Asean countries reported a slight decline in new Covid-19 cases, but deaths hit a new high on Saturday, collated data showed.
Southeast Asia added 96,639 new cases on Saturday, lower than 98,742 on Friday, but deaths rose to 2,877, up from 2,869 the previous day.
Malaysia extended its state of emergency in Sarawak until February next year in order to contain the spread of Covid-19, according to a Bernama news agency report.
Meanwhile the government has extended the Sarawak legislative assembly’s term, as regional elections cannot be held under the state of emergency.
Vietnam’s Health Ministry has called for cooperation from all sectors as the Covid-19 Delta variant is defying efforts to contain its spread.
Private hospitals appointed by the government were asked to prepare beds, medicines and personnel to treat Covid-19 patients as government and army hospitals were unable to support more patients due to the fast-spreading Delta variant.
In Beiruts economic free fall, finding hope in new Lebanese food
Last summer, when a deadly explosion ripped through Beiruts port, chef and restaurateur Riad Aboulteifs barbecue joint was destroyed. No one was injured.
His restaurant Meats and Bread, in the trendy Gemmayzeh neighborhood less a kilometer from the blast site, suffered around $90,000 worth of damage. It was one of many businesses devastated by the Aug. 4 explosion, which killed over 200 people and wrought more than $4.6 billion worth of economic destruction in a country already reeling from the worst financial crisis in its history.
No one was injured at Meats and Bread because no one was there. Aboulteif had closed the restaurant’s doors three months earlier as the soaring cost of imports triggered by an unprecedented currency crisis rendered his American-inspired menu of burgers, steaks, and smoked meats unsustainable.
Quality rib-eye costs Aboulteif $32 per kilogram to import. Two years ago, before the financial crisis, that meant he paid around 48,000 Lebanese pounds. Today, with the currency collapsed, that same $32 kilo would cost him upward of 600,000 pounds. Dwindling foreign currency reserves have unofficially rendered the official pegged rate of 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar defunct, with traders buying dollars at black market rates to finance imports amid plummeting purchasing power.
The blast, which shattered the restaurant’s windows, collapsed the ceiling, and destroyed its equipment, was just “salt on the wound,” Aboulteif says. The majority of the repairs were covered by local initiative Khaddit Beirut, which targets affected small and medium businesses, particularly those in the dining and hospitality sector. (Aboulteif paid the rest himself, with “zero funds from the government.”)
With the venue rebuilt but its old menu financially untenable, Aboulteif decided on a 180-degree turn. In June, he reopened as Ammoula, offering a menu of experimental Lebanese cuisine prepared with local ingredients.
There’s the classic lentils-and-rice dish of mujaddara, but it’s served with slow-cooked and then grilled octopus. Armenian manti dumplings are deconstructed, while traditional mahalabia milk pudding becomes a panna cotta-like dessert, sprayed with arak, the Levantine anise liquor. The drinks menu features local wine and gin.
Aboulteif describes Ammoula’s fare as his own interpretation of Lebanese food: “We don’t want to be in competition with anyone’s grandmother.”
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Soaring food prices have become an issue in many parts of the world. Lebanon, which relies heavily on imports, is one of the region’s most vulnerable countries. Food prices shot up 400% in December, according to government data, and more than half of the nation’s population has plunged into poverty since the economic crisis commenced in August 2019 and was compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic and the port explosion.
When it opened, Ammoula offered a dish featuring imported guanciale (cured pork jowl). Within a week, Aboulteif decided to replace it with local pork that’s matured in a dry ager. Since then, he’s been sourcing everything from local producers and has rented his own “very small farm” in the Mount Lebanon region southeast of Beirut to produce chicken, goats, quail, and some herbs and cucumbers. Such key materials as fertilizer for the plants and medicine for the animals are still imported, subject to ever-increasing price hikes and shortages. He’s had to adjust prices at least twice since opening because the Lebanese pound has depreciated.
