Qantas scraps in-flight mask rules for international flights
Qantas has made huge changes to its mask mandates, dropping face coverings on major routes. See which flights are affected.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Masks will no longer be required on non-stop international flights with Qantas.
In a letter sent to staff, Qantas airline announced that they would be removing the requirement to wear masks on non-stop flights from NSW, Queensland and WA bound for the US, UK and Rome.
The new rules came into effect at 12:01am on Tuesday, June 21.
A Qantas spokesman confirmed the change and said the lifting of mask rules was made in line with changes made to airport requirements last week.
“For some outbound international flights where masks are not required at the destination, such as flights to the USA, UK and Europe, this means masks will no longer be mandatory on board,” the spokesman said.
Flights out of Victoria are not yet included in the change but the airline said it would make arrangements once it was possible.
Masks are no longer required to be worn by passengers or flight staff on outbound international routes where mask mandates had been lifted by the government of the destination.
The rules remain unchanged for all domestic and inbound international flights and people will still be required to wear a mask.
It comes after Australia’s top public experts said travellers should no longer have to wear masks at airports.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) advised last week that it is no longer necessary to force travellers and terminal workers to wear masks at airports.
Australian airport bosses have long been calling for the mandate to be removed as the nation gets over the coronavirus hump and returns to normal.
In May, Virgin Australia’s chief Jayne Hrdlicka said she believed the masks mandate on planes should be removed in the “not so distant future”.
“The reality is that on an aeroplane you’re as safe as you could be anywhere because of the quality of the infiltration system,” Ms Hrdlicka told 2GB.
“It is just a matter of time before state and federal governments agree we should get rid of masks everywhere.
“You’re safer in an aeroplane than you are in a supermarket.”
Ms Hrdlicka had said she believed the rules should be removed at the same time as those for public transport.
“We need to make sure that everybody feels comfortable doing it so it should be a blanket (rule) across the country, not state by state,” she said.
“All the American carriers are now mask free — it’s your choice. Some passengers choose to continue to wear them and some choose not and that’s probably where we’ll land.”
CHINA TO KEEP LOCKING DOWN INTO 2023
China is likely to keep imposing sweeping lockdowns into 2023, the US ambassador said Thursday, as he cautioned that the zero-Covid strategy was hurting business.
“I think we are going to have to live with this for a long time. My own assumption is that we’ll see the continuation of zero-Covid probably into the beginning of 2023,” Ambassador Nicholas Burns told the Brookings Institution.
Burns, speaking to the Washington think tank by video link from Beijing, said that the lockdowns were disrupting supply chains and making foreign businesses wait before considering further investment.
“This is just too important a market for countries to leave, so we don’t see a lot of companies leaving lock, stock and barrel,” Burns said.
But from his conversations with US businesses, Burns said, “I think there is a lot of hesitancy to invest in future obligations until they see the end of this.” The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai in a recent survey said that one quarter of US firms were scaling back investment plans and nearly all were dropping revenue forecasts after the lockdown in the business hub.
Covid-19 was first detected in the final days of 2019 in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan, which saw rare public displays of anger over the government’s failure to stop its spread.
Beijing has since vowed to defeat the global pandemic and is the only major economy trying to prevent any cases, imposing mass testing requirements and forcing millions of people at a time to stay at home.
Burns said that the lockdowns also impeded diplomacy with China, whose relationship with the United States he recently described as falling to the lowest point since the establishment of ties a half-century ago.
“It’s difficult to convince any of my colleagues in Washington to come here if I tell them that if they do it they’ve got to quarantine for 14 days before they can have a single meeting,” he said.
COVID VACCINE FOR NEW VARIANTS UNDER REVEIW
Europe’s medicines watchdog has started to review an adapted version of Pfizer/BioNTech’s anti-Covid jab in order to better protect against specific variants of the virus, including Omicron.
“As the company makes progress in the development of its adapted vaccine, EMA will receive more data, including data on the immune response to the vaccine, as well as data on its efficacy against Omicron sub variants,” the European Medicines Agency said on Wednesday.
“By starting a rolling review, EMA will be able to assess these data as they become available,” the Amsterdam-based agency said.
