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March
What you need to know about the coronavirus right now
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 5 - Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:
Vaccine confidence grows as side-effect worries fade
Confidence in COVID-19 vaccines is growing, with people’s willingness to have the shots increasing as they are rolled out across the world and concerns about possible side-effects are fading, a survey showed on Friday.
Co-led by Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation and the polling firm YouGov, the survey found trust in COVID-19 vaccines had risen in nine out of 14 countries covered, including France, Japan and Singapore which had previously had low levels of confidence.
The latest update of the survey, which ran from Feb 8. to Feb. 21, found that people in the UK are the most willing, with 77% saying they would take a vaccine if one was available that week.
Doubling masks offers little help preventing viral spread
Japanese supercomputer simulations showed that wearing two masks gave limited benefit in blocking viral spread compared with one properly fitted mask.
The findings in part contradict recent recommendations from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention that two masks were better than one at reducing a person’s exposure to the coronavirus.
Researchers used the Fugaku supercomputer to model the flow of virus particles from people wearing different types and combinations of masks, according to a study released on Thursday by research giant Riken and Kobe University.
India passes key vaccination milestone
India administered 1.4 million vaccine doses in the past 24 hours, health ministry data showed on Friday, the highest in a day since the campaign began in mid-January as the government moves to address initial hiccups.
The country of 1.35 billion people still has to nearly double its current rate of vaccination to meet its target of covering 300 million people by August. The two vaccines in use in India need to be administered in two doses, four to six weeks apart.
India has so far given 18 million doses to about 15 million people.
Moldova first European country to receive COVAX vaccines
Moldova became the first European country to receive shots from the global vaccine-sharing COVAX scheme, President Maia Sandu said on Friday.
The first batch of 14,400 doses arrived on Thursday, Sandu said on Twitter.
Moldova and neighbouring Ukraine, two of Europe’s poorest countries, have lagged behind the rest of the continent in the scramble for vaccines and welcomed donations from friendly governments.
World no closer to answer on COVID origins
The world is no closer to knowing the origins of COVID-19, according to one of the authors of an open letter calling for a new investigation.
“At this point we are no further advanced than we were a year ago,” said Nikolai Petrovsky, an expert in vaccines at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, and one of 26 global experts who signed the open letter, published on Thursday.
In January, a team of scientists picked by the World Health Organization visited hospitals and research institutes in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified. But the mission has come under fire, with critics accusing the WHO of relying too much on politically compromised Chinese fieldwork and data. (Reuters)
March
Pope Francis arrives in Baghdad for risky, historic Iraq tour
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 5 - Pope Francis landed in Baghdad on Friday for his most risky foreign trip since his election in 2012, saying he felt duty-bound to make the “emblematic” visit because Iraq had suffered so much for so long.
An Alitalia plane carrying him, his entourage, a security detail, and about 75 journalists, touched down at Baghdad International Airport slightly ahead of schedule just before 2 p.m. local time.
Iraq is deploying thousands of additional security personnel to protect the 84-year-old pope during the visit, which comes after a spate of rocket and suicide bomb attacks raised fears for his safety.
“I am happy to be making trips again,” he said in brief comments to reporters aboard his plane, alluding to the coronavirus pandemic which has prevented him from travelling. The Iraq trip is his first outside Italy since November 2019.
“This is an emblematic trip and it is a duty towards a land that has been martyred for so many years,” Francis said, before donning a mask and greeting each reporter individually, without shaking hands.
Francis’s whirlwind tour will take him by plane, helicopter and possibly armoured car to four cities, including areas that most foreign dignitaries are unable to reach, let alone in such a short space of time.
He will say Mass at a Baghdad church, meet Iraq’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric in the southern city of Najaf and travel north to Mosul, where the army had to empty the streets for security reasons last year for a visit by Iraq’s prime minister.
Mosul is a former Islamic State stronghold, and churches and other buildings there still bear the scars of conflict.
VIOLENCE AND HOPE
Since the defeat of the Islamic State militants in 2017, Iraq has seen a greater degree of security, though violence persists, often in the form of rocket attacks by Iran-aligned militias on U.S. targets, and U.S. military action in response.
On Wednesday 10 rockets landed on an airbase that hosts U.S., coalition and Iraqi forces. Hours later, Francis reaffirmed he would travel to Iraq.
Islamic State also remains a threat. In January, a suicide attack claimed by the Sunni militant group killed 32 people in Baghdad’s deadliest such attack for years.
Francis will meet clergy at a Baghdad church where Islamist gunmen killed more than 50 worshippers in 2010. Violence against Iraq’s minority religious groups, especially when a third of the country was being run by Islamic State, has reduced its ancient Christian community to a fifth of its once 1.5 million people.
The pontiff will also visit Ur, birthplace of the prophet Abraham, who is revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews, and meet Iraq’s revered top Shi’ite Muslim cleric, 90-year-old Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The meeting with Sistani, who wields great influence over Iraq’s Shi’ite majority and in the country’s politics, will be the first by a pope.
Some Shi’ite militant groups have opposed the pope’s visit, framing it as Western interference in Iraq’s affairs, but many Iraqis hope that it can help foster a fresh view of Iraq.
“It might not change much on the ground, but at least if the pope visits, people will see our country in a different light, not just bombs and war,” said Ali Hassan, a 30-year-old Baghdad resident picking up relatives at the airport. (Reuters)
March
Japan to extend Tokyo area state of emergency to March 21
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 5 - The Japanese government plans to extend a state of emergency to combat COVID-19 for Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures until March 21, two weeks longer than originally scheduled, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Friday.
Under the state of emergency, the government has requested restaurants and bars close by 8 p.m. and stop serving alcohol an hour earlier. People are also asked to stay home after 8 p.m. unless they have essential reasons to go out.
Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures, which make up 30% of the country’s population, sought the extension past the originally scheduled end date of March 7 as new coronavirus cases had not fallen enough to meet targets.
Suga made the announcement, echoing an earlier one made by the Economy Minister, at the start of a meeting on handling the coronavirus.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told a video conference of governors of the affected area that the extension was essential.
“We can’t have things rebound now, this is a really important time, and I think we all understand this,” she said.
“We’ll keep in close contact with each other and beat the virus.”
An early morning meeting of advisers had approved the extension, which Suga is set to announce to the nation at a news conference later on Friday.
The measure adds to the challenges facing restaurants and related businesses.
“As long as the government asks us to endure for another two weeks, we will follow its instructions. But that would be a matter of life or death for us,” said Akira Koganezawa, vice president of the association for 55 restaurants that serve monjayaki, a pan-fried batter dish popular in Tokyo area.
“Without enough subsidies, some restaurants would go out of business,” he said.
Fuji TV, citing an unnamed government official, said another extension until the end of March could not be ruled out.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is considering setting a criteria for lifting the state of emergency that new daily infections stay below 140 on a weekly average basis, the Nikkei reported.
Tokyo’s daily new infection was 269 on average for the past week through March 4, according to Reuters calculations.
The government is keen to tame the spread of the virus as preparations ramp up for the Tokyo Olympics with just 4-1/2 months until the Games start.
Foreign athletes have been barred from entering Japan to train before the Games during the state of emergency. It was not immediately clear if the ban would remain in place during the extension for the Tokyo region while the order has already been lifted for the rest of the country.
The current curbs are narrower in scope than those imposed under an emergency last spring when schools and non-essential businesses were mostly shuttered.
New case numbers are still a fraction of their peak in early January, when the state of emergency took effect. Tokyo reported 301 cases on Friday, compared with a record high 2,520 on Jan. 7
Nationwide, Japan has recorded some 438,000 cases and 8,185 deaths from COVID-19 as of Friday. (Reuters)
March
U.N. condemns up to 23 killings in Iran's border area with Pakistan
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 5 - At least a dozen people and possibly up to 23 have been killed in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province were Revolutionary Guards and security forces have used lethal force against fuel couriers from ethnic minorities and protesters, the United Nations said on Friday.
Iran is investigating an incident in which at least two Iranians were shot dead this week at the border with Pakistan, and Islamabad has handed over the body of one of the victims, the Iranian foreign ministry said a week ago.
The shooting of people carrying fuel across the border led to protests that spread from the city of Saravan to other areas in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, including the capital, Zahedan.
“The series of violent events and unrest began on 22 February, when Revolutionary Guards are alleged to have shot and killed at least 10 fuel couriers, known as sookhtbar, in Sistan and Baluchistan Province at the border with Pakistan, after a two-day stand-off triggered by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps blocking the road to the city of Saravan,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.
