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November
Spain tightens COVID-19 restrictions for British tourists
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: Tourists enjoy on the beach as mobile coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination points have been installed by Spain's Valencia Health Ministry in Benidorm, Spain, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Eva Manez -
British tourists will be admitted to Spain from next month only if they can show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, according to a Spanish government bulletin published on Saturday (Nov 27) as the country tightened travel restrictions amid concern about the new Omicron coronavirus variant.
Until now, Britons were admitted to Spain if they could show proof they had been fully vaccinated against coronavirus or a negative PCR test result taken up to 72 hours before arriving.
"The appearance of new variants causing (coronavirus) obliges an increase in restrictions," with regard to people from the UK and Northern Ireland, said the announcement in the Bulletin of State.
The new measure comes into force from Wednesday, Dec 1.
"This will affect British residents but not British people who are resident in Spain," a spokeswoman for Spain's Industry, Trade and Tourism said.
About 300,000 Britons have residency in Spain, making it the largest group of UK citizens in Europe outside Britain.
Spain restricted flights from South Africa and Botswana on Friday following similar decisions by other European governments//CNA
November
Suspected Omicron COVID-19 case found in Germany, regional minister says
Written by nuke
People queue outside a vaccination centre as the spread of COVID-19 continues in Frankfurt, Germany, Nov 22, 2021. (File photo: Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach) -
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 has probably arrived in Germany, a minister in the western state of Hesse said on Saturday (Nov 27) after mutations were found in a passenger arriving from South Africa.
"Last night several Omicron-typical mutations were found in a traveller returning from South Africa," tweeted Kai Klose, social affairs minister in Hesse, home to Frankfurt airport, Germany's biggest hub and one of Europe's busiest airports.
He added that a full sequencing of the variant was being carried out and that the person was isolating, and he urged anyone who had travelled from South Africa in the last few weeks to limit contacts and get tested.
The new variant has been found at a time when Germany and many other European countries are grappling with a surge in coronavirus cases.
Germany recorded 67,125 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said, and more than 100,000 people have died with COVID-19.
Germany is declaring South Africa a virus-variant area, meaning airlines are allowed to fly only Germans to Germany from South Africa, a source told Reuters on Friday. Even those who are vaccinated must spend 14 days in quarantine.
Earlier, Dutch health officials said they had detected 61 COVID-19 cases among people who flew from South Africa on Friday and are trying to establish whether any were infected with the Omicron variant//CNA
November
Concerns over COVID-19 Omicron variant trigger more travel curbs on southern Africa
Written by nuke
People line up to get on an overseas flight at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa on Nov 26, 2021. (File photo: AP/Jerome Delay) -
Australia and several other countries joined nations imposing restrictions on travel from southern Africa on Saturday (Nov 27) after the discovery of a new coronavirus variant called Omicron sparked global concern and triggered a market sell-off.
Meanwhile, authorities in Amsterdam said that 61 out of around 600 people who arrived in the Dutch city on two flights from South Africa on Friday had tested positive for coronavirus. Health authorities were carrying out further tests to see if those cases involved the new variant.
Omicron, dubbed a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organization, is potentially more contagious than previous variants of the disease.
It was first discovered in South Africa and has since been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong. A minister in the German state of Hesse said on Saturday that the variant had very probably arrived in Germany, in a traveller returning from South Africa.
Financial markets plunged on Friday, especially stocks of airlines and others in the travel sector, as investors worried the variant could cause another surge in the pandemic and stall a global recovery. Oil prices tumbled by about US$10 a barrel.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 2.5 per cent, its worst day since late October 2020, and European stocks had their worst day in 17 months.
It could take weeks for scientists to fully understand the variant's mutations and whether existing vaccines and treatments are effective against it. Omicron is the fifth variant of concern designated by the WHO.
Although epidemiologists say travel curbs may be too late to stop Omicron from circulating globally, a string of countries including the United States, Brazil, Canada and European Union nations announced travel bans or restrictions from southern Africa on Friday.
