English health authorities have tracked down a previously-unidentified person who tested positive for a variant of COVID-19 first identified in northern Brazil, and said there were no signs the person had spread the virus. 
 
Health officials had said on Sunday they had not been able to account for one of six cases in the country of the highly transmissible Brazil variant, known as P1. 
 
"We`ve successfully identified the person in question," health minister Matt Hancock told a news conference on Friday. 
 
"The best evidence is that this person in question stayed at home and there`s no sign that there`s been any onward transmission," he said, adding the person was located in Croydon in south London and testing in the area had been increased as a precaution. 
 
Sunday`s announcement was the first time the variant had been detected in Britain and triggered an intensive search to find the unidentified person. 
 
The person lived in a household that had recently returned from Brazil, health official Susan Hopkins said. 
 
She set out how they had been tracked down by cross referencing testing and postal data to produce a narrowed down list of possible candidates, who were then contacted by tracing teams.

English health authorities have tracked down a previously-unidentified person who tested positive for a variant of COVID-19 first identified in northern Brazil, and said there were no signs the person had spread the virus.

English health authorities have tracked down a previously-unidentified person who tested positive for a variant of COVID-19 first identified in northern Brazil, and said there were no signs the person had spread the virus. Health officials had said on Sunday they had not been able to account for one of six cases in the country of the highly transmissible Brazil variant, known as P1. "We`ve successfully identified the person in question," health minister Matt Hancock told a news conference on Friday. "The best evidence is that this person in question stayed at home and there`s no sign that there`s been any onward transmission," he said, adding the person was located in Croydon in south London and testing in the area had been increased as a precaution. Sunday`s announcement was the first time the variant had been detected in Britain and triggered an intensive search to find the unidentified person. The person lived in a household that had recently returned from Brazil, health official Susan Hopkins said. She set out how they had been tracked down by cross referencing testing and postal data to produce a narrowed down list of possible candidates, who were then contacted by tracing teams.

UK finds missing case of Brazil variant, claims no sign it has spread

Germany Saturday started selling new at-home Covid-19 test kits for which people flocked to supermarket chain Aldi to snap them up on the first day.

According to multiple reports, stocks sold out within hours.

Rival discounter Lidl meanwhile saw its website crash after it started offering at-home testing kits for sale online.

Aldi is limiting the purchases to one packet per person, containing five tests for 24.99 euros ($30). The test is done with a nasal swab and delivers a result within 15 minutes.&nbsp;

Lidl's offer is similar and costs 21.99 euros.

Tests will also go on sale at major drug store chains and other outlets in the coming days.

The German government is relying heavily on rapid tests to steer country through the next phase of the pandemic as citizens tire of coronavirus shutdowns but the pace of vaccinations remains sluggish.

From Monday, all Germans will be entitled to one free rapid test a week, carried out by a professional at pharmacies or designated testing centres. Several manufacturers have also received regulatory approval for DIY tests meant for home use.

Health Minister Jens Spahn, already under fire over Germany's slow vaccination pace, has promised there will be "more than enough" rapid tests for everyone, including 50 million free tests a month.

Germany has struggled to bring down Covid-19 rates in recent weeks, with numbers plateauing and even rising on some days.&nbsp;

The country added 9,557 new coronavirus cases on Saturday and another 300 deaths, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

(with inputs)

Germany Saturday started selling new at-home Covid-19 test kits for which people flocked to supermarket chain Aldi to snap them up on the first day. According to multiple reports, stocks sold out within hours.

