i_need_contribute
Retrieved from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
People queue up outside a vaccination centre in a shopping mall, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in Berlin, Germany, November 20, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Mang
German politicians are debating making COVID-19 vaccinations compulsory for citizens in light of soaring infections and low inoculation rates.
Several members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc said on Sunday that federal and state governments should introduce compulsory vaccinations soon as other efforts to push up Germany's low inoculation rate of just 68% have failed.
"We've reached a point at which we must clearly say that we need de facto compulsory vaccination and a lockdown for the unvaccinated," Tilman Kuban, head of the youth wing of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), wrote in Die Welt newspaper.
Germany's seven-day coronavirus incidence rate rose to the highest level since the pandemic began for the 14th consecutive day on Sunday, reaching 372.7 nationwide.
In some regions, it has surpassed 1,000 with some hospitals already reporting full intensive care units. The record in the third wave of the pandemic last December was 197.6.
Overall, there have been 5.35 million coronavirus infections reported in Germany since the start of the pandemic in February 2020. The overall death toll stands at 99,062.
Bavarian State Premier Markus Soeder called for a quick decision to make COVID-19 vaccinations compulsory while Schleswig-Holstein State Premier Daniel Guenther said authorities should at least discuss such a step to increase the pressure on unvaccinated citizens.
Danyal Bayaz, an influential member of the Greens and Finance Minister in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg where infection rates are very high, said it would be a mistake at this point of the pandemic to rule out compulsory vaccination.
The Greens are currently in talks with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the libertarian Free Democrats (FDP) to form a three-way coalition government on the federal level.
The three parties are in the final stages of sealing a coalition agreement which would pave the way for outgoing Finance Minister Olaf Scholz from the SPD to succeed Merkel as chancellor in the first half of December.
Scholz has said he wants a debate about whether to make vaccination compulsory for health care workers and geriatric nurses. FDP members have voiced their objections to such a step as the party puts a bigger emphasis on individual freedom.
Neighbouring Austria this week announced a plan to make vaccines compulsory next year.
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/germany-debates-compulsory-vaccination-fourth-covid-wave-rages-2021-11-21/
By Josh Smith
Children attend a class at an elementary school in Daejeon, South Korea, November 22, 2021. Yonhap via REUTERS
For the first time since South Korea began battling its coronavirus outbreak in early 2020, all schools across the country resumed full-time in-person classes on Monday.
As the first country outside China to face a major outbreak of the virus, South Korea's schools have seen various stages of shutdowns, remote learning, and hybrid arrangements.
Widespread testing, intensive contact tracing and tracking apps have enabled South Korea to limit the spread of the virus without the extensive lockdowns seen in other countries, but previous efforts at fully opening schools have been hampered by new waves of infections.
The fully reopened schools come as part of South Korea's "living with COVID-19" plan, adopted after it reached its vaccination goals last month. Overall 78.8% of the population is fully vaccinated, though that number drops to 12.8% for those ages 12-17.
"It is true that many concerns remain," South Korean education minister Yoo Eun-hye said during a visit to an elementary school in Seoul on Monday.
Even as it eased social distancing amid high vaccination rates, the country has battled some of the highest daily case numbers yet, including a record number of severe cases.
South Korea reported 2,827 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Sunday, down slightly from nearly a week of daily totals over 3,000, including a record high 3,292 new cases on Thursday.
Most worrisome for health officials is an uptick in serious cases requiring hospitalization, which have lingered near record highs of more than 500.
Schools still can move back to remote learning or other hybrid arrangements if the coronavirus situation requires it. Precautions such as masks, dividers and other distancing measures remain in place.
“As the number of new confirmed cases increase, we ask parents and family members to pay extra attention to prevention measures," Yoo said. "The education ministry and education offices will thoroughly check the prevention measures and will support areas in need."
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/skorean-schools-resume-full-in-person-classes-2021-11-22/
By Aradhana Aravindan
A return to stricter COVID-19 curbs in Singapore will be a "last resort", Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Monday, as the city-state partially eased limits on social gatherings and dining out under its calibrated reopening approach.
