Month: July 2021

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday new cases of COVID-19 were up in the United States by nearly 11 percent in the past week, driven by the prevalence of the delta variant in areas with the nation’s lowest vaccination rates. During the regular weekly White House COVID Response Team briefing, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said hospitalizations were also up in the past week by about seven percent, while deaths from COVID-19 continued to fall.   Walensky said the statistics show “two truths” that exist in the U.S., with the nation’s vaccination effort significantly driving down cases, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 from the peaks they reached in January. She said more than 160 million people in the United States are now fully vaccinated. On the other hand, the CDC director said “new and concerning trends” are being seen indicating the areas with the lowest vaccination rates have the highest rates of new cases and highest percentage of the more contagious delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19.   She said the delta variant is now the most prevalent variant in the country, accounting for more than 50 percent of all new cases across the country, up from 26 percent in just over two weeks. She said the variant accounts for much as 80 percent of new cases in some areas of the Midwest and mountain states. The CDC director said 93 percent of the 173 counties in the U.S. with infection rates higher than …

As the world surpassed four million coronavirus-related deaths, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that millions more remain at risk “if the virus is allowed to spread like wildfire.” The head of the world body said in a written statement that most of the world is “still in the shadows” due to the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccine between the world’s richest and poorest nations and the rapid global spread of the more contagious delta variant of COVID-19.  Guterres called for the creation of an emergency task force, composed of vaccine-producing nations, the World Health Organization and global financial institutions, to implement a global vaccine plan that will at least double production of COVID-19 vaccine and ensure equitable distribution through the COVAX global vaccine sharing initiative. “Vaccine equity is the greatest immediate moral test of our times,” Guterres said, which he also called a “practical necessity.”   “Until everyone is vaccinated, everyone is under threat,” he added. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center is reporting 4,002,909 total COVID-19 deaths, out of 185.1 million total confirmed cases. The World Health Organization is urging nations to proceed with “extreme caution” as they ease or altogether end lockdowns and other restrictions in the face of a steady rise of new infections due to the delta variant.  Dr. Mike Ryan, the agency’s head of health emergencies program, told reporters in Geneva Wednesday that countries are making “a false assumption” that transmission rates will not increase because of high vaccination rates.  “The idea that everyone is protected and it’s Kumbaya …

UNICEF said Thursday it has signed a deal to provide up to 220 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to African Union member states by the end of 2022.   The child humanitarian group announced in a statement the agreement was reached with Belgium-based and J&J-owned Janssen Pharmaceutica NV.   An additional 35 million doses of the single-dose vaccine could be delivered to the African Union’s 55-member states by the end of this year and another 180 million doses could be ordered by year’s end, UNICEF said.   “African countries must have affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible. Vaccine access has been unequal and unfair, with less than 1 per cent of the population of the African continent currently vaccinated against COVID-19. This cannot continue,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “UNICEF, with its long history of delivering vaccines all around the world, is supporting global COVID-19 vaccination efforts through AVAT, COVAX, and other channels to maximize supply and access to vaccines.”   The J&J vaccine received emergency approval from the World Health Organization in March. …

Chinese state-owned media has claimed that Australian consultants in Papua New Guinea have been hindering the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines flown in from China. It was alleged that they had engaged “in political manipulation and bullying” there.Australia has strongly denied claims it has tried to sabotage China’s efforts to boost vaccinations in Papua New Guinea.Papua New Guinea is currently using the AstraZeneca vaccine. Two hundred thousand doses of the Sinopharm vaccine have recently been flown in from China but have yet to be approved for use by local authorities.A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson warned Australia to “stop interfering with and undermining vaccine cooperation between China and Pacific Island countries.”Australia’s minister for the Pacific, Zed Seselja, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. all international assistance is welcome.“When it comes to the rollout, what we are focused on is making sure that we are providing as much assistance as we possibly can,” Seselja said. “If other countries want to provide assistance that is wonderful.”Papua New Guinea is Australia’s nearest neighbor and has recorded more than 17,000 coronavirus infections and 174 deaths since the pandemic began but it is hard to get accurate figures due to lack of testing, according to media reports.The South Pacific nation has a population of about 9 million. It has administered just under 55,000 vaccine doses, faced with both hesitancy among Papua New Guineans and a lack of supply.Australia has pledged to ship 10,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Papua New Guinea every week, along with medical support. …

