Sydney adds four weeks to lockdown as Australia COVID-19 cases grow
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Australia’s biggest city, Sydney, extended a lockdown by four weeks on Wednesday after an already protracted stay-at-home order failed to douse a COVID-19 outbreak, with authorities warning of tougher policing to stamp out non-compliance. Far from a planned exit from lockdown in three days, the city of five million people and neighbouring regional […]
Migrant workers face tough quarantine in Thailand as COVID-19 cases surge
Bangkok, ThailandThomson Reuters Foundation Forced to quarantine at his factory as COVID-19 cases surge in Thailand, migrant worker Hein Thet Zaw has spent the last 10 days sleeping in a tent, trying to ward off hunger with meagre supplies of rice and boiled eggs. “Burmese workers eat a lot of rice, but what we get […]
Easter services curtailed in parts of Philippines as Manila goes into lockdown
Manila, PhilippinesAP Philippine officials placed Metropolitan Manila and four outlying provinces, a region of more than 25 million people, back to a lockdown Monday at the height of the Lenten and Easter holiday travel season as they scrambled to control an alarming surge in coronavirus infections. Only workers, government security and health personnel and residents […]
New Zealand lockdown costs millions while Australia ramps up vaccination drive
Wellington, New Zealand/Melbourne, AustraliaReuters The mayor of New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland, said on Monday that its residents should be prioritised for vaccines, after it was thrown into its fourth lockdown over the weekend costing millions of dollars a day. The seven-day lockdown of the population of nearly two million was prompted by the case […]
Silent nights: Germany tightens virus lockdown over holidays
Berlin, GermanyAP Most stores shut, tight limits on social contacts, no singing in church and a ban on fireworks sales: Germany is ratcheting up its pandemic restrictions in an effort to cut the stubbornly high rate of coronavirus infections. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she and the governors of Germany’s 16 states agreed Sunday to step […]
UK says new four week coronavirus lockdown may have to last longer
London, UKAP A new national lockdown in England may have to last longer than the planned four weeks if coronavirus infection rates don’t fall quickly enough, a senior government minister said Sunday. The lockdown announced Saturday by Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to run from Thursday until 2nd December. Johnson says it’s needed to stop hospitals from […]
Disability during lockdown: Sent home during the coronavirus pandemic, Uganda’s disabled young people face new challenges
JOHN SEMAKULA looks at how Uganda’s coronavirus lockdown saw many care homes send disabled students back to their homes where they faced new struggles, including difficulties accessing education…
Australia’s Victoria declares disaster, sets curfew to curb COVID-19
Melbourne, AustraliaReuters Australia’s second-most populous state of Victoria declared a state of disaster on Sunday and imposed a nightly curfew for the capital Melbourne as part of its harshest movement restrictions to date to contain a resurgent COVID-19. Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city already under a reimposed six-week stay-home order, has struggled to rein in the […]
Essay: How a coronavirus lockdown exposed food insecurity in a small Bangladeshi city
In an article first published on The Conversation, Durham University researchers MOHAMMAD FEISAL RAHMANand HANNA A RUSCZYK look at how a coronavirus lockdown impacted food security in one Bangladeshi community…
Homeless ‘Big Issue’ vendors to resume magazine’s sales as UK lockdown eases
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Homeless vendors of Britain’s Big Issue are being equipped with face masks, rubber gloves and contactless payment terminals as the magazine prepares to return to the streets following the easing of lockdown measures. Sold by the homeless and other vulnerable people, the Big Issue was forced to halt street trade in […]