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District Head Bantul Abdul Halim Muslih inspects the COVID-19 vaccination for students at Pundong 1 State High School, Bantul District, Yogyakarta on Saturday (September 4, 2021). (ANTARA/Public Relations of Bantul District/KT) - 

Some three thousand middle, high, and vocational school students at 1 State High School in Pundong, Bantul District, were offered COVID-19 vaccination that was implemented by the Bantul Resort Police of Yogyakarta.

During the inspection of COVID-19 vaccination at the Pundong 1 State High School on Saturday, Bantul District Head Abdul Halim Muslih praised and expressed gratitude to the Bantul Police for assisting in expediting vaccination, especially for the students.

"This vaccination will certainly bolster the target in Bantul, especially for those students, who will attend face-to-face learning after all are inoculated and when the pandemic can be controlled and cases decline," he affirmed.

Meanwhile, Head of Bantul Police Adjunct Senior Commissioner Iksan remarked that the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination for students is the Bantul Police's commitment to helping expedite nationwide vaccination, especially for students.

Currently, Iksan noted that the vaccinated students in Bantul constituted merely some 24 percent of the total targeted 75 thousand students, so endeavors to accelerate vaccination continue to be made.

“The target for student vaccination in Bantul reaches 75 thousand that is expected be achieved in September, as vaccination is one of the prerequisites for conducting face-to-face learning activities in schools," Iksan expounded.

Moreover, the vaccination event was supported by the police, medical personnel, and students, who are members of the Youth Red Cross of Pundong 1 State High School in charge of checking the body temperature and blood pressure of the vaccination participants.

Based on the Bantul COVID-19 Handling Task Force's data, the total case count as of September 3 reached 55,225.

Meanwhile, 51,871 recoveries were recorded, 1,476 deaths were registered, and 1,878 active cases were identified of patients still under treatment or isolation//ANT

FILE PHOTO: Britain's former Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaks at an event in Edinburgh, Scotland, Britain January 17, 2019. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne/File Photo - 

Former British prime minister Gordon Brown accused rich countries of committing a "moral outrage" by stockpiling COVID-19 doses while poor countries are struggling to get supplies.

Brown, who is a United Nations special envoy, called on US President Joe Biden and other Group of Seven leaders to urgently ship vaccines from warehouses in America and Europe to Africa.

Western countries are hoarding nearly 300 million shots while only 70 million people in Africa have so far been vaccinated, Brown said in an opinion piece published in the Sunday Mirror newspaper, citing research by data firm Airfinity.

By Christmas, the West is set to have 1 billion surplus doses even if every European and American adult has received a booster shot and all children over 12 are injected, he said.

"We are in a new 'arms' race – to get vaccines into people as quickly as possible – but this is an arms race where the West have a stranglehold on the vaccine supplies," Brown said. 

The grip of rich countries on vaccine stocks was stopping Covax, the international facility for buying vaccines, from meeting its promise to send 2 billion vaccines to poorer countries this year, he added.

The stockpiling has also delayed dose-sharing by G7 countries with Africa and low-income countries, Brown said//CNA

Police respond to the scene of an attack carried out by a man shot dead by police after he injured multiple people at a shopping mall in Auckland, New Zealand, Sep 3, 2021. (Photo: Stuff Limited/Ricky Wilson via REUTERS) - 

New Zealand has tried for years to deport the knife-wielding militant who wounded seven people at a mall in Auckland last week, the government said after it released more details on the attacker following the lifting of a court suppression order.

Court documents made public on Sunday named the attacker as Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, 32, a Tamil Muslim from Sri Lanka. He had arrived in New Zealand 10 years ago on a student visa seeking refugee status, which was granted in 2013.

Samsudeen came to the attention of the police and security services in 2016 after he expressed sympathy on Facebook for militant attacks, violent war-related videos and comments advocating violent extremism.

It was later discovered that his refugee status was fraudulently obtained, the government said in a statement, adding that the process had begun to cancel his refugee status.

Police shot dead Samsudeen, who had been convicted and imprisoned for about three years before being released in July, moments after he launched his stabbing spree on Friday.

"In July this year I met with officials in person and expressed my concern that the law could allow someone to remain here who obtained their immigration status fraudulently and posed a threat to our national security," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

"This has been a frustrating process." 

The attack by Samsudeen has led to questions about why the he was allowed to remain free if the authorities had decided he needed to be watched so closely.

Ardern vowed on Saturday to pass legislation that would criminalise planning a terror attack and tighten other counter-terrorism laws.

Samsudeen's family issued a statement to the local New Zealand media, describing their shock on the attack.

"We are heartbroken after this terrible event," said the statement released by his brother Aroos, carried by state broadcaster 1NEWS.

"We hope to find out with you all, what happened in Aathil's case and what we all could have done to prevent this," the statement said//CNA

FILE PHOTO: An employee handles vials containing CoronaVac, Sinovac Biotech's vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Butantan biomedical center in Sao Paulo, Brazil January 12, 2021. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli - 

Brazil's federal health regulator Anvisa on Saturday (Sep 4) suspended the use of more than 12 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech that were produced in an unauthorised plant, it said in a statement.

Anvisa said it was alerted on Friday by Sao Paulo's Butantan institute, a biomedical centre that has partnered with Sinovac to locally fill and finish the vaccines, that 25 batches, or 12.1 million doses, sent to Brazil had been made in the plant.

"The manufacturing unit ... was not inspected and was not approved by Anvisa in the authorisation of emergency use of the mentioned vaccine," the regulator said. The ban was "a precautionary measure to avoid exposing the population to possible imminent risk", it added.

Butantan also told Anvisa that another 17 batches, totalling 9 million doses, had been produced in the same plant, and were on their way to Brazil, the regulator said.

During the 90-day ban, Anvisa will seek to inspect the plant, and find out more about the security of the manufacturing process, it said.

During Brazil's vaccine rollout earlier this year, the vast majority of administered vaccines were from Sinovac. More shots from other manufacturers have since come online.

Brazil on Saturday reported 21,804 new coronavirus cases, and 692 COVID-19 deaths//CNA