The Japanese government is expected to announce Thursday that it will impose a new state of emergency for Tokyo due to the rise of new COVID-19 cases across the country.Yasutoshi Nishimura, the government’s economy minister and head of its coronavirus response efforts, told reporters the state of emergency will begin Monday and last until Aug. 22 — a period that will cover the duration of the Tokyo Olympics, which will take place between July 23 and Aug. 8.The new state of emergency will likely prompt the government to either scale back the number of spectators allowed to witness Olympics events to 5,000 people, or ban them altogether. Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics announced just last month that it would allow just 10,000 people, or 50% of a venue’s capacity, at all events, despite health experts advising the government that banning all spectators was the “least risky” option for holding the games.Foreign spectators have already been banned from attending the event.Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to formally announce the state of emergency Thursday.Local and national government officials along with Olympic and Paralympic officials will make a final decision on Thursday or Friday about allowing spectators after meeting with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach. Bach is scheduled to arrive in Tokyo on Thursday and enter into a mandatory three-day quarantine period.Tokyo and several other prefectures shifted last month from a state of emergency imposed in April into “quasi-emergency” measures that are set to expire Sunday.However, Japan is coping with a …

South Korea’s capital is on the verge of perhaps its most intense lockdown yet, after the country reported its largest daily surge of coronavirus cases.Officials on Thursday recorded 1,275 new infections, the vast majority of which were in the Seoul area, where over half of South Koreans live.That is South Korea’s largest number of confirmed daily cases since the pandemic began.Seoul may soon impose the toughest restrictions under a four-tier social distancing system, said Sohn Young-rae, a senior Health and Welfare Ministry official, according to the Yonhap news agency.Level 4 restrictions can include severe measures, such as a ban on private gatherings of more than two people after 6 p.m.That would amount to the first intense lockdown of Seoul, where life has largely gone on as usual over the past year and a half, compared to many other parts of the world.South Korea won international praise for its initial containment of the virus, thanks to its efficient and widely available COVID-19 tests and intense contact tracing.However, the country has lagged most other developed countries in acquiring vaccines, meaning it has been stuck in a state of not being fully opened or closed.Over the past several weeks, restaurants, cafes, and outdoor parks along Seoul’s Han River have been more crowded than usual, as the government prepared to ease social distancing precautions.Many now say that message was premature, leading to what health officials call the fourth wave of the virus.Health officials say they are especially concerned that the virus is spreading among those …

Ethnic minorities, the self-employed and low-income families in Britain suffered greater deprivation levels during the coronavirus pandemic despite “surprisingly positive” living standards figures, a report published Thursday found.The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank’s annual report on living standards, poverty and inequality identified these groups as the hardest hit, even as unprecedented state support mitigated the worst effects of the crisis.The research follows other studies showing that Britain’s ethnic minorities were more likely to suffer worse health and economic outcomes during the pandemic and less likely to accept vaccines.”How fast and to what extent these groups recover as the economy reopens will be a key determinant of the pandemic’s legacy,” said report co-author Tom Wernham.Some 15% of Britons from minority ethnic backgrounds were behind their household bills at the start of 2021, compared with 12% before the pandemic.The proportion of adults of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin living in households where all adults were unemployed or furloughed remained 10 percentage points higher at the beginning of 2021 than pre-pandemic levels, as many of these households relied on one income earner.Household worklessness for black adults rose 2.4 percentage points, higher than the national average of 1.9, the report added.The share of self-employed workers who lost all work in the first lockdown in March 2020 and fell behind household bills is now 15%, up from 2% before the pandemic.Despite the government’s flagship furlough scheme, which has paid millions of workers’ wages since March 2020, 36% of self-employed workers — many of whom …

The deadly heat wave that roasted the Pacific Northwest and western Canada was virtually impossible without human-caused climate change that added a few extra degrees to the record-smashing temperatures, a quick new scientific analysis found.An international team of 27 scientists calculated that climate change increased chances of the extreme heat occurring by at least 150 times, but likely much more.The study, not yet peer reviewed, said that before the industrial era, the region’s late June triple-digit heat was the type that would not have happened in human civilization. And even in today’s warming world, it said, the heat was a once-in-a-millennium event.But that once-in-a-millennium event would likely occur every five to 10 years once the world warms another 0.8 degrees Celsius, said Wednesday’s study from World Weather Attribution. That much warming could be 40 or 50 years away if carbon pollution continues at its current pace, one study author said.This type of extreme heat “would go from essentially virtually impossible to relatively commonplace,” said study co-author Gabriel Vecchi, a Princeton University climate scientist. “That is a huge change.”The study also found that in the Pacific Northwest and Canada climate change was responsible for about 2 degrees Celsius of the heat shock. Those few degrees make a big difference in human health, said study co-author Kristie Ebi, a professor at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington.”This study is telling us climate change is killing people,” said Ebi, who endured the blistering heat in Seattle. …