Germany Saturday started selling new at-home Covid-19 test kits for which people flocked to supermarket chain Aldi to snap them up on the first day. According to multiple reports, stocks sold out within hours. Rival discounter Lidl meanwhile saw its website crash after it started offering at-home testing kits for sale online. Aldi is limiting the purchases to one packet per person, containing five tests for 24.99 euros ($30). The test is done with a nasal swab and delivers a result within 15 minutes. Lidl's offer is similar and costs 21.99 euros. Tests will also go on sale at major drug store chains and other outlets in the coming days. The German government is relying heavily on rapid tests to steer country through the next phase of the pandemic as citizens tire of coronavirus shutdowns but the pace of vaccinations remains sluggish. From Monday, all Germans will be entitled to one free rapid test a week, carried out by a professional at pharmacies or designated testing centres. Several manufacturers have also received regulatory approval for DIY tests meant for home use. Health Minister Jens Spahn, already under fire over Germany's slow vaccination pace, has promised there will be "more than enough" rapid tests for everyone, including 50 million free tests a month. Germany has struggled to bring down Covid-19 rates in recent weeks, with numbers plateauing and even rising on some days. The country added 9,557 new coronavirus cases on Saturday and another 300 deaths, according to the Robert Koch Institute. (with inputs)

Germany starts selling new at-home Covid-19 test kits

The US Senate has broken an impasse on the Covid relief package, setting the $1.9 trillion bill on a likely path to passage.

Democrats had struggled to keep Senator Joe Manchin's support for expanded unemployment aid in the sprawling measure, and he threatened to side with Republicans in the evenly divided chamber.

The catch is the deal reduced the jobless benefits. It, however, allowed action to resume in the Senate as it navigates toward passage of President Joe Biden's top legislative priority sometime this weekend.

Manchin was keen on more fiscal restraint than was evident in the Biden package, and was balking at an amendment that would increase weekly additional unemployment benefits from $300 to $400, and extending them through August.

The amendment also provides for tax breaks of up to $10,200 for those receiving unemployment, but only families making less than $150,000.

Without passage of the rescue package, the benefits will expire on March 14 for millions of Americans.

Manchin later said in a statement that they had reached a compromise that enables "the economy to rebound quickly while also protecting those receiving unemployment benefits from being hit with (an) unexpected tax bill next year."

Biden supports this compromise, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

With the impasse over, a lengthy amendment process known as a "vote-a-rama" was set to resume, with votes on potentially dozens of amendments filed by members of both parties.

The daunting process was likely to carry into the wee hours Saturday or beyond, especially given Friday's nine-hour delay.

Biden has heaped pressure on Democrats to clear the American Rescue Plan through Congress in the coming days, and the Manchin hurdle marked potential disaster.

Democrats are in control of a Senate that is deadlocked 50-50, so any defections within the party could kill the bill.

In the event of a tie, Vice-President Kamala Harris casts the deciding vote.

(with inputs)

The US Senate has broken an impasse on the Covid relief package, setting the $1.9 trillion bill on a likely path to passage. Democrats had struggled to keep Senator Joe Manchin's support for expanded unemployment aid in the sprawling measure, and he threatened to side with Republicans in the evenly divided chamber.

The US Senate has broken an impasse on the Covid relief package, setting the $1.9 trillion bill on a likely path to passage. Democrats had struggled to keep Senator Joe Manchin's support for expanded unemployment aid in the sprawling measure, and he threatened to side with Republicans in the evenly divided chamber. The catch is the deal reduced the jobless benefits. It, however, allowed action to resume in the Senate as it navigates toward passage of President Joe Biden's top legislative priority sometime this weekend. Manchin was keen on more fiscal restraint than was evident in the Biden package, and was balking at an amendment that would increase weekly additional unemployment benefits from $300 to $400, and extending them through August. The amendment also provides for tax breaks of up to $10,200 for those receiving unemployment, but only families making less than $150,000. Without passage of the rescue package, the benefits will expire on March 14 for millions of Americans. Manchin later said in a statement that they had reached a compromise that enables "the economy to rebound quickly while also protecting those receiving unemployment benefits from being hit with (an) unexpected tax bill next year." Biden supports this compromise, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. With the impasse over, a lengthy amendment process known as a "vote-a-rama" was set to resume, with votes on potentially dozens of amendments filed by members of both parties. The daunting process was likely to carry into the wee hours Saturday or beyond, especially given Friday's nine-hour delay. Biden has heaped pressure on Democrats to clear the American Rescue Plan through Congress in the coming days, and the Manchin hurdle marked potential disaster. Democrats are in control of a Senate that is deadlocked 50-50, so any defections within the party could kill the bill. In the event of a tie, Vice-President Kamala Harris casts the deciding vote. (with inputs)

Senate impasse broken, US Covid relief bill now back on track

Scientists in Oregon have spotted a homegrown version of a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus that first surfaced in Britain — but now it's combined with a mutation that may make the variant less susceptible to vaccines.

