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April
Thai PM promises more vaccine amid criticism of slow rollout
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. Thailand is trying to secure 35 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines from two or three companies this year on top of existing orders of around 65 million doses, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Wednesday.
The government push comes amid growing public frustration about the slow vaccine rollout, with only 604,947 people inoculated so far, less than 1% of its population.
Of the new shots sought, the private sector will help source 10 to 15 million doses, Prayuth said in a Facebook post.
"I have ordered that we distribute and administer all the vaccines that we can find by December," he added.
Prayuth did not name the brands, nor specify whether the 35 million included the five to 10 million doses of Pfizer (PFE.N) and BioNTech's (22UAy.DE) vaccine that he announced were being sought on Tuesday. read more
After early success in containing COVID-19, Thailand is fighting a new wave that includes the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant.
The new outbreak has accounted for more than a third of Thailand's 46,643 cases, of which 110 were fatalities. It reported 1,458 new infections and two deaths on Wednesday.
Its mass vaccination plan has been centred on 61 million doses of locally-made AstraZeneca (AZN.L) vaccine, the first batches scheduled for June.
For initial inoculations, Thailand has received 2 million doses of Sinovac Biotech's (SVA.O) vaccine and has ordered a further 1.5 million doses, with 500,000 to arrive on Saturday and the rest next month. It has also imported 117,000 doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine.
The private sector, which had been for months seeking permission to import vaccines, welcomed its inclusion.
"This is the race. We have to be fast and have volume, but we haven't had any other vaccines," Chalerm Harnphanich, president of the Private Hospital Association, told Reuters.
Health experts also questioned the government's decision not to use the COVAX international vaccine-sharing facility, which has provided vaccines to 100 countries including the Philippines, Vietnam and South Korea.
"We missed an opportunity by not joining COVAX," said Thiravat Hemachudha, head of the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Centre.
The government has argued joining COVAX risked higher costs and uncertain delivery times. (Reuters)
April
Japan PM cancels trip to India, Philippines amid rising COVID-19 cases
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has cancelled plans to visit India and the Philippines during his country's extended holiday starting in late April amid a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, a senior government spokesman said on Wednesday.
Japan's government is considering a state of emergency for Tokyo and several other prefectures, while Indian data showed on Wednesday there had been 295,041 new infections nationwide overnight and 2,023 deaths, India's highest in the pandemic.
Asked about media reports that Suga's trip to the two countries has been cancelled, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said: "In order to take all possible coronavirus countermeasures, it has been decided Prime Minister Suga won't take any overseas trips during the Golden Week."
Japan and India are members of a group known as the Quad, which also includes the United States and Australia.
Quad leaders last month pledged to work to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region and to cooperate on maritime, cyber and economic security, issues vital to the four democracies in the face of challenges from China.
Suga's India trip would have enabled him to hold his first in-person summit meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Suga has already held face-to-face talks with two other leaders from the Quad - U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. (Reuters)
April
Myanmar military says junta leader to join ASEAN summit -Nikkei Asia
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta - A spokesman for Myanmar's military has confirmed that junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing will attend a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders at the weekend, Nikkei Asia reported on Wednesday.
Spokesman Zaw Min Tun said the military commander would attend the Jakarta meeting on Saturday of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Nikkei Asia reported.
Zaw Min Tun did not answer calls from Reuters seeking confirmation of the report. (Reuters)
April
Philippine hospitals struggle to cope as more severe COVID-19 wave hits
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. Nick Yañez, a 28-year-old ambulance nurse in a satellite city of Manila, says she sometimes spends six to seven hours in her emergency vehicle caring for a COVID-19 patient before a bed can be found in a hospital.
Already facing one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia, the Philippines has seen a second wave of infections that is stretching health care workers in the capital like never before.
"The situation is more severe now. This is version 2.0. The cases are higher, we are more exhausted," said Yañez, whose ambulance operates in Pasig City.
The country has averaged more than 10,400 daily COVID-19 cases since the start of April, nearly double the level in March and far above the 213 per day in April 2020 and 2,169 in the second half of last year, health ministry data showed.
A two-week lockdown of the capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities that is home to at least 13 million people, appears to have done little to ease the strain on the medical system.
Intensive-care units in the Manila area are at 84% capacity, while 70% of COVID-19 ward beds and 63% of isolation beds were full as of April 19, government data showed.
In early April, when no Manila hospital could take him in, COVID-19 patient Jaybee Garganera was driven to a hospital in Clark, Pampanga, 100 km (62 miles) from his home.