Africa’s Sahel region is seeing the worst effects of climate warming anywhere on the planet, according to the United Nations.Farmers bear the brunt of the changes because 80% of the Sahel’s economy is agrarian.    Art Melody, a musician in Burkina Faso who raps in the local Djula and Moore languages, knows from experience the negative impact on farm production because he is a farmer himself. His songs convey the fear and emotion felt by millions of people across the region because of the impact of global warming.   Art Melody says his grandparents have told him the rainy season used to start in April but now can start in July, so there is less rain and more heat.  FILE – A man herds his goats in the village of Samba, Passore province, northern Burkina Faso, March 29, 2016.The U.N. says the impact of desertification and drought on farmers is one of several factors causing the Sahel conflict in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Combatants include terror groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida.  More than two million people have been displaced because of the fighting, and more than 20,000 people have been killed since 2012, according to data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. “When there’s a drought, it’s a disaster, it’s hell,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification. “When that situation happens, you have two options — flight or fight. Either you flee because there is no way you can …

Uganda saw an increase in deaths among health care workers last month just as COVID-19 cases increased. Sixteen doctors died of the disease, while others are in intensive care.  Uganda Medical Association believes more than 100 health workers have died in the country because of the coronavirus pandemic since March of last year.Dr. Mukuzi Muhereza, the association’s secretary general, said that number rose sharply last month.“The biggest bit was the last two weeks when we lost 16.  Some people are in intensive care and we are holding our fingers. And 14 were active clinicians and most likely got it from the hospitals.” The death of 16 doctors coincides with a general rise in COVID-19 cases last month before the country instituted lockdown restrictions.On July 5, Uganda registered 425 new cases, bringing the cumulative number to 84,979.  More than 2,000 Ugandans have died of COVID-19.According to investigations by the Ministry of Health, a total of 37 doctors have died of COVID during the pandemic.  It says they all had underlying health conditions like diabetes and hypertension, or had not been vaccinated, or were of advanced age.However, Ministry of Health spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona acknowledges that doctors and other health care workers in hospitals face elevated risks due to lack of protective gear and medical gloves.He also said the government has been slow to give workers in COVID-19 units their extra pay for enduring risky conditions.“Yes, there might always be delays. But these delays are sometimes not within our controls because they are based on …

Tokyo’s metropolitan government announced Wednesday that it will move the iconic Olympic torch relay off the city’s public roads due to rising numbers of new COVID-19 cases in the Japanese capital.Relay runners will instead carry the torch out of public view to private torch-lighting ceremonies across Tokyo after the Olympic symbol arrives Friday.  The only planned public torch lighting event will take place on a group of small islands off the coast of Tokyo.  In a related development, the Olympics organizing committee says it will request the public not gather on the streets to witness the marathon races when they are staged in the final days of the Games.The latest restrictions involving the upcoming Tokyo Olympics come as organizers and government officials consider plans to limit the number of spectators at the July 23 opening ceremonies to just a handful of dignitaries and Olympic officials.  The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported Tuesday the idea is part of a larger plan that would also include banning visitors from attending events at large venues and at night.The last Olympic torch relay runner for the Osaka leg concludes the event in Suita, north of Osaka, western Japan, April 14, 2021.Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics announced back on June 21 that it would allow just 10,000 people, or 50% of a venue’s capacity, at all events, despite health experts advising the government that banning all spectators was the “least risky” option for holding the Games. The Asahi Shimbun reported the revised changes to the number of spectators allowed …