Ong also said the international travel and tourism hub would continue to open "travel lanes" with more countries for vaccinated visitors.
Singapore is gradually granting small groups of vaccinated people increased liberties, resuming in-person business events and permitting quarantine-free travel from select countries as it ramps up its vaccine booster programme.
"I feel it's important to do it this way, because it minimizes the chance of us having to backpedal too frequently," Ong told Reuters in an interview on Monday for the upcoming Reuters Next conference.
"You can't rule out having to throttle back sometimes, but it should always be a last resort, because it's extremely frustrating for people."
Singapore has vacillated between tightening and easing restrictions for its population of 5.45 million in recent months as, like many countries, it was hit by a fresh wave of infections fuelled by the Delta variant.
Ong said it was too difficult to put a timeframe on when Singapore would reach a "new normal", but he hoped the country's high vaccination rates and the current roll-out of booster shots meant it would continue to ease restrictions.
"I hope that whatever liberty that we now gradually, progressively can return back to the people, we can keep them for next year, even as a new wave arrives," said Ong.
Singapore was one of several so-called COVID-zero countries that enforced some of the world's strictest measures to keep infections and deaths from the pandemic - at around 252,200 and 662, respectively - relatively low.
This year, it switched to a strategy of living with the virus as endemic. Around 94% of those eligible have been vaccinated, while 23% of the total population has received a booster shot.
Among its latest easing measures, limits on social gatherings and dining out were eased from two to five people, still restrictive compared to many other countries.
Authorities have also tightened measures against unvaccinated people, effectively barring them from dining out or entering malls and will begin to charge them for COVID-19 treatment if they refused a vaccine by choice.
TRAVEL HUB
Singapore has been expanding quarantine free travel from more than a dozen countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Canada and the United States via so-called vaccinated "travel lanes."
It will start these lanes with Malaysia and India at the end of the month. The lanes allow fully vaccinated people to enter the island without quarantining if they pass their COVID-19 tests.
"It is important for us to establish this, as such a small outwardly oriented country, we need to connect with the world," said Ong. "For the foreseeable future, I think vaccinated travel lanes will be the norm."
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/singapore-health-minister-says-return-strict-covid-19-curbs-last-resort-2021-11-22/
Workers checking syringes at Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices, one of the world’s largest syringe makers.Credit...Rebecca Conway for The New York Times
NEW DELHI — Rajiv Nath’s factories were cranking out more than 7,600 syringes a minute when India decided to limit their export last month to shore up its own vaccination campaign.
The products were meant for clients around the world as nations scramble to inoculate their people and bring the pandemic to an end, but instead Mr. Nath’s warehouses were left with stocks of more than 45 million syringes that he had largely promised to UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization.
And with India’s export restrictions on syringes in place through the end of this year, experts say the world could experience a shortfall of two billion to four billion needles through the end of next year. The shortages are expected to hit African countries the hardest.
“That will be truly disappointing,” said Prashant Yadav — a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a Washington research organization, and an expert on health care supply chains — “that after having waited for over a year to get a reasonable quantity of vaccines, when they do obtain the vaccines, they don’t have syringes to administer them.”
Although India is a small player in overall global exports, it is a major producer of the type of syringe that is being used globally for coronavirus vaccinations. The syringes break on second use to prevent the spreading of disease through reuse.
Covax, the vaccine-sharing initiative, is seeking the syringes from manufacturers around the world, and India was expected to meet at least 15 percent of the global demand for use with Covid vaccines and other inoculations.
The situation became so acute last month that the World Health Organization and PAHO asked India to allow Mr. Nath’s company, Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices, one of the world’s largest syringe makers, to ship the orders it had agreed to before the restrictions were announced. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government subsequently increased the export quota for the health organizations but did not allow a blanket exemption.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF have warned that the syringe shortage could have “dire consequences” for the global vaccination effort.
In India, more than half of the 1.4 billion-strong population has received at least one shot of a Covid vaccine, but only 28 percent of people are fully vaccinated, according to a New York Times database. And new inoculations have slowed recently.