The researchers have so far found just a single case of this formidable combination, but genetic analysis suggested that the variant had been acquired in the community and did not arise in the patient.

“We didn’t import this from elsewhere in the world — it occurred spontaneously,” said Brian O’Roak, a geneticist at Oregon Health and Science University who led the work. He and his colleagues participate in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s effort to track variants, and they have deposited their results in databases shared by scientists.

The variant originally identified in Britain, called B.1.1.7, has been spreading rapidly across the United States, and accounts for at least 2,500 cases in 46 states. This form of the virus is both more contagious and more deadly than the original version, and it is expected to account for most U.S. infections in a few weeks.

The new version that surfaced in Oregon has the same backbone, but also a mutation — E484K, or “Eek” — seen in variants of the virus circulating in South Africa, Brazil and New York City.

Lab studies and clinical trials in South Africa indicate that the Eek mutation renders the current vaccines less effective by blunting the body’s immune response. (The vaccines still work, but the findings are worrying enough that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have begun testing new versions of their vaccines designed to defeat the variant found in South Africa.)

The B.1.1.7 variant with Eek also has emerged in Britain, designated as a “variant of concern” by scientists. But the virus identified in Oregon seems to have evolved independently, O’Roak said.

O’Roak and his colleagues found the variant among coronavirus samples collected by the Oregon State Public Health Lab across the state, including some from an outbreak in a health care setting. Of the 13 test results they analyzed, 10 turned out to be B.1.1.7 alone, and one the combination.

Other experts said the discovery was not surprising, because the Eek mutation has arisen in forms of the virus all over the world. But the mutation’s occurrence in B.1.1.7 is worth watching, they said.

In Britain, this version of the variant accounts for a small number of cases. But by the time the combination evolved there, B.1.1.7 had already spread through the country.

“We’re at the point where B.1.1.7 is just being introduced” into the United States, said Stacia Wyman, an expert in computational genomics at the University of California, Berkeley. “As it evolves, and as it slowly becomes the dominant thing, it could accumulate more mutations.”

Viral mutations may enhance or weaken one another. For example, the variants identified in South Africa and Brazil contain many of the same mutations, including Eek. But the Brazilian version has a mutation, K417N, that is not present in the version from South Africa.

In a study published Thursday in Nature, researchers compared antibody responses to all three variants of concern — the ones identified in Britain, South Africa and Brazil. Consistent with other studies, they found that the variant that pummeled South Africa is most resistant to antibodies produced by the immune system.

But the variant circulating in Brazil was not as resistant, even though it carried the Eek mutation. “If you have the second mutation, you don’t see as bad an effect,” said Michael Diamond, a viral immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis, who led the study.

It’s too early to say whether the variant in Oregon will behave like the ones in South Africa or Brazil. But the idea that other mutations could weaken Eek’s effect is “excellent news,” Wyman said.

Overall, she said, the Oregon finding reinforces the need for people to continue to take precautions, including wearing a mask, until a substantial portion of the population is immunized.

“People need to not freak out but to continue to be vigilant,” she said. “We can’t let down our guard yet while there’s still these more transmissible variants circulating.”

Scientists in Oregon have spotted a homegrown version of a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus that first surfaced in Britain — but now it's combined with a mutation that may make the variant less susceptible to vaccines.