"I could hear her talking in the other room and every time she put the phone down she would be sobbing," Garganera said of his wife, who called hospitals all over Manila.
The Philippines has reported 945,745 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started, with close to 17,000 healthcare workers infected. So far, about 16,000 people have died.
Among those who perished was Jayson Maulit's 95-year-old great grandmother, who died in an emergency room in Batangas province on April 2 before she could be admitted to a hospital.
"Every hospital we called, we were either wait listed or were told that they are full," said Maulit, a small-business owner.
The health minister said on Friday more than 1,400 beds would be added in the capital area and more than 100 health care workers from other parts of the country brought in to help.
For Encarnita Blanco-Limpin, a doctor at the Philippine Heart Center, the help is welcome. But she said that contact tracing must be improved and more vaccines distributed to take the pressure off hospitals.
Nearly 1.3 million people have so far received at least one vaccine dose, with only 3 million doses arriving in the country out of the 140 million it aims to procure.
"Our emergency room is running at 200% capacity," said Blanco-Limpin, who recently was infected with COVID-19. "Many of these coronavirus patients are not on beds, some of them are being treated while in sitting positions." (Reuters)
April
Indian PM Modi to address the nation as COVID-19 cases hit record high
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 8:45 p.m. (1515 GMT) on Tuesday on COVID-19, according to the leader's official Twitter handle, as infections and deaths in India surge to record highs.
India is the country currently being hit hardest by the pandemic. On Tuesday it reported its worst daily death toll, with large parts of the country now under lockdown amid a fast-rising second wave of infections. (Reuters)
April
U.S. general says has grave doubt about Taliban's reliability
Written by Nur YasminJakarta. A top U.S. general said on Tuesday that he had grave doubts about the Taliban's reliability as a negotiating partner, as the United States is set to remove all its troops from Afghanistan in the coming months and focus on diplomacy.
Last week President Joe Biden said all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan starting May 1, to end America's longest war, rejecting calls for them to stay to ensure a peaceful resolution to that nation's grinding internal conflict.
"I have grave doubts about the Taliban's reliability ... but we need to see what they're going to do here," Marine General Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, said in a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
"If they want any form of future international recognition for Afghanistan ... they're going to have to keep the agreements that they've made," McKenzie said, adding the U.S. military would still be able to observe them and verify their actions.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when they were ousted by U.S.-led forces. Since then they have waged a long-running insurgency and still control wide swathes of territory.
The foreign troop withdrawals have raised concerns that the country could erupt in full-scale civil war, providing al Qaeda space in which to rebuild and plan new attacks on U.S. and other targets.
A United Nations report in January said there were as many as 500 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and that the Taliban maintained a close relationship with the Islamist extremist group. The Taliban denies al Qaeda has a presence in Afghanistan.
Announcing his decision to withdraw troops, Biden said the United States would monitor the threat, reorganize counter-terrorism capabilities and keep substantial assets in the region to respond to threats to the United States emerging from Afghanistan.
McKenzie said he would provide the defense secretary a plan for counter-terrorism forces outside of Afghanistan by the end of the month. He cautioned that the loss of the current U.S. military network in Afghanistan, and the intelligence capability it allows, would have an impact.
"If you're out of the country and you don't have the ecosystem that we have there now, it will be harder to do that. It is not impossible to do that. It will just be harder to do it," he said.
A top White House official said on Sunday that no one could offer guarantees about Afghanistan's future after U.S. troops leave, even as he stressed the United States would stay focused on threats emanating from the country. (Reuters)
April
Japanese journalists call for Myanmar junta to free detained colleague
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. A group of journalists in Japan called on Myanmar's junta on Tuesday to free a colleague, Yuki Kitazumi, detained in Yangon following a crackdown on media amid ongoing protests against the military overthrow of an elected government.
"We want the junta to stop oppressing the citizens of Myanmar, and we seek the swift release of the many detained journalists, including Kitazumi, who strive to tell the truth," Isoko Mochizuki, a fellow journalist and long-time friend of Kitazumi, told a news conference.
The group of journalists started an online petition on Monday addressed to Myanmar's junta and the Japanese government calling for Kitazumi's release. So far about 2,000 people have signed the petition.
The journalists have asked the Japanese government to apply more pressure on the Myanmar authorities to free Kitazumi, who was detained on Sunday evening by the military outside his home in Yangon for allegedly "spreading falsehoods".
"It doesn't feel at all like the Japanese government is putting enough pressure onto Myanmar," Kanae Doi, director of Human Rights Watch Japan, told the news conference.
"I hope this becomes a tipping point for Japan to do more," she said, adding that the Japanese government has appeared to tread gently around the issue of what is happening in Myanmar, while the European Union and United States have imposed sanctions on people involved in the coup.