Unlike vaccine doses, syringes are bulky and are typically transported by sea. The shortage comes amid large disruptions in the global supply chain of shipped goods, and experts say that a Covax-like initiative is needed, with nations coming together to better supply syringes to poorer countries.
UNICEF, a major buyer of syringes for Covax, said in a statement on Wednesday that “syringe nationalism” could be addressed if big producers and wealthy countries “influence global markets in a way that unlocks access for other countries in the global south.”
The agency also said it was considering expanding use of another type of syringe approved by the W.H.O. that also prevents reuse.
Dozens of Indian syringe makers spent millions of dollars to scale up manufacturing last year, but buyers are increasingly relying on manufacturers in China.
ProcureNet, a Hong Kong-based supplier of pharmaceutical products, said this week that it would invest $20 million in Anhui Tiankang Medical, a Chinese manufacturer, to produce 750 million syringes for PAHO and other buyers.
“We continue to spend billions on the vaccine,” said Gurbaksh Chahal, ProcureNet’s chief executive, “but what good is the vaccine if we don’t have the tools to deliver the vaccine to the people?”
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/18/world/asia/covid-syringes-india.html
By Niki Kitsantonis
Medical workers protesting mandatory vaccinations and the indefinite suspension of healthcare employees who have not been vaccinated, in Athens, in early November.Credit...Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece announced additional restrictions for the country’s unvaccinated population on Thursday, a bid to keep a recent spike of coronavirus infections from increasing further.
As of next Monday, access to more indoor spaces will be limited to the vaccinated, he said during a televised address. Proof of a negative test will no longer be sufficient for unvaccinated people to enter cinemas, theaters, museums and gymnasiums, he said. The new restrictions broaden those imposed in mid-September, which barred the unvaccinated from the indoor areas of cafes and restaurants.
To increase demand for booster shots, Mr. Mitsotakis also said that the vaccination certificates of those over 60 would expire after seven months. Greece opened eligibility for booster shots last week for all those over 18 who had their last shot at least five and a half months ago. Those who got the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccines initially were advised to get a Pfizer or Moderna booster. Those who received the Johnson & Johnson shot were advised to get Pfizer, Moderna or a second Johnson & Johnson shot as a booster.
Mr. Mitsotakis appealed to all, particularly the unvaccinated elderly, to get their shots without delay.
“Greece is mourning unnecessary losses as it very simply does not have the vaccination rates of other European countries,” he said.
About 61 percent of Greeks are fully vaccinated, below the average rate in the European Union of 65.4 percent, according to the vaccine tracker of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Since the end of September, new daily cases have shot up from an average of about 2,100 to more than 6,500, according to the Our World in Data project at Oxford University, and daily Covid deaths have spiked over the same period, going from an average of around 30 to more than 74.
With Europe as a whole experiencing a sustained wave of cases, the sharp restrictions in Greece have been matched or surpassed by other E.U. nations. Austria, for instance, will impose full lockdowns in two states — Salzburg and Upper Austria — next week, after having imposed broad restrictions on the activities of unvaccinated people.
On Thursday, lawmakers in Germany’s Parliament approved a bill whose measures include a rule that only people who are vaccinated against the virus, have recovered from an infection or test negative can ride public transit or attend work in person. The measure is expected to be passed by all 16 states on Friday.
France and Italy have allowed people to enter indoor areas such as cafes, museums and gyms with a health pass that shows the holder has been vaccinated, has recovered from Covid-19 or has tested negative for the virus. However, both countries are reportedly considering restricting access to such areas to the vaccinated.
The Czech Republic, which is experiencing some of its highest caseloads since the pandemic began, will bar people without a vaccination pass or proof of a previous Covid infection from restaurants, bars and hair salons as of Monday. They will also be barred from attending large events.