Scientists in Oregon have spotted a homegrown version of a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus that first surfaced in Britain — but now it's combined with a mutation that may make the variant less susceptible to vaccines. The researchers have so far found just a single case of this formidable combination, but genetic analysis suggested that the variant had been acquired in the community and did not arise in the patient. “We didn’t import this from elsewhere in the world — it occurred spontaneously,” said Brian O’Roak, a geneticist at Oregon Health and Science University who led the work. He and his colleagues participate in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s effort to track variants, and they have deposited their results in databases shared by scientists. The variant originally identified in Britain, called B.1.1.7, has been spreading rapidly across the United States, and accounts for at least 2,500 cases in 46 states. This form of the virus is both more contagious and more deadly than the original version, and it is expected to account for most U.S. infections in a few weeks. The new version that surfaced in Oregon has the same backbone, but also a mutation — E484K, or “Eek” — seen in variants of the virus circulating in South Africa, Brazil and New York City. Lab studies and clinical trials in South Africa indicate that the Eek mutation renders the current vaccines less effective by blunting the body’s immune response. (The vaccines still work, but the findings are worrying enough that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have begun testing new versions of their vaccines designed to defeat the variant found in South Africa.) The B.1.1.7 variant with Eek also has emerged in Britain, designated as a “variant of concern” by scientists. But the virus identified in Oregon seems to have evolved independently, O’Roak said. O’Roak and his colleagues found the variant among coronavirus samples collected by the Oregon State Public Health Lab across the state, including some from an outbreak in a health care setting. Of the 13 test results they analyzed, 10 turned out to be B.1.1.7 alone, and one the combination. Other experts said the discovery was not surprising, because the Eek mutation has arisen in forms of the virus all over the world. But the mutation’s occurrence in B.1.1.7 is worth watching, they said. In Britain, this version of the variant accounts for a small number of cases. But by the time the combination evolved there, B.1.1.7 had already spread through the country. “We’re at the point where B.1.1.7 is just being introduced” into the United States, said Stacia Wyman, an expert in computational genomics at the University of California, Berkeley. “As it evolves, and as it slowly becomes the dominant thing, it could accumulate more mutations.” Viral mutations may enhance or weaken one another. For example, the variants identified in South Africa and Brazil contain many of the same mutations, including Eek. But the Brazilian version has a mutation, K417N, that is not present in the version from South Africa. In a study published Thursday in Nature, researchers compared antibody responses to all three variants of concern — the ones identified in Britain, South Africa and Brazil. Consistent with other studies, they found that the variant that pummeled South Africa is most resistant to antibodies produced by the immune system. But the variant circulating in Brazil was not as resistant, even though it carried the Eek mutation. “If you have the second mutation, you don’t see as bad an effect,” said Michael Diamond, a viral immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis, who led the study. It’s too early to say whether the variant in Oregon will behave like the ones in South Africa or Brazil. But the idea that other mutations could weaken Eek’s effect is “excellent news,” Wyman said. Overall, she said, the Oregon finding reinforces the need for people to continue to take precautions, including wearing a mask, until a substantial portion of the population is immunized. “People need to not freak out but to continue to be vigilant,” she said. “We can’t let down our guard yet while there’s still these more transmissible variants circulating.”

In Oregon, scientists find a virus variant with a worrying mutation

COVAX, the international vaccine campaign co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners, has so far delivered more than 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to 20 countries. 
 
Earlier this week, the first Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in Africa using doses provided by COVAX began in Ghana and Cote d`Ivoire, which were later followed by shipment to another 18 countries, mostly in Africa, reports Xinhua news agency. 
 
In the next week, COVAX will deliver 14.4 million doses to a further 31 countries, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing here on Friday. 
 
However, the volume of doses being distributed through COVAX is still relatively small, only covering between two and three percent of the population of the countries receiving the vaccines through COVAX, he said. 
 
Tedros said the WHO is working on efforts to connect companies who are producing vaccines with others who have excess capacity to fill and finish, as as to help speed up production and increase volumes. 
 
He also reiterated the call for vaccine technology transfer from companies owning patents on vaccines to those who can produce them. 
 
