COVID-19

According to Japanese agency Kyodo News, citing Tokyo 2020 sources, a requirement could be introduced for participants to undergo two COVID-19 tests within 96 hours prior to their departure.

An interim report from the Japanese Government in December had initially suggested one negative would be required within 72 hours before flying to the host nation.

Athletes and support staff, as well as National Olympic Committee, International Federation and International Olympic Committee officials and the media would be covered by the requirement.

Staff are working around the clock, while parks and other empty spaces are also being utilised for cremations.

Families have had to wait hours before being allowed to cremate their dead due to the rise in demand.

Deaths have been surging in India as a second wave of infections devastates the country.

The rising number of deaths - 380 were recorded in Delhi alone on Monday - has left crematoriums in urgent need of space.

Fiji’s Permanent Secretary for Health, Dr James Fong said they received the confirmation from the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit (MDU) at the Peter Doherty Institute in Melbourne

In a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said oxygen would be released to hospitals from armed forces reserves and retired medical military personnel would join Covid-19 health facilities.

Where possible, military medical infrastructure will be made available to civilians, a government statement said, as new coronavirus infections hit a record peak for a fifth day.

Virologists said more infectious variants of the virus, including an Indian one, have fuelled the resurgence.

The Central Division including the capital Suva is in lockdown effective today for the next 14 days.

A restricted movement order issued on the main island of Viti Levu on Saturday ended this morning.

Authorities have also since separated Nadi and Lautoka which have been in lockdown since a week when it was discovered a soldier had contracted the virus and infected a hotel maid in a breach of protocol.

And the 8 passengers have had their two COVID19 vaccines overseas prior to arrival and fully immune to the virus and not infectious, Director General of Health, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri assured during a press conference over the weekend late Saturday after the Disaster Advisory Committee meeting.

The 7 day quarantine requirement he added is a precautionary measure but it is not stopping regulatory tests upon arrival and prior to release to their respective homes for all passengers.

She is the daughter of the 53 year-old hotel staff worker who worked at a quarantine facility and had tested positive to the virus.

Fiji Sun reports there are now six locally transmitted cases that can all be traced back to the soldier who caught the virus while working in a border quarantine facility.

The new case was announced by the Permanent Secretary for Health, James Fong during a press conference.

The country's coronavirus death toll remained unchanged at 6346 on Thursday, health ministry data showed.

The last time Israel reported zero Covid-19 deaths was at the end of June last year, after lockdown measures curbed a first wave of infections.

Israel's outbreak has eased after hitting its peak in January this year.

The Israeli government started to relax lockdown restrictions a month later as vaccinations against Covid-19 were rolled out more widely.

It has close to 16 million confirmed cases, second only to the US.

The country is struggling with a second wave, raising more fears about its overwhelmed health care system.

Crowds have formed outside hospitals in major cities which are filled to capacity. A number of people have died while waiting for oxygen.

Families are waiting hours to perform funeral rites, Reuters news agency reports, with at least one Delhi crematorium resorting to building pyres in its car park in order to cope with the numbers arriving.

A number of people have died while waiting for oxygen, and more than 99% of all intensive care beds are full.

India is in the grips of a second wave of Covid infections and on Thursday recorded the highest one-day tally of new cases anywhere in the world.

The country has recorded close to 16 million confirmed infections.

There have been 314,835 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, while deaths rose by 2,104.