Covid World Dispatch: Australia's capital to enter one-week lockdown

Canberra will enter a snap seven-day lockdown on Thursday, China partly shut the world's third-busiest container port after a worker became infected with Covid

Virus spread in Tokyo can’t be controlled, expert says

A member of a Tokyo Metropolitan Government coronavirus advisory panel of experts said it was now impossible to control the spread of Covid-19 in the capital.

The comments on behalf of the panel by Norio Omagari at a Thursday meeting with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike came as the city and national governments consider whether to extend a state of emergency in Tokyo, which is experiencing its worst-ever wave of virus cases. Read more

China partly shuts world’s third-busiest port

China partly shut the world’s third-busiest container port after a worker became infected with Covid. All inbound and outbound container services at Meishan terminal in Ningbo-Zhoushan port were halted Wednesday until further notice.

It’s the second shutdown of a Chinese port due to an outbreak recently, after the closure of Yantian port in Shenzhen from late May for about a month. Read more

Australia’s capital Canberra to enter one-week lockdown

Australia’s capital Canberra will enter a snap seven-day lockdown on Thursday after detecting one Covid-19 case, as the delta outbreak that’s roiling Sydney spreads to regional areas of the nation.

Canberra and the surrounding Australian Capital Territory will start its lockdown from 5.p.m. Thursday, local health authorities said in an emailed statement. The national capital’s case was the first recorded there outside of the hotel-quarantine system in more than a year; it is currently unknown how the person was infected. Read more

Japan plans spectator-free Paralympics in Tokyo

The Japanese government and organizers are planning to hold the Paralympic games without spectators in Tokyo and other areas covered by the state of emergency, local broadcaster NTV reported.

A decision has not yet been formally made on whether fans could attends the Paralympics, after the Olympic Games ended Sunday mostly without spectators. Organizers had expressed hope the Covid situation might improve enough to make fans a possibility, but that is looking unlikely with Japan reporting a record 15,812 cases on Wednesday, according to a tally by NHK. Read more