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May
Mystery Australian COVID case spurs return of masks, travel bans
Written by Nur Yasmin
Australian officials reinstated social distancing measures in Sydney as New Zealand partially suspended the pair's "travel bubble" on Thursday, amid fears an Indian variant case of COVID-19 could spur a significant outbreak.
The swift action was taken a day after a 50-year-old man became the first reported local transmission case in New South Wales state in more than a month, with the source of his infection baffling health officials.
Further testing determined the man was infected with a variant first detected in India and genomic sequencing had linked the case to a returned traveller from the United States, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said on Thursday, but there was no clear transmission path between the two people.
"We can't find any direct link between our case, so what we're concerned about is there is another person that is as yet unidentified that infected our case," Chant said.
New Zealand's minister for COVID-19 response, Chris Hipkins, said his country was halting quarantine-free travel to and from New South Wales while authorities investigated.
"With several outstanding unknowns in the situation in Sydney it is safest to pause the QFT (quarantine-free travel agreement)," Hipkins said in a statement.
The so-called "travel bubble" between Australia and New Zealand opened less than a month ago. The NSW suspension comes into effect at midnight.
The case of the unidentified Sydney man, who passed the virus on to his wife, appeared to be the first time officials had reported the local transmission of an India virus variant in Australia.
Tests on the infected man had showed a higher viral load than typically seen in infected people, potentially increasing the chance that the man has spread the disease, officials said.
With many people expected to gather over the weekend for annual Mother's Day celebrations, the NSW state government restricted household gatherings to 20 guests and limited aged care facility visitors to two people per resident.
Masks will be mandatory on public transport and at indoor venues. All the restrictions, which cover around 5.3 million people in the country's biggest metropolitan area, take effect at 5 p.m. local time and are scheduled to last until Monday morning.
"We believe this is a proportionate response to the risk we have ahead of us," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.
The measures will also cover Sydney's neighbouring regions of Wollongong, the Central Coast and Blue Mountains.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet entered self-isolation on Thursday after he visited a restaurant at the same time as the infected person, classifying him as a close contact, his office said. Perrottet, who attended a sitting of state parliament on Wednesday, has tested negative.
Authorities also asked thousands of residents in the city's inner west to seek testing for any mild flu symptoms after fragments of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 were detected in the sewerage network used by several suburbs.
Separately, health authorities reported five new cases of blood clots in people who had received the AstraZeneca (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine, the inoculation being used for the majority of the country's population over the age of 50.
Australia has now recorded 11 blood clot cases after administering 1.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
INDIA BAN
Speedy tracing systems, movement curbs and border restrictions have largely reined in the spread of COVID-19 in Australia, which has recorded 29,865 cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic began.
The federal government is currently under some pressure to overturn a temporary travel ban on travellers, including its own citizens, from COVID-ravaged India. Australia has blocked all direct flights from the country until May 15.
A report in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Thursday, citing unidentified sources, said at least two repatriation flights will be dispatched to India every week from the middle of this month to bring home around 9,000 Australians.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, however, said the situation would be constantly reviewed.
"We are not going to commit to that at this point," Morrison told radio station 3AW on Thursday. (Reuters)
May
Thailand says foreigners to get COVID-19 vaccines amid access concern
Written by Nur Yasmin
Thailand confirmed on Thursday that it plans to include 3 million foreigners living in the country in its mass vaccination programme to protect the entire population, amid concerns over the scope of vaccine access.
"Anybody living in Thailand, whether they be Thai or foreign, if they want they vaccine, they can get it," head of the disease control department, Opas Kankawinpong told a briefing.
"No one is safe until everyone is safe," he added.
The government has repeatedly said foreigners would be offered vaccines.
But concerns among expatriates have been raised in recent weeks, with some venting frustrations on social media about a lack of public information, problems registering or confusion over private vaccine availability.
Thailand needs to immunise about 50 million people to achieve herd immunity of about 70% of the population, based on estimates of 67 million Thais and 3 million foreign residents, he said.
The country has yet to start its mass immunisation programme but has administered vaccines to mostly frontline workers from its stock of 2.5 million doses of Sinovac (SVA.O) vaccines.
Its main source of vaccines will be a local manufacturer set to produce AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) vaccines after June.
Anxiety over vaccines has risen as Thailand as it deals with its biggest outbreak so far, with more than two-thirds of its 336 fatalities recorded in the past month alone.