Even as all-local ingredients and wines have helped cushion Ammoula’s prices in the face of skyrocketing inflation, there’s no way around the ever-worsening electricity crisis triggered by a shortage of imported fuel. Lebanon is suffering its most severe power shortfall in decades, and most places receive only two hours of state electricity a day.
Though the Lebanese have weathered patchy electricity for years-supplemented by subscriptions to private generators-the fuel scarcity has led many of the generators to shut down for hours each day. Restaurateurs that aim to keep their lights on and fridges running around the clock must pay for a backup generator. Aboulteif is now saddled with three electricity bills: one from the government and two from private generator companies. The June bill from the two generator providers totaled 14 million Lebanese pounds.
So far, Ammoula, which Aboulteif describes as a “work in progress,” isn’t consistently busy or profitable. He just aims to break even, relying on his more profitable Ferdinand gastropub on the other side of town to make ends meet. He says he felt he had “no option” but to change course after the blast.
“When your back is up against the wall, you will fight,” he says, although he worries that business will slow after the summer’s high season in August. “That’s the only way we know how to fight, through our food. We’re fighting the circumstances we’re living in, through our food.”
The old sign for Meats and Bread still hangs outside, by the newer one for Ammoula, and Aboulteif says he doesn’t intend to take it down. Although the switch to the Lebanese concept was driven more by necessity than national pride, he’s glad to showcase the country’s bounty, with its Mediterranean climate, mountains, and varying terroir: “You can probably find the best goat cheese in the entire galaxy in Lebanon.”
Published : August 01, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Yasna Haghdoost
Russia global vaccine ambitions stumble during supply shortage
The Kremlin ambitions to win soft-power dividends around the world from Russia Covid-19 vaccine are being hampered by delays in delivering Sputnik V to foreign buyers clamoring for supplies.
This week, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said his country will seek to replace 8 million planned doses with supplies from other producers by the end of year after delays receiving its initial order.
Countries that embraced Sputnik amid a global rush to secure vaccines are increasingly reporting supply problems with the second component in the two-shot inoculation. In Argentina, a presidential adviser said the shortages put the government at risk as people were unable to receive the second dose within the recommended period of three months after the first.
President Vladimir Putin has touted Sputnik to leaders around the world as part of an ambitious Kremlin drive to put Russia on the map as a major player in the international vaccine business. But difficulties producing the promised shots could relegate it to a secondary-role as rivals from the U.S., Europe and China fill the gap.
“The developers designed their export plans around local production that vastly overestimated local capacity,” said Samuel Ramani, a tutor of politics and international relations at Oxford University. “Russia has lost its head start as supplies from other countries became more available and now it’s looking like an also-ran.”
A spokesperson for the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund that is responsible for Sputnik V’s international marketing, said the existing contract with Guatemala was adjusted to a new delivery schedule and not canceled.
“Given the unprecedented worldwide demand all vaccine producers are experiencing some short-term supply issues,” the RDIF representative said.
The fund said it still aims to produce enough to inoculate 700 million people outside Russia this year, a pledge its chief made in March. Airfinity, a London-based science analytics company, estimates 99 million doses have been delivered to date, with more than half of them for domestic use.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov last week said delays in international Sputnik supplies were a result of the need to ramp up domestic vaccination as cases surged.
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Putin hailed Sputnik as the first Covid-19 vaccine approved for use, a move criticized at the time as premature. However, it overcame initial questions about its effectiveness that emerged due to a lack of data, proving itself to be broadly on par with vaccines developed by western giants.
Unlike other Covid-19 vaccines, Sputnik’s two shots are different. Production of the second has proved hard to scale up, according to buyers.
Supply delays for the second dose have slowed Sputnik V’s roll-out in India, according to Erez Israeli, the chief executive of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., which is licensed to distribute the inoculation in that country. Indian producers have agreements to make as many as 850 million doses a year, although it’s not clear when production will reach that level.
RDIF said its partners, including in India, are expected to scale up production in September to help reach the goal for this year.
In Argentina, a letter leaked last week exposed the government’s frustration with slow Sputnik V supplies. On Wednesday, it announced an agreement with Pfizer for 20 million doses by year-end. Mexico has also reported delays.
