Coronavirus live news: Chile approves Sinovac for children six and older; Vietnam jails man who breached quarantine

Travellers arriving in Hong Kong from China will no longer need to quarantine, Hong Kong’s top official said on Tuesday, easing curbs imposed after summer outbreaks of the coronavirus on the mainland, Associated Press reports.

Starting on Wednesday, people who haven’t been to medium- or high-risk areas on the mainland or Macao can enter the city, capped at 2,000 travellers daily, chief executive Carrie Lam said in a news conference. Travellers will still need a negative Covid-19 test prior to arrival and must take several tests while in Hong Kong to ensure they’re not infected.

Hong Kong halted quarantine-free travel in early August and imposed a mandatory quarantine period of seven or 14 days, depending on the traveller’s vaccination status. Under Hong Kong’s “zero-Covid” strategy authorities have imposed strict border restrictions and ban flights from extremely high-risk countries, in the hopes that no local community spread would allow it to reopen borders with mainland China.

Currently, China has strict border restrictions that allow only Chinese nationals or those with valid residence permits and visas to enter the country, and all travellers are required to quarantine for at least 14 days. Since the beginning of the pandemic, most Hongkongers haven’t been able to freely enter mainland China.

Restrictions will ease further next Wednesday, when mainland residents will be able to enter the city without quarantine via the Shenzhen Bay port and via the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai Bridge, capped at 1,000 visitors each, Lam said. These visitors will also need to test negative before traveling.

Good morning, it is Martin Belam here in London. UK vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi is doing the UK media round today this morning. He’s on Sky News first, and so far it is mostly concerned with social care and NHS funding. I’ll bring you the main Covid lines from his appearances in a short while.

A court in Vietnam has jailed a man for five years for breaking strict Covid quarantine rules and spreading the virus to others, state media reported.

Le Van Tri, 28, was convicted of “spreading dangerous infectious diseases” at a one-day trial on Monday at the people’s court of the southern province of Ca Mau, the state-run Vietnam News Agency reported.

Chilean health authorities have approved the use of the Sinovac vaccine for children six and older. Heriberto García, director of Chile’s Public Health Institute, said the institution approved the new measure by five votes in favour and one against.

Now, the Health Ministry has to determine dates and the mechanism to start vaccinations.

The approval was taken in a moment that the South American nation has fully immunised more than three-fourths of its adult population.

Catholic University of Chile is currently conducting a study with 4,000 children aged three and 17 to study the Sinovac effects on them. But García said the experts at the Public Health Institute based their decision on a review of information given by the Sinovac laboratory and information published in medical journals.

In Latin America, a few countries have approved only the Pfizer vaccine for children 12 and older. China has authorized Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines for children ages three to 17.

Few regulators around the world have evaluated the safety of Covid shots in kids, but the approvals are starting. The United States, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong are all allowing the use of the Pfizer vaccine in children as young as 12.

Chile has reported more than 1.6 million cases and more than 37,100 deaths.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

Chilean health authorities have approved the use of the Sinovac vaccine for children six and older. Heriberto García, director of Chile’s Public Health Institute, said the institution approved the new measure by five votes in favour and one against.

Meanwhile a court in Vietnam has jailed a man for five years for breaking strict Covid quarantine rules and spreading the virus to others.

More on these stories shortly. In the meantime, here are the other key recent developments:

• Britain will set aside £5.4bn for the National Health Service to help it cover the costs and the patient backlog caused by the pandemic.
• The Philippines recorded a record high of 22,415 new infections. It also recorded 103 more deaths. Meanwhile, the government said it would replace a stay-at-home order in the capital Manila with localised lockdowns.
• Afghanistan could lose the majority of its Covid-19 isolation beds because foreign funding for its core health programme has been suspended since August, potentially forcing 2,000 health facilities to close. The WHO said it is hoping to get several planes of medical supplies into Kabul airport this week to support health facilities.
• Vietnam’s capital Hanoi extended Covid-19 restrictions for a further two weeks, as authorities launched a plan to test up to 1.5 million people for coronavirus in higher-risk areas of the capital to contain a climb in infections.
• Europe’s medicines regulator said on Monday it was evaluating data on a booster dose for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech.
• The education of hundreds of millions of children is hanging by a thread as a result of an unprecedented intensity of threats including Covid 19 and the climate crisis, a new report warned today.
• Coronavirus rules are set to be renewed in England for another six months as No 10 admitted cases are likely to increase sharply because children are returning to school.
• London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said acting on air pollution is a “matter of life and death” after a report found it increases the risk of Covid-19 hospital admission.
• The American state of Mississippi’s hospitals are being overwhelmed by a surge in cases, which has been driven by its low vaccination rate. Only about 38% of the state’s 3 million people are fully inoculated.
• New Zealand will ease Covid curbs in all regions outside its biggest city of Auckland from midnight on Tuesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference.