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A bus carrying around 48 people fell into a ravine and caught fire after it crashed into a bridge in the southern Pakistani province of Balochistan on January 29, 2023. At least 41 people were killed and three who were injured were sent to a local hospital. On the same day, another transport accident claimed the liv…
Hong Kong's isolation facilities have fallen eerily quiet, as the city prepares to lift the last of its Covid-19 restrictions. The city rushed to build the sprawling facilities at the start of the pandemic, in an effort to prevent community transmission of the coronavirus. Starting January 30, 2023, residents who ha…
Two men were rushed to hospital and 77 other residents were evacuated after a major fire broke out in village squatter huts in Hong Kong on January 27, 2023. Authorities were alerted at around 4am and deployed 150 firefighters and ambulance personnel to Wang Lung Tsuen in Tsuen Wan, with the blaze upgraded to a No 3…
The North Korean capital Pyongyang has been ordered to undergo a five-day lockdown due to an unspecified respiratory illness, according to a report by Seoul-based NK News. There was no mention of the Covid-19 virus, but according to a government notice, residents must stay home and register their temperatures throug…
Atomic scientists set the "Doomsday Clock" closer to midnight than ever before on January 24, 2023, citing threats of nuclear war, disease and climate volatility. Russia's invasion of Ukraine was said to be one of the largest contributing factors of putting humanity at risk. The symbolic timepiece, created in 1947 b…
A pet hotel in Beijing’s northern suburbs is one of many pet-sitting services that have seen a welcome return to pre-pandemic levels of bookings since China ended its zero-Covid policy. Pet ownership in China is soaring as the country’s middle class continues to rapidly expand. Many pet owners are prepared to fork o…
The central Chinese city of Wuhan became the world’s first Covid-19 epicentre after the first cases in the pandemic were reported there in November 2019. It was also the first city in the world to be locked down in an effort to stamp out the virus. After three years of restrictions, China abruptly abandoned its zero…
New Zealand's incoming prime minister Chris Hipkins said at a press conference on January 22, 2023, his administration will prioritise the economy and manage the “pandemic of inflation” sweeping the globe. The 44-year-old was tapped for the post by the Labour Party after Jacinda Ardern abruptly stepped down, saying …
A direct flight from China landed at Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on January 22, 2023, the first time since the route was suspended due to Covid-19. Asia’s tourist hotspots have been anticipating the return of Chinese tourists, who spent US$255 billion a year globally before the pandemic. Their return was welco…
Hongkongers flocked to the city’s well-known and popular place of worship - Wong Tai Sin Temple - on Lunar New Year’s Eve to ring in the Lunar New Year for the first time in two years. The tradition was suspended in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but thousands returned there on the eve of the new year on Jan. 21…
County fairs are an important part of Lunar New Year celebrations in China. People flock there to buy New Year’s supplies to prepare for the holiday, and they also come to experience the festive atmosphere. But in the past three Lunar New Years, county fairs across China have been cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic …
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on January 20, 2023, a plan to downgrade Covid-19 to a disease category on par with the flu. The move would also ease mask-wearing and isolation rules. But the decision comes as the country faces record levels of Covid-19 related deaths among its elderly, in what is se…
Spirits have been dampened in China ahead of the Lunar New Year which begins on January 22, 2023. For some residents, what was supposed to be a time for celebration to welcome the Year of the Rabbit is instead being spent mourning loved ones who died in the ongoing Covid-19 wave. On January 14, 2023, the country rep…
Italian police have arrested the Sicilian Mafia’s “boss of bosses” at a private hospital in the city of Palermo where he was being treated for cancer. Mattea Messina Denaro ran the Cosa Nostra, the crime syndicate depicted in the “Godfather” movies. He had been on the run since 1993, with his capture putting an end …
China’s economy grew by 3 per cent in 2022, the National Statistics Bureau announced on January 17, 2023. The figure for GDP growth was the second-lowest recorded since 1976, and it comes as China recovers from a year ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic amid lockdowns and later a rise in infections as the nation ste…
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Rural areas in China have been hit hard by a surge in Covid-19 cases after the central government abruptly dropped most pandemic restrictions in early December 2022. One village doctor in northern Hebei province reported an uptick in patients seeking treatment for fever, but said she could not confirm if they were s…
China recorded almost 60,000 Covid-related deaths between December 8, 2022 and January 12, 2023, according to the country’s National Health Commission. The number released on January 14, 2023, was the first major death toll figure issued by Beijing since its abrupt shift away from a zero-Covid policy in early Decemb…
The first high-speed train from Hong Kong to mainland China departed on the morning of January 15, 2023, after the resumption of service following a three-year suspension because of Covid. Launched in 2018, the rail link stopped operating in late January 2020 as Hong Kong closed most of its border crossings to the m…
An official from China's immigration bureau said on January 13, 2023, that 1.35 million people had applied for passports as well as Hong Kong and Macau visas since January 8, the date the country opened its borders after three years. The reopening was one of the last steps in China's dismantling of its zero-Covid re…
Prince William and his wife Kate made their first public appearance since the release of brother Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare. In it, Harry alleged that William had knocked him over during a heated argument, among other revealing secrets. During a visit to a hospital. William twice ignored questions from the media …
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Four-time grand slam tennis champion Naomi Osaka announced on social media on January 11, 2023, that she is pregnant. The announcement came only days after her sudden withdrawal from the Australian Open tournament. In recent years, Osaka has faced a series of injuries and spoken openly about her mental health issues…
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Shopkeepers in the Japanese capital Tokyo are eagerly awaiting the return of Chinese tourists after China reopened its borders for international travel on January 8, 2023. But amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and a spike in cases in China, Japan and other countries have imposed curbs on Chinese travellers. Beijing…
Scenes of friend and family reunions have been seen at Auckland Airport, as one of the first direct flights from China arrived in New Zealand on January 8, 2023. This came as quarantine-free travel in and out of China resumed in January after China dropped its pandemic travel restrictions.