On Saturday, Australia said it would ban non-citizens who have been in nine southern African countries from entering and will require supervised 14-day quarantines for Australian citizens and their dependents returning from there.
Japan said it would extend its tightened border controls to three more African countries after imposing curbs on travel from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Lesotho on Friday.
Sri Lanka, Thailand and Oman also announced travel curbs on southern African nations.
Omicron has emerged as many countries in Europe are already battling a surge in COVID-19 infections, and some have re-introduced restrictions on social activity to try to stop the spread.
In Britain, the main opposition Labour Party called on Saturday for a faster booster vaccination programme, saying the gap between the second dose of a vaccination and the booster jab should be cut from six to five months.
"This new variant is a wake-up call," said Labour's junior health spokesman Alex Norris. "The pandemic is not over. We need to urgently bolster our defences to keep the virus at bay."//CNA
November
Philippines cuts target for ambitious three-day COVID-19 vaccination sprint
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: Health workers in hazmat suits walk outside the Manila COVID-19 Field Hospital in Manila, Philippines, September 7, 2021. REUTERS/Lisa Marie David -
The Philippines has slashed its inoculation target for an ambitious three-day national vaccination push due to a shortage of supplies and other logistical challenges, authorities said on Saturday (Nov 27).
The Southeast Asian nation is facing the region's second-highest COVID-19 infections and deaths, and officials tagged vaccination as key to a sustainable economic recovery in what was one of the region's fastest-growing economies before the pandemic.
Target vaccination output for the Nov 29 to Dec 1 "National Vaccination Days" was cut to nine million from 15 million, the national task force said in a statement. The targeted three million shots a day is nearly four times the country's 829,000 average daily doses for November.
"There is currently a shortage in ancillary supplies, particularly syringes for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines and other logistical challenges," the task force said.
While 95 per cent of the capital region's eligible population were already fully vaccinated, barely half of residents in the provinces have completed their inoculation, government data show. The Philippines has so far fully inoculated roughly 35 million or 45 per cent of its eligible population.
To achieve its goal of inoculating 54 million Filipinos by year-end, the government will hold another three-day national inoculation event from Dec 15 to 17.
The national vaccination days aim to increase the Philippines' first-dose coverage to 70 per cent from 58 per cent and increase the booster jabs, while the Dec 15 to 17 activities will focus on second doses and boosters.
"Again, we enjoin everyone to get vaccinated and be a hero to your family and loved ones," the task force said.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Philippines has reported 2.83 million infections and 48,017 coronavirus-related deaths, as it remains on alert for Omicron, which the World Health Organization has described as a "variant of concern"//CNA
November
Australia sets out curbs for travellers from virus-hit southern Africa
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: People sit in the arrivals section of the international terminal of Kingsford Smith International Airport in Sydney, Australia, March 21, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott -
Australia imposed new restrictions on Saturday (Nov 27) on people who have been to nine southern African countries, as the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 raises concerns about another wave of the pandemic.
The countries are South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, the Seychelles, Malawi and Mozambique.
Effective immediately, the government will ban non-citizens who have been in those countries from entering and will require supervised 14-day quarantines for Australian citizens and their dependents returning from the countries, said Health Minister Greg Hunt.
These restrictions also apply to people such as international students and skilled migrants arriving from countries with which Australia has travel bubbles, who have been in any of the nine countries within the past 14 days.
"If the medical evidence shows that further actions are required, we will not hesitate to take them. And that may involve strengthening or expanding the restrictions," he said.
Anyone who has already arrived in Australia and who has been in any of those countries within the past 14 days must immediately isolate and be tested.
The Australian government will also suspend all flights from the nine southern African countries for two weeks.
Twenty travellers from South Africa are in quarantine in the Northern Territory's Howard Springs facility, 19 of whom have returned negative coronavirus tests. It is not yet known if the one positive test result is the Omicron variant, Hunt said.
The discovery of the variant - which has a spike protein dramatically different from the one that existing vaccines are based on - triggered global alarm on Friday as countries rushed to suspend travel from southern Africa and stock markets suffered their biggest falls in more than a year.