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In Brazil, governors from northeastern states who are trying to bring the vaccine said that 1.1 million doses that were expected for Wednesday were delayed by Russia, according to O Globo newspaper. Both parties are discussing a new schedule for the delivery, the paper said.
A shipment of 50,000 doses of the second component arrived in the Philippines this month several weeks after reports that people scheduled to receive the follow-up shot were facing delays.
Amid the hold-ups, RDIF said earlier this month the gap between shots can be safely extended to 180 days.
As Russia struggles to fulfill its commitments, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the U.S. delivered 1.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic that Russia considers its strategic backyard. The announcement came as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in the capital of Dushanbe for talks.
Still, in Russia Sputnik V is presented as a success, helping extend its soft power and provide a quality, cost-effective alternative to vaccines produced in the West. Sputnik V has been approved for use in 69 countries and RDIF said last month it has deals to produce 1.6 billion doses this year.
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“Sputnik V is a domestic propaganda victory,” said Vasily Vlassov, an epidemiologist at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. “In the government and media, they dwell on its success getting approved in so many countries rather than the inconvenient details.”
Published : August 01, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Jake Rudnitsky
As wildfires burn in Canada, an unprecedented blanket of smoke hangs over Minnesota
EDINA, Minn. – Perched atop the living room sofa, 4-year-old Ryan Reuvers peered out the window to his neighborhood in Edina, Minn.
The street – usually filled with people jogging or walking their dogs – was quiet. The typically blue skies were hazy, with a yellow-tinted gray hue. A campfire smell lingered.
As the state’s frigid winter melted into warm summer days, Ryan’s mother Colleen had filled her children’s schedules with activities. There was nature camp, book buddies, tennis lessons and soccer practice – anything to occupy the time of two energetic toddlers who had just spent a year mostly cooped up indoors because of the pandemic.
Then came the smoke.
The Reuvers’s neighborhood, about 10 miles from the Twin Cities, has been blanketed by a thick layer of it. Outside, the parks where children flocked stood quiet, the sun burned orange and a milky haze limited visibility.
Officials say the smoke, making its way from wildfires burning across the Canadian border, is unprecedented. They’ve warned that the “hazardous” levels of pollution across Minnesota will last until at least through Tuesday afternoon.
Ryan Stauffer, a researcher specializing in air pollution at NASA, said the impacts of the smoke have been exacerbated by the fact that the fumes are so low to the ground.
“The unique aspect of this event is that so much of the smoke is at the surface, creating highly polluted conditions and poor air quality,” he said. “It is much more typical for smoke to remain well above the surface in the Midwest to Eastern United States.”
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The smoke engulfing Minnesota is remarkable in other aspects, Stauffer said. The dangerous air pollution – known as PM2.5 because the particles have a diameter smaller than 2.5 microns – was recorded in the Twin Cities area as 182 in the air quality index on Thursday. According to the NASA researcher, that is the highest value recorded there since data collection began in 1999.
“It is extremely unusual and the amount of smoke at the surface may be unprecedented in recent decades,” Stauffer said.
The haze contains hundreds of pollutants, said Daniel Dix, a supervisor of the Minnesota Pollution and Control Agency’s air quality team. These can have severe health impacts, particularly among older adults, teenagers and children, and especially to those with conditions such as asthma.
“These levels of particulates can be very irritating to the respiratory system, and they can also have impacts for people with heart disease as well,” said Jessie Schmool, an epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health.
And as the majority of the state enters into the air quality index’s red and purple categories, which denote unhealthy and very unhealthy levels respectively, between Saturday and Monday, state officials urge everyone – regardless of their age and health – to limit their air exposure.
“You wouldn’t want to spend hours outdoors if you can help it,” said Nicholas Witcraft, research scientist and meteorologist at the Minnesota Pollution and Control Agency. “When the concentrations of particles reach these levels, even healthy individuals start feeling effects.”
In the Reuvers household, this means more days of peering through the window and getting crafty with art supplies indoors – “almost a throwback to quarantine.” The toddlers’ daily visit to the park has been suspended for now.
