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Europe was one of the first regions in the world to deploy coronavirus vaccines, yet parts of the continent are now seeing a resurgence in cases, with some countries experiencing their highest infection levels of the pandemic.

In the Czech Republic, new daily cases are up 33% over the past week, while recorded infections have jumped by 52% in Croatia and 49% in Austria, according to a Washington Post tracker.

On Thursday, Germany’s weekly case rate soared to a record 249 new infections per 100,000 people, according to the country’s infectious-disease agency, eclipsing last winter’s high of about 197.

The difference now is that safe and effective vaccines have been available for months. But as winter approaches in Central and Eastern Europe, vaccination rates in many countries are lagging behind.

“The pandemic is anything but over,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said at a recent news conference.

“We are currently experiencing a pandemic mainly among the unvaccinated,” he said. “And it is massive.”

About 66% of Germans are fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data, which tracks publicly available figures, putting Germany just slightly behind Britain and France. The European Union’s overall vaccination rate hovers at about 65%, buoyed in part by sky-high vaccine uptake in countries like Portugal, but bogged down by lagging efforts in Central and Eastern Europe.

In the Czech Republic, about 57% of people are fully vaccinated, a rate nearly identical to that of the United States, where officials have for months blamed the untamed spread of the virus on the unvaccinated. Only a third of the populations in Russia and Romania are fully vaccinated. In Russia, recorded infections are at their highest levels yet, with about 40,000 new cases reported each day.

More than a thousand coronavirus-related deaths are being recorded in Russia each day – a “startling” number, said Elizabeth King, a professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health whose research focuses on Russia and Eastern Europe.

Vaccine hesitancy in the region can be attributed to distrust in the government and in the vaccines themselves, King said.

“Misinformation is spreading as fast as the virus,” she said.

Conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and vaccines have spread in Bulgaria, fueling resistance to shots there.

“The people in my community don’t want to get vaccinated,” said Kapka Georgieva, a Bulgarian woman who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “They are afraid and hearing on television and other sources that they might die. There is panic. I can’t convince anyone to get the vaccine.”

In Russia, the Sputnik V vaccine has been widely available since the spring but has been met with a mix of ambivalence and mistrust.

A doctor in St. Petersburg, Lev Averbakh, recently told The Washington Post that he was “so sick and tired of explaining to people what this virus is about and why they need to be vaccinated.”

“This resistance from the population is huge,” he said.

King said that “the spread of misinformation around vaccines was a concern” in Central and Eastern Europe “even prior to the covid-19 pandemic.”

She pointed to measles outbreaks in recent years “due to lapses in vaccination” in countries like Ukraine, where less than 1 in 5 people are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The surge there is particularly worrisome, she said, because the health-care system is “not adequately prepared” to deal with the deluge of cases.

The low vaccination rate in Ukraine comes despite a wide array of vaccines available, including shots by AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Sinovac. Officials there have made a push in recent weeks urging people to get vaccinated.

“I ask everyone to switch off your social networks and turn on your brains,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said recently in comments to reporters. “We must get vaccinated. It’s the only solution.”

The increase in cases across the continent come as the United States this week lifted restrictions on incoming travel from 33 countries, including many in Europe. Entry for foreigners is contingent upon proof of vaccination and a negative coronavirus test.

Sputnik V, however, was excluded from the U.S. list of accepted vaccines because it has not yet been approved by the World Health Organization. King said that authorization from the WHO or E.U. could make international travel an incentive for Russians to get vaccinated and also “eventually help change attitudes towards the vaccine within the country.”

Published : November 12, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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Starting from Nov. 22, travelers who have received two jabs of Chinas Sinovac or Sinopharm Beijing vaccines will be considered fully vaccinated in Britain.

The British government said it would recognize COVID-19 vaccines on the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing later this month, adding China’s Sinovac and Sinopharm Beijing vaccines to the country’s approved list of vaccines for inbound travelers.
 

The change, which will come into force from Nov. 22, means travelers who have received these two jabs will be considered fully vaccinated in Britain.

India’s Covaxin is also included in Britain’s updated list.

Passengers arriving in Britain after having been fully vaccinated and having received their vaccine certificate from one of more than 135 approved countries and territories are no longer required to take a pre-departure test, a day-eight test or self-isolate upon arrival.

Passengers walk at St. Pancras International Station in London, Britain, on July 29, 2021. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

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Those who have proof of vaccination from a country or territory that is not on the list, or with a vaccine that is not listed, must follow the rules for people who do not qualify as fully vaccinated.

The approved vaccines list currently includes Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford AstraZeneca (including Covishield), Moderna and Janssen (J&J).

A man holds a vaccination record card after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Hyde Leisure Centre in Greater Manchester, Britain, on Jan. 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Jon Super)

Additionally, the British government has said that, from Nov. 22, all under-18s traveling to England will be treated as fully vaccinated at the border and will be exempt from self-isolation requirements on arrival, day-eight testing and pre-departure testing.