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Wednesday that the world was at a perilous point in the COVID-19 pandemic, as fast-moving variants continued to spread because of an uneven global vaccination effort.From the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Tedros said that some countries with high vaccination rates were making plans to roll out booster shots in coming months and were dropping public health social distancing measures and relaxing as though the pandemic were already over.But the WHO chief said that because of what he called a “shocking inequity in vaccination,” and highly contagious variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, far too many countries in every region of the world were seeing spikes in cases and hospitalizations.He said that had led to an acute shortage of oxygen and treatments and was driving a wave of death in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America.Tedros said around the world, variants were winning the race against vaccines because of inequitable vaccine production and distribution, which, he said, also threatened the global economic recovery.Sydney to Remain in Coronavirus Lockdown for a Third Week New South Wales state premier calls delta strain of COVID-19 ‘a game-changer’ 4 million deathsDeaths worldwide related to the coronavirus recently passed 4 million as many countries struggled to obtain sufficient supplies of vaccines to inoculate their populations.He said, “Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion’s share, is morally indefensible and an ineffective public health strategy against a respiratory virus that is mutating quickly …

Officials in Australia’s New South Wales state have ordered a week-long extension of Sydney’s strict coronavirus lockdown as the city of five million residents struggles to contain an growing outbreak of the delta variant of COVID-19.The latest lockdown was imposed on June 26 after a Sydney airport limousine driver who had been transporting international air crews tested positive for the variant. More than 300 people have since been infected.The outbreak has grown to more than 300 people, including 27 new cases reported Wednesday.“This delta strain is a game-changer,” New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney. “We don’t want to be in a situation where we are constantly having to move between lockdown, no lockdown, lockdown, no lockdown.”Australia has been largely successful in containing the spread of COVID-19 due to aggressive lockdown efforts, posting just 30,861 total confirmed cases and 910 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.  But it has proved vulnerable to fresh outbreaks due to a slow rollout of its vaccination campaign and confusing requirements involving the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine, which is the dominant vaccine in its stockpile.The new extension for Sydney is set to expire July 16.South Korea is also undergoing a new wave of COVID-19 infections, with authorities reporting 1,212 new cases on Wednesday, its highest one-day total since Christmas Day, when 1,240 new infections were reported. The 1,212 new cases, the majority from  heavily populated Seoul, marks a huge jump from the previous three days, when more than 700 …

At a workshop in Kullu district in North India, dozens of artisans bend over hand-operated looms, deftly weaving a garment called the sari in vibrant shades of pink and orange.The sari is an unstitched, flowing garment worn by women in India and in South Asian countries like Bangladesh. It is a new addition to the hilly region’s handloom industry, which for decades focused on making shawls and stoles with traditional patterns from woolen yarn.The hope is that adding the handwoven sari to shop shelves will draw in new customers and boost incomes for hundreds of women in the region, who have very few employment avenues available in the primarily rural district.Looms have long been a part of many village homes nestled on hilly slopes, where women use yarn from sheep to make traditional woolen wraps known as “pattu” for the family.In recent decades, they made a living weaving shawls to sell to the tens of thousands of tourists who came to the Himalayan district. But it was becoming harder to attract a younger, more fashion-conscious generation that now prefers coats to the traditional shawl.“I just wanted that this art should not die, this handloom art. So, we thought let us give them some new ideas,” said Richa Verma, the Deputy Commissioner of Kullu. “We are very hopeful that the tourist who is coming to this district will take the sari as a souvenir and boost income opportunities for local people.”They will be among the country’s first woolen saris, which are …

The Biden administration announced shipments of millions of Moderna vaccine donations for Guatemala and Vietnam on Tuesday, after pledging to donate 4 million doses to Indonesia last week. But overall, the U.S. fell short of its target of sending 80 million doses to countries in need by the end of June. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report on the challenges facing the U.S. effort to help vaccinate the world. …

Indonesia has prepared backup medical facilities for a worst-case scenario where daily coronavirus infections reach 40,000 to 50,000, an official said on Tuesday, as the country reported another day of record fatalities from its worst outbreak so far.Indonesia has one of Asia’s most severe COVID-19 epidemics, exacerbated by the highly infectious Delta variant, with hospitals overstretched, oxygen supply problems and a growing number of sick unable to receive medical attention.Southeast Asia’s largest and most populous country has seen record daily infections in 11 of the past 16 days, with 31,189 new cases and 728 fatalities on Tuesday.Just 1.6% of its more than 270 million population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.Senior Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the government has plans to increase oxygen supplies and has identified accommodation infrastructure that can be converted into isolation facilities in the worst-case scenario.”The number can go up to 40,000 or more, that’s why we have prepared scenarios – when it comes to medications, oxygen, and also hospitals,” Luhut said, adding that help had been sought from countries like China and Singapore.Health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the government was adding nearly 8,000 new beds in Greater Jakarta, and was closely watching Sumatra and Kalimantan, which were seeing a rise in cases of the Delta variant.As of Monday, 76% of beds in Indonesian hospitals were occupied, health ministry data showed, though some regions on Java island have reported a rate higher than 85%.Indonesia on Saturday tightened curbs on movement, office work, dining and air travel …