"A good example of this approach is AstraZeneca, which has transferred the technology for its vaccine to SKBio in South Korea and the Serum Institute of India, which is producing AstraZeneca vaccines for COVAX," he said. 
 
COVAX aims at ensuring that no participating economy will be left behind in accessing Covid-19 vaccines. 
 
Its core target is to deliver two billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021.

COVAX, the international vaccine campaign co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners, has so far delivered more than 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to 20 countries.

COVAX, the international vaccine campaign co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners, has so far delivered more than 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to 20 countries. Earlier this week, the first Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in Africa using doses provided by COVAX began in Ghana and Cote d`Ivoire, which were later followed by shipment to another 18 countries, mostly in Africa, reports Xinhua news agency. In the next week, COVAX will deliver 14.4 million doses to a further 31 countries, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing here on Friday. However, the volume of doses being distributed through COVAX is still relatively small, only covering between two and three percent of the population of the countries receiving the vaccines through COVAX, he said. Tedros said the WHO is working on efforts to connect companies who are producing vaccines with others who have excess capacity to fill and finish, as as to help speed up production and increase volumes. He also reiterated the call for vaccine technology transfer from companies owning patents on vaccines to those who can produce them. "A good example of this approach is AstraZeneca, which has transferred the technology for its vaccine to SKBio in South Korea and the Serum Institute of India, which is producing AstraZeneca vaccines for COVAX," he said. COVAX aims at ensuring that no participating economy will be left behind in accessing Covid-19 vaccines. Its core target is to deliver two billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021.

COVAX delivers over 20 million doses to 20 nations

Mink carcasses that were hastily buried after a mass culling sparked by fears about a mutated coronavirus strain are causing pollution, Denmark's Environmental Protection Agency has said.

The government agency, however, stressed that there was currently no risk of drinking water becoming contaminated.

"Substances from buried minks have been found under the mink graves... The first steps are now being taken to collect and clean up the pollution," the agency said in a statement on Friday.

Water from underneath the graves would be pumped up and sanitised, the agency said.

Denmark was the world's largest exporter of mink fur, but culled all 15 million of its mink population last year after some were found to be carrying a mutated virus variant, and later banned mink breeding until January 1, 2022.

Fearing pollution due to the decomposition of the dead animals' bodies in the areas where they had been hastily buried, the government decided in December to unearth the four million carcasses as soon as the risk of contagion had subsided and incinerate them instead.&nbsp;&nbsp;The two burial sites are located in the western part of the Nordic country of 5.8 million inhabitants.&nbsp;

In one, signs of pollution were detected in three of the 32 boreholes drilled and in one out of 26 on the other site. The main pollutants were ammonia and excess amounts of nitrogren.

In November, Denmark said the "Cluster 5" mutation carried by mink had been wiped out, and they were the only animal confirmed to be able to contract it and pass it to humans.

(with inputs from AFP)

Mink carcasses that were hastily buried after a mass culling sparked by fears about a mutated coronavirus strain are causing pollution, Denmark's Environmental Protection Agency has said.

Mink carcasses that were hastily buried after a mass culling sparked by fears about a mutated coronavirus strain are causing pollution, Denmark's Environmental Protection Agency has said. The government agency, however, stressed that there was currently no risk of drinking water becoming contaminated. "Substances from buried minks have been found under the mink graves... The first steps are now being taken to collect and clean up the pollution," the agency said in a statement on Friday. Water from underneath the graves would be pumped up and sanitised, the agency said. Denmark was the world's largest exporter of mink fur, but culled all 15 million of its mink population last year after some were found to be carrying a mutated virus variant, and later banned mink breeding until January 1, 2022. Fearing pollution due to the decomposition of the dead animals' bodies in the areas where they had been hastily buried, the government decided in December to unearth the four million carcasses as soon as the risk of contagion had subsided and incinerate them instead. The two burial sites are located in the western part of the Nordic country of 5.8 million inhabitants. In one, signs of pollution were detected in three of the 32 boreholes drilled and in one out of 26 on the other site. The main pollutants were ammonia and excess amounts of nitrogren. In November, Denmark said the "Cluster 5" mutation carried by mink had been wiped out, and they were the only animal confirmed to be able to contract it and pass it to humans. (with inputs from AFP)

Minks culled over coronavirus in Denmark said to be polluting environment

The majority of global COVID-19 deaths have been in countries where many people are obese, with coronavirus fatality rates 10 times higher in nations where at least 50% of adults are overweight, a global study found on Thursday.