However, it stressed that the details about the adaptive vaccine “for example whether it will specifically target one of more Covid variants, are not yet defined.” The EMA’s rolling review will continue until there are enough data for a formal application to market the drug within the 27-nation bloc, the EMA said.
Worries that the coronavirus, particularly the BA. 4 and BA. 5 variants, are making a comeback are mounting including in Britain and the Netherlands where infection levels have rising to the highest levels in three months.
DR FAUCI TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID
Dr Anthony Fauci, the leader of the US government’s Covid pandemic response effort, has tested positive for the coronavirus for the first time.
Fauci, 81, who is fully vaccinated and double boosted against Covid, is experiencing mild symptoms, according to a statement from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Wednesday
“Dr. Fauci will isolate and continue to work from home,” the statement said.
“He has not recently been in close contact with President [Joe] Biden or other senior government officials.”
In addition to being director of NIAID, which is a division of the National Institutes of Health, Fauci also is US President JoE Biden’s chief medical advisor.
NIAID said in its statement that Fauci will follow Covid-19 guidelines issued by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and “medical advice from his physician and return to NIH when he tests negative.”
CANADA LIFTS STRICT COVID TRAVEL RULE
Canada’s Covid-19 vaccination requirement for domestic travellers will be suspended starting next week, officials said Tuesday.
“I’m pleased to announce that on June 20 our government will suspend the requirement to be vaccinated in order to board a plane or train in Canada,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra told a news conference.
He cited a relatively high rate of inoculations and a falling number of Covid cases across the country. The move also comes as most other pandemic restrictions have been lifted.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic Leblanc added that this will not, however, immediately ease a logjam at Canadian airports.
That problem, along with delays in the issuing of passports, sparked a public outcry in recent weeks, as more and more Canadians seek to take trips after more than two years of pandemic restrictions and lockdowns.
The mandatory vaccine policy for travellers was rolled out last October, and Alghabra warned it could be reimposed in the fall if Covid-19 cases jump back up.
“Our government will always continue to evaluate measures and will not hesitate to make additional adjustments based on the latest public health advice and science,” he said.
Travellers entering Canada, meanwhile, must continue to show proof of vaccination. Those departing the country will also be subjected to vaccine mandates in other countries.
Alghabra noted that the United States, a popular destination for Canadians, still requires proof of vaccination for those arriving from abroad.
More than 82 per cent of Canadians 12 and older have received two Covid vaccine doses, while about half have also received a booster, according to the Covid-19 Vaccination Tracker website.
‘COVID VACCINE ‘EFFECTIVE IN KIDS UNDER 5’
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said the Pfizer Covid vaccine is safe and effective in children under five, ahead of a meeting to weigh its authorisation later this week.
Children under five are the only age group not yet eligible for vaccination in the United States and most countries, a pressing need since rates of hospitalisation and death “are higher than among children and adolescents 5-17 years of age,” the FDA said in a document posted on its website Sunday.
The agency has called a meeting of experts on June 15 to decide whether to recommend the Pfizer vaccine, given as three shots to children aged six months through four years, as well as the Moderna vaccine, given as two shots to children aged six months through five years.
Pfizer’s first two shots are given three weeks apart, then the third is given eight weeks after the second. They are all dosed at three micrograms, as opposed to 30 micrograms the company gives those 12 and up, and 10 micrograms to those five and up, levels chosen to mitigate adverse reactions.
Both Pfizer and Moderna had previously posted their results in press statements, but the FDA then had to review the data in detail and carry out its own evaluation. It posted a favourable analysis about Moderna on Friday.
Its comments towards Pfizer also appear favourable, based on the levels of infection-blocking antibodies it evoked in trial participants, and a similar side-effect profile to higher age groups. The total trial population was around 4,500 children.
A preliminary estimate placed vaccine efficacy at 80.3 per cent, but the FDA noted this was based on very few positive cases – just 10, as opposed to the 21 sought for a more accurate figure.
There are some 20 million US children aged four years and under, or six per cent of the population. If, as expected, the FDA-appointed experts recommend the two vaccines, then the matter will go to another committee convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a final say.