They will only be required to take a post-arrival test and a confirmatory free PCR test if they test positive. 

More than 87 percent of people aged 12 and over in Britain have had their first vaccine dose and over 79 percent have received both doses, the latest figures showed. Meanwhile, more than 17 percent have received booster jabs, or the third doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

People walk past a travel safety sign at a train station in London, Britain, on July 19, 2021. (Xinhua/Ray Tang)

Published : November 11, 2021

By : Xinhua

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“Tackling the climate crisis requires international collaboration and solidarity, and this is an important step in the right direction,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted.

 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday welcomed a China-U.S. joint declaration on enhancing climate action at the Glasgow conference.

“I welcome today’s agreement between China and the USA to work together to take more ambitious #ClimateAction in this decade,” Guterres tweeted. “Tackling the climate crisis requires international collaboration and solidarity, and this is an important step in the right direction.”

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China and the United States on Wednesday released the China-U.S. Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s at the ongoing 26th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow.

The two sides pledged to continue working together and with all parties to strengthen the implementation of the Paris Agreement. They agreed to establish a working group on enhancing climate action in the 2020s to promote cooperation between the two countries and the multilateral processes.

Published : November 11, 2021

By : Xinhua

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40008668

A top Chinese virologist warned the country risks economic collapse if local officials continue to try to wipe out all traces of Covid-19, marking the most vocal criticism of Chinas so-called Covid Zero approach by one of its own experts.

Guan Yi, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, disparaged China’s effort to eliminate sporadic flareups of the virus through mass testing and lengthy quarantines. In the wide-ranging interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite TV, he urged a reality-check on how well an extensive vaccination drive helped the world’s most populous country build immunity to Covid.

“We don’t stand a chance if we pursue a target of zero Covid,” said Guan, who’s been dubbed the “virus hunter” by the Chinese media for his work on identifying the animal origins of the coronaviruses that caused SARS and MERS. “The virus is here today, just like flu. That’s a fact, whether people like it or not.”

The ability to break away from Covid Zero hinges on the effectiveness of the vaccines and the cost of controlling the virus, Guan said. It’s crucial for China to figure out how much protection its mass vaccination program has afforded the population, he said.

“Let’s not roll out nucleic acid testing for everyone at every turn,” he said. “I think it’s testing antibodies that matters. Everybody should know where their immunity is at.”

Guan’s comments are a rare, high-profile criticism from within the country’s elite of its lingering adherence to Covid Zero, which other adherents like Singapore and Australia have abandoned as the more transmissible delta variant makes it almost impossible to maintain. The criticism follows on the heels of an emotional plea for support made by the former vice mayor of a border town called Ruili in southwestern China, where repetitive lockdowns after Covid incursions from Myanmar are threatening livelihoods and exhausting local officials.

Officials in China have said they still consider squashing domestic flareups with aggressive curbs a better option for people’s safety and the economy’s health than reopening borders and easing restrictions. The country will maintain stringent curbs at least through spring given the outbreaks beyond its borders, health officials said in Beijing on Saturday.

It’s also doubling-down on vaccinations. More than 75% of the country is fully protected and authorities are rolling out booster shots to all adults. Immunizations are now available to children as young as three years old.

Still, Guan questioned the impact of vaccination in China when local governments won’t relent on controls such as quarantine and temperature screening. While taking temperatures is ubiquitous across the country, the virologist said that’s a “lagging defense” because infected people can spread the virus without showing any symptoms.

“Don’t blame the virus for being stealthy,” he said. “We just consider ourselves smarter than we really are.”

Instead, Guan said the country must develop a clearer understanding about how the homegrown vaccines are working against new variants of the virus. It should “kick out vaccines that have become ineffective,” he said.

China’s leading shots, from state-backed Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech Ltd., use traditional vaccine technology. While clinical trials show them to be effective at preventing severe cases of Covid, hospitalizations and deaths, they are less reliable than Western mRNA shots at stopping transmission and reducing overall case counts.

“One can tell what’s good or bad through comparison,” Guan said. “If we fail to recognize our shortcomings, we lack the incentive to make progress.”

Published : November 11, 2021

By : Bloomberg

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GLASGOW, Scotland – Jolting United Nations climate talks in their waning days, the United States and China issued a surprise announcement on Wednesday pledging the two countries would work together to slow warming during this decade and ensure that the Glasgow climate conference ends in success.

The declaration was short on concrete deadlines and commitments, and parts of it simply restated efforts that were already underway. But its timing and tone seemed intended to grease the Glasgow negotiations as they entered their crucial final stretch. Wednesday night was the first evening of negotiations that promised to drag into the late hours. And the pledge to work together on climate from the world’s two biggest emitters – bitter rivals in so many other arenas – was a sign they wanted to carry the fractious talks to the finish line.