The family has had some experience staying in close quarters. In their short lives, Ryan and his 2-year-old sister Reagan have been through the coronavirus, harsh winters and now unprecedented pollution. Though this has inspired creativity and generated cherished moments of sharing, Reuvers said it had also invoked instances of restlessness.
“It can be hard to have days in a row where you’re just kind of hunkered down in the house with little kids who don’t understand why in the summer there’s an issue with going outside,” she said.
For now, a quick trip to McDonald’s for milkshakes has replaced tumbling down the slide. A Lego set of the Daily Bugle, the fictional newspaper where Peter Parker worked before morphing into Spider-Man, brings son and father together, supplanting refreshing dips in the pool with “Gigi,” the children’s beloved grandmother.
Reuvers said she hopes the smoke will fade soon. But experts worry it might be a recurring trend with the planet’s changing climate – of which the effects have taken different forms: from the ocean’s oxygen levels plummeting in the Pacific Northwest to drought conditions quenching over 60% of the western United States.
As droughts and heat waves fuel a dire wildfire season throughout North America, dangerous smoke has become more common. With 87 infernos currently torching across 13 states, the effects of a changing climate can be felt thousands of miles away from the flames, from Minnesota to New York.
And wildfire season will last for several more months.
“It is hard to predict exactly what to expect in the next few weeks, but unfortunately, it is still very early in the Western U.S. and Canadian fire season,” Stauffer, the NASA researcher, said.
Once the worlds busiest port, London aims to revive its river trade roots
Cathryn Spain spends most of her workdays motoring up and down the River Thames, a senior harbor master making sure goods flow through the Port of London without incident.
“Atypical day for me is responding to things that go wrong, so hopefully that doesn’t happen too often,” she said one morning on patrol in early July. “We’re here responding to any situations that arrive, difficulties that people have. Yeah, it’s basically getting things sorted.”
That’s Spain’s modest way of saying she ensures traffic – bringing goods from the other side of the world, or from just across the Channel – moves efficiently and safely. So ships find their way in the fog. Or paddle boarders don’t wind up on the wrong end of the tide. Or jet skiers respect the massive container vessels that helped make London’s port the biggest in the U.K. last year for the first time in two decades.
Tourists and locals alike would have a hard time spotting London’s port from Tower Bridge or Big Ben. Try looking from atop the rotating Eye and you’ll need binoculars. The biggest hub of global commerce a century ago resides some 25 miles downstream from the heart of the city, near deeper water so ever-bigger ships can come and go more easily.
“There is a sort of perception that the port is something of the past. We’ve done some studies on this and people think the biggest ports in the U.K. are Portsmouth or Southampton or Felixstowe,” said Robin Mortimer, chief executive of the Port of London Authority. “It’s a little bit out-of-sight-out-of-mind for people.”
The authority, set up in 1909 to nationalize the city’s hodgepodge of private docks and be the caretaker for the waterway, hopes the pandemic marks a turning point to change both perceptions and reality. As three national lockdowns boosted online shopping over the past 18 months in the U.K. like most other places, the demand for port services like warehousing and distribution closer to population centers took off, too.
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London’s major trade terminals, DP World’s Gateway and the Tilbury docks operated by Forth Ports, are trying to capitalize on this shift. Gateway, opened in 2013, is a modern container facility with three berths and three more planned. Tilbury, which opened in 1886 and has welcomed generations of immigrants to England’s shores, handles containerized, bulk and general cargo, hosts cruise ships and opened a new freight ferry terminal last year as part of a 250 million-pound ($345 million) investment.
Meanwhile, Amazon facilities are springing up along the riverbank east of the city. The port authority is buying up land and old wharves, and planning to help develop London’s first shipyard in a century. Cruise ship bookings from Tilbury this year and next are rolling in again. The delivery giant DHL is running packages daily from a point upriver near Heathrow airport to Bankside wharf in the center of town. CEVA Logistics started in June delivering medical supplies up and down the river.
