VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

China approved its first COVID-19 vaccine for general public use on Thursday, a shot developed by an affiliate of state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, as it braces for greater transmission risks over the winter.

No detailed efficacy data of the vaccine has been publicly released but its developer, Beijing Biological Products Institute, a unit of Sinopharm subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), said on Wednesday its vaccine was 79.34% effective in preventing people from developing the disease based on interim data.

The approval, announced by the National Medical Products Administration, comes after the United Arab Emirates this month became the first country to roll out the vaccine to the public, and as Pakistan announced a 1.2 million dose purchase deal with Sinopharm.

While China has been slower than several other countries in approving COVID-19 vaccines, it has been inoculating some citizens for months with three different shots still undergoing late-stage trials.

China launched an emergency use programme in July aimed at essential workers and others at high risk of infection, had administered more than 4.5 million doses as of Dec. 15 using at least three different products - two developed by CNBG and one by Sinovac Biotech.

While the efficacy of the Sinopharm shot trails the more than 90% success rate of rival vaccines from Pfizer Inc and its partner BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc, it points to progress China has made in the global race to develop successful COVID-19 vaccines.

China has at least five vaccines, developed by Sinovac, CNBG units, CanSino Biologics and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in late stage trials, underscoring its efforts to develop a homegrown vaccine to challenge Western rivals.

President Xi Jinping has pledged to make China’s vaccines a global public good and it has won several large supply deals with countries including Indonesia and Brazil - the most populous countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America respectively.

WATCHING THE DATA

The efficacy and safety data of China-made vaccines is being closely watched by many developing countries as they have limited early access to shots developed by Western drug makers and are looking for alternatives from China and Russia.

“China’s approval could boost the credibility of the vaccine,” said Dong-yan Jin, a professor at the University of Hong Kong.

“But if the vaccine wants to take a share in the global market, especially in developed countries, more data is necessary.”

A Sinopharm executive told a briefing detailed data would be released later and published in scientific journals at home and abroad.

While China has kept new outbreaks of the coronavirus under control, it is ramping up the emergency programme to contain the risks over the winter. The virus emerged a year ago in a market in the central city of Wuhan.

The South China Morning Post newspaper reported that China would vaccinate as many as 50 million people from high-priority groups before the Lunar New Year holiday in February.

“We call on people ... to take an active part in vaccination to protect themselves, family members and others, which is also contributing to global epidemic control,” Zeng Yixin, an official with National Health Commission, told a briefing on Thursday.

The price of the vaccine would depend on the scale of use, but the “premise” was that it would be free for the public in China, he said.

The approval comes as Britain on Wednesday approved a second COVID-19 vaccine, a shot developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, as it battles a major winter surge driven by a new variant of the virus. (Reuters)

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck central Croatia on Tuesday, killing seven people, injuring more than 20 and rattling several neighbouring countries, officials and residents said.

Rescuers pulled people from the rubble of collapsed buildings in Petrinja and other towns, and army troops were sent to the area to help.

Tremors were also felt in Croatia’s capital Zagreb and as far away as Austria’s capital Vienna. Slovenia shut its only nuclear power plant as a precaution.

It was the second quake to strike the area in two days.

The GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said it hit at 1119 GMT at a depth of 10 km (6 miles), with the epicentre in Petrinja, 50 km south of Zagreb.

“By now, in the vicinity of the town of Glina we have five fatalities. Together with a (12-year-old) girl from Petrinja there are altogether six dead,” Deputy Prime Minister Tomo Medved said while visiting Glina.

State news agency Hina, citing firefighters, later reported that a seventh victim had been found in the rubble of a church in the village of Zazina.

Police said at least 20 people were slightly injured and six more severely wounded in the temblor.

“The search through the rubble is continuing,” police said in a statement.

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Throughout the day many aftershocks occurred measuring 3.0 magnitude or slightly stronger.

Tomislav Fabijanic, head of emergency medical services in Sisak, said many people were wounded in Petrinja and Sisak and their injuries included fractures and concussions.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who rushed to Petrinja, said: “The army is here to help. We will have to move some people from Petrinja because it is unsafe to be here.”

The head of the hospital in Sisak said later it was treating 20 people, two with severe injuries.

The N1 television station showed footage of rescuers in Petrinja pulling a man and a child alive from the debris. Other footage showed a house with its roof caved in. The N1 reporter said she did not know if anyone was inside.

N1 also said a kindergarten was destroyed in the quake but that there were no children in it at the time.

