Lockdown

Members of a crisis negotiation team were deployed to the Stillwater correctional facility on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the state's Department of Corrections (DOC) said the reasons behind the incident "remains unclear".

But advocates say the move is in protest over prison conditions.

Excessive heat, limited access to showers and ice and unclean drinking water are among the reasons cited for the incident which took place in one of the facility's living units on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the government has confirmed to RNZ Pacific the small nation of three atolls announced the first-ever case on Sunday.

Up until now Tokelau, which is a dependency of New Zealand, was the last remaining country along with Turkmenistan to not have experienced community cases.

RNZ Pacific reports the case is located on Nukunonu, the largest atoll in Tokelau.

Tokelau has now been plunged into lockdown.

The index case doesn't know how they contracted the virus.

Work is underway to establish how the virus entered the community.

People in Walldorf, in the south-west, were ordered in May to keep their cats indoors to protect an endangered bird.

Cats were only allowed to venture outside if they were kept on a leash no more than two metres (6ft) in length.

But the animals will again be allowed to roam free from 00:01 local time on Monday.

If a cat escaped while the lockdown was in force, owners were told to call a special hotline, then find and detain the offending feline.

Authorities cancelled all flights and trains from Sanya, known as "China's Hawaii", on Saturday, a day after 263 positive cases were confirmed.

Travellers must now present five negative PCR tests over seven days before being allowed to leave.

China is the only major economy to still follow a "zero Covid" policy.

The country has recorded fewer than 15,000 deaths since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University. However, there have been concerns about the impact of the strict rules, including mass testing and local lockdowns, on the economy.

Officials in Beihai locked down urban areas and ordered the mass testing of its 1.9m residents over the weekend.

It comes as concerns grow about the impact of China's "zero-Covid" policy on the world's second largest economy.

Last week, official figures showed the country's economy shrank in the second quarter of this year as Covid-19 restrictions hit firms and consumers.

Beihai, which is a popular summer destination in China's southern Guangxi region, recorded more than 450 infections in the five days to 16 July.

The varroa destructor was first found at a port near Sydney last week but has since been spotted in hives 100km away.

The outbreak threatens to cost the honey and food production industries millions of dollars.

Keepers inside a new biosecurity zone will not be able to move hives, bees or honeycombs until further notice.

Australia was the only continent free of the varroa mites, which are the biggest threat to bees worldwide.

The pests - which are about the size of a sesame seed - weaken and kill colonies by feasting on them and transmitting viruses.

The rules are intended by officials to contain the city's latest Covid-19 surge - the most severe wave Shanghai has experienced to date.

Public criticism of government policies is rare in China, but in the past few weeks some Shanghai residents have posted complaints on social media sites about the poor conditions they were being kept in.

Some in locked-down areas of Shanghai have been struggling to access food supplies, and forced to wait for government drop-offs of vegetables, meat and eggs.

An official notice from local Communist Party officials in an area in the north of the city details orders to transfer residents to quarantine facilities more than 100 miles (160km) away.

The plan is to move people from their homes in Pingwang to the neighbouring province of Zhejiang, where they will stay for at least a week. Young children, the elderly and those with disabilities could be excluded, according to the notice.

The city of Shanghai will be locked down in two stages over nine days while authorities carry out Covid-19 testing.

The important financial hub has battled a new wave of infections for nearly a month, although case numbers are not high by some international standards.

Authorities had so far resisted locking down the city of some 25 million people to avoid destabilising the economy.

But after Shanghai recorded its highest daily number of cases on Saturday since the early days of the pandemic, authorities appear to have changed course.

All schools, night clubs, bars, fitness centres, sports, public gatherings, churches, inter-island and international travel except for essential services will close.

It is now mandatory for the public to carry their vaccination cards and wear masks.

The changes were announced by Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa last night.

A young woman is currently in isolation at the TTM Motootua Hospital after she tested positive for Covid-19.

The case undertook the test in preparation for travel to Fiji.