Catch the latest news reports on The Big Story, The Straits Times’ weekday online news programme.

South Korea said on Friday it will impose mandatory Covid-19 tests on travellers from China, joining the United States, Japan and other countries in taking new border measures after Beijing’s decision to lift its stringent zero-Covid policies.

Meanwhile, the latest data out of China shows no new Covid-19 variant has emerged, in spite of the large number of infections spreading throughout the country.

A Dec 28 statement from Gisaid, a global data science initiative, confirmed no new variants have yet emerged from the current outbreak in China.

Professor Dale Fisher, a senior infectious diseases consultant at National University Hospital, joins the show to weigh in on these developments.