The freight moving on the river is small-scale for now, but Mortimer says more companies are looking to have their logistics services closer to cities, reversing the decades-long march toward cheaper real estate and transport costs connected to cities by trains and trucks. Warehousing, distribution centers and light manufacturing are moving closer to the city as a way to reduce truck traffic and air pollution – so the river may see more local cargo traffic because of it.
But it’s not merely commerce that’s seeing a revival on the Thames. Londoners suffering through stay-home orders became kayak owners or paddleboarders at the click of a mouse. So the port authority is trying to reduce pollution and enforce safety rules so outdoor enthusiasts can coexist with the commercial traffic.
On her daily harbor patrol, Spain sees traffic picking up, including “a lot more individuals using the river for recreation” and record volumes through the ports, she said.
“The river will be a very different place hopefully environmentally and socially,” said port authority spokesman Nick Tennant. “As in other great cities around the world, rivers are and should be central to the way of life.”
Published : August 01, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Brendan Murray
Britain urges vaccinations during pregnancy amid delta variant worries
Britains chief midwife association is renewing calls for pregnant people to get the coronavirus vaccine amid worries over rising risks from the delta variant.
The appeal followed recent data by Britain’s Obstetric Surveillance System that the proportion of pregnant patients hospitalized with moderate to severe illnesses has increased with the highly contagious delta variant.
The World Health Organization has previously warned that pregnant people are at a higher risk of severe cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, compared to others in their age group. But the U.K.’s latest data provides some of the first figures into the affect of the delta variant on pregnancies.
Numbers from the U.K. Obstetric Surveillance System released last week showed that 171 women had been hospitalized with covid-19 symptoms, none of whom were fully vaccinated. Three of the patients had just one dose of a two-shot coronavirus vaccine, while the rest were not inoculated.
Other studies have shown the virus can be contracted by the fully vaccinated, but hospitalizations in those cases are rare.
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Pregnancy increases the risk of developing severe symptoms of covid-19, which can lead to complications with pregnancy. There is no evidence that the vaccine affects a woman’s fertility.
“It’s so important for pregnant women to get their jab, particularly with the virus being so prevalent and the delta variant proving itself to be so much more transmissible,” said Gil Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, in a statement Friday shared by the NHS. “Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women worldwide have been vaccinated, safely and effectively protecting themselves against covid and dramatically reducing their risk of serious illness or harm to their baby.”
Britain began administering the vaccine to pregnant people in April. On Friday, Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, the chief midwifery officer for England, issued a letter to midwives and general practice doctors and asked them to encourage vaccinations due to the delta variant.
When vaccines first rolled out, doctors in Britain, the United States and other countries recommended that pregnant people not receive the vaccine as this demographic had been excluded from the initial studies. However, after further review, health-care providers began to add pregnant people to the list of those approved to be vaccinated, particularly after more-contagious variants began to circulate.
Some women, transmen and post-menstrual women have anecdotally reported short-term changes in their menstruation cycles following vaccination, such as heavier bleeding or a period restarting after having stopped. Scientists have said there is no known evidence directly linking the two.
Anyone above the age of 18 is eligible for a vaccine in the United Kingdom, where about 65 percent of the population has been vaccinated.
According to the U.K. Obstetric Surveillance System data, since May, 1 in 3 hospitalized pregnant women with covid-19 in England needed respiratory support, more than a third developed pneumonia, and 1 in 7 required intensive care.
“Every day our members are seeing very sick pregnant women with covid-19 in hospital and the majority are unvaccinated,” said Edward Morris, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, in a statement. “We want to reassure pregnant women that covid-19 vaccines are the safest and best way to protect you and your baby from severe illness and premature birth.”
French police clash with anti-vaccine protesters amid tensions over health pass plans
Police in Paris used tear gas Saturday as thousands of protesters joined marches to denounce plans for vaccine “health passes,” the latest tensions around the world over government mandates to reward those who get vaccinated and maintain restrictions on those who refuse.
About 3,000 members of police and security forces were deployed in the French capital ahead of the demonstrations, which have flared weekly since the government announced the vaccine pass plans. Police fired tear gas and clashed with protesters in some areas. Protests also were held in other cities across France.
