Kazakhstan to vaccinate 6 million people this year
Kazakhstan plans to vaccinate about 6 million people, or almost a third of its population, against the coronavirus this year, healthcare minister Alexei Tsoy said on Tuesday.
Vaccinations will begin on 1 February, with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine being offered to medical workers, he told a government meeting. Kazakhstan also aims to produce Sputnik V at home.
The central Asian nation bordering China and Russia has confirmed about 217,000 cases of Covid-19 and pneumonia probably caused by the virus, with 2,965 deaths.
Australian Open tennis players under the strictest quarantine conditions may have their restrictions eased after the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said the positive Covid-19 test results that sparked the hard lockdown may be reclassified as cases of viral shedding.
All passengers, including 47 players on two planes which arrived in Melbourne from Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi on the weekend, were deemed close contacts of four positive cases on the flights. It meant unlike other players who are quarantining, the players on those two flights are not allowed to leave their hotels for five hours a day to train, sparking complaints of unfair treatment.
But they may be allowed out to train sooner than expected, after Andrews said on Tuesday: “I can foreshadow that a number of cases that are linked to the Australian Open … have been reclassified as shedding rather than being actively infected.
“If you’ve got say 30 people who are deemed a close contact because they’ve been on a plane with a case, and the case is no longer an active case, but a case of historic shedding, that would release those people from that hard lockdown,” he said.
Andrews said more detail on those cases and any reclassification would be announced in the chief health officer’s update on Tuesday afternoon:
China reported more than 100 new Covid-19 cases for a seventh day on Tuesday in the worst domestic outbreak since March last year, with one northeastern province seeing a record daily increase.
Reuters: Mainland China posted 118 new cases on Jan. 18, up from 109 a day earlier, the national health authority said in a statement.
Of those, 106 were local infections, with 43 reported in Jilin, a new daily record for the northeastern province, and 35 in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, the National Health Commission said.
The Chinese capital itself reported one new case, while Heilongjiang in the north reported 27 new infections.
Millions of people have been under lockdown in recent days as some northern cities undergo mass testing for the novel coronavirus amid worries that undetected infections could spread quickly during the Lunar New Year holiday, which is just weeks away.
Hundreds of millions of people travel during the holiday, due to kick off in mid-February this year, as migrant workers return home to see family.
Authorities have appealed to people to avoid travel in the run-up to the holiday and stay away from mass gatherings such as weddings.
The current outbreak in Jilin was caused by an infected salesman travelling to and from the neighbouring province of Heilongjiang, the site of a previous cluster of infections. The overall number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed infections, fell to 91 from 115 a day earlier.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in mainland China is 89,454, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,635.
Colombia's capital Bogota extends nightly curfew to curb coronavirus
Colombia’s capital Bogota will impose nightly curfews for almost two weeks, Mayor Claudia Lopez said on Monday, while the whole city will enter yet another full quarantine this weekend.
Reuters: Nightly curfews first started last week and continued until Sunday. However, they will begin again from Tuesday and will run until 28 January. During this time citizens must remain in their homes from 8pm until 4am, Lopez said.
Additionally, from 8 p.m. this Friday Bogota will enter a general quarantine with total restriction on movement in the city until Monday, 25 January at 4am, she added.
“I understand that young people are tired, that they are tired of using face masks, that it seems fun to meet up with their friends and then see their families,” Lopez said in a press conference.
“The risk is that they end up infecting their parents, or grandparents, or the parents and grandparents of others,” she said.
Colombia’s capital Bogota will impose nightly curfews for almost two weeks. Photograph: Daniel Garzon Herazo/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Colombia’s capital has imposed city-wide quarantines the past two weekends, during which people are largely confined to their homes, non-essential shops and businesses are closed, and with one person per household allowed to buy food or medicine.
Many of the city’s neighbourhoods have endured or are following strict two-week quarantines, which adhere to the same restrictions. During the city-wide and two-week neighbourhood quarantines, sales of alcohol are also prohibited.
Outside of general quarantines, restrictions on who can shop based on the number of people’s national identity cards will remain in place, Lopez said.
Colombia has reported more than 1.9 million coronavirus cases, as well as over 49,000 deaths.
In Bogota, which counts for more than 560,000 of the country’s cases, occupancy of intensive care units for coronavirus patients stands at 93.2%, according to local government figures.
Hong Kong chief executive signals extension of social distancing measures
Helen Davidson
In Hong Kong, chief executive Carrie Lam has telegraphed an extension of Covid-19 social distancing measures which were due to expire on Thursday.
The city is fighting the pandemic with a “suppress and lift” strategy, which has resulting in fluctuating rules over the past year, including no more than two people gathering in a public place, a ban on dine-in services at eateries after 6pm, the closure of all pubs and clubs, and mandatory mask wearing on public transport and in public areas (except outdoor parks).
At a regular press briefing on Tuesday, Lam said she would leave the announcement of details to the secretary of health but “in light of the latest Covid-19 pandemic situation it is quite obvious there is no room yet for us to relax to social distancing measures put in place.”