New daily infections have been stable at around 2,000 since mid-April. There were 1,911 new coronavirus cases and 18 deaths announced on Thursday.
The health ministry is working on other ways to include non-Thais in the vaccination programme, including via mobile applications or direct contact from hospitals, according to the foreign ministry. (Reuters)
May
Cambodia ends blanket COVID-19 lockdown despite more infections
Written by Nur YasminCambodia ended on Thursday a blanket coronavirus lockdown in Phnom Penh after three weeks, as busy traffic returned to some streets of the capital, though authorities retained tighter curbs in some districts where infections have surged.
The Southeast Asian nation has recorded one of the world's smallest COVID-19 caseloads, but infections have climbed from about 500 in late February to 17,621 now, with 114 deaths. Authorities recorded 650 new cases and 4 deaths on Thursday.
While health experts have warned about lifting curbs too quickly, the lockdown had triggered anger from some residents who called the distribution of food aid inadequate.
Authorities removed barricades on Wednesday night in "yellow" zones designated as safe for mobility, while "red" and "orange" zones with higher infection rates will remain under lockdown until May 12.
"I request that people should not be negligent, because we are living under a new way of life in the context of COVID-19," Phnom Penh's deputy governor Mean Chanyada told a news conference.
Yellow zones would see greater economic activity and traffic flows, but remain under a curfew from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m, he said.
As Phnom Penh opens up, authorities have also introduced new measures, such as only permitting 50 percent of workers in factories to return and with the priority on those vaccinated.
Other measure include more COVID-19 testing, higher vaccinations in parts of Phnom Penh with higher infection rates and a ban on alcohol sales.
The World Health Organization's (WHO) representative in Cambodia, Li Ailan, warned on Sunday against easing curbs too soon.
"Relaxing #COVID19 measures too fast and too soon means a possible surge," she said in a message on Twitter. (Reuters)
May
New Zealand pauses quarantine-free travel to Australian state
Written by Nur YasminNew Zealand has halted quarantine-free travel to Australia's state of New South Wales while it investigates the source of infection of two cases announced in Sydney, Chris Hipkins, the minister for COVID-19 response, said on Thursday.
Hipkins said the government would continue monitoring the situation in Australia and act accordingly. The cases in the southeastern state were announced in the last two days. (Reuters)
May
S.Korea police raid anti-North Korea activist office over propaganda leaflets
Written by Nur YasminSouth Korean police raided on Thursday the office of an anti-North Korea activist group that said it had released balloons into the North last week carrying dollar bills and leaflets denouncing the government in Pyongyang.
Such releases, though banned by a recent law, can provoke condemnation from the North, which last year blew up a joint liaison office and threatened military action after it was angered by the propaganda leaflets.
Police said they executed a search and seizure warrant at the Seoul office of Fighters for Free North Korea, a group led by Park Sang-hak, who defected from the neighbouring nation in 2000.
"Seven police officers raided my office around 10:10 a.m.," Park told Reuters.
Police and military have been investigating the group's claim that it launched 10 advertising balloons from border provinces carrying 500,000 leaflets, 500 booklets and 5,000 one-dollar bills. read more
"The investigation has been underway and we served a search and seizure warrant this morning," a police officer said by telephone.
Seoul's unification ministry, which handles relations with the North, said it had seen media reports of the search, but declined to comment during the investigation.
On Sunday, Kim Yo Jong, a senior North Korean government official and the sister of its leader Kim Jong Un, sharply criticised the South for failing to stop the launches. read more
"We regard the maneuvers committed by the human wastes in the South as a serious provocation against our state and will look into corresponding action," state media quoted Kim as saying, without elaborating. (Reuters)
May
U.S. embassy in the doghouse in China after student visa post backfires
Written by Nur Yasmin
The resumption of student visa applications at U.S. missions in China got off to an acrimonious start this week when netizens took exception to an American embassy social media post they interpreted as likening Chinese students to dogs.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, whose time in office was marked by tense relations in Beijing, had in January last year barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who were in China from entering the United States after the coronavirus outbreak.
On the Twitter-like Weibo service on Wednesday, the visa section of the U.S. embassy in China asked students what they were waiting for after the Biden administration eased restrictions. read more
"Spring has come and the flowers are in bloom. Are you like this dog who can't wait to go out and play?" said the post in Chinese, which was accompanied by a video of an excited puppy trying to climb over a safety gate.