France is among a growing number of nations imposing rules aimed at encouraging vaccinations as the delta variant increases infection levels in parts of the world. France’s government-mandated health pass, set to begin Aug. 9, will require a vaccination, a negative coronavirus test or proof of having recently recovered from covid-19 to enter restaurants and other public spaces. France is also requiring health-care workers to be vaccinated by mid-September.
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French protesters on Saturday made “liberty” the slogan of the day’s demonstrations.
But polls have shown that most people in France support the health pass. While some vaccinated people may still become infected with the coronavirus, vaccines greatly reduce the likelihood of someone developing severe symptoms, requiring hospitalization or dying of covid-19, the disease cased by the coronavirus, according to public health experts.
Scientists have warned that the longer the virus spreads, the more chances it has to develop potentially more contagious or vaccine-resistant strains.
More than 52% of France’s population have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, but pockets of resistance remain strong. On Friday, the country confirmed some 24,000 new coronavirus infections, a major increase from the few thousand being reported daily at the beginning of July.
Meanwhile, plans for demonstrations in Germany were curtailed after Berlin authorities refused to authorize 13 marches that were expected to bring tens of thousands of protesters to decry coronavirus restrictions.
Judges at Berlin’s administrative court said that the ban was necessary to prevent a further rise in coronavirus infections with the expected crowds.
Berlin police spokesman Thilo Cablitz said that the ruling targeted protests “whose participants regularly do not follow legal regulations, specifically to protect against infections,” like wearing a face mask, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.
Some of the protests had been planned by Querdenker, or Lateral thinker, Germany’s anti-lockdown movement known to spread conspiracy theories and misinformation about vaccines and the pandemic.
Germany has also been reporting a recent rise in cases, outbreaks that experts say have been led by the delta variant and spread by the unvaccinated. The delta variant was identified in just 8% of coronavirus cases in Germany in early June. By July 22, it had increased to 84%, according to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, the country’s disease control agency.
In Malaysia, hundreds of demonstrators – wearing face masks and social distancing – took to the streets to march against the government’s handling of the virus and to call for the prime minister’s resignation.
Malaysia’s embattled prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, has been under pressure to step down since taking power in March 2020 after forming a razor-thin ruling coalition with the opposition.
In January, Muhyiddin declared a pandemic-related state of emergency a move that also enabled him to suspend parliament until Sunday. His critics say he has used the pandemic as an excuse for seizing power.
Saturday’s march in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, drew from largely young people frustrated with a steady rise in coronavirus cases despite the country’s lockdown. Demonstrators called for Muhyiddin to resign, the resumption of parliament, and for the government to provide aid to those financially hit by the pandemic, the Associated Press reported.
Amid a heavy police presence, many wore black and some carried mock corpses to symbolize the country’s growing death toll.
After being blocked by police from entering a central public square, protesters sat in the street one-meter apart with a banner that said: “The government failed.” The march later dispersed peacefully.
Canada faces start of Delta-driven 4th wave of COVID-19, top doctor says
The Public Health Agency of Canada warned that if community-wide contact rates increase too quickly with ongoing reopening efforts, the long-term forecast indicates Canada could experience a “stronger resurgence” of the virus.
Canada is at the start of the Delta-driven fourth wave of COVID-19, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said on Friday.
“The updated longer-range forecast shows how the epidemic trajectory may evolve through early September. It suggests that we are at the start of the Delta-driven fourth wave, but that the trajectory will depend on ongoing increases in fully vaccinated coverage, and the timing, pace and extent of reopening,” Tam said at a press conference in Ottawa.
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“I think we are in a slightly precarious period at the moment, in between these people trying to get the vaccines in and reopening,” she said.
“As soon as that balance is tipped, and it wouldn’t take very much with a highly transmissible virus, you’re going to see an uptick in cases.”
After weeks of sustained decline in new cases of COVID-19, Canada is seeing an increase in new COVID-19 cases, and thousands more infections are predicted if contacts aren’t contained, according to national modelling released by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) on Friday.