Australia early this month eased its international border restrictions for the first time during the pandemic allowing fully vaccinated residents to return to the country without quarantine after higher vaccination levels.
Australia had largely stamped out infections for most of this year until an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant in late June spread rapidly across its east. About 205,000 cases and 1,985 deaths have been recorded so far, lower than many other countries in the developed world//CNA
November
China's industrial profits growth accelerates in Oct
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: A worker welds a bicycle steel rim at a factory manufacturing sports equipment in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China September 2, 2019. China Daily via REUTERS/File Photo -
Profits at China's industrial firms grew at a faster pace in October, the statistics bureau said on Saturday, providing a buffer for a faltering economy battered by soaring raw material prices.
Profits in October rose 24.6per cent from a year earlier to 818.7 billion yuan (US$128.1 billion), the official data showed, quickening from a 16.3per cent gain reported in September.
For the January-October period, industrial firms' profits rose 42.2per cent year-on-year to 7.2 trillion yuan, slower than a 44.7per cent rise in the first nine months of 2021.
The industrial profit data covers large firms with annual revenues of over 20 million yuan from their main operations.
Government efforts to ensure supply and stabilize prices helped companies mitigate difficulties, which in turned helped improve production conditions and profits, said Zhu Hong a senior statistician at the National Bureau of Statistics.
However, he said profit differentiation between upstream and downstream industries had not significantly improved, with downstream industries still facing pressures on their profitability.
Prices in China have surged amid a power crunch and Beijing has been trying to cool a red-hot market for coal, the country's main fuel for power generation.
However, an official from China's state planner said last Sunday that "energy prices including, coal prices have fallen significantly" and have pushed down prices for steel, aluminium, pulp, PVC and coal chemical products.
The world's second-largest economy staged an impressive rebound from last year's pandemic slump, but has since lost momentum as it grapples with a slowing manufacturing sector, debt problems in the property market and COVID-19 outbreaks.
China's industrial output grew faster than expected in October but remained the second lowest print this year.
On Friday, China's Ministry of Industry and Information (MIIT) Technology held a meeting with representatives from industry associations and companies including Aluminium Corp of China and China Minmetals Corp to discuss issues in the raw materials industry, it said in a Saturday statement.
The development of the upstream and downstream should be better coordinated to ensure the stability of the supply chain, and the industry's risk response capabilities should be strengthened to prevent "grey rhino" and "black swan" incidents, it quoted MIIT vice minister Wang Jiangping as saying.
The industrial profit data covers large firms with annual revenues of over 20 million yuan from their main operations//CNA
November
WTO postpones major meeting after new COVID-19 variant outbreak
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: A sign of the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) is pictured at the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, November 25, 2021. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse -
The World Trade Organization (WTO) became the first major diplomatic casualty of the new coronavirus variant on Friday (Nov 26) when it postponed its first ministerial meeting in four years due to the deteriorating health situation.
Ministers from WTO members were due to have gathered next week for a meeting widely seen as a test of the WTO's relevance.
The WTO said that its members had agreed late on Friday to postpone the ministerial conference after the new variant outbreak led to travel restrictions that would have prevented many ministers from reaching Geneva.
No new date has been set for a rescheduled meeting.
The World Health Organisation has classified the B11529 variant detected in South Africa as a "variant of concern", saying it may spread more quickly than other forms of the virus. Scientists are also seeking to find out if it is vaccine-resistant.
Switzerland, home to the WTO, on Friday banned direct flights from South Africa and the surrounding region, and imposed test and quarantine requirements on travel from other countries, including Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel.
The Geneva-based trade body had planned a meeting in person, but the new restrictions meant delegations of large players such as South Africa and the Brussels-based European Commission would have been limited to a largely virtual presence.
Even before the postponement the prospects were not bright.
The WTO has only managed one update of its global rules in its near 27-year history, the red tape-cutting Trade Facilitation Agreement, and its 164 members looked far from agreement in its most active talks - on curbing fishing subsidies and spreading COVID-19 vaccines more widely.