Health authorities reported 107 new cases on Monday, the highest daily total in a month, as they battled a persistent outbreak in the city. There is a concentration of cases in some of the city’s most densely populated areas , where people in select buildings have been ordered to get tested.Health authorities have come under fire after selectively commenting on the South Asian community in Hong Kong, and suggesting their social and living arrangements increase the spread of the disease.
Coronavirus deaths are rising in nearly two-thirds of American states as a winter surge pushes the overall toll toward 400,000 amid warnings that a new, highly contagious variant is taking hold.
AP: As Americans observed a national holiday Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pleaded with federal authorities to curtail travel from countries where new variants are spreading.
Referring to new versions detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil, Cuomo said: “Stop those people from coming here.... Why are you allowing people to fly into this country and then it’s too late?”
The US government has already curbed travel from some of the places where the new variants are spreading — such as Britain and Brazil — and recently it announced that it would require proof of a negative Covid-19 test for anyone flying into the country.
But the new variant seen in Britain is already spreading in the US., and the Centers for Disease Control and Protection has warned that it will probably become the dominant version in the country by March. The CDC said the variant is about 50% more contagious than the virus that is causing the bulk of cases in the US.
While the variant does not cause more severe illness, it can cause more hospitalisations and deaths simply because it spreads more easily. In Britain, it has aggravated a severe outbreak that has swamped hospitals, and it has been blamed for sharp leaps in cases in some other European countries.
As things stand, many US. states are already under tremendous strain. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths is rising in 30 states and the District of Columbia, and on Monday the U.S. death toll surpassed 398,000, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University — by far the highest recorded death toll of any country in the world.
US urges greater access for WHO investigators in Wuhan
The United States called on China on Monday to allow the WHO’s expert team of investigators, who are in China to study the origins of the pandemic, to interview “care givers, former patients and lab workers” in the central city of Wuhan.
The team of WHO-led independent experts is holding teleconferences with Chinese counterparts during a two-week quarantine before starting work on the ground.
Garrett Grigsby of the Department of Health and Human Services, who heads the US delegation, said China should share all scientific studies of animal, human and environmental samples taken from a market in Wuhan, where the SARS-CoV-2 virus is believed to have emerged in late 2019.
Comparative analysis of such genetic data would help to “look for overlap and potential sources” of the outbreak that sparked the pandemic, he told the WHO’s executive board. “We have a solemn duty to ensure that this critical investigation is credible and is conducted objectively and transparently,” said Grigsby, who also referred to virus variants found in Britain, South Africa and Brazil:
University entrance exam invigilators in Japan have demonstrated a zero-tolerance policy on incorrect mask wearing, as the country battles a surgein coronavirus infections.
A student was disqualified for repeatedly ignoring requests to cover his or her nose with a mask while sitting the annual exams over the weekend, according to local media.
The reports, which did not give the student’s gender or age, said the examinee ignored six requests to pull their mask over their nose in line with anti-coronavirus rules set by the National Centre for University Entrance Examinations.
Some reports said the offender holed up inside the bathroom after being approached a seventh time to be told they had been disqualified and had to be escorted from the building by police.
“We made our decision because the test-taker, who was not even coughing, continued not to leave their nose uncovered,” a centre official told the Asahi Shimbun.
“It is not misconduct for participants to occasionally uncover their noses when they have difficulty breathing. [But] the test-taker was disqualified for repeatedly refusing to follow the instructions.”
Candidates practice social distancing as they attend the annual unified college entrance examinations at the University of Tokyo. Photograph: KYODO/Reuters
Students with certain medical conditions are not required to wear masks, but must inform examiners a day in advance so that arrangements can be made for them to sit the test in a separate room.
The examinee had not alerted officials to a health issue and the reason for their refusal to position their mask properly remains a mystery.
The episode was one of four disqualifications for misconduct during the two days of exams, which can go a long way towards determining students’ academic and professional futures. More than 530,000 candidates sat the tests at 681 venues, according to the centre.
Mask wearing was one of several anti-virus measures in place at exam halls, along with social distancing, hand washing and ventilation. Examinees were required to eat lunch alone.
Australian Open director, Craig Tiley, has rejected a proposal to shorten the men’s tournament matches to best of three sets to offset the disadvantage to players in hard quarantine.
Frustration and confusion continues unabated in the build-up to the season’s first major, starting on 8 February, with some 72 players and staffers in lockdown in Melbourne following six positive Covid-19 cases among the entourages arriving to Australia on 17 charter flights in recent days.
One in four UK young people have felt 'unable to cope' in pandemic
Amelia Hill
Young people are in danger of giving up on their futures and on themselves, with a quarter saying they feel unable to cope with life, one of the UK’s leading charities has said.
The Prince’s Trust long-running annual survey of young people’s happiness and confidence returned the worst findings in its 12-year history.
“The pandemic has taken a devastating toll on young people’s mental health and wellbeing,” said Jonathan Townsend, the trust’s UK chief executive. “Many believe they are missing out on being young, and sadly we know that the impact of the pandemic on their employment prospects and overall wellbeing could continue far into their futures.”
Half of the young people interviewed by YouGov for the trust’s 2020 Youth Index, carried out in partnership with Tesco, said current political and economic events had affected their mental health. More than half said they always or often felt anxious, rising to 64% among those not in work, education or training:
