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March
Mar. 18 - India and Pakistan reported a big jump in new coronavirus infections on Thursday, driven by a resurgence in cases in their richest states.
While authorities in India have mainly blamed crowding and an overall reluctance to wear masks for its spike, Pakistan says the UK variant of the virus found in the country could also be a factor.
Maharashtra state, home to India’s commercial capital Mumbai, reported 23,179 of the country’s 35,871 new cases in the past 24 hours, and the fast-spreading contagion in major industrial areas raised risks of companies’ production being disrupted.
With the worst rise in infections since early December, India’s total cases stood at 11.47 million, the highest after the United States and Brazil. Deaths rose by 172 to 159,216, according to health ministry data on Thursday.
In Pakistan, 3,495 people tested positive in the past 24 hours, the most daily infections since early December. Total cases rose past 615,000. Deaths rose by 61 to 13,717.
Most of the new cases came from Pakistan’s largest and richest province, Punjab.
Pakistani minister Asad Umar said on Twitter that hospital beds were filling fast, warning of stricter curbs if rules were not followed.
“The new strain spreads faster and is more deadly,” he said on Twitter, referring to the UK variant.
India’s first wave peaked in September at nearly 100,000 cases a day, with daily infections hitting a low of just over 9,000 early last month.
India and Pakistan have a combined population of 1.57 billion, a fifth of humanity.
CURBS RETURN
Cases have been rising in Maharashtra since the reopening of most economic activity in February. Mumbai’s suburban trains, which carry millions daily, also resumed.
The state of 112 million people ordered a fresh lockdown in some districts and put curbs on cinemas, hotels and restaurants until the end of the month after infections rose to a multi-month high earlier this week
New cases have more than doubled in the past two weeks in Maharashtra’s industrial towns such as Pune, Aurangabad, Nashik and Nagpur, home to car, pharmaceutical and textile factories.
“We have asked industries there to operate with minimum manpower as much possible,” said a senior Maharashtra government official, declining to be named as he was not authorised to talk to the media. “Most of the IT companies have allowed their employees to work from home.”
Hospital beds and special COVID-19 facilities were filling up fast, especially in Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune, said another state official.
Earlier this month, more than 80% of oxygen and intensive-care beds in Maharashtra were unoccupied.
Half a dozen other states, such as Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, have also seen a rise in cases this month.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked state leaders to quickly increase testing and expand vaccination to “stop the emerging second peak of corona”.
India has administered more than 37 million vaccine doses since the middle of January. (Reuters)
March
North Korea says U.S. attempt to initiate contact is 'cheap trick': KCNA
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 18 - A top North Korean diplomat acknowledged on Thursday that the United States had recently tried to initiate contact, but blasted the attempts as a “cheap trick” that would never be answered until Washington dropped hostile policies.
The statement by Choe Son Hui, first vice minister of foreign affairs for North Korea, is the first formal rejection of tentative approaches by the new U.S. administration under President Joe Biden, who took office in January.
It came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting South Korea alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a first overseas trip by top-level members of Biden’s administration.
The attempts at contact were made by sending e-mails and telephone messages via various routes, including by a third country, Choe said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.
She called the attempts at contact a “cheap trick” for gaining time and building up public opinion.
“What has been heard from the U.S. since the emergence of the new regime is only lunatic theory of ‘threat from North Korea’ and groundless rhetoric about ‘complete denuclearisation,’ Choe said.
The White House said earlier this month it had reached out to North Korea, but received no response, and did not elaborate.
Speaking in Seoul on Wednesday, Blinken accused North Korea of committing “systemic and widespread abuses” against its own people and said the United States and its allies were committed to the denuclearisation of North Korea.
Blinken and Austin are due to continue meetings with South Korean leaders on Thursday, before flying to Alaska for the administration’s first talks with Chinese officials, where the North Korea standoff is expected to be discussed.
Talks aimed at reducing tensions with North Korea and persuading it to give up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles have been stalled since 2019, after a series of historic summits between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Choe criticized the United States for continuing military drills, and for maintaining sanctions aimed at pressuring Pyongyang.
No dialogue would be possible until the United States rolled back its hostile policy toward North Korea and both parties were able to exchange words on an equal basis, she said. (Reuters)
March
Japanese judiciary sends conflicting signals to nuclear industry
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 18 - Japanese courts delivered conflicting rulings on two nuclear reactors on Wednesday, lifting an injunction on one and slapping a no-restart order on another, highlighting the fitful state of the industry’s recovery 10 years after the Fukushima disaster.
The rulings come after Japan’s atomic regulator publicly rebuked Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) this week for security lapses that make it unlikely the company can restart its only remaining nuclear station soon. Tepco’s shares slumped 10% on Wednesday.
Shares in Shikoku Electric Power shot up on Thursday after a high court in western Japan overturned a lower court ruling that had kept the company’s only usable reactor shut down for nearly 18 months.
The lower court had ruled that there was insufficient attention to the threat from earthquakes in the design of the facility.
“The court has accepted our assertion that the safety of unit No. 3 at Ikata Power Station has been ensured,” Shikoku Electric said in a statement after the ruling, which sent the company’s shares more than 6% higher.
It was the second time the Ikata reactor had been shut down by a court as anti-nuclear residents and campaigners filed multiple injunction requests in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
Court rulings have contributed to the haphazard return of the sector a decade after the Fukushima meltdowns but only nine reactors have received approval to restart, out of 54 before the disaster. Only four are operating at present.
In another case, a court ruled on Thursday that an old reactor near Tokyo must stay shut.
It closed down automatically 10 years ago when one of the biggest earthquakes in world history caused a tsunami that swamped nuclear plants up and down the Japanese coast and sparked the Fukushima meltdowns.
The Tokai Dai Ni reactor operated by Japan Atomic Power is one of Japan’s oldest and needed special approval to extend its life. Opposition to a restart is expected to make it difficult to return the unit to operation after years of costly upgrades. (Reuters)
March
Pakistan receives 500,000 vaccine doses from China, doubling available supply
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 18 - Pakistan on Wednesday received a Chinese donation of 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine, bringing the country’s total supply to 1 million shots, Health Minister Faisal Sultan said.
The South Asian nation of 220 million people launched COVID-19 vaccinations for the public on March 10, starting with older people. Health workers started receiving shots in early February.
“These 500,000 doses will ensure smooth continuation of our vaccine drive, currently under way for senior citizens,” Sultan said in a tweet.
Sinopharm, the only vaccine currently available in the country, requires two doses.
The virus infections have sharply increased lately in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation that has had a history of refusing vaccination.
The percentage of COVID tests coming back positive across the country has touched 6.26% and crossed 11% in Punjab, the largest province.
Pakistan has recorded 612,315 coronavirus cases and 13,656 deaths, with 2,351 infections and 61 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)
The country has not secured any vaccine from drug manufacturers and is depending on the GAVI/WHO COVAX initiative for poorer nations and the donations.
Pakistan is expecting to get GAVI’s first batch of 2.8 million doses of AstraZeneca sometime later this month, officials said.
Besides Sinopharm and AstraZeneca, Pakistan has approved Russia’s Sputnik and China’s CanSino Biologics Inc’s (CanSinoBIO) vaccines for emergency use.
CanSinoBIO has released interim efficacy results from a multi-country trial, which included Pakistan, showing 65.7% efficacy in preventing symptomatic coronavirus cases and a 90.98% success rate in stopping severe infections.
In the Pakistani subset, efficacy of the CanSinoBIO vaccine at preventing symptomatic cases was 74.8% and 100% at preventing severe disease.
Authorities last week reversed a decision to allow large indoor gatherings like cinemas, theatres and marriage halls in Pakistan after opening up almost all sectors of society. (Reuters)
March
Japan PM Suga hints at ending COVID-19 curbs as scheduled
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 17 - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga suggested on Wednesday that he planned to let state of emergency curbs imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus expire on schedule on Sunday.
The situation regarding hospital bed availability in the capital region has improved, Suga said.
“The figures have moved in the direction of lifting (the emergency measures),” he told reporters.
“I will make a final decision towards ending the curbs after listening to the views of experts,” he added.
The government declared a state of emergency around New Year’s as Japan’s third and deadliest wave of COVID-19 cases took its toll.
Most prefectures affected by the declaration lifted the measures at the end of February, but Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures have remained under watch as the decline in new infections slowed.
The latest measures have had a less heavy impact on the economy than a previous nationwide emergency last year, which caused the largest economic slump on record in the second quarter.
But they dealt a heavy blow to service sector firms in particular as consumers have piled up savings, while manufacturers are benefiting from a pickup in overseas demand.
