China reports 50 new infections

BEIJING • China reported 50 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday, against43 a day earlier, the country's health authority said yesterday.

Of the new infections, 38 were locally transmitted, according to a statement by the National Health Commission, compared with 28 a day earlier. The new local cases were reported in Gansu province, the autonomous regions of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, the capital Beijing and Yunnan province.

China reported 17 new asymptomatic patients, which it classifies separately from confirmed cases, compared with 26 a day earlier.

REUTERS

NZ outbreak spreads to South Island

AUCKLAND • New Zealand reported 104 new coronavirus infections yesterday, including the first community case of the virus in the country's South Island in nearly a year, health officials said.

Most of the new infections were reported in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city that has been under a strict lockdown for more than two months. Looser restrictions are in place in most of the rest of the country of five million.

New Zealand will end its strict lockdown measures and restore more freedoms only when 90 per cent of its eligible population is fully vaccinated. As at yesterday, 70 per cent of those eligible have been fully inoculated.

REUTERS

Vietnam to reopen resort island

HANOI • Vietnam plans to reopen the resort island of Phu Quoc to vaccinated foreign visitors late next month, the authorities said, as the country looks to reboot its ailing tourism industry after almost two years of closure.

Phu Quoc attracted around 670,000 visitors and earned more than US$18 billion (S$24 billion) from international arrivals in 2019. The authorities are hoping to turn it into a tourist mecca in the style of Thailand's Phuket or Indonesia's Bali. From Nov 20, charter flights for international travellers with vaccine passports will be welcomed to the island.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE