Jakarta. South Korean authorities said on Sunday they will move ahead with a coronavirus vaccination drive this week, after deciding to continue using AstraZeneca PLC’s vaccine for all eligible people 30 years old or over.

South Korea on Wednesday suspended providing the AstraZeneca shot to people under 60 as Europe reviewed cases of blood clotting in adults.

People under 30 will still be excluded from the vaccinations resuming on Monday because the benefits of the shot do not outweigh the risks for that age group, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in a statement.

Three vaccinated people in South Korea are reported to have developed blood clots, with one case determined to be correlated to the vaccine, Choi Eun-hwa, chair of the Korea Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices, told a briefing.

That case was a type of blood clot considered less serious than the type being examined by European authorities, she said.

For most people, the risks of coronavirus are far worse than the rare possibility of side effects from the vaccines, Choi said, adding that the best way to end the pandemic was to vaccinate everyone who can receive it.

But she said, “the benefits are not as great for those under 30 years old, so we will not recommend the AstraZeneca vaccine for them.”

The AstraZeneca shot’s benefit-to-risk ratio rises the older people get as the risk of serious harm due to vaccination falls and ICU admissions prevented by vaccination rise sharply, according to the University of Cambridge’s Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication.

The drugmaker has said its studies have found no higher risk of clots because of its vaccine, millions of doses of which have been administered worldwide. The World Health Organization has said the benefits outweigh the risks.

Global controversy over the efficacy and side-effects of some COVID-19 vaccines has caused some delays in South Korea’s vaccination campaign, which kicked off in late February with the goal of reaching herd immunity in November.

The second-quarter vaccination programme includes special disability school teachers and vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities and the homeless, the KDCA said. (Reuters)

Jakarta. The European Union’s top diplomat said on Sunday Russia and China were hampering a united international response to Myanmar’s military coup and that the EU could offer more economic incentives if democracy returns to the country.

“It comes as no surprise that Russia and China are blocking the attempts of the U.N. Security Council, for example to impose an arms embargo,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a blog post.

“Geopolitical competition in Myanmar will make it very difficult to find common ground,” said Borrell, who speaks on behalf of the 27 EU member states. “But we have a duty to try.”

Security forces have killed more than 700 unarmed protesters, including 46 children, since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a Feb. 1 coup, according to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.

That included 82 people killed in the town of Bago, near Yangon, on Friday, which the AAPP called a “killing field”.

“The world watches in horror, as the army uses violence against its own people,” Borrell said.

China and Russia both have ties to Myanmar’s armed forces, as the first and second largest suppliers of weapons to the country, respectively.

The U.N. Security Council last week called for the release of Suu Kyi and others detained by the military but stopped short of condemning the coup.

The EU is preparing fresh sanctions on individuals and companies owned by the Myanmar military. The bloc in March agreed a first set of sanctions on 11 individuals linked to the coup, including the commander-in-chief of the military.

While EU economic leverage in the country is relatively small, Borrell said the EU could offer to increase its economic ties with Myanmar if democracy is restored. That could include more trade and investments in sustainable development, he said.

EU foreign direct investment in Myanmar totalled $700 million in 2019, compared with $19 billion from China.

The military says it staged the coup because a November election won by Suu Kyi’s party was rigged. The election commission has dismissed the assertion.

In Myanmar, protest groups are calling for the boycott of the Thingyan Water Festival this week, one of the most important celebrations of the year, because of the killings.

“(With) Thingyan approaching, we mourn the senseless loss of life in Bago & around the country where regime forces have reportedly used weapons of war against civilians,” the U.S. Embassy in Yangon said on Twitter.

“The regime has the ability to resolve the crisis & needs to start by ending violence & attacks.” (Reuters)

Jakarta. China’s top disease control official has said the country is formally considering mixing COVID-19 vaccines, as a way of further boosting vaccine efficacy.

Available data shows Chinese vaccines lag behind others including Pfizer and Moderna in terms of efficacy, but require less stringent temperature controls during storage.

The currently available vaccines “don’t have very high rates of protection”, Gao Fu, the director of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a conference in the Chinese city of Chengdu on Saturday.

“Inoculation using vaccines of different technical lines is being considered,” he said.

Gao said that taking steps to “optimise” the vaccine process including changing the number of doses and the length of time between doses was a “definite” solution to the efficacy issues.

China has developed four domestic vaccines approved for public use and an official said on Saturday that the country will likely produce 3 billion doses by the end of the year.

A COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac was found to have an efficacy rate of slightly above 50% in Brazilian clinical trials. A separate study in Turkey said it was 83.5% effective.

No detailed efficacy data has been released on a vaccines made by China’s Sinopharm. It has said two vaccines developed by its units are 79.4% and 72.5% effective respectively, based on interim results.

Both vaccine makers have presented data on their COVID-19 vaccines indicating levels of efficacy in line with those required by the World Health Organization, a WHO panel said in March.

China has shipped millions of its vaccines abroad, and officials and state media have fiercely defended the shots while calling into question the safety and logistics capabilities of other vaccines.

“The global vaccine protection rate test data are both high and low,” Gao told state tabloid Global Times on Sunday.

“How to improve the protection rate of vaccines is a problem that requires global scientists to consider,” Gao said, adding that mixing vaccines and adjusting immunisation methods are solutions that he had proposed. (Reuters)

China considering mixing COVID-19 vaccines to boost protection rate

Jakarta. Philippine and U.S. soldiers will conduct a two-week joint military exercise from Monday, resuming the annual training event after last year’s cancellation due to the pandemic, the Philippine military chief said on Sunday.

The announcement came after the two countries’ defence secretaries held a phone call to discuss the drills, the situation in the South China Sea, and recent regional security developments.

Unlike previous exercises, however, this year’s “Balikatan” (Shoulder-to-Shoulder) drills to test the readiness of their militaries to respond to threats such natural disasters and militant extremist attacks, will be scaled down.

Only 1,700 troops -- 700 from the United States and 1,000 from the Philippines -- will participate, unlike previous exercises which involved as many as 7,600 soldiers, said Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana.

“There will be physical contact but it is minimal,” he said.

The Philippines has protested against the presence of the Chinese boats inside its 200-mile exclusive economic zone at Whitsun Reef in the strategic waterway, repeatedly asking China to move the vessels away.

Chinese diplomats, however, have said the fishing boats were just sheltering from rough seas and no militia were aboard.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam have competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.

In the phone call on Sunday between Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Austin also reiterated the importance of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the two countries, according to a statement issued by Lorenzana’s department.

Lorenzana committed to discussing the matter with President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte last year unilaterally cancelled the two-decade-old VFA in an angry response after an ally was denied a U.S. visa. The agreement provides the legal framework under which U.S. troops can operate on a rotational basis in the Philippines.

The VFA withdrawal period, however, has been twice extended, creating what Philippine officials say is a window for better terms to be agreed.

Relations between Washington and its former Asian colony have been complicated since 2016 when Duterte, who has criticised U.S. foreign policy while befriending China, rose to power.

Duterte has said Washington must pay more if it wants to maintain the VFA.

Lorenzana also sought the assistance of Austin in speeding up the delivery of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna that the Philippines has ordered.

Austin “would look into the issue and bring it to the attention of the office concerned”, the statement said. (Reuters)