Covid cases continue to surge in Cambodia, Thailand and India; reports emerge of Brazilian health workers forced to intubate patients without sedatives; Japan to extend Covid restrictions to 10 regions
- China’s economy bounces back from pandemic with record 18.3% growth
- UK workers in insecure jobs twice as likely to die of Covid
- Covid booster shot could be needed after nine to 12 months, White House says
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India extended its record daily run of new Covid-19 infections on Friday, spurred by hundreds of positive tests at a major religious gathering, as politicians pushed ahead with election rallies against advice that holding them could worsen the outbreak.
Neha Arora and Sachin Ravikumar report for Reuters that India is battling a massive second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, with new restrictions imposed in Mumbai, New Delhi and other cities. There are also growing calls for officials to speed up the country’s vaccination programme as hospitals are swamped with patients.
The Australian defence minister, Peter Dutton, has called for hotel quarantine-free international travel for fully vaccinated Australians “sooner rather than later” but the opposition Labor party and several states have warned that shouldn’t be considered before the entire population is protected.
Dutton supported today a proposal by the prime minister, Scott Morrison, who has asked health authorities to plan for allowing Australians who have had both vaccine doses to travel overseas and return without having to go into hotel quarantine for two weeks.
Related: Covid jabs: Dutton’s call for quarantine-free travel met with caution
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