Germany announced Tuesday it is lowering travel restrictions on Britain and four other European nations imposed due to the appearance of the more contagious delta variant of COVID-19.  Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s public health agency, said it has downgraded Britain, Portugal, Russia, India and Nepal from its highest risk category of “areas of variant concern” to “high-incidence areas.”  The change means travelers from those countries can avoid going into mandatory quarantine if they can prove they have received a COVID-19 vaccine, while those who have not been vaccinated must enter a 10-day isolation period. The quarantine period can be shortened to five days if a person tests negative for COVID-19.   British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Monday that the government is aiming to end its latest lockdown on July 19, despite a growing number of coronavirus cases caused by the highly transmissible delta variant. FILE – Commuters cross the London Bridge, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, July 6, 2021.Johnson said the mandatory mask wearing indoors and social distancing requirements will end, but said businesses could still mandate them along with facemasks.    He said a final decision on the reopening date would take place next week. Meanwhile, Britain’s royal palace said Monday that Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, is self-isolating after coming into contact last week with someone who later tested positive for the coronavirus. Vaccine donations On the vaccine front, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said his country will donate another 1.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca …

Tropical Storm Elsa made landfall in Cuba on Monday, charting a course toward Florida after causing at least three deaths elsewhere in the Caribbean. Elsa swept over Cuba’s south-central coast on Monday with sustained winds near 95 kph, according to Cuba’s Meteorology Institute. It brought a storm surge to the southern coast, along with heavy rains.  Cuban officials said they had evacuated 180,000 people from homes in flood-prone areas. Most of the evacuated went to relatives’ homes, while others took refuge in government shelters. Antony Exilien secures the roof of his house in response to Tropical Storm Elsa, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 3, 2021.The Associated Press, citing the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, reported that the storm had killed one person on St. Lucia and that two people were killed in separate building collapses in the Dominican Republic. The storm also hit Barbados, where more than 1,100 people reported damaged houses, as well as Haiti and Jamaica. Cuba’s Meteorology Institute predicted that the storm would weaken while passing over central Cuba but could strengthen again slightly when it emerges over the Florida Straits and the southeastern Gulf of Mexico.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency in 15 counties. Elsa is expected to pass near the Florida Keys early Tuesday and move over parts of Florida’s west coast Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. FILE – Hurricane Elsa approaches Argyle, St. Vincent, July 2, 2021.”All Floridians should prepare for the possibility of heavy rain, flooding and potential power outages,” …

After his administration fell short of its Independence Day vaccination goal, U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday will again appeal to uninoculated Americans to get the shots to protect themselves and others against the coronavirus, especially the latest worrying variant.   Biden is scheduled to make remarks at the White House on the COVID-19 response and the vaccination program as concern increases about the delta variant of the virus spreading across the country.     The Biden administration aimed to have 70% of American adults at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 4.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection said Friday that 67% have received one dose of a COVID vaccine; 47% have received two doses.   The president declared a partial victory during Independence Day festivities Sunday evening at the White House, where he and first lady Jill Biden personally greeted many of the 1,000 invited first responders, essential workers and military service members.     “We’re back traveling again. We’re back seeing one another again. Businesses are opening and hiring again,” Biden told the attendees during a 15-minute speech in which he declared near independence from the pandemic. “Today, all across this nation we can say with confidence: America is coming back together.”FILE – People wait to get a free COVID-19 vaccine at Penn Station, in New York City, June 8, 2021.The president cautioned, however, the battle against the virus – which has killed more than 600,000 Americans, is not yet over. “Don’t get me …

North Korea’s coronavirus lockdown has taken a major toll on its economy. Its leader, Kim Jong Un, has hinted at a humanitarian crisis. Some fear the situation could get much worse, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Seoul. …