Piles of stone, brick and tiles littered Petrinja’s streets in the aftermath of the quake, and cars parked in the road were smashed by falling debris.

A worker who had been fixing a roof in a village outside Petrinja told N1 that the quake threw him to the ground. Nine of the 10 houses in the village were destroyed, he said.

WRAPPED IN BLANKETS
The quake was also felt in Zagreb, where people rushed onto the streets, some of which were strewn with broken roof tiles and other debris.

Patients and medical staff were evacuated from Zagreb’s Sveti Duh Hospital, with many left sitting in chairs in the street wrapped in blankets.

In Austria’s second city Graz, about 200 km (130 miles) north of Petrinja, tall buildings wobbled for about two minutes, according to broadcaster ORF. In Carinthia province, about 300 km to the northwest of Petrinja, the earth trembled for several minutes and people described how their furniture, Christmas trees and lamps wobbled.

In Slovenia, the STA news agency said the country’s sole nuclear power plant, 100 km (60 miles) from the epicentre, was shut down as a precaution.

Croatia’s state news agency Hina said the quake was felt in a total of 12 countries.

Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said Croatia was expecting help from the European Union as it had activated its emergency situation mechanism.

A day earlier on Monday, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit central Croatia, also near Petrinja.

In March, a temblor of magnitude 5.3 rattled Zagreb, causing one death and injuring 27 people. (reuters)

A 46-year-old nurse became the first person in Singapore to receive Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, making the city-state among the first Asian countries to begin an inoculation campaign against the coronavirus.

Sarah Lim, a senior staff nurse at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, was the first of more than 30 staff at the centre who are being vaccinated on Wednesday, the health ministry said. They will return for the second dose of the vaccine on Jan. 20.

“I feel very grateful and thankful for being the first to be vaccinated in Singapore,” said Lim, who helps screen suspected COVID-19 cases. In recorded remarks provided by the health ministry, she said she hoped to encourage others to get vaccinated.

Singapore is the first country in Asia to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. It has also signed advance purchase agreements and made early down payments on several other vaccine candidates, including those being developed by Moderna and Sinovac.

It expects to have enough vaccine doses for all 5.7 million people by the third quarter of 2021.

Singapore acted swiftly after the first cases of the virus were reported and although it was blindsided by tens of thousands of cases in migrant workers dormitories, it has reported just a handful of new cases over the last two months. The country has one of the world’s lowest COVID-19 fatality rates; only 29 people have died of the virus.

To show the vaccine is safe, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, said he and his colleagues would be among the early recipients of the shots. They will be free and voluntary, but the government is encouraging all medically eligible residents to take them.

China is inoculating specific groups of people considered at high risk of infection, such as medical workers and border inspectors, under an emergency use programme started in July. Its vaccines are still in late-stage clinical trials.

In Japan and South Korea, the U.S military has begun its first wave of COVID-19 vaccinations, prioritising frontline medical workers.

Some Philippine soldiers and cabinet ministers have already received COVID-19 vaccine injections even before regulatory approval. (reuters)

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday extended partial coronavirus restrictions in the capital, Manila, until the end of January to prevent the spread of COVID-19 following Christmas and holiday festivities.

The capital region, which accounts for 40% of the country’s economic output and is home to at least 12 million people, remains the coronavirus hotspot in the Philippines, which has the second highest infections and deaths in Southeast Asia.

In a national address, Duterte placed the capital region, his hometown Davao City and eight other areas under partial quarantine measures for the entirety of January. Less stringent restrictions will be enforced for the rest of the country.

“Stay home if it is really possible, if you can. It is for your own good,” Duterte said.

Interior Minister Eduardo Ano said on Monday there was no need to return to a hard lockdown as long as there was no proof that the new COVID-19 variant from the United Kingdom had entered the country.

The capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities fused together, has been under partial curbs since August.

Physical distancing is enforced on public transport, and face masks and shields are required for anyone stepping out of their homes. Most businesses, including dine-in services, have been allowed to reopen at reduced capacity to support the economy.

Healthcare workers are bracing for a surge in infections following holiday merrymaking. The Philippines has 470,650 cases and 9,124 deaths from COVID-19, with around a thousand new infections reported daily.

The Southeast Asian nation is also preparing for the new, more transmissible COVID-19 variant which has been found in Britain and has rattled global financial markets, by extending a flight ban from Britain until mid-January.

It also requires passengers that come from or have transited in Britain and other countries that have reported finding the new variant to complete a 14-day quarantine upon arrival, regardless of test results. (reuters)