The seven-day moving average of 594 new cases reported daily (July 22-28) showed an increase of 39 percent over the previous week, said the PHAC on Thursday.
The national modelling released by the PHAC on Friday showed the serious threat the highly contagious Delta variant is posing, and the risk that the unvaccinated may be to the country being thrust into the fourth wave.
As of Friday, 80.5 percent of those eligible have received the first dose in Canada, while 65.8 percent are now fully vaccinated.
The PHAC warned that if community-wide contact rates increase too quickly with ongoing reopening efforts, the long-term forecast indicates Canada could experience a “stronger resurgence” of the virus.
The Delta variant “underscores the need for high vaccination coverage and continued caution as restrictions are eased,” according to the modelling.
The modelling predicts that in the short term, the case count will continue to increase, meaning the country could see between 2,700 and 11,800 new cases over the next week or so.
As of Friday afternoon, Canada reported a cumulative total of 1,430,289 COVID-19 cases, including 26,589 deaths, according to CTV.
A woman receives the COVID-19 vaccine on a COVID-19 “vaccine bus” at Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal in Delta, British Columbia, Canada, on July 30, 2021.
A woman receives the COVID-19 vaccine on a COVID-19 “vaccine bus” at Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal in Delta, British Columbia, Canada, on July 30, 2021.
UN chief condemns attack against UN compound in Afghanistan
The UN secretary-general said that attacks against UN personnel and premises are prohibited under international law and may constitute war crimes.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday strongly condemned the attack against a UN compound in Herat, Afghanistan, which resulted in the killing of an Afghan security forces guard and injuries to other officers.
Through a statement attributable to his deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq, the UN chief “expresses his condolences to the bereaved family and wishes those injured a speedy recovery.”
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The secretary-general said that attacks against UN personnel and premises are prohibited under international law and may constitute war crimes.
He reiterated the UN commitment to support the government and people of Afghanistan in their efforts to achieve peace and stability.
Iraq to reopen national museum after retrieving 17,000 artifacts from U.S.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered on Friday the reopening of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, after some 17,000 looted artifacts were recovered from the United States.
“With the return of 17,000 Iraqi artifacts … I ordered the reopening of the Iraq Museum to the public and researchers,” al-Kadhimi said on his official Twitter page.
On Wednesday, Iraqi Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities Hassan Nadhim said in a statement that the retrieved tablets date back to 4,500 years ago and bear cuneiform inscriptions documenting the trade exchanges during the Sumerian civilization.
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On Thursday, al-Kadhimi and his delegation returned to Baghdad after several days of visit to the United States and brought back the 17,000 artifacts.
According to the official statistics, about 15,000 pieces of cultural relics from the Stone Age, the Babylonian, Assyrian and Islamic periods were stolen or destroyed by looters after Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled by U.S.-led troops in 2003.
he Mosul Museum and ancient cities of Hatra and Nimrud had also been destroyed and large numbers of antiquities were smuggled after the Islamic State militants took control of large territories in northern and western Iraq in 2014.
More than 10,000 sites in Iraq are officially recognized as archaeological sites, but most of them are not safeguarded and many still being looted.
Photo taken on September 19, 2019 shows a mythical animal symbol from Ishtar Gate from ancient Babylon city in Iraq Museum.
Photo taken on September 19, 2019 shows a mythical animal symbol from Ishtar Gate from ancient Babylon city in Iraq Museum.
Photo taken on Jun. 13, 2019, shows Assyria relief in archeological site of Nimrud.
Photo taken on Jun. 13, 2019, shows Assyria relief in archeological site of Nimrud.
Asean reports record deaths on a single day
A woman receives the COVID-19 vaccine on a COVID-19 “vaccine bus” at Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal in Delta, British Columbia, Canada, on July 30, 2021.
Photo taken on September 19, 2019 shows a mythical animal symbol from Ishtar Gate from ancient Babylon city in Iraq Museum.
Photo taken on Jun. 13, 2019, shows Assyria relief in archeological site of Nimrud.
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