“Most scary is a resurgence” in COVID-19 cases, said Yuji Kuroiwa, the governor of Kanagawa, one of the four prefectures under emergency, which make up 30% of Japan’s population.
After the lifting of the emergency, the four prefectures - Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama - would continue to ask restaurants and bars to close by 9 p.m. at least until the end of the month to reduce the chance of a resurgence in infections, Kuroiwa said.
Under the state of emergency, the government has requested restaurants and bars to close an hour earlier, by 8 p.m, while also asking people to stay home after 8 p.m. unless they have essential reasons to go out.
Roughly 451,200 people have tested positive in Japan and nearly 9,000 have died since the pandemic reached the country. (Reuters)
March
G7 agrees to boost IMF reserves by $650 billion to fund pandemic relief: Kyodo
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 17 - G7 advanced economies have agreed to boost International Monetary Fund reserves by around $650 billion through a new allocation of the fund’s special drawing rights, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday.
The increased reserves will be used to fund a package of relief measures for emerging economies hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyodo said.
Finance leaders of the Group of Seven economies will sign off on the deal at an online meeting to be held on Friday, Kyodo said without citing sources. (Reuters)
March
COVID 'tornado' hitting Papua New Guinea's fragile hospitals, say health workers
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 17 - Rapidly increasing COVID-19 infections in hospitals in the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea were hitting its fragile health system “like a tornado”, with services shutting as staff fall ill, health workers said on Wednesday.
Australia said it would send 8,000 vaccines to its northern neighbour Papua New Guinea, responding to a request for urgent assistance for the country’s small health workforce of 5,000 nurses and doctors.
David Ayres, country director with Marie Stopes PNG, which has nurses in 13 hospitals, told Reuters health workers throughout the country were falling ill. He had received multiple reports from hospitals on Wednesday that between 10 and 25 staff had fallen ill and were off work.
Sections of major hospitals were shutting down and services were reduced, he said.
“The health system here was fragile to begin with. Frontline health services are often delivered late, sometimes they can’t be delivered at all, because of logistical or funding constraints,” Ayres told Reuters by telephone from the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby.
“When you have a tornado like this that rips into the heart of the health system the potential for a calamity is huge. That is what is scaring all of us at the moment.”
Papua New Guinea has high rates of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV in the community and health workers fear if they are overrun with COVID cases treatment of these other diseases will suffer.
Only 55,000 COVID-19 tests have been conducted in a population of 8.78 million, where 87% of people live in rural areas, many in isolated mountainous villages.
By Tuesday, PNG had reported 2,351 cases and 26 deaths since the start of the pandemic, with half of the cases recorded this month, and 600 in the past week.
Over 1,000 cases are in the National Capital District of Port Moresby, where the courts and government offices have shutdown in recent days after judges and lawmakers fell ill.
More than 100 workers including doctors and nurses at the Port Moresby General Hospital were in isolation, The National newspaper in Port Moresby reported.
“We are over-stressed. This is beyond our capacity,” the hospital’s chief executive Dr Paki Molumi was quoted as saying.
Pamela Toliman, a scientist at the PNG Institute of Medical Research which does testing, wrote on Twitter there is a “huge lag in updating this data”, and “cases are much higher” than the tally reported on Tuesday.
WaterAid Papua New Guinea’s director of programmes Navara Kiene said hand washing was the first line of defence against the spread of disease, but only only a third of households in rural areas have a handwashing facility with soap and water.
ChildFund PNG country director Bridgette Thorold said staff are taking sanitiser and PPE into villages and trying to overcome “fear and stigma and misconceptions about COVID”.
Many people live in crowded households and need to walk long distances to access health services for tuberculosis, she said.
“COVID didn’t initially seem that extreme compared to the challenges of day to day living and dealing with regular illnesses,” Thorold said in a telephone interview.
“All of last year there was less than a thousand cases so there was a scepticism. But now you are seeing health personnel with COVID.”
PNG Prime Minister James Marape is expected to announce details of a national isolation strategy later on Wednesday.
Thorold said many people earn daily cash wages by selling vegetables at markets, so a lockdown would be difficult. (Reuters)
March
U.N. team seeks evidence linking Myanmar military leaders to crimes
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 17 - A U.N. team of investigators on Myanmar appealed on Wednesday for people to collect and preserve documentary evidence of crimes ordered by the military since the Feb. 1 coup in order to build cases against its leaders.
