Bringing 225 more Vietnamese citizens back from Japan
On June 30, 2020, Vietnamese authorities, the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan and Viet Air coordinated with Japanese authorities to bring more than 225 Vietnamese citizens from Japan back to Vietnam safely. Immediately after landing at Da Nang International Airport, the flight participants were medically monitored and quarantined in accordance with regulations.
As of 6 a.m. on July 1, Vietnam had entered its 76th day without any community transmission and a total of 215 imported cases were immediately quarantined.
EU opens borders to 15 countries
The European Union (EU) announced that it will open its borders to 15 countries, including Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay, in addition to China but with some conditions. However, this announcement does not apply to the US, which is considered to be facing a second wave of the Covid-19 acute respiratory infection. According to the announcement published on June 30, the EU decided to extend the travel ban on US citizens for at least 2 more weeks, depending on the epidemic situation in this country.
Europe actively fights the epidemic
As of July 1, Russia had a total of 647,849 Covid-19 cases and 9,320 deaths, ranking third in the world, after the US and Brazil. However, Russia recorded a bright spot when on June 29, there were only 6,719 new Covid-19 infections, the lowest level in the past two months.
From July 1 to August 31, Greece required foreign visitors to declare their health online 48 hours before entering the country to determine whether they needed to take a SARS-CoV-2 test. To date, Greece has detected 3,409 Covid-19 cases and 192 deaths.
Rapid testing service at Frankfurt International Airport, Germany
Meanwhile, Germany has launched its first rapid testing service at airports, specifically at Frankfurt International Airport, to help ease passengers' concerns as the peak summer travel season approaches. The test costs between 59 and 139 EUR, with results available within 2-3 hours. If the result is negative for SARS-CoV-2, passengers may not have to follow the precautionary quarantine regulations. On the same day, the government of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, announced that it would continue to extend the lockdown in the Guetersloh area for another week. Across Germany, the number of Covid-19 cases is currently 195,832, while the number of deaths is 9,052.
Latin America remains the world's hot spot
The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Americas, Carissa Etienne, said that the number of people who died from Covid-19 in Latin America could reach 438,000 if epidemic prevention measures are not maintained.
On June 30, Peru officially ended its mandatory nationwide quarantine after recording 285,213 cases of Covid-19, including 9,677 deaths, and entered a phase of gradual easing to restore social activities and restart the economy. From July 1, Peru will have only 7 out of 25 regions still under quarantine due to the high risk of infection.
Meanwhile, Brazil is the country most affected by the Covid-19 epidemic in Latin America. According to official statistics, the country has so far recorded 1,408,485 cases and 59,656 deaths.
The epidemic in the US still leads the world
The US still leads the world in the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths with 2,684,266 infections and 128,857 deaths. Washington and New York states recorded new infections and low death tolls, but the other 27 states had mixed results. Most of the new infections in the US appeared in western and southern states.
One-third of Covid-19 victims in Florida are elderly people in nursing homes
The reason for the increase in cases returning to the community is due to people's complacency, neglect of disease prevention and the relaxation of social distancing measures. The spread of the epidemic has forced many state governors to re-impose measures such as closing bars and restaurants, including New Jersey, Arizona and California.
Canada extends entry ban
On June 30, the Canada Border Services Agency announced that it had decided to extend the entry ban for at least another month, until July 31, for all visitors who are not Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada, or those entering from the United States for urgent reasons. The decision was made based on public health factors.
The government also extended the requirement for all arrivals to quarantine for 14 days until the end of August 2020. Those who do not comply with the Quarantine Act can be fined up to CAD 750,000 (USD 552,000) and face up to six months in prison.
Australia locks down many areas
On June 30, the Australian state of Victoria re-imposed a lockdown on a series of Covid-19 hotspots. Starting from the night of July 1, people in 10 areas in Melbourne - Australia's second largest city - will have to limit leaving their homes, except for essential purposes.
Victoria Police will patrol locked-down areas and issue on-the-spot fines to anyone who is out without a valid reason.
The announcement came after Victoria recorded 64 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, marking the 14th consecutive day of double-digit increases in new infections. Since June 25, Victoria has recorded a total of 233 cases, most of which are in Melbourne. Since the Covid-19 outbreak in Australia, the country has recorded about 7,800 cases and 104 deaths.
Beijing conducts large-scale Covid-19 testing
People in Beijing, China, continued to line up to be tested for Covid-19 on June 30. The city has recorded seven new cases in the past 24 hours, but no deaths.