The killings had triggered demonstrations in several cities across the province, during which the revolutionary guard and security forces fired lethal ammunition at protesters and bystanders, he said.
Colville said that it has been difficult to verify the death toll due to disruptions of local mobile data networks, but some unconfirmed reports have estimated that as many as 23 people may have been killed.
“We call on the authorities to immediately restore Internet access in areas that remain disconnected,” he said.
Sistan-Baluchistan’s population is predominantly Sunni Muslim, while most Iranians are Shi’ite. Iran has some of the lowest fuel prices in the world and has been fighting smuggling to neighboring countries. (Reuters)
March
Malaysia says detects two cases of new coronavirus variant
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 5 - Malaysia has detected two cases of a new coronavirus variant that is thought to be more transmissible and resistant to antibodies, a senior health official said on Friday.
The variant, also known as B.1.525, was found in two people who had travelled from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement.
Analysis of the travellers’ COVID-19 tests indicated the presence of mutations including E484K and a similar suite of protein deletions seen in a variant of the virus first detected in Britain, Noor Hisham said.
“The E484K protein spike mutation is of high concern as this mutation has been reported to evade the immune system,” he said.
Health authorities in the United Kingdom and other countries have said the E484K mutation could potentially reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.
The B.1.525 variant has also been detected in England, Nigeria, Denmark and Canada.
Malaysia on Friday eased movement restrictions in the capital Kuala Lumpur and several states, nine days after it began a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme.
The Southeast Asian country has recorded more than 300,000 coronavirus cases so far, including 1,153 deaths. (Reuters)
March
Sinovac vaccine may not trigger sufficient antibody response to Brazil variant: study
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 5 - Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine may not trigger sufficient antibody responses against a new variant identified in Brazil, a small-sample lab study showed.
The emergence of variants of the new coronavirus has raised concern that vaccines and treatments that were developed based on previous strains may not work as robustly.
Plasma samples taken from eight people vaccinated with Sinovac’s CoronaVac failed to efficiently neutralize the P.1 lineage variant, or 20J/501Y.V3, researchers said in a paper published on Monday ahead of peer-review.
“These results suggest that P.1 virus might escape from neutralizing antibodies induced by... CoronaVac,” researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, Washington University School of Medicine in the United States, and a few other institutions said in the paper.
CoronaVac is being used in mass vaccination drives in countries including China, Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.
Although the study suggests re-infection may occur in vaccinated individuals, the protection given by CoronaVac against severe COVID-19 may indicate other mechanisms in the human immune system, aside from antibodies, may also contribute to reducing disease severity, researchers said.
A Sinovac spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Chief executive Yin Weidong said in a programme aired by state-backed broadcaster CGTN on Thursday the company is “fully capable” of using current research and manufacturing capacity to develop a new vaccine against variants if necessary.
He also said the process would take much less time than it took to develop CoronaVac. (Reuters)
March
Clash over Myanmar representation at U.N. averted for now
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 5 - A clash over who represents Myanmar at the United Nations in New York after a Feb. 1 military coup was averted - for now - after the junta’s replacement quit and the Myanmar U.N. mission confirmed that Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun remained in the job.
Kyaw Moe Tun was fired by the junta on Saturday, a day after he urged countries at the 193-member U.N. General Assembly to use “any means necessary” to reverse the coup that ousted the nation’s elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
In Washington, Myanmar’s embassy also signaled a break with the junta on Thursday, issuing a statement decrying the deaths of civilians protesting the coup and calling on authorities to “fully exercise utmost restraint.”
Police in Myanmar broke up demonstrations in several places with tear gas and gunfire on Thursday as protesters took to the streets again, undeterred by the rising death toll in a crackdown on coup opponents.
“Instead of demonstrating respect for the rule of law, pursuing dialogue and refraining from violence, the military has dramatically accelerated violence against the people of Burma,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday. “This is simply unacceptable.”
On Sunday, the Myanmar U.N. mission said Kyaw Moe Tun’s deputy, Tin Maung Naing, would become the acting U.N. envoy. On Monday, Kyaw Moe Tun formally staked his claim to remain the country’s legitimate representative - a job he has held since October - in a letter to the United Nations.
The rival claims raised the prospect of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly having to address the issue.
On Wednesday, the Myanmar U.N. mission told the United Nations that Tin Maung Naing had resigned and Kyaw Moe Tun remained the country’s ambassador. It said the note it sent on Sunday “shall be ignored.”
