Covid-19: Top developments worldwide today

➡️ Singapore will allow travellers vaccinated against Covid-19 to enter the country without quarantine from April and is considering removing a requirement for pre-departure swab tests, its transport and health ministers said on Thursday.

➡️ New York Mayor Eric Adams is set to lift the city’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for performers and professional athletes as early as this week, Politico reported on Wednesday, a rule that has come under growing criticism by local sports teams.

➡️ About one-in-three Covid-19 cases in the United States are now caused by the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant of the coronavirus, according to government data that also showed overall infections still declining from January’s record highs.

➡️ Poland’s parliament will try to thrash out a compromise on Wednesday over reforms to the Supreme Court that could unlock 36 billion euros of EU Covid-recovery grants and loans being withheld due to a dispute over judicial independence.

➡️ South Korea’s total coronavirus infections topped 10 million, or nearly 20% of its population, authorities said, as surging severe cases and deaths increasingly put a strain on crematories and funeral homes nationwide.

➡️ Hong Kong is looking to resolve a problem over a ban on airlines which bring in Covid-positive passengers as it eases travel curbs that have sealed off the city for two years, its leader said on Wednesday.

➡️ Indonesia will lift a ban on domestic travel during the Muslim holiday season of Eid al-Fitr in early May, after banning the annual tradition for two years during the pandemic.

➡️ South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said restrictive Covid-19 regulations that have weighed on the nation’s struggling economy for two years would be removed, with the national state of disaster also to end soon.

➡️ Europe’s drug regulator is expected to give the go-ahead this week for AstraZeneca’s antibody-based injection for preventing Covid-19 infections, two people familiar with the review said, following US and UK approvals.

➡️ People may be at increased risk for developing diabetes for up to a year after a diagnosis of Covid-19, according to two studies.

➡️ Moderna said it will ask regulators to authorise its Covid-19 vaccine for children younger than 6 years old based on data showing it generated a similar immune response in young children as for adults in its clinical trial.

(Compiled from Reuters and Associated Press reports)