Crowds of up 10,000 people will be allowed into Australian sports stadiums from next month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday, as COVID-19 restrictions are further relaxed.
The announcement comes a day before New Zealand prepares to welcome back fans at its Super Rugby Aotearoa tournament, which kicks off on Saturday.
Morrison said it would only apply to stadiums with a capacity of 40,000.
“We will be moving, as part of step 3, for events in stadia or other venues of that nature with a capacity of 40,000 or less to enable attendance at those events,” he told reporters.
All patrons must be ticketed and seated with social distancing rules in place, and attendance will be limited to 25 percent of the venue’s capacity.
Thailand eyes tourism ‘travel bubbles’
Thailand will open “travel bubbles” with countries which have comparably low coronavirus infections, officials said Friday, as the kingdom tries to claw back money for its battered tourism sector.
The country closed its borders at the start of April, leading to millions of job losses across a tourism industry which accounts for around 20 percent of GDP.
Despite registering the first COVID-19 case outside of China in January, Thailand has recorded just 3,129 infections with 58 deaths.
“These so-called ‘travel bubbles’ will allow people from countries who have the same level of virus to visit… without the mandatory 14-day quarantine,” said Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration. He did not give a date for the select reopening.
Travelers would need to have complete “health checks” before and after arrival as well as valid medical insurance, he added.
Child labor cases to surge – UN
Millions of children could be pushed into work by the coronavirus crisis, the UN said Friday as it braced for the first rise in child labor in two decades.
In a joint brief, the International Labour Organization and UNICEF noted that the number of children locked in child labor had declined by 94 million since 2000.
But the UN agencies warned that “the COVID-19 pandemic poses very real risks of backtracking.”
Friday’s report pointed out that the crisis would likely cause a significant rise in poverty.
According to the World Bank, the number of people in extreme poverty could potentially skyrocket by up to 60 million this year alone.
“As the pandemic wreaks havoc on family incomes, without support, many could resort to child labor,” ILO chief Guy Ryder said in a statement.
Trump: Attend rally, sign waiver
Donald Trump supporters who attend the US president’s upcoming election rally must sign a waiver promising not to sue if they catch COVID-19 at the event, according to his campaign website.
The Republican billionaire announced on Wednesday that he would resume his campaign rallies in four states – Oklahoma, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina – despite the coronavirus pandemic that continues to rage in the US. AFP
Trump supporters must sign a waiver on his campaign website to register for the first of the rallies, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 19.
“By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present,” the waiver states.
“By attending the Rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold” the Trump campaign, or any of its affiliates, contractors or employees responsible, it continues.
LatAm virus cases top 1.5M
A worrying social crisis is brewing in Latin America where the coronavirus pandemic is spiraling, experts are warning, as fears of a second wave in the United States sent shivers through global markets.
More than 1.5 million people have been infected in Central and South America – 70,000 of them are already dead – with no signs of the disease slowing, especially in hard-hit Brazil.
The crisis could provoke the region’s “worst recession in history,” the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said.
“We’re worried the region could come out of this crisis with more debt, poorer, hungrier and with more unemployment. And most of all, angry,” said ECLAC general secretary Alicia Barcena.
The fracture lines in Brazilian society are already evident. Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the pandemic’s scale, calling COVID-19 “a flu.”