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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)
March
EU to sanction Myanmar military's business interests next week, France says
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 17 - France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that the European Union would next week approve sanctions against the business interests of those responsible for last month’s military coup in Myanmar.
“The technical discussions are being finished in Brussels and we will confirm them next Monday,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told a hearing in the French Senate, referring to the next meeting of EU foreign ministers.
According to diplomats and internal documents seen by Reuters, the measures will target companies “generating revenue for, or providing financial support to, the Myanmar Armed Forces”.
While the bloc maintains an arms embargo against Myanmar, and has applied sanctions to some senior military officers since 2018, the measures would be its most significant since the coup.
“Obviously (we) will suspend all budgetary support and also there will be measures directly targeting those responsible for the military coup d’etat and hitting the individuals and their own economic interests,” Le Drian said. (Reuters)
March
APEC strives to unravel the potential of indigenous economies
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 17 - APEC senior officials, academia, and experts strive to unlock the potential of the indigenous people's contribution to the region's economy, with better data and insights, propelling APEC's endeavors to nurture inclusive growth that benefits everyone.
The Asia-Pacific is home to around 70 percent of the world's indigenous population. However, the full potential of the community’s contribution to the region’s economy remains untapped, according to a written statement -- issued by the APEC Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation -- that was received here on Tuesday.
In a policy dialog on understanding and valuing indigenous economies in APEC held virtually earlier this month, panelists from various APEC economies shared their experiences in amassing and measuring data on the indigenous economies, stressing on the importance of boosting data collection efforts and the quality of data itself.
"In Aotearoa New Zealand, indigenous economic growth is an integral part of inclusive growth and prosperity," New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta noted in her opening remarks at the policy dialog.
Minister Mahuta expounded that in the last two decades, New Zealand has borne witness to the growth of the Maori economy, from NZD16.5 billion (some US$11.84 billion) in 2006 to NZD69 billion (around US$49.53 billion) in 2019.
The minister strongly believes that good data and information is critical to gaining a better understanding of the concept of the indigenous economy and its role within the wider economy.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for reliable and timely data to aid policymakers to understand the impact on indigenous people to deliver targeted, informed, and tailored responses and also support economic resilience," Mahuta affirmed.
One of the key challenges encountered in accruing data on the indigenous economy is the varying definitions of indigenous individuals, households, and businesses across different APEC economies.
"Normally, an economy comprises households, business, and the government," Chief Economist and Director of Business and Economic Research Limited (BERL) Hillmarè Schulze noted in her presentation at the policy dialog.
Schulze further expounded that the first stage of understanding the measurement of indigenous economies is identifying and measuring what constitutes indigenous economic actors, translating to those who are part of the economy, which could include data on individuals, households, and businesses.
"Once we have data on the economic actors, we can then proceed to the next step that is measuring the participation and contribution," she stated.
Minister Mahuta reiterated the importance of closer collaboration between members in advancing indigenous economic inclusion in the APEC.
"This work is important to improve the lives and well-being of all indigenous people across the Asia-Pacific," Mahuta stated.
Inclusive economic growth is a crucial agenda item under New Zealand’s leadership of the APEC this year, as its member economies join, work, and grow together to build back better.
APEC senior officials acknowledged the potential of the indigenous economy and encouraged cooperation for data gathering and the sharing of best practices in assessing the contributions of indigenous economies. (Antaranews)
March
'Troubling' signs of Myanmar food price rises since coup: U.N. agency
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 16 - The U.N. food agency said on Tuesday rising food and fuel prices in Myanmar since a Feb. 1 military coup risk undermining the ability of poor families to feed themselves.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted the elected government and detained its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, with protests and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes paralysing parts of the economy.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said food prices were rising with palm oil 20% higher in some places around the main city of Yangon since the beginning of February and rice prices up 4% in the Yangon and Mandalay areas since the end of February.
In some parts of Kachin State in the north, the price of rice was up as much as 35%, while prices of cooking oil and pulses were sharply higher in parts of Rakhine State in the west, the WFP said in a statement.
The cost of fuel had risen by 15% nationwide since Feb. 1, raising concern about further food price increases, it said.
“These rising food and fuel prices are compounded by the near paralysis of the banking sector, slowdowns in remittances, and widespread limits on cash availability,” the WFP said.
The agency’s country director, Stephen Anderson, said the signs were troubling: “Coming on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, if these price trends continue they will severely undermine the ability of the poorest and most vulnerable to put enough food on the family table.”
A spokesman for the ruling military council did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment. State media has this week reported farmers expecting good prices for their crops of onions and chickpeas.
The WFP is helping to support more than 360,000 people in Myanmar, most of them displaced by conflict over the past decade.
The agency reiterated a call from the U.N. secretary-general for the will of the Myanmar people expressed in November elections to be respected, Anderson said, adding: “At WFP we know all too well how hunger can quickly follow when peace and dialogue are sidelined.”
The military defended its coup saying its complaints of fraud in a November election won by Suu Kyi’s party had been ignored. The election commission said the vote was fair.
A total of 183 people have been killed by security forces in protests against the coup, a rights monitoring group said.
Myanmar, once Asia’s main rice basket, was among the region’s poorest countries after the military seized power in a 1962 coup and imposed an autarchic “way to socialism”.
The economy boomed after the military began to withdraw from politics a decade ago. (Reuters)