1.15am EST01:15
Here’s a fun story from our reporter Amy Fleming on the ‘pandemic body’ and how the Covid era changed us.
From hair loss to weight gain, decaying teeth and sore eyes – the strange, difficult years of coronavirus have changed us physically.
Will we ever get back to our former selves?
Read the full story here.
12.52am EST00:52
Indonesia tightens travel curbs as it braces for Omicron arrival
Authorities in Indonesia have tightened border curbs, extended quarantine and limited movement on strategic toll roads, in a preemptive move to limit the spread of the Omicron Covid variant, Reuters report.
The southeast Asian nation has also extended mandatory quarantine for arrivals from seven days to ten.
“This policy… will be evaluated every now and then as we understand and continue digging more information about this new variant,” senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said in a statement on Wednesday.
Travel to Indonesia from 11 countries, including South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Nigeria, will not be allowed, except for returning Indonesians, who will be subjected to 14 days of isolation.
New domestic travel measures include limiting the volume of traffic on toll roads to reduce people movement, according to the transport minister.
Official data in Indonesia shows a sharp reduction in new daily infections, with a daily average of about 400 last month compared to about 40,000 in July.
More than a third of its 270 million population are vaccinated.
Updated
at 12.59am EST
11.34pm EST23:34
Hong Kong’s quarantine is pushing Cathay Pacific pilots to “breaking point” as many seek work elsewhere, Agence France-Presse reports.
The airline has been hit by a wave of pilot resignations in recent weeks as resentment over Hong Kong’s strict quarantine regime boils over and crew scramble for emerging opportunities overseas.
Hong Kong’s leaders are closely following Beijing’s closed-border zero-Covid strategy and say normalising travel with China must come before the rest of the world.
“Things are horrible, resignations are through the roof,” one pilot, who has more than 20 years’ flying experience and has applied to two rival airlines, told AFP.
There are a lot of guys at their breaking point. It’s actually amazing that we haven’t had an accident yet.”
For much of the pandemic Hong Kong has restricted inbound travel with as much as three weeks mandatory quarantine.
Resentment built throughout the pandemic but exploded last month when more than 270 people – made up of some 120 crew plus their families – were ordered into a government quarantine camp after three pilots tested positive on return from Germany.
The trio were later fired when Cathay said they had left their hotel rooms during their layover.
In a recording obtained by AFP, Cathay’s director of flight operations Chris Kempis told employees this week that there was “a higher resignation rate among pilots right now”.
In a statement, Cathay Pacific said it had to abide by Hong Kong’s regulations.
Updated
at 11.37pm EST
11.17pm EST23:17
Western Australia is pitching itself to travellers as the “safest place” in the world from the Covid-19 pandemic, despite being a state almost no one can visit.
State premier Mark McGowan unveiled the $185m transition plan to reopen WA to the world at a state address on Wednesday. He said WA was now in the position to market itself internationally as the safest place from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The virtue of our careful and cautious approach, means Western Australia now has a new brand – of safety, stability and strength, and we will use that brand to market ourselves to the world,” he said.
The state has taken a hard-line stance to border control during the pandemic with the emergence of the Omicron variant prompting the federal government to reintroduce quarantine for some international travellers.
Read the full story here.
10.59pm EST22:59
India has recorded another 9,765 daily Covid cases for Wednesday, bringing the cumulative total to 34.61m, according to an update from the health ministry.
Another 477 deaths were also recorded, bringing the total death toll to 469,724.
Updated
at 11.02pm EST
10.26pm EST22:26
Here’s an analysis piece by our reporter Jo Chandler as to why Papua New Guinea’s Covid strategy went so wrong.
Public confusion and distrust over vaccination have been fuelled by what experts say are crippling failures in authorities’ response to the pandemic in the Pacific island nation.
Vaccine hesitancy has been a major issue and cause for concern in PNG, where just over 2% of the population has been fully vaccinated. Some health experts predict that Papua New Guinea will take five years to vaccinate just one-third of its population.
Other countries in the Pacific are also significantly lagging behind in vaccination rates with experts predicting a handful of nations will have less than a quarter of adults vaccinated by the end of the year.
