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Asia Today: No watching NYE fireworks from Sydney harborside

Posted December 27, 2020 6:00 am

The Associated Press

FILE - In this Jan. 1, 2017, file photo, fireworks explode over the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge as New Year's celebrations are underway in Sydney. Authorities have banned New Year's Eve revelers from congregating in Sydney's downtown harborside to see the celebrated fireworks due to the pandemic risk. New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020, people who live in the city center can invite up to 10 guests to their homes to celebrate. The guests will have to apply for permits to enter the area.(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File) The Associated Press

SYDNEY (AP) - Authorities have banned New Year's Eve revelers from congregating in Sydney's downtown harborside to see the celebrated fireworks due to the pandemic risk.

New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday people who live in the city center can invite up to 10 guests to their homes to celebrate. The guests will have to apply for permits to enter the area.

Australia's largest city recorded five new cases of COVID-19 connected to a cluster in the northern beaches region, bringing the total to 126 infections since Dec. 10.

Around 1 million people usually congregate on the harbor foreshore to see the annual fireworks that center on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

In other developments around the Asia-Pacific region:

- Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says he plans to submit legislation that will make coronavirus measures legally binding for businesses, punish violators and include economic compensation as his government struggles to slow the ongoing upsurge. Japan had a state of emergency in April and May with non-binding requests for people to stay home and business to close, but people have complacent about the pandemic and store owners have become less cooperative due to the economic impact. Suga said experts are discussing the legislation to make coronavirus more effectively enforced and hoped to submit the bill for parliamentary approval 'œas soon as possible'ť next year.

- South Korea has confirmed its first cases of a more contagious variant of COVID-19 that was first identified in the United Kingdom. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Monday the cases are a family of three people who came to South Korea on Dec. 22. They arrived a day before South Korea halted air travel from Britain until Dec. 31 to guard against the new version of the virus. The three people, who reside in the U.K., are under quarantine in South Korea. South Korea on Monday registered 808 new coronavirus cases, raising its national caseload to 57,680 with 819 deaths.

A medical worker wearing protective gears takes sample at a coronavirus testing site in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. South Korea has confirmed its first cases of a more contagious variant of COVID-19 that was first identified in the United Kingdom. (Park Ju-sung/Newsis via AP) The Associated Press

People wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walk in a business district in Tokyo Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says he plans to submit legislation that will make coronavirus measures legally binding for businesses, punish violators and include economic compensation as his government struggles to slow the ongoing upsurge.(Kyodo News via AP) The Associated Press

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks to reporters at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. Suga says he plans to submit legislation that will make coronavirus measures legally binding for businesses, punish violators and include economic compensation as his government struggles to slow the ongoing upsurge.(Kyodo News via AP) The Associated Press

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