South Korea on Wednesday said masks will no longer be required outdoors from July for those vaccinated with at least one COVID-19 shot.
The move is a bid to encourage older residents to get vaccinated as South Korea aims to immunise at least 70 per cent of its 52 million people by September, from just 7.7 per cent now.
People given at least one dose also will be allowed to gather in larger numbers starting June, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a coronavirus response meeting on Wednesday.
He said all quarantine measures would be adjusted in October once more than 70 per cent of residents had received their first dose.
Over 60 per cent of people aged between 60 and 74 had signed up for vaccination, Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said.
South Korea will begin vaccinating the general public aged between 65 and 74 from Thursday in over 12,000 clinics.
South Korea reported 707 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the total tally to 137,682 infections, with 1,940 deaths.
Israel carried out its heaviest airstrikes in Gaza in weeks on Saturday, killing 26 people according to local health authorities, in attacks on a Hamas-run police station and on apartments and tents in an area sheltering displaced Palestinians.
The US government entered what is expected to be a brief shutdown on Saturday after Congress failed to approve a deal to keep a wide swath of operations funded ahead of a midnight deadline.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Minneapolis and students across the United States staged walkouts on Friday to demand the withdrawal of federal immigration agents from Minnesota following the fatal shootings of two US citizens.
France has lowered the safety limit for cereulide toxin in infant formula, aiming to strengthen protections after several major groups ordered worldwide recalls over contamination concerns, the farm ministry said on Saturday.
An ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proposed a bill to ban social media for children, as the world's biggest market for Meta and YouTube joins a global debate on the impact of social media on young people's health and safety.
The death toll from a landslide a week ago in Indonesia's West Java province has risen to 49, the country's main rescue agency Basarnas said on Saturday, with 15 still missing.
The Syrian government and Kurdish forces declared a ceasefire deal on Friday that sets out a phased integration of Kurdish fighters into the state, averting a potentially bloody battle and drawing US praise for a 'historic milestone'.
US President Donald Trump said it was dangerous for Britain to be getting into business with Beijing, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer lauded the economic benefits of resetting relations with China during a visit there on Friday.
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