Hong Kong Raises U.K. Risk Level; Tokyo Cases Up: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) -- Coronavirus cases in Tokyo are edging up with less than a month to go to the Olympic games. The Japanese capital has emerged from a state of emergency, but still has some restrictions in place, mainly on restaurants and bars.

Israel, one of the early pioneers in vaccination, is delaying its reopening for tourists and is poised to reverse an easing of mask rules after a surge in cases. Hungary, also among the initial front-runners in inoculations, is still embracing a return toward normalcy. The government in Budapest is further relaxing regulations on the wearing of masks and the use of vaccine certificates.

Hong Kong plans to tighten quarantine rules for arrivals from the U.K. Visitors will be subject to compulsory quarantine at designated hotels for 21 days, even though authorities announced earlier this week they will halve the quarantine period for fully vaccinated residents returning from medium to high-risk destinations. The U.K.’s risk level was adjusted to “very high.”

Key Developments:

Gamma Most Prevalent in Argentina (8:42 a.m. NY)

Argentina said Covid-19’s Gamma variant, which was originally identified in Manaus in neighboring Brazil, is the most common circulating in the country. Gamma represents 41% of cases, followed by Lambda with 14% and the Alpha variant at 11%, according to a study published by the Health Ministry.

Hong Kong Tightens Rules for U.K. Arrivals (8:22 a.m. NY)

Hong Kong plans to tighten quarantine rules for arrivals from the U.K., the government said Thursday.

Visitors will be subject to compulsory quarantine at designated hotels for 21 days after Hong Kong raised the risk level for U.K. arrivals to “very high,” from “high.” The measure will be implemented from June 28.

Earlier this week, Hong Kong announced it will halve the quarantine period for fully vaccinated residents returning from medium to high-risk destinations.

Double Vaccine Will Re-Open U.K. Travel (8:03 a.m. NY)

Britons who have received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine will be given extra freedom to travel around the world, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, as the U.K. prepares to set out new rules on foreign trips.

British officials have been weighing up allowing people who have been fully vaccinated to return to England without the need to quarantine for 10 days after visiting medium-risk destinations. Johnson signaled on Thursday that the government will move ahead with the plan.

Thailand Approves Pfizer Vaccine (6:53 a.m. NY)

Thailand’s drug regulator cleared Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for local use, making it the sixth shot to be approved by the Southeast Asian nation.

Earlier, authorities said they’re to add capacity at state hospitals in virus-epicenter Bangkok for a surge in patients who need critical care, as the country’s third -- and worst -- Covid-19 wave shows little signs of easing.

Another 4,108 new infections were reported on Thursday, the highest daily tally in more than three weeks, with the spread of the delta variant and new clusters in factories and construction-worker camps adding challenges to efforts to contain the surge. A third of the latest cases were in Bangkok.

Seychelles Says Beta Variant Caused Most Cases (6:34 a.m. NY)

Seychelles, which has suffered a surge in Covid-19 cases despite fully vaccinating 68% of its people, said genetic sequencing of samples shows that the so-called Beta variant, first discovered in South Africa last year, is dominant. The Indian Ocean island nation has mainly offered Sinopharm and AstraZeneca Plc vaccines, the latter made under license in India and known as Covishield, to its 98,000 people.

Jakarta Burials Hit Pandemic Record (5:49 p.m. HK)

Jakarta recorded its highest demand for burial services since the pandemic began, intensifying Indonesia’s battle against a more infectious strain of the coronavirus.

Funeral services for Covid-19 related deaths in Jakarta jumped to 180 on Wednesday, Governor Anies Baswedan tweeted. The city of 10 million people is the local epicenter of the virus, with the highly contagious delta variant detected among the new cases, health ministry data show. President Joko Widodo has rejected calls for a full lockdown even as cases exceeded 2 million this week, the worst in Southeast Asia.