White House officials last week said rollout of millions of shots at pharmacies and doctors’ offices could begin as soon as June 21, following the Juneteenth holiday on June 20.
Of the total US Covid deaths, 481 have come in children under five, according to the latest official data. Obesity, neurological disorders and asthma are associated with increased risk of severe disease, “however, a majority of children hospitalised for Covid-19 have no underlying medical conditions,” the FDA said.
Children can also go on to contract multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a rare but serious post-viral condition. Data on long Covid in children is sparse, but “a national survey in the United Kingdom found that among children ages two to 11 years who tested positive for Covid, 7.2 per cent reported continued symptoms at 12 weeks,” the document said
BEIJING DELAYS REOPENING
Most children in Beijing will not return to school next week as originally planned, Chinese officials said on Saturday, after an emerging Covid-19 outbreak prompted authorities to partly reverse a decision to resume in-person teaching.
China is the last major economy still committed to a zero-Covid strategy, stamping out new cases with a combination of targeted lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines.
But virus clusters in recent months have put that approach under strain. The megacity of Shanghai was forced into a gruelling months-long lockdown and in the capital Beijing, schools were shuttered and residents were ordered to work from home.
Authorities in Beijing eased many curbs earlier this week, but dozens of infections linked to a bar have led authorities to tighten some restrictions again.
Most primary and middle school students will “continue to study online at home” from Monday, city government spokesperson Xu Hejian said at a press briefing on Saturday.
The announcement partly walked back a previous decision to send younger pupils back to school in phases, starting next week.
Some 115 cases have been linked to the bar cluster so far, municipal health official Liu Xiaofeng said at the briefing.
The new outbreak was “at a rapidly developing stage … and at a relatively high risk of spreading”, Liu said.
More than 20 million people in Shanghai began a mass testing drive on Saturday that local governments said would take place under temporary lockdown conditions.
The move comes less than two weeks after the eastern economic hub lurched out of a harsh lockdown that was punctuated by food shortages and isolated protests from irate residents.
Officials have maintained a shifting patchwork of restrictions in Shanghai, wary of a virus resurgence after finally containing the country’s worst outbreak in two years.
China recorded 138 domestic infections on Saturday, including 61 in Beijing and 16 in Shanghai, according to the National Health Commission.
It comes as a Shanghai hospital is sending Covid-positive kids and parents to different quarantine facilities, an online debate has revealed.
Unverified images of children being tended to by workers circulated on the WeChat social media platform, the ABC reports.
The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre denied the images were genuine but in doing so confirmed the existence of the quarantine site.
The centre’s official channel said the photos and videos were not of the “Jinshan infant quarantine facility” but were scenes taken when the hospital was moving its paediatric ward to another building to cope with a rising number of Covid paediatric patients.
It comes as Shanghai once again locked down its tens of millions of residents for mass COVID-19 testing over the weekend, just 10 days after lifting its gruelling, two-month lockdown.
US, DROPS COVID-19 TESTING FOR TRAVEL
The United States will drop its pre-departure Covid-19 international air testing requirements as of Sunday at 12:01am, local time after heavy lobbying from airlines and the travel industry, a senior official in the Biden administration has said.
US President Joe Biden said that the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will no longer require pre-departure Covid-19 testing for travellers coming to the United States after it determined based on the science and data that this requirement is no longer necessary. The CDC will do a reassessment of this decision in 90 days, the official said.
Since December, the CDC has required travellers to test negative within a day of boarding flights to the United States, but it does not require testing for land border crossings.
The official said, “If there is a need to reinstate a pre-departure testing requirement — including due to a new, concerning variant — CDC will not hesitate to act.”
It comes as American Airlines Chief Executive Robert Isom said last week at a conference that the testing requirements were “nonsensical” and were “depressing” leisure and business travel.
Airlines have reported that many Americans are not travelling internationally because of concerns they will test positive and be stranded abroad, unallowed to re-enter the US due to the negative test requirement.
“We’re really frustrated and this is something that is damaging not only U.S. travel but it just doesn’t make sense,” Mr Isom said last week.
In December, the CDC had tightened requirements for international air travellers to get a negative test within one day rather than three days of coming to the United States, which made air travel to the US from long haul countries such as Australia even more difficult.