Jimmy and Tommy Lindesay took 131 days to complete a marathon run along the Great Wall in China, following the footsteps of their father, William, 35 years after the elder Lindesay did it. Other than running, the brothers also revisited the family that hosted their father, overcame hostility amid the pandemic and en…
The Chinese city of Harbin has seen a spike in visitors to its annual ice and snow festival which is being held for the first time in three years without strict zero-Covid pandemic restrictions. The capital city of China’s northernmost province of Heilongjiang normally draws huge crowds to see attractions such as th…
In a Japanese city famous for fine kitchen knives and blades, a small factory struggles to keep up with a global knife demand kept high by a home cooking boom sparked by the pandemic.
Thousands in the Philippine capital Manila flooded the streets to celebrate a scaled-down version of the annual Feast of the Black Nazarene. Traditionally the country’s biggest display of Catholic devotion, hundreds of thousands of worshippers would walk in a procession behind a cart pulling a centuries-old statue o…
Some medical workers were seen hooked up to IV drips while treating their patients in a hospital in central Henan province. The workers put their patients’ needs ahead of themselves. Among them was an 87-year-old retired doctor who went to the front line of the Covid battle in Zhejiang province.
A couple in a cross-border relationship reunited in China’s southeastern city of Shenzhen on January 8, 2023, the first day since early in the Covid-19 pandemic that travel has resumed between Hong Kong and the mainland. It was the first time in nearly six months that Hong Kong-based Zhou Yuhang was able to travel t…
Germans living in China began receiving the BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on January 5, 2023, the first use of a foreign coronavirus jab in the country. The vaccine programme is part of an agreement during German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to Beijing in November 2022.
Chinese pharmaceutical companies are trying to keep up with the surge in demand for fever-reducing medicine, as the country grapples with a spike in Covid-19 cases after Beijing ended its strict zero-Covid policy late 2022. Officials say production of paracetamol and ibuprofen has risen to four times as much as earl…
On January 22, 2023, the Chinese calendar will enter a new cycle as it shifts from one zodiac animal to another. It is time to bid farewell to the ferocious tiger and welcome the cautious and peace-loving rabbit. SCMP asked fortune-teller, author and television host Tong Pik-ha what the Year of the Water Rabbit hold…
On January 22, 2023, the Chinese calendar will enter a new cycle as it shifts from one zodiac animal to another. It is time to bid farewell to the ferocious tiger and welcome the cautious and peace-loving rabbit. SCMP asked fortune-teller, author and television host Tong Pik-ha what the Year of the Water Rabbit hold…
Up to 60,000 travellers will be allowed to cross the border each way and daily between Hong Kong and mainland China starting January 8, 2023. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced on January 5 details of the long-awaited border reopening after three years of strict Covid-19 pandemic curbs. All travellers will n…
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that China is “under-representing” the severity of its current Covid-19 outbreak. The statement on January 4, 2023, was issued after a meeting a day earlier between WHO officials and scientists from China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Japan’s Emperor Naruhito delivered his first public New Year’s greeting in three years on January 2, 2023. The annual tradition had been cancelled for the past two years due to the pandemic. About 9,600 people were chosen by lottery to attend the event held at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
A Pele lookalike was among the thousands lining up on January 3, 2023, to pay their last respects to the Brazilian football legend in the southern coastal city of Santos. Pele died at the age of 82 after battling colon cancer. Fans filed past his coffin to catch a final glimpse of their favourite star.
Chinese President Xi Jinping assured the nation that the “light of hope is right in front” of China as it battles Covid-19 and called for unity and perseverance in this “new stage” of pandemic control in his New Year’s address on December 31.
Two-and-a-half years into the pandemic, Hong Kong was hit by its worst coronavirus outbreak, which started on December 31, 2021. Hongkongers shared their experience with the Post, recounting what life was like for them during Hong Kong’s fifth pandemic wave, which lasted until the summer of 2022.
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Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee has announced the city’s most dramatic steps yet to drop almost all Covid-19 measures from December 29, 2022, including axing mandatory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) Covid-19 tests for inbound travellers, the vaccine pass scheme and quarantine requirements for close contacts foll…
Japan announced that visitors from or travelling through mainland China will be required to take a Covid-19 test on arrival. Health authorities cited the current Covid-19 surge in the mainland as the reason behind the new restrictions. The new measures represent an additional hurdle for Chinese nationals, who will b…
Large crowds of people and traffic congestion have once again filled the streets of China's capital, as Beijingers return to their routines after China dropped most of its strict Covid-19 prevention measures. The resumption of many activities comes despite a surge in Covid cases as China pivots from trying to contro…
China will reopen its borders and abandon quarantine beginning January 8, 2022, in line with its decision to downgrade the way it treats Covid-19. The move will end three years of zero-Covid and help the country pivot to living with the virus. Strict measures, such as compulsory quarantine for overseas travellers, a…
The waiting time for outpatients in the accident and emergency departments at 10 public hospitals in Hong Kong was at least eight hours on December 26 and 27, 2022, despite the city's Hospital Authority increasing the number of temporary beds and arranging more doctors to conduct ward rounds during the Christmas hol…
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