A 19-year-old man who kept partying at a nightclub in South Australia despite being notified that he had tested positive for the coronavirus was charged with failing to comply with public health orders, the police said on Tuesday.
The health authorities told the man on Dec. 17 that he had tested positive, but he “remained at a city nightclub and did not quarantine,” the police said in a statement.
The man, who was not identified, stayed at the nightclub in Adelaide until the morning hours, according to local news reports. More than 100 patrons and staff members of the nightclub were forced into isolation because they were considered to have been in close contact with him.
He faces a maximum penalty of two years in jail or a fine of up to 20,000 Australian dollars, about $14,500. He was released on bail and is expected to appear in court in February.
In other news around the world:
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India granted emergency-use authorization for Merck’s Covid-19 pill, molnupiravir, and two domestically produced vaccines, Covovax and Corbevax, the country’s health minister, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, said on Twitter.
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Bangladesh on Tuesday started administering booster doses of Covid-19 vaccines to health workers and residents age 60 and older, joining the growing ranks of countries racing to administer extra doses as coronavirus cases rise. Robed Amin, a Health Ministry spokesman, said that the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines would be used for the booster campaign. More than 35 percent of Bangladesh’s adult population of 138 million has been fully inoculated so far, according to government data.
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Hong Kong said that it would require all school employees who have not been vaccinated to undergo testing via nasal swabs, at their own expense, every three days starting on Jan. 10. The government has said that the same rule will apply to government employees starting on Jan. 3.