The post drew an angry backlash from some Weibo users, however, who felt the comparison was inappropriate, and was later deleted.
"Is this American humour? I believe they did it on purpose!" one user wrote.
"Dogs in American culture basically have positive meanings, but in Chinese culture and idioms, they are mostly negative," wrote another user. Others quipped that the students' "master" was now calling them back to the United States.
The Global Times, an English-language tabloid run by the Chinese Communist Party's People's Daily, also cited netizens as saying that the post was "blatant racism".
A U.S. embassy spokesman in Beijing issued an apology on Thursday morning to anyone who had been offended by the comments.
"The social media post in question was meant to be light-hearted and humorous," he said. "We took it down immediately when we saw it was not received in the spirit we intended."
It is not the first time animal-related remarks have sparked a backlash in China. In 2019, a senior economist from UBS was placed on leave after comments about pigs in China were perceived by some as a racial slur. He was later reinstated. (Reuters)
May
G7 scolds China and Russia over threats, bullying, rights abuses
Written by Nur Yasmin
The Group of Seven scolded both China and Russia on Wednesday, casting the Kremlin as malicious and Beijing as a bully, but beyond words there were few concrete steps aside from expressing support for Taiwan and Ukraine.
Founded in 1975 as a forum for the West’s richest nations to discuss crises such as the OPEC oil embargo, the G7 this week addressed what it perceives as the biggest current threats: China, Russia and the coronavirus pandemic.
G7 foreign ministers, in a 12,400-word communique, said Russia was trying to undermine democracies and threatening Ukraine while China was guilty of human rights abuses and of using its economic clout to bully others.
There was, however, little concrete action mentioned in the communique that would unduly worry either Chinese President Xi Jinping or Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The G7 said it would bolster collective efforts to stop China's "coercive economic policies" and to counter Russian disinformation - part of a move to present the West as a much broader alliance than just the core G7 countries.
"I think (China is) more likely to need to, rather than react in anger, it is more likely going to need to take a look in the mirror and understand that it needs to take into account this growing body of opinion, that thinks these basic international rules have got to be adhered to," British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.
Russia denies it is meddling beyond its borders and says the West is gripped by anti-Russian hysteria. China says the West is a bully and that its leaders have a post-imperial mindset that makes them feel they can act like global policemen.
China’s spectacular economic and military rise over the past 40 years is among the most significant geopolitical events of recent history, alongside the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union that ended the Cold War.
XI AND PUTIN
The West, which combined is much bigger than China and Russia economically and militarily, has struggled to come up with an effective response to either China or Russia.
"We will work collectively to foster global economic resilience in the face of arbitrary, coercive economic policies and practices," the G7 ministers said on China.
They said they supported Taiwan’s participation in World Health Organization forums and the World Health Assembly - and expressed concerns about "any unilateral actions that could escalate tensions" in the Taiwan Strait.
China regards Taiwan as its own territory and opposes any official Taiwanese representation on an international level.
On Russia, the G7 was similarly supportive of Ukraine but offered little beyond words.
"We are deeply concerned that the negative pattern of Russia’s irresponsible and destabilising behaviour continues," G7 ministers said.
"This includes the large build-up of Russian military forces on Ukraine’s borders and in illegally-annexed Crimea, its malign activities aimed at undermining other countries’ democratic systems, its malicious cyber activity, and (its) use of disinformation."
VACCINES
On the coronavirus pandemic, the G7 pledged to work with industry to expand the production of affordable COVID-19 vaccines, but stopped short of calling for a waiver of intellectual property rights of major pharma firms.
"We commit to working with industry to facilitate expanded manufacturing at scale of affordable COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics and their component parts," the G7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement.
They said the work would include “promoting partnerships between companies, and encouraging voluntary licensing and tech transfer agreements on mutually agreed terms”. (Reuters)
May
Put idle capacity to work now making vaccines, says WTO head
Written by Nur Yasmin
The world cannot act soon enough to put idle manufacturing capacity to work making COVID-19 vaccines to help redress a massive imbalance in global supply, the head of the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday.
WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments was "both the moral and economic issue of our time". The World Health Organization said in April that of 700 million vaccines globally administered, only 0.2% had been in low-income countries.
Okonjo-Iweala told a meeting of the 164-member WTO that those who had ordered more vaccines than they needed must share with others. Members should also address export restrictions and bureaucracy disrupting vital medical supply chains.
She urged governments to work with manufacturers to use production capacity available in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, South Africa, Indonesia and Senegal that could be turned around in a matter of months.
