Coronavirus news live: Australia reopens international borders; France records jump in Covid hospitalisations | World news

New Zealand will extend coronavirus curbs for another week in its largest city of Auckland, but ease some after that, prime minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday, another day of record new infections.

As New Zealand battles the spread of the infectious Delta variant of Covid, it has agreed on a 10 November reopening date for retail stores and institutions such as libraries and museums, Ardern told a news conference.

“Because of the high vaccination rates in Auckland we can move with greater confidence,” Ardern said. “These decisions are carefully balanced and allows us to release some of the pressure and fatigue that we know exists in Auckland.”

Reuters report the city’s limit on the size of outdoor gatherings was lifted to 25 people.

Daily cases have been rising to record highs in the last few days, with 162 on Monday. Of these, 53 people were in hospital, with four in intensive care. Cases are expected to keep rising in a model of the outbreak released to the media.

But Ardern said high vaccination rates gave protection to keep down hospital admissions. “Previously we worked hard to eliminate every case. While Delta has forced us to change our approach, vaccines ensure we have the same goal,” she added.

More than 75% of New Zealand, or about 3.1 million people, have now been fully vaccinated, while 88% have had one dose.

As expected, foreign secretary Liz Truss’s first media appearance of the day on Sky News was entirely dominated by Cop26 and the Brexit fishing row, and coronavirus didn’t get a look in. Here’s a quick status check on the latest situation in the UK.

For a bit of wider context, here’s the longer view on the UK government’s own data dashboard, so you can get a view of how the current caseload compares to other phases of the pandemic in the UK.

One of those countries lifting restrictions is Australia, with citizens able to fly home and walk straight out of the airport for the first time in 583 days. As fully vaccinated passengers on the first flights from Singapore and Los Angeles walked into the arrivals terminal shortly after 6am, they were greeted by family members. In many cases, they had been separated for years – since before the pandemic began. “It’s a little bit scary and exciting,” traveller Ethan Carter said. “I’ve come home to see my mum ‘cause she’s not well. So it’s all anxious and excitement and I love her heaps and I can’t wait to see her”

Hello, it is Martin Belam in London stepping in now. I’ll be with you for the next four hours or so. Having a look across the news landscape this morning before I started, I can tell you that there will be a lot of posts coming today explaining that “country X is lifting restrictions, just as nearby country Y starts imposing restrictions.”

The UK government minister doing the media round this morning is foreign secretary Liz Truss, and I’ll have any Covid lines that emerge from her first appearances soon, though I suspect Cop26 is likely to dominate any questioning.

Indonesia has authorised the Sinovac vaccine for children aged 6-11, following the FDA’s authorisation of the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5-11 in the US. It also authorises the Novavax vaccine.

Indonesian tourism officials also held a regular briefing as more countries in the Asia-Pacific reopen to foreign visitors

Hello and welcome back to our global Covid blog.

I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be reporting from Sydney, Australia, to bring you all the latest developments from around the world.

First up, it’s welcome news for recently returning Australians and their families – many of whom have not seen each other for almost two years due to strict Covid-19 quarantine and lockdown measures.

Sydney airport was the scene of tearful reunions as fully vaccinated Australians flew in and walked straight into the arms of loved ones for first time in 583 days.

On the other side of the world less hopeful news is unfolding as French health authorities say the number of people hospitalised because of Covid-19 went up by 48 over the past 24 hours to reach 6,572, the highest daily increase since 6 September.

Daily new infections stood at 6,329, a 26.5% rise from a week ago, and the seven-day moving average of daily new cases reached a five-week high of 5,858, Reuters reports.

For everything else you might have missed read our summary below.

A summary of today’s developments

• Thailand has reopened to fully vaccinated tourists from more than 60 “low-risk” countries as the nation reboots its tourism industry after 18 months of Covid restrictions.
• The UK recorded 38,009 new infections, but the rise in weekly cases is down 13.5%. A further 74 deaths saw the weekly average Covid deaths a day climb 15.8% on last week.
• Covid booster jabs are being offered at NHS walk-in clinics in England for people who have had their second dose at least six months ago.
• New Zealand will extend coronavirus curbs for another week in its largest city of Auckland after another day of record new infections.
• Russia reported 40,993 new Covid-19 infections, its highest single-day case tally since the start of the pandemic.
• The US jabbed the most vaccine doses into arms in 5 months,
  delivering 1,412,416 doses of Covid vaccines in the last 24 hours.
• US regulators are delaying their decision on Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for 12- to 17-year-olds while they study the rare risk of heart inflammation, the company said on Sunday. The FDA is looking into a rare heart inflammation called myocarditis after vaccination.
• White House press secretary to US president Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday, but said she last saw Biden on Tuesday in masks and outside.
• France saw new infections surge by 26.5% on the previous week.
• Taiwan will receive a total of 4 million vaccine doses from the US, up 1.5 million from the former amount, Reuters reported.
• Singapore recorded 3,163 Covid-19 cases, a high tally for the city state during the pandemic which until recently pursued a zero-Covid strategy.
• New York City’s municipal worker vaccine requirements come into force on Monday, and officials said 2,000 fire department workers took medical leave to protest the measures. But officials said the part-vaccinated rate had jumped to 91% on Saturday from 76% on Thursday.
• Italy saw 26 more Covid-related deaths, taking the country’s death toll to 132,100 – the highest tally in Europe behind the UK.
• Poland reported 7,145 new Covid cases as the Eastern European epidemic continued to grow.