More than 180 protesters have been killed by security forces trying to crush a wave of demonstrations since the junta seized power in the Southeast Asian nation, says activist group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
“The persons most responsible for the most serious international crimes are usually those in high leadership positions,” Nicholas Koumjian, the head of the Geneva-based U.N. team, said in a statement.
“They are not the ones who physically perpetrate the crimes and often are not even present at the locations where the crimes are committed.
“To prove their responsibility requires evidence of reports received, orders given and how policies were set.”People with such information should contact the investigators through secure means of communication, he added, citing apps such as Signal or a ProtonMail account.
A junta spokesman did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.
On Tuesday, the U.N. human rights office condemned the use of live ammunition against the protesters.
“They are completely unchecked and getting more brutal every day. It’s a calculated escalation of brutality,” a senior U.N. official, declining to be identified, told Reuters on Wednesday.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since its military ousted the elected government of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, detaining her and members of her party, drawing wide international condemnation.
The U.N. investigators are collecting evidence of the use of lethal force, unlawful arrests, torture and detentions of people whose families are not told of their whereabouts, the statement said.
The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar was set up by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2018 to consolidate evidence of the most serious crimes. It aims to build case files for proceedings in national, regional or international courts. (Reuters)
March
Pope: 'I kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say stop the violence'
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 17 - Pope Francis appealed on Wednesday for an end to bloodshed in Myanmar, saying: “Even I kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say ‘stop the violence’”.
Francis made the appeal, his latest since a Feb. 1 coup, at the end of his weekly general audience, held remotely from the Vatican library because of COVID-19 restrictions.
More than 180 protesters have been killed as security forces try to crush a wave of demonstrations.
“One more time and with much sadness I feel the urgency to talk about the dramatic situation in Myanmar, where many people, most of them young, are losing their lives in order to offer hope to their country,” he said.
In language symbolising what protesters have done, Francis said: “Even I kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say ‘stop the violence.’ Even I open my arms and say ‘Let dialogue prevail’.”
Francis, who visited Myanmar in 2017, said: “Blood does not resolve anything. Dialogue must prevail.” (Reuters)
March
U.S. general says North Korea might flight test new ICBM design 'in the near future'
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 17 - North Korea might begin flight testing an improved design for its inter-continental ballistic missiles “in the near future,” the head of the U.S. military’s Northern Command said on Tuesday, a move that would sharply increase tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.
The warning by Air Force General Glen VanHerck appeared based on North Korea’s October unveiling at a parade of what would be its largest ICBM yet, and not specific intelligence about an imminent launch.
Still, VanHerck made his remarks a day ahead of a debut trip by President Joe Biden’s top diplomat and defense secretary to South Korea and underscores U.S. concerns that Pyongyang may resume testing of missiles and nuclear weapons after a hiatus of more than three years.
Even during the testing lull, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for continued production of nuclear weapons for his arsenal, launched a series of smaller missiles and unveiled the ICBM.
VanHerck told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pyongyang’s “considerably larger and presumably more capable” ICBM further increased the threat to the United States. Still, he expressed confidence in U.S. missile defenses.
The U.S. general also noted that Kim released himself from a moratorium on testing over a year ago.
“The North Korean regime has also indicated that it is no longer bound by the unilateral nuclear and ICBM testing moratorium announced in 2018, suggesting that Kim Jong Un may begin flight testing an improved ICBM design in the near future,” VanHerck said in his written testimony.
Jenny Town, director of 38 North, a U.S.-based website that tracks North Korea, said that while an ICBM test was possible “I’m not sure how likely it is.”
She speculated that instead North Korea would be more likely to restart test launches with shorter-range missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
“It seems more likely that if North Korea is going to start testing missiles again, it will start with ones where testing has been almost normalized,” Town said.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that while there have been indications in recent weeks that North Korea may be preparing for a missile launch, one did not appear imminent.
The White House on Monday confirmed a Reuters report that the Biden administration sought to reach out to North Korea but had received no response, extending a chill in relations that began at the end of Donald Trump’s administration.
After the White House remarks, North Korean state news reported that the sister of the North Korean leader here, Kim Yo Jong, criticized the Biden Administration for ongoing military drills in South Korea.
“If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step,” Kim said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.
The joint U.S.-South Korean springtime military drill begun last week was limited to computer simulations because of the coronavirus risk, as well as the efforts to engage with the North. (Reuters)