Airlines across Europe and Britain have cancelled thousands of flights due to staff shortages caused by the pandemic.
British Airways has cancelled 16,000 flights between March and October, to prevent cancellations at short notice, according to The Sun.
Lufthansa has confirmed that 900 short-haul flights will be cancelled from next month.
The affected flights will be on Fridays and weekends, with a number of destinations across Europe affected.
The airline said: “After a good two years of the pandemic, Lufthansa group airlines report high demand for air travel this summer.
“At present, however, the infrastructure has not yet been fully restored. The entire aviation industry, especially in Europe, is currently suffering from bottlenecks and staff shortages.”
VIRUS CASES ON THE RISE IN BRITAIN
An uptick in Covid hospital admissions in England have experts anticipating a new wave of the novel coronavirus.
According to data published on Thursday, hospitalisations flattened but then they have started to slowly climb again, with a 11 per cent jump nationally compared to last week.
While the figure of people admitted to hospital with the virus was 577 on Thursday, compared to over 2,000 a day in early January – experts warn any increase is likely to put more pressure on an National Health System already under strain.
Meanwhile the Office for National Statistics said on Friday, local time, that Covid-19 infections across the UK have risen for the first time in two months, with almost one million people contracting the virus in the last week – double the week before.
It comes as a treatment for people at risk of death from coronavirus has revealed good results in a late-stage trial, its maker AstraZeneca announced on Wednesday.
The British pharmaceutical giant, which has already produced a widely used coronavirus vaccine, said the Evusheld jab “provided clinically and statistically significant protection against progression to severe Covid-19 or death”.
The phase-three trial was carried out mostly on participants “at high risk of progression to severe Covid-19”, AstraZeneca added in a statement.
Evusheld is designed to be a Covid-19 preventive monoclonal antibody treatment for immunocompromised people.
HONG KONG’S BUSINESS STATUS UNDERMINED BY PANDEMIC
Hong Kong’s status as an international hub has been “undermined” by strict coronavirus border controls, outgoing leader Carrie Lam admitted Friday, just a day after saying she would not further lift restrictions before departing.
The once vibrant Asian business hub is mired in its third year of pandemic isolation as it hews to China’s zero-Covid strategy, which seeks to control outbreaks with lockdowns, social distancing and border controls.
Hong Kong last month reopened to vaccinated nonresidents but international arrivals must still undergo seven days of quarantine.
“The border control measures have really made people very impatient, and of course, have undermined Hong Kong’s status as a hub,” Lam said in an interview with CNBC.
“If you cannot travel freely to other places and into the mainland, how could you be a hub?” Lam is due to step down on June 30 after a five-year term that saw huge democracy protests and Covid-19 outbreaks that left more than 9,000 people dead.
On Thursday Lam announced that pandemic restrictions will not be further loosened during her remaining time in office.
But in the Friday interview, Lam agreed that a more flexible quarantine policy would bring people back to Hong Kong.
“Once we could bring down the hotel quarantine period or, as some have suggested, replace it with home quarantine measures, I’m sure we will be seeing a lot of people coming to Hong Kong,” she told CNBC.
Lam said Hong Kong was stuck between China’s zero-Covid approach and foreign countries’ decision to live with the virus.
Beijing remains committed to completely quashing all outbreaks and President Xi Jinping reaffirmed the policy on Thursday, saying it must be “unswervingly upheld”, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Lam said there was no chance of reopening the border with mainland China in the near future.
Hong Kong’s next leader John Lee has said one of his top priorities is to reconnect the city with the mainland, though he gave no specific timetable.
Lee previously acknowledged that travel curbs have caused “inconvenience” for international travellers but made no commitment to reduce the quarantine period.
More Coverage
Originally published as Qantas scraps in-flight mask rules for international flights
State’s big move on cutting-edge vaccines
One Aussie state has revealed its next move on a major vaccine development project – which promises to change the way it responds to future health challenges.
Read more
$1.1m plan to overhaul Long Covid, chronic fatigue care
Guidelines to treat the 750,000-plus Australians who have Long Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome are more than two decades old. See the plan to fix them.
Read more