Masks Back in Israel, Off in Hungary (5:42 p.m. HK)

Israelis can expect to start donning masks again and the country has put off the reopening of its borders to foreign tourists, after its bid to return to a post-Covid normal was hobbled by a surge in infections linked to the highly transmissible delta variant.

New cases were down to the single digits in mid-June, but this week topped 100 for three days straight. Most of the new cases have been unvaccinated children and people returning from abroad. Some of the sick had been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Hungary, another country which was a vaccination front-runner earlier, is going in the opposite direction. Authorities in the eastern European country will end a requirement to wear masks indoors once 5.5 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas said. People will no longer be required to show vaccination certificates in restaurants, hotels and public baths, Gulyas said at a briefing in Budapest. He said Hungary will reach 5.5 million vaccinated by next week.

Spaniards won’t need to wear masks outdoors from Saturday.

Singapore to Accelerate Vaccination (5:17 p.m. HK)

Singapore said it plans to give a first Covid-19 vaccine shot to most of its population by July after securing more supplies, flagging the prospect of looser travel and social-distancing rules for inoculated residents.

The government will accelerate vaccinations from June 26 as deliveries have been brought forward, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health on Thursday. The city-state will also open vaccinations to permanent residents and long-term pass holders age 39 years and younger from July 2, and is extending a priority window for Singaporeans in the same age group by an additional week.

Tokyo Cases Creep Up Before Games (4:18 p.m. HK)

Coronavirus cases in Tokyo are creeping up with less than a month to go to the Olympics. The capital found 570 new cases on Thursday versus 452 cases the same time last week. Tokyo came out of a state of emergency to control the virus on Sunday, but still has some restrictions in place, mainly on restaurants and bars.

Delta Prevalence Rises in Italy (4:09 p.m. HK)

The Covid-19 delta variant may account for a quarter of new cases in some parts of Italy, a startlingly rapid rise for the virus mutation, a new study shows.

The variant, first detected in India, has sent health care officials across Europe scrambling to respond, with some countries rethinking ambitious plans to reopen their economies. As much as 25% of all cases in some Italian regions are linked to the variant, up from just 1% on May 18, daily Corriere della Sera reported Thursday, citing Pietro Forestieri, president of Ceinge-Biotecnologie Avanzate institute in Naples.

Germany Expects Delta to Be Dominant (3:27 p.m. HK)

The more-contagious delta variant of Covid-19 will be dominant in Germany within weeks and that makes it even more important for people to get vaccinated, according to Chancellery Minister Helge Braun.

“We want the highest possible level of immunity in the population because that will dictate what our autumn will be like,” Braun said in an interview with ARD television. Those who are inoculated won’t be subjected to lockdown, but people who choose not to, will have to get themselves tested regularly, he added.

Germany has fully vaccinated just over a third of its population, and more than 52% have received at least one Covid-19 shot, Health Minister Jens Spahn said in a tweet.

The growing threat of the delta coronavirus variant in the European Union has prompted a fresh warning from the bloc’s disease prevention agency about the pace of vaccinations and not rushing reopenings. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on the European Union to coordinate rules for travelers from areas with outbreaks of Covid-19 variants as the risk of a renewed spike in infections remains.

South African Infections Rise (1:30 p.m. HK)

South Africa’s daily Covid-19 infections rose to 17,493, the highest number recorded in the country’s third resurgence of the virus.

The number of infections, announced by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases on Wednesday, is the highest since Jan. 14. Of those tested 24.9% were positive for Covid-19 and 62% of the new infections were in the commercial hub of Gauteng, the NICD said.

Vietnam Accelerates Vaccines (12:30 p.m. HK)

The Vietnamese government will accelerate vaccinations nationwide and plans to administer 300,000 to 500,000 shots a day nationwide in the next six months, according to a post on the government’s website.

The government expects to receive 110 million to 150 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from different sources in the second half of the year, it said, citing Deputy Health Minister Do Xuan Tuyen.

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