India, South Africa and other developing countries are calling for a waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights for vaccines and other COVID-19 treatments. US President Joe Biden said on Friday he supported a waiver for vaccines.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the postponement did not mean negotiations should stop.
"On the contrary, delegations in Geneva should be fully empowered to close as many gaps as possible. This new variant reminds us once again of the urgency of the work we are charged with," she said in a statement.
Santiago Wills, the Colombian WTO ambassador who chairs the fishing subsidy talks, said the news was "deflating, to say the least", but pledged to keep working towards an agreement to save global fish stocks//CNA
November
New COVID-19 variant Omicron triggers global alarm, market sell-off
Written by nuke
People pull shopping carts as they walk past an information board, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COV Britain, June 16, 2021. REUTERS/Phil Noble -
The discovery of a new coronavirus variant named Omicron triggered global alarm on Friday (Nov 26) as countries rushed to suspend travel from southern Africa and stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic suffered their biggest falls in more than a year.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Omicron may spread more quickly than other forms, and preliminary evidence suggested there is an increased risk of reinfection.
Epidemiologists warned travel curbs may be too late to stop Omicron from circulating globally. The new mutations were first discovered in South Africa and have since been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.
The United States will restrict travel from South Africa and neighbouring countries effective Monday, a senior Biden administration official said.
Going further, Canada said it was closing its borders to those countries, following bans on flights announced by Britain, the European Union and others.
But it could take weeks for scientists to fully understand the variant's mutations and whether existing vaccines and treatments are effective against it. Omicron is the fifth variant of concern designated by the WHO.
The variant has a spike protein that is dramatically different than the one in the original coronavirus that vaccines are based on, the UK Health Security Agency said, raising fears about how current vaccines will fare.
Scientists issued similar warnings.
"This new variant of the COVID-19 virus is very worrying. It is the most heavily mutated version of the virus we have seen to date," said Lawrence Young, a virologist at Britain's University of Warwick.
"Some of the mutations that are similar to changes we've seen in other variants of concern are associated with enhanced transmissibility and with partial resistance to immunity induced by vaccination or natural infection."
Those worries pummelled financial markets, especially stocks of airlines and others in the travel sector, and oil, which tumbled by about US$10 a barrel.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 2.5 per cent, its worst day since late October 2020, and European stocks had their worst day in 17 months.
Several other countries including India, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates also toughened travel curbs.
In Geneva the WHO - whose experts on Friday discussed the risks that the variant, called B.1.1.529, presents - had earlier warned against travel curbs for now.
"It's really important that there are no knee-jerk responses here," said the WHO's emergencies director Mike Ryan, praising South Africa's public health institutions for picking up the new variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Richard Lessells, a South Africa-based infectious disease expert, also expressed frustration at travel bans, saying the focus should be on getting more people vaccinated in places that have struggled to access sufficient shots.
"This is why we talked about the risk of vaccine apartheid. This virus can evolve in the absence of adequate levels of vaccination," he told Reuters.
Less than 7per cent of people in low-income countries have received their first COVID-19 shot, according to medical and human rights groups. Meanwhile, many developed nations are giving third-dose boosters.
The coronavirus has swept the world in the two years since it was first identified in central China, infecting 260 million people and killing 5.4 million.
One epidemiologist in Hong Kong said it may be too late to tighten travel curbs against the latest variant.
"Most likely this virus is already in other places. And so if we shut the door now, it's going to be probably too late," said Ben Cowling of the University of Hong Kong.
Brazilian health regulator Anvisa recommended that travel be restricted from some African countries, but President Jair Bolsonaro appeared to dismiss such measures.
Bolsonaro has been widely criticised by public health experts for his management of the pandemic, railing against lockdowns and choosing not to get vaccinated. Brazil has the world's second-highest death toll from the virus, behind only the United States.
Discovery of the new variant comes as Europe and the United States enter winter, with more people gathering indoors in the run-up to Christmas, providing a breeding ground for infection.
Friday also marked the start of the holiday shopping period in the United States, but stores were less crowded than in years past.
Realtor Kelsey Hupp, 36, was at the Macy's department store in downtown Chicago on Black Friday.
