Bloomberg Australia launched mobile-phone software to help trace people infected with the coronavirus as parts of the country start to loosen restrictions on movement. The COVIDSafe app records digital handshakes between smartphones via Bluetooth, and if someone catches the virus, health authorities can track who has been within 1.5 metres of the person for 15 minutes or more. Some 1.1 ...

Bloomberg A vaccine for the novel coronavirus is needed to help reverse a plunge in Thailand’s critical tourism sector, according to the agency that promotes the industry. Visitor numbers are set to tumble 60% to 16 million this year, almost halving foreign tourism income, but those numbers could go even lower as the world waits for an inoculation or if ...

Bloomberg Bill Heinecke thought he’d seen it all in a decades-long career running hotels: the Asian and global financial crises, Sars, and military coups in his adopted home, Thailand. But the current pandemic tops all that, he says. Minor International Pcl, the hospitality group the tycoon founded in Bangkok, has furloughed thousands of workers and temporarily closed a majority of ...