January 20, Friday, 2023 (1:30 p.m.) Newsline

1.Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has instructed ministers to consider steps toward recategorizing COVID-19 into the same class of infectious diseases as seasonal flu this spring.
2.South Korea plans to ease its indoor mask mandate at the end of this month, after the Lunar New Year holidays. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo told a task force meeting on Friday that the daily number of new infections of the coronavirus has been declining for three weeks.
3.Japan has submitted a revised recommendation letter for a group of gold and silver mines on Sado Island on the Sea of Japan to be registered as a World Cultural Heritage site.