdown fuel Thailand plastic usage
Single-use plastic waste in Thailand ballooned during the coronavirus lockdown as demand for home food deliveries soared, activists say, setting back efforts to reduce the country's dependency on the environmental scourge.
The contagion has had mixed outcomes for Thailand's environment, with dugongs, turtles and otters returning to beaches normally packed with tourists.
But in urban areas plastic food containers, cutlery and bags have piled up, clogging canals, rivers and landfills as people stuck at home because of the epidemic order take-away.
Thailand outlawed plastic bags in supermarkets and department stores in January.
Before then Thais on average used eight bags a day, 12 times more than a resident of the European Union.
While the kingdom has weathered the virus well, with just over 3 100 cases and fewer than 60 deaths, fears of contracting it have seen single-use plastic return with a vengeance.
The new normal comes with more plastic -- cutlery in sterilised bags and condiments in zip-lock sachets.