Production needed to rise from the 5 billion doses produced today to the 10.8 billion being forecast for this year to 15 billion, in particular if booster doses would be needed.
The debate on vaccine inequity at the WTO has centred a proposal by India and South Africa to waive intellectual property rights, at least for the duration of the pandemic.
Ten meetings of WTO members have failed to achieve a breakthrough and Wednesday's online gathering was no different as 42 countries gave their views. However, members also heard that India and South Africa intend to refine their proposal before another discussion later in May.
Okonjo-Iweala said she was happy to hear of the revised text.
"I am firmly convinced that once we can sit down with an actual text in front of us, we shall find a pragmatic way forward," she said, referring to a balance between developing country demands while protecting research and innovation. (Reuters)
May
Mexican president says U.S. Vice President Harris to visit Mexico next month
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris would probably visit Mexico on June 8 after mid-term legislative elections are held a couple of days earlier in the country.
Lopez Obrador has yet to meet in person with Harris or U.S. President Joe Biden since the new administration took office.
Biden, who has moved away from predecessor Donald Trump's hard-line immigration approach, gave Harris the job of leading U.S. efforts with Mexico and Central America's Northern Triangle countries - Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala - to stop migrants from crossing into the United States.
"We have to regulate migratory flows and we must address the (root) causes, and this means there must be jobs and hope for the people in southeast of Mexico and Central America," Lopez Obrador said in his daily morning press conference.
Lopez Obrador is due to speak to Harris on Friday.
Immigration has been a politically thorny subject for Biden's administration and Harris has previously stated that she intends to visit the region as part of her plan to use diplomatic efforts to slow migration to the U.S.-Mexican border.
"In just a few days, I will meet virtually with the president of Mexico. And in a month from now. I will visit both countries," Harris said at a conference on Monday. (Reuters)
May
COVID scare at G7 meeting after Indian delegates test positive
Written by Nur Yasmin
The Group of Seven meeting in London was hit by a COVID-19 scare on Wednesday when India's foreign minister and his entire team said they were self-isolating after two delegation members tested positive.
Britain is hosting the three-day foreign ministers' meeting - the first such G7 event in two years - which has been billed as a chance to restart face-to-face diplomacy and a opportunity for the West to show a united front against threats from China and Russia.
India, currently undergoing the world's worst surge in COVID-19 cases, is attending the G7 as a guest and had been due to take part in meetings on Tuesday evening and throughout Wednesday.
"Was made aware yesterday evening of exposure to possible Covid positive cases," Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Twitter.
"As a measure of abundant caution and also out of consideration for others, I decided to conduct my engagements in the virtual mode. That will be the case with the G7 Meeting today as well."
The meeting is a precursor to a G7 summit due to take place at a rural English resort in June, with U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders set to attend.
A British official confirmed the two positive tests and said the entire Indian delegation was self-isolating. British rules require a 10-day self-isolation period.
The Indian delegation had not yet attended the main summit venue at Lancaster House, and so meetings scheduled for Wednesday went ahead as planned.
Asked if, in light of the positive tests, it had been a mistake to hold the summit in person, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "I think it's very important to try to continue as much business as you can as a government."
Johnson said he would speak with Jaishankar later on Wednesday by Zoom.
British foreign minister Dominic Raab said rules had been meticulously applied and had worked effectively and it remained important for the summit in June to go ahead.
"We know these systems work, we will be able to plan even more, and even more carefully," he told reporters.
A final communique from the meeting scolded China and Russia, but provided few concrete measures. read more
FIST BUMPING
Earlier, Raab was seen greeting and fist-bumping other G7 members as they arrived at the venue.
"We deeply regret that Jaishankar will be unable to attend the meeting today in person," a senior UK diplomat said. "This is exactly why we have put in place strict COVID protocols and daily testing."
On Tuesday, pictures from inside the grand Lancaster House conference venue showed the reality of diplomacy in the coronavirus age - delegates separated by plastic screens, and a "family photo" of ministers carefully spaced two metres apart.
Jaishankar was pictured meeting British interior minister Priti Patel on Tuesday, although Patel did not have to self-isolate because the meeting had been held in line with existing rules. Both were wearing masks in the photograph.
India is not a G7 member but was invited by Britain to this week's meeting, along with Australia, South Africa and South Korea.
The Indian High Commission in London did not respond to requests for comment. (Reuters)