PARIS (Reuters) - People travelling to France from countries where the COVID-19 risk is rated orange , such as Britain and the United States, will have to be vaccinated and show a recent negative test result, European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said on Friday. Under new rules set to take effect from June 9, people coming from orange countries who have not been vaccinated will need to prove they have an imperative reason to travel to France - such a a legal case or child care - and will also have to show a recent negative COVID-19 test, Beaune said. Countries classified as orange in terms of COVID-19 risk are countries where the rate of virus circulation remains high or which have a high level of new virus variants, such as the UK. Any country not classified as green or red is classified orange, Beaune said on RTL radio. Entry requirements are lower for countries which France classifies as green , which includes all European Union member states plus a number of countries where the
By Tom Allard JAKARTA (Reuters) - COVID-19 is many times more prevalent in Indonesia than shown by official figures in the world s fourth most populous country, authors of two new studies told Reuters. The country of 270 million has recorded 1.83 million positive cases, but epidemiologists have long believed the true scale of the spread has been obscured by a lack of testing and contact tracing. The results of Indonesia s first major seroprevalence studies - which test for antibodies - were revealed exclusively to Reuters. One nationwide study between December and January suggested 15% of Indonesians had already contracted COVID-19 - when official figures at the end of January had recorded infections among only around 0.4% of people. Even now, Indonesia s total positive infections are only around 0.7% of the population. The results of the survey were not unexpected given under reporting, said Pandu Riono, a University of Indonesia epidemiologist who worked on the study carried out with
By Renju Jose SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia s Victoria state authorities said on Tuesday that it was still unclear whether a snap one-week lockdown to contain a fresh COVID-19 outbreak would end as planned on Thursday night, as the state grapples with a growing virus outbreak. Australia s second-most populous state was plunged into the lockdown on May 27 after the state reported its first locally transmitted cases in nearly three months early last week, forcing its near seven million residents to remain home except for essential business. Nine new locally acquired COVID-19 cases were reported on Tuesday taking the total infections in the clusters to 54. Tuesday s data includes six cases announced on Monday which were recorded after the midnight cut-off deadline. I don t know if there is going to be an extension or not, Victoria state Health Minister Martin Foley told reporters in Melbourne. He said significant concerns remained about community transmission as several venues were added to