Myanmar’s representation at the United Nations could become an issue again if the junta tries to appoint a new ambassador.
The U.N. special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, has warned that no country should recognize or legitimize the Myanmar junta.
The U.N. Security Council is due to discuss Myanmar on Friday in a closed meeting, diplomats said. The 15-member council has voiced concern over the state of emergency, but stopped short of condemning the coup due to opposition from Russia and China.
“The people of Burma have stood firm for democracy, our voices need to be equally firm, and they must be united in supporting the people of Burma,” Thomas-Greenfield said. (Reuters)
March
Tsunami warnings as third strong earthquake strikes off New Zealand
Written by Nur YasminMar. 5 - Evacuation orders were issued for New Zealanders living in some areas on the east coast on the North Island after a third earthquake struck in the area on Friday.
The latest was a magnitude 8.0 quake that struck the Kermadec Islands, northeast of New Zealand’s North Island. This came shortly after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in the same region.
Earlier, another large 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck about 900 kilometres away on the east of the North Island and was felt by tens of thousands, causing its own tsunami warning. This warning was later lifted.
New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) issued a tsunami warning saying areas under threat were from the Bay of Islands to Whangarei, from Matata to Tolaga Bay including Whakatane and Opotiki, and the Great Barrier Island.
“People near the coast in the following areas must move immediately to the nearest high ground, out of all tsunami evacuation zones, or as far inland as possible. DO NOT STAY AT HOME,” NEMA said on Twitter.
“The earthquake may not have been felt in some of these areas, but evacuation should be immediate as a damaging tsunami is possible,” it added.
There was no tsunami threat to other areas of New Zealand.
Earlier the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off the east of New Zealand’s North Island was felt by more than 60,000 people across the country with many describing the shaking as “severe”. Aftershocks were still being recorded in the area.
There were no immediate reports of damage from either earthquake.
“Hope everyone is ok out there - especially on the East Coast who would have felt the full force of that earthquake,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern posted on Instagram. (Reuters)
March
Obesity a driving factor in COVID-19 deaths, global report finds
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 5 - The majority of global COVID-19 deaths have been in countries where many people are obese, with coronavirus fatality rates 10 times higher in nations where at least 50% of adults are overweight, a global study found on Thursday.
The report, which described a “dramatic” correlation between countries’ COVID-19 death and obesity rates, found that 90% or 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from the pandemic disease so far were in countries with high levels of obesity.
The study analysed the COVID-19 death figures from Johns Hopkins University in the United States and the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory data on obesity.
Strikingly, the authors said, there is no example of a country where people are generally not overweight or obese having high COVID-19 death rates.
“Look at countries like Japan and South Korea, where they have very low levels of COVID-19 deaths as well as very low levels of adult obesity,” said Tim Lobstein, an expert advisor to the World Obesity Federation and visiting professor at Australia’s Sydney University who co-led the report.
“They have prioritised public health across a range of measures, including population weight, and it has paid off in the pandemic.”
By contrast, the report found that in the United States and Britain, for example, both COVID-19 death rates and obesity levels were among the highest.
The United Kingdom has the world’s third-highest coronavirus death rate and the fourth-highest obesity rate - 184 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 and 63.7% of adults overweight, according to WHO data - followed by the United States, with 152.49 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 and 67.9% of adults overweight.
John Wilding, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of Liverpool and president of the World Obesity Federation, said obesity should be recognised as a key COVID-19 health risk and taken into account in vaccination plans.
“It’s really important that we recognise that obesity ... increases the risk,” he said in a statement about the report’s findings. “Therefore, like other diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, people with obesity should be considered for early priority in vaccination programmes across the world.” (Reuters)
March
U.N. rights investigator calls for tough sanctions on Myanmar
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 5 - The United Nations human rights investigator on Myanmar said on Thursday the military there has murdered, beaten and unlawfully arrested protesters since its illegal Feb. 1 coup and he called for wide-ranging punitive sanctions.
Thomas Andrews urged the U.N. Security Council - which meets on Myanmar on Friday - to impose a global arms embargo and targeted economic sanctions on the junta and refer alleged atrocities to the International Criminal Court for prosecution.
States should impose sanctions on the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, now controlled by the military and its largest source of revenue, he said in a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. (Reuters)