Beijing authorities have deployed more mobile testing sites across the city and can now handle hundreds of thousands of tests a day. Beijing launched a large-scale testing campaign on June 11, after new clusters emerged from the Xinfadi wholesale market.
So far, about 8 million people have been tested for Covid-19. Authorities have also begun to ease lockdown measures imposed in recent weeks, but remain vigilant against the risk of new outbreaks.
South Korea records new infections continue to rise again
On June 30, South Korean health officials announced that two elementary school students tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the first outbreak of the virus at a school in South Korea.
On July 1, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said that South Korea had 50 more cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases to 12,850.
Japan bans entry to 18 more countries
The Japanese government said it will add 18 countries to its entry ban list, bringing the total number of countries on the list to 129. The new countries are mainly in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, including Algeria, Cuba, Iraq, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Costa Rica, Eswatini, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Lebanon, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Senegal.
In addition, Japan will also maintain border control measures such as stopping visa issuance for citizens of the above-listed countries until the end of July. To date, Japan has had 18,593 Covid-19 cases and 972 deaths.
Qatar eases restrictions
Qatar will ease restrictions from early July, allowing restaurants, parks and beaches to reopen, but with some measures in place. With a population of about 2.8 million, Qatar has the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases among Gulf Arab countries, after neighboring Saudi Arabia (190,823 cases).
As of July 1, the country had recorded 96,088 cases of Covid-19 infection, including 113 deaths.
India extends lockdown
In India, several cities have extended lockdowns to contain the spread of the disease after the number of new infections per day remained at nearly 20,000 cases. According to data released on June 30 by the Indian health agency, the country recorded 18,522 new cases in the past 24 hours. With the total number of infected people in India at more than 550,000 cases, the country is now only behind the US, Brazil and Russia in terms of number of cases. The number of deaths due to Covid-19 in India also increased to more than 16,000 people.
As planned, from July 1, India will enter what Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls "Unlock 2.0" when many travel restrictions are relaxed, but schools, cinemas, gyms and bars will remain closed. However, some states in this country such as Assam, Tamil Nadu... have imposed their own lockdowns in cities where many large outbreaks have appeared.
Iran records highest number of deaths in a day
According to the latest figures, Iran recorded 147 deaths from Covid-19 on June 30, bringing the total number of deaths to 10,817 out of 227,662 infections.
A day after recording this record high number of deaths, Iran's Health Ministry said the country has not yet escaped the first wave of the epidemic. Official statistics show that the epidemic curve of Covid-19 in Iran has continued to increase since the beginning of May, when the Islamic country recorded the lowest number of new infections per day in nearly 2 months after the first case appeared. However, Iranian officials once again denied that the number of new infections increased in the second wave of the epidemic.
The epidemic in Africa is complicated.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that as of the afternoon of June 29, the Black Continent recorded a total of 382,652 cases, an increase of 11,104 cases compared to the previous day.
According to the Africa CDC, the southern African region is the most affected, with South Africa recording 144,264 cases and 2,529 deaths, Egypt with 66,754 cases and 2,872 deaths, and Nigeria with 24,567 cases and 565 deaths.
According to the Director of the Africa CDC, since last week, the number of Covid-19 cases in Africa has begun to increase rapidly after many countries relaxed isolation measures in the hope of quickly restoring the economy.
According to statistics, some countries have seen a sharp increase in the number of new infections in the past 24 hours after easing quarantine measures, such as Ghana recording 609 new infections, bringing the total number of infections in this country to 17,351 infections and 112 deaths; Algeria recorded 298 new infections and 8 deaths, bringing the total number of infections in this country to 13,571 infections and 905 deaths; Morocco recorded 238 new infections and 4 deaths, bringing the total number of infections in this country to 12,290 infections and 225 deaths.
Laos stops issuing tourist visas
From July 1 to 31, Laos will continue to stop issuing tourist and visit visas to individuals traveling from or transiting through countries with epidemics, except for diplomats, investors, businessmen, experts and workers for important projects in Laos.
Thailand reopens borders
The Thai government on June 29 decided to reopen a total of 37 border checkpoints with Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia to resume cross-border trade and cargo transportation from July 1. However, tourists from these four neighboring countries are still not allowed to enter Thailand through these border checkpoints.
On the same day, the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) said the ban on international flights will be lifted from July 1, but only certain groups will be allowed to enter the country.