And lawmakers in the Netherlands, which is reporting record case numbers and sharply rising positive tests, recently restored mask mandates in some public indoor places and instituted a three-week partial lockdown that includes earlier closing hours for restaurants, bars and shops. However, the Dutch government has resisted urgings to close schools, despite significant outbreaks among those aged 4 through 12.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/18/world/greece-covid-cases-vaccines.html
As coronavirus cases in Germany continue to reach record levels, officials warned of a possible nationwide lockdown. “With vaccinations and boosters alone, we will not be able to break the wave quick enough,” said Germany’s health minister.CreditCredit...Christof Stache/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
As Austria prepares to go into a national lockdown next week, the health minister in neighboring Germany suggested on Friday that a similar measure remained an option for his far larger country as coronavirus cases there continue to reach record levels.
“We are in a position where nothing should be ruled out,” the minister, Jens Spahn, told a news conference in response to a reporter’s question about a lockdown for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
His remarks came one day after lawmakers in Parliament voted to force unvaccinated people going to work or using public transit to provide daily test results. The country’s vaccination rate among adults is about 79 percent.
But some German states are going it alone.
On Friday, the governor of Bavaria, which has some of the country’s worst hot spots, announced measures including the cancellation of all Christmas markets and the closing of bars, clubs and nightclubs until at least Dec. 15. The celebrated Christmas market in the state’s capital, Munich, was canceled earlier this week.
Theaters, cinemas, operas and spectator sports will be allowed to remain open at 25 percent capacity for people who are vaccinated or who have recovered from the virus and show a negative test result. Restaurants will close at 10 p.m.
Districts with high infection rates will close down completely, leaving only essential shops, day cares and schools open.
“We are facing a corona drama,” the state’s governor, Markus Söder, said. “The numbers are exploding in the shortest time span and the beds are full,” he added, referring to overwhelmed hospitals. Some patients there are being moved to less crowded hospitals in northern Germany.
The governor of Saxony also announced new restrictions on Friday. Starting on Monday, a ban will be introduced on some events and larger gatherings regardless of the inoculation status of those attending.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/world/europe/germany-covid-lockdown.html
By Melissa Eddy
Thousands of people marched through central Vienna on Saturday to protest Austria’s new measures to contain a new coronavirus outbreak.Credit...Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
VIENNA — Chanting “freedom” and “resistance,” thousands of Austrians marched through the heart of Vienna on Saturday, united in their anger at their government’s decision to impose a new lockdown and a sweeping nationwide vaccine mandate in an effort to squelch a fresh resurgence of the coronavirus.
The police in Vienna estimated that up to 40,000 people took part in the march, families and far-right groups alike. The protests were largely peaceful throughout the afternoon, but as dusk fell over the Austrian capital, skirmishes broke out between officers and groups of demonstrators.
The size of the turnout surprised officials and reflected the depth of opposition to the government’s efforts to crack down on those who continue to resist vaccination, nearly two years after the pandemic first reached Europe.
But with new infections multiplying among the unvaccinated in Europe, the president of Slovakia, Austria’s neighbor to the east, on Saturday became the latest to raise the prospect of mandating vaccines for all adults.
In Vienna, members of far-right groups and others threw beer cans at officers and set off pyrotechnics at points along the route, police officials said. At least five people were arrested, they said, and several others were written up for violations involving failure to wear masks, or for displaying stars like those the Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust.
At other points along the route, demonstrators banged on drums and rang cowbells to express their frustration at measures aimed at halting the rampant surge of the coronavirus, including a nationwide lockdown starting on Monday. Many of the protesters complained that their leaders had failed to do enough before imposing the drastic measures.
Among the protesters was Katja Schoissenger, a mother of two young children from Vienna, who carried a sign reading, “Freedom, Peace and Humanity.” She said she was angry about the limitations being imposed on the unvaccinated.
Since Monday, those who could not provide proof of vaccination or recent recovery from the coronavirus have been barred from public life, both indoor and out, with the police carrying out spot checks in restaurants and parks alike.
“Society is being massively divided and set against a group of people who are being shut out of public life and forced to do things we don’t want to do,” Ms. Schoissenger said. “I have nothing against people who want to be vaccinated. It is a free decision, and I think that’s OK and legitimate, but I am a young, healthy person and it’s not an issue for me.”