U.S. special climate envoy John F. Kerry called the declaration “a step we can build on in order to help close the gap” on emissions.

“The United States and China have no shortage of differences,” he added. “But on climate, cooperation is the only way to get this job done.”

Speaking just ahead of Kerry, China’s special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said the two countries would reiterate the importance of the Paris temperature goal of limiting warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, with a goal of not exceeding 1.5 degrees.

With just a few days remaining to reach a COP26 agreement, he said the countries were focused on developing transparency regulations for reporting and tracking emissions and developing rules for a carbon market.

“Both sides recognize there is a gap between the current efforts and the Paris agreement goals,” Xie said told reporters.

As the world’s two superpowers, he continued, the U.S. and China have a special obligation to work together on keeping the world a peaceful place.

“We need to think big and be responsible,” he said. “We need to actively address climate change and through cooperation bring more benefit to our two peoples and to people around the world.”

Both envoys on Wednesday said the joint declaration was a product of nearly three dozen negotiating sessions, with diplomats from China and the U.S. meeting in person and virtually over the course of the year.

Pressed by reporters, Xie would not say whether China would accept the portion of the conference draft that says the world should accelerate reductions in coal use over the next decade.

China has 890 gigawatts of renewable power – 32% of the world total.

The surprise declaration was a boost to talks that are still teetering on the edge of failure to reach an agreement. Chinese President Xi Jinping declined to travel to Glasgow – a blow to ambitions to achieve a far-reaching deal to reduce greenhouse gases and avert disastrous levels of global warming, as China is the world’s biggest emitter.

The two countries “declare their intention to work individually, jointly, and with other countries during this decisive decade,” the statement said, “to strengthen and accelerate climate action and cooperation aimed at closing the gap.”

In a tweet, U.N. secretary general Antonio Guterres said he “welcomed” the agreement.

“Tackling the climate crisis requires international cooperation and solidarity, and this is an important step in the right direction,” he wrote.

Few details were immediately available about the implications of the declaration. For example, it did not identify an early date at which China’s carbon emissions will peak. Currently the country has said it plans to start decreasing emissions by 2030, or earlier if it can.

Nor was it clear whether a promise to cooperate on renewable energy meant that the United States was considering lifting trade measures against Chinese-made solar panels and other green technology, a significant irritant in the relationship.

Kerry said there were many discussions about accelerating this transition. “We peaked on peaking,” he said.

But, Kerry said, China did commit to rapidly develop a plan to reduce its methane emissions and to phase down coal “as fast as is achievable.”

That commitment would not usher China into a joint U.S.-European effort to reduce methane emissions by nearly a third by 2030, but it was a first recognition from Beijing about the importance of methane in driving up warming.

This was China’s biggest splash at a conference where it has not had a major presence over the past 10 days. Other high-emissions countries, such as India and Brazil, have had high-profile speaking engagements and can easily be spotted wandering national pavilions in the exhibition area of the conference. Chinese negotiators have been more active behind-the-scenes, policymakers said.

One European negotiator said that the significance of the U.S.-China accord was no guarantee that the broader talks in Glasgow would succeed.

“It doesn’t mean they found a deal on all problems already,” the negotiator said in a text message, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.

But the emphasis on action within the decade was significant, said Harjeet Singh, a senior adviser for Climate Action Network International.

The proceedings in Glasgow have been criticized for the number of long-term pledges not followed up by short-term commitments. An analysis published by U.N. researchers Tuesday found that “net zero” pledges pegged to the middle of the century would appear to limit warming to about 1.8 degrees Celsius, if achieved. But when only countries’ official emissions-cutting pledges for 2030 were considered, the Earth looked on track to warm 2.5 degrees Celsius.

Published : November 11, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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The number of Covid-19 cases crossed 13.48 million across Southeast Asia, with 30,200 new cases reported on Wednesday (November 10), higher than Tuesday’s tally at 27,613. New deaths are at 370, increasing from Tuesday’s number of 310. Total Covid-19 deaths in Asean are now at 282,675.

Malaysia’s Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department reported that about 1.8 per cent of civil servants, or about 29,000 people from the total 1.6 million people, have yet to be vaccinated against Covid-19 despite a mandate issued by the Public Service Department. However, as of November 10, ten days after the mandate was issued, no disciplinary actions have been taken.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s Animal and Veterinary Service (AVS) said on Wednesday that the African lion at the Singapore Zoo which showed signs of sickness on Monday has tested positive for Covid-19. It is the fifth lion in Singapore to be infected with the coronavirus, after four Asiatic lions at the Night Safari tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday. A Mandai Wildlife Group spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday that all its lions that have been unwell are “bright, alert and active for now”.
 

Published : November 11, 2021

By : THE NATION