The report, which described a “dramatic” correlation between countries’ COVID-19 death and obesity rates, found that 90% or 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from the pandemic disease so far were in countries with high levels of obesity.

The study analysed the COVID-19 death figures from Johns Hopkins University in the United States and the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory data on obesity.

Strikingly, the authors said, there is no example of a country where people are generally not overweight or obese having high COVID-19 death rates.

“Look at countries like Japan and South Korea, where they have very low levels of COVID-19 deaths as well as very low levels of adult obesity,” said Tim Lobstein, an expert advisor to the World Obesity Federation and visiting professor at Australia’s Sydney University who co-led the report.

“They have prioritised public health across a range of measures, including population weight, and it has paid off in the pandemic.”

By contrast, the report found that in the United States and Britain, for example, both COVID-19 death rates and obesity levels were among the highest.

The United Kingdom has the world’s third-highest coronavirus death rate and the fourth-highest obesity rate - 184 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 and 63.7% of adults overweight, according to WHO data - followed by the United States, with 152.49 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 and 67.9% of adults overweight.

John Wilding, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of Liverpool and president of the World Obesity Federation, said obesity should be recognised as a key COVID-19 health risk and taken into account in vaccination plans.

“It’s really important that we recognise that obesity ... increases the risk,” he said in a statement about the report’s findings. “Therefore, like other diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, people with obesity should be considered for early priority in vaccination programmes across the world.”

The majority of global COVID-19 deaths have been in countries where many people are obese, with coronavirus fatality rates 10 times higher in nations where at least 50% of adults are overweight, a global study found on Thursday.

The majority of global COVID-19 deaths have been in countries where many people are obese, with coronavirus fatality rates 10 times higher in nations where at least 50% of adults are overweight, a global study found on Thursday. The report, which described a “dramatic” correlation between countries’ COVID-19 death and obesity rates, found that 90% or 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from the pandemic disease so far were in countries with high levels of obesity. The study analysed the COVID-19 death figures from Johns Hopkins University in the United States and the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory data on obesity. Strikingly, the authors said, there is no example of a country where people are generally not overweight or obese having high COVID-19 death rates. “Look at countries like Japan and South Korea, where they have very low levels of COVID-19 deaths as well as very low levels of adult obesity,” said Tim Lobstein, an expert advisor to the World Obesity Federation and visiting professor at Australia’s Sydney University who co-led the report. “They have prioritised public health across a range of measures, including population weight, and it has paid off in the pandemic.” By contrast, the report found that in the United States and Britain, for example, both COVID-19 death rates and obesity levels were among the highest. The United Kingdom has the world’s third-highest coronavirus death rate and the fourth-highest obesity rate - 184 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 and 63.7% of adults overweight, according to WHO data - followed by the United States, with 152.49 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 and 67.9% of adults overweight. John Wilding, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of Liverpool and president of the World Obesity Federation, said obesity should be recognised as a key COVID-19 health risk and taken into account in vaccination plans. “It’s really important that we recognise that obesity ... increases the risk,” he said in a statement about the report’s findings. “Therefore, like other diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, people with obesity should be considered for early priority in vaccination programmes across the world.”

Obesity a driving factor in COVID-19 deaths, global report finds

China has approved three traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) products for sale to help treat Covid-19.

The government's National Medical Products Administration used a special approval procedure to green-light the three products, which "provide more options for Covid-19 treatment".

The three medicines, namely Lung Cleansing and Detoxifying granules, Dampness Resolving and Detoxifying granules and Lung Diffusing and