More than one-third of the population in Austria is not vaccinated, one of the highest proportions in Europe. At the same time, the number of new infections has soared in recent weeks, and the 15,809 cases reported on Saturday set a record.
The number of unvaccinated people is straining Austria’s health system. Daily deaths have risen from an average in the single digits in late September to more than 40, according to the Our World in Data project at Oxford University.
The populist Freedom Party, which has vociferously opposed the government’s coronavirus restrictions over the past 18 months, helped organize Saturday’s protests, attracting far-right groups and conspiracy theorists from across the country and neighboring Germany.
“We are all Austrians, regardless of whether we are vaccinated or not vaccinated,” Udo Landbauer, a regional party leader, told the crowd at a rally on the Heldenplatz, a public space in Vienna. “We have rights, and we will continue to be loud until we get our basic rights back.”
Recent surveys show that vaccination is the most divisive issue right now in Austrian society and some observers fear the imposition of further restrictions may widen the gap.
“With the increasingly tense situation, I would expect that the conflict we already have will only get worse,” Julia Partheymüller, a political scientist at the University of Vienna, told the public broadcaster ORF.
As darkness fell on Saturday, conflicting scenes in the city reflected those divisions: Several dozen protesters gathered in front of the Chancellery for a torch-lit rally with speeches deploring the new measures. Across the way, residents sipped hot, mulled wine and ate candied nuts in anticipation of the Christmas season — one that will be limited now as the lockdown comes into effect on Monday.
Besmira Aleksi, a student of sociology at the University of Vienna, turned out to hold her own small protest — against the demonstrators who she said failed to understand how dangerous the virus is.
“Shame on you,” she yelled over the din of drums and a megaphone, as the police escorted a protester from the scene. She said that she had hoped to find a counterdemonstration, but when there was not one, she came out on her own.
“Nobody is trampling your rights,” Ms. Aleksi shouted to the crowd. “You are out here exercising them.”
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/world/europe/austria-lockdown-vaccine-mandate-covid.html
Here’s a round-up of the day’s leading Covid stories:
· South Korea’s schools will resume full in-person classes for the first time since the pandemic began on Monday.
· German politicians are debating making Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory for citizens in light of soaring infections and low inoculation rates.
· Germany reports another 30,643 confirmed coronavirus cases and 62 deaths, the Robert Koch Institute reports.
· The US government’s chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauciwarns that time is running short to prevent a “dangerous” new surge of Covid-19 infections from overwhelming the upcoming holiday season.
· England’s flagship test-and-trace service is still spending more than £1m a day on private consultants, official figures reveal weeks after MPs lambasted it as an “eye-watering” waste of taxpayers’ money that is failing to cut Covid infection levels.
· In the UK, Covid booster jabs are likely to be offered to all adults eventually, with the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation already considering the issue, the health secretary has suggested.
· Some Pacific countries will have less than a quarter of adults vaccinated by the end of the year, with predictions that Papua New Guinea will take five years to vaccinate just one-third of its population, undermining economic recovery and threatening huge loss of life across the region.
· New Zealand will soon be opening up far more freedoms as the country approaches 90% of adults vaccinated, with prime minister Jacinda Ardern announcing it will move into a new “traffic light” framework of covid protections on 3 December.
· The Delta variant was first detected a year ago and is now dominant across the globe. Scientists are concerned that a new strain could supersede it.
· Violence erupted at demonstrations in Belgium and theNetherlands over the weekend as tougher Covid-19 restrictions to curb the resurgent pandemic led to angry protests in several European countries.
· The US Marine Corps has the worst vaccination record among US military branches, Reuters reports, with thousands of active-duty staff set to miss a 28 November deadline for personnel to be fully vaccinated.
· The World Health Organisation said it is “very worried” about a fresh wave of European infection.
· The French government has warned that Covid is spreading at “lighting speed”. The seven-day average of new cases in France reached 17,153 on Saturday, an increase of 81%.
Medicine
