SEOUL (Sputnik) - The Seoul Administrative Court on Friday partially accepted a petition filed by a group of Christian churches to cancel the ban on worship services imposed due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.
Earlier in July, the authorities introduced the fourth and highest level of social distancing in Seoul, Incheon and the province of Gyeonggi. The measure bans meetings of more than two people after 6 p.m., while religious organisations are allowed to conduct strictly online services.
"The all-out ban on on-site religious events is feared to have the potential to fundamentally infringe upon basic rights because there are religious groups practically unable to provide contactless services due to a lack of material or personnel resources", the court said as quoted by Yonhap News Agency.
According to the court’s decision, religious communities can hold services with 10% attendance, but fewer than 20 people. All parishioners must wear face masks and keep social distance. However, those religious organisations which previously violated sanitary rules are still banned from conducting services with parishioners.
South Korea has so far registered over 175,000 COVID-19 cases and 2,051 deaths caused by the disease.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A coronavirus vaccination centre in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius threw out 5,000 Moderna doses after its excess stock expired, the centre’s administrator said.
"Moderna vaccine doses were disposed of in Vilnius in recent weeks after 5,000 doses expired", Kipras Krasauskas told the Delfi news website.
He said there were more vaccine doses than could be used. The same will probably happen to the Pfizer stock, Krasauskas said, because only the Health Ministry has the exact figures on supply and demand.
"Some municipalities refuse to take vaccines, as far as I know. They say, we won’t be able to use them and will be criticised for letting them expire", the official said.
The small Baltic nation reported 82 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. Almost half the population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the Health Ministry’s statistics.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Canada will be able to reopen to fully vaccinated tourists by early September provided a satisfactory progress of the national vaccination campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
"The Prime Minister noted that, if our current positive path of vaccination rate and public health conditions continue, Canada would be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travellers from all countries by early September", Trudeau's press service quoted him as saying.
TOKYO (Sputnik) - Four Japanese opposition parties have submitted a request to the lower house to convene an extraordinary session of the parliament to address the rising number of COVID-19 cases amid the forthcoming Olympic Games, national media reported on Friday.
The latest parliamentary session ended on 16 June. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, along with three others, demanded early last month that the government grant a three-month extension to the session to discuss the country's COVID-19 response, threatening a no-confidence motion if their demand is not met.
Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty has warned that the UK is "not out of the woods yet", noting that the number of people admitted to hospitals due to coronavirus could reach "quite scary" levels in the coming weeks.
