Europe Plans To Soften Restrictions For Vaccinated Travelers

AP: EU Advises Further Relaxing Travel Rules For Foreigners
European Union member countries agreed Tuesday that they should further facilitate tourist travel into the 27-nation bloc for people who are vaccinated against the coronavirus or have recovered from COVID-19. The European Council is recommending that EU nations next month lift all testing and quarantine requirements for people who received vaccines authorized in the EU or approved by the World Health Organization. (2/22)

In covid news from North and South Korea —

Reuters: World Should Send 60 Mln COVID-19 Vaccines To N.Korea, U.N. Investigator Says
The international community should form a strategy to provide North Korea with at least 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to head off humanitarian disaster, an independent U.N. human rights investigator said on Wednesday. The vaccines could be a way to persuade the country to ease lockdowns that have left some of its 26 million people on the verge of starvation, Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, told a briefing in Seoul. (Smith, 2/23)

Reuters: S.Korea Prime Minister Calls For Calm As COVID Cases Hit New Record
South Korea's prime minister on Wednesday called on people not to panic about a major increase in coronavirus infections as new daily cases surged past 170,000 for the first time. Serious cases and deaths are at manageable levels despite record cases caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a pandemic response meeting. "Although our awareness and implementation of anti-COVID rules should not be loosened, there is no reason at all to fear or panic about the numbers of new cases as in the past," he said, according to a transcript. (Shin and Smith, 2/23)

... And from around the globe —

The Wall Street Journal: New Zealand Targets Protesters Camped Outside Parliament With Lawn Sprinklers, Blaring Barry Manilow
For two weeks, antigovernment protesters camped outside this South Pacific country’s Parliament have held group hugs, planted vegetable gardens and renamed a footpath “No Booster Lane” as authorities tried everything to disperse them without violence. A top official turned on lawn sprinklers, soaking the around 1,000 people protesting issues including vaccine mandates. Music, including Barry Manilow songs, was blasted, and regular loudspeaker announcements urged protesters to end the occupation. When none of that worked, authorities adopted another approach: installing concrete barriers to limit a blockade of vehicles and making some arrests. (Wright, 2/22)

AP: Hong Kong Orders Mandatory COVID-19 Tests For All Residents
Hong Kong will test its entire population of 7.5 million people for COVID-19 in March, the city’s leader said Tuesday, as it grapples with its worst outbreak driven by the omicron variant. The population will be tested three times in March, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said. She said testing capacity will be boosted to 1 million a day or more. “Since we have a population of some 7 million people, testing will take about seven days,” she said. (Soo and Fung, 2/22)

Stat: South African Government Sued Over Access To Covid-19 Vaccine Contracts
A patient advocacy group in South Africa has filed a lawsuit accusing the government of failing to disclose Covid-19 vaccine contracts amid concerns the country may have overpaid or agreed to terms that limit the ability to freely distribute the shots elsewhere, among other things. In its suit, the Health Justice Initiative cited various media reports over the past year indicating that South African officials may have purchased vaccines at inflated prices, agreed to restrictions that prohibit exports, sales, or donations to other countries, indemnified manufacturers against injuries or negligence, and also agreed not to seek refunds for any down payments. (Silverman, 2/22)