Kitazumi, who runs a media production company, was arrested previously in February while covering protests against the Feb. 1 coup but was released soon afterwards.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group, 737 people have been killed by security forces in Myanmar since the coup and 3,229 remain in detention. (Reuters)
April
S.Korean students shave heads in protest over Japan's nuclear waste water plan
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. More than 30 South Korean college students shaved their heads in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul on Tuesday to protest Japan's decision to release water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.
Police periodically dispersed crowds, who chanted and held placards, but did not stop the event from taking place, though there is an anti-pandemic ban on gatherings larger than 10 people.
The protesters who were shaved were draped in protective sheets emblazoned with messages condemning the Japanese plan and calling for it to be ditched.
One read: "The Japanese government should immediately cancel the plan to release the contaminated water."
Japan's government said last week it will release more than 1 million tonnes of treated water from the Fukushima site in stages starting in about two years.
Seoul has strongly rebuked the decision, with the foreign ministry summoning the Japanese ambassador and President Moon Jae-in ordering officials to explore petitioning an international court.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry on Sunday (April 18) said he believed Japan had made the decision in a transparent manner and would continue to follow due procedures. (Reuters)
April
Pressured by Islamists, Pakistan parliament to vote on whether to expel French envoy
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. Pakistan's government will seek a vote in parliament on Tuesday on whether to expel the French ambassador after violent anti-France protests by Islamists demanding action over cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad, the interior minister said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan warned his nation in a televised address late on Monday that Pakistan risked paying a price if it expelled the French envoy, as half the country's exports are sold to the European Union. read more
Relations between Paris and Islamabad became more strained after President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute late last year to a French teacher who was beheaded by a man of Chechen origin for showing cartoons depicting the Prophet in a class on freedom of speech.
Muslims consider such drawings of their Prophet to be blasphemous.
The expulsion of the ambassador is one of the main four demands of a radical Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) group, which the government banned last week after its members blocked main highways, railways and access routes to major cities, assaulting police and burning public property.
Four police officers were killed, almost a dozen were taken hostage and more than 800 wounded, many of them seriously, during clashes with the Islamists.
The Islamists say that three TLP members were also killed.
The violence erupted after the government detained TLP leader Saad Hussain Rizvi ahead of a planned countrywide anti-France campaign aimed at pressuring Prime Minister Khan to take action.
On Monday, the government said it had entered negotiations with the TLP, and that the Islamist group had freed 11 police that had been snatched during a clash outside the TLP's headquarters in the eastern city of Lahore. read more
"After long negotiations between government of Pakistan and the TLP, this has been agreed that we will table a resolution in parliament today to expel French ambassador," Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said in a video recorded statement.
Aside from wanting the ambassador expelled, the TLP is demanding the release of their leader and hundreds of arrested workers, the removal of ban on the group and the dismissal of the interior minister.
All cases registered against the TLP and its workers will be withdrawn, the interior minister said, adding that the group will end all the sit-in protests from across the country. (Reuters)
April
New Zealand expects Australia 'travel bubble' to stay open despite new virus case
Written by Nur Yasmin
Jakarta. New Zealand authorities reported on Tuesday that a worker in Auckland airport has tested positive for COVID-19, but doubted whether the new case would warrant ordering a pause in quarantine-free travel with Australia.
Australia and New Zealand opened a travel bubble on Monday, after both countries had closed borders in March 2020 to non-citizens and permanent residents to contain the pandemic.
"When we opened, on both sides, we of course knew we would continue to have cases connected to our border," New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. "We accept that's going to be part of our journey together, I think Australia accepts that."
New Zealand's health authorities were liaising with their Australian counterparts, Ardern said, with no initial indication that the so-called 'travel bubble' would be halted.
The infected worker, who was fully vaccinated for the virus, had been cleaning airplanes coming from countries with known virus outbreaks, Ardern told reporters in Auckland.
The worker had tested negative on April 12 but on Monday tested positive as part of routine testing, she said, adding that contact tracing was underway.
Australia Health Minister Greg Hunt said he has "full confidence" in New Zealand's health system to contain the new infection.
"We've seen them deal with the inevitable outbreaks and there will be other days when there are cases in Australia," Hunt said during a televised media briefing in Melbourne.
Border closures, snap lockdowns and speedy tracing systems have helped Australia and New Zealand keep their COVID-19 numbers relatively low.
Australia has recorded just over 29,500 virus cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic began, while New Zealand has had just over 2,200 confirmed cases and 26 deaths. (Reuters)