"Chicago is pretty safe and masked and vaccinated. I got my booster so I'm not too concerned about it," she said//CNA
November
Top US diplomat for Asia to visit four ASEAN countries
Written by nuke
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink attend a meeting with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb 26, 2019. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS) -
The top US diplomat for East Asia will visit Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand from the weekend after President Joe Biden pledged stepped up engagement with Southeast Asia, a key battleground in his contest for influence with China.
Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, will be in the region from Saturday (Nov 27) until Dec 4, a State Department statement said.
Kritenbrink would "reaffirm the US commitment to work together ... to tackle the most serious global and regional challenges" and stress US support for "a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific," it said, a reference to China's increasingly assertive behavior in the region, which Washington has repeatedly denounced as "coercive."
Kritenbrink will discuss human rights "challenges," seek to bolster cooperation on climate change and discuss ways to pressure Myanmar's military government to cease violence and allow unhindered humanitarian access, the statement said.
He will also discuss how to strengthen economic relationships and "build back better" from the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
Biden joined leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in a virtual summit last month, the first time in four years Washington had engaged at the top level with the bloc.
He pledged to stand with ASEAN in defending freedom of the seas and democracy, and said Washington would start talks on developing a regional economic framework, something critics say his Asia strategy has lacked since his predecessor Donald Trump quit a regional trade pact.
An Asian diplomat said regional countries were still awaiting details of this plan, recognizing Biden's focus on rebuilding domestic economic strength was a limiting factor.
Daniel Russel, a predecessor of Kritenbrink in the Obama administration, said a key question for ASEAN was "whether the United States truly has a viable economic strategy" for the region.
"The pledge to discuss ways to strengthen US economic engagement with ASEAN countries is music to their ears, even if they may be underwhelmed by the 'economic framework' so far," he said.
Kritenbrink's trip announcement stressed the "centrality" of the 10-member ASEAN to regional affairs, but he will not visit the bloc's new chair, Cambodia, which has shifted ever closer to China.
The Asian diplomat and Russel said Kritenbrink was likely to visit other ASEAN countries before long and Russel noted Indonesia's capital Jakarta is home to the bloc's permanent headquarters.
"While it is important to discuss the ASEAN agenda with the 2022 chair, visiting ASEAN headquarters in Jakarta will afford him the opportunity to begin that conversation," Russel said//CNA
November
Novavax developing vaccine that targets new COVID-19 Omicron variant
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine" sticker and a medical syringe in front of displayed Novavax logo in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic -
Novavax Inc said on Friday (Nov 26) it had started working on a version of its COVID-19 vaccine to target the variant detected in South Africa and would have the shot ready for testing and manufacturing in the next few weeks.
The company's COVID-19 shot contains an actual version of the virus' spike protein that cannot cause disease but can trigger the immune system. The vaccine developer said it had started developing a spike protein specifically based on the known genetic sequence of the variant, B.1.1.529.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) designated the variant, named omicron, as being "of concern", a label only given to four variants to date.
"The initial work will take a few weeks," a company spokesperson said. Shares of the company closed up nearly 9 per cent on Friday.
Novavax's vaccine received its first emergency use approval earlier this month in Indonesia followed by the Philippines.
The company has said it is on track to file for US approval by the end of the year. It has also filed for approvals with the European Medicines Agency as well as in Canada.
Other vaccine developers, including Germany's BioNTech SE and Johnson & Johnson, have said they are testing the effectiveness of their shots against the new variant.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it had begun testing its vaccine candidate, INO-4800, to evaluate its effectiveness against the new variant. The company expects the testing to take about two weeks.
Inovio also said it was simultaneously designing a new vaccine candidate that specifically targeted Omicron.
"Best case scenario, INO-4800 ... will be completely resilient against omicron, but if that's not the case then we will have a newly designed vaccine ready to go if need be," said Kate Broderick, senior vice president of Inovio's R&D division.
Earlier this month, Inovio resumed a late-stage trial of its vaccine in the United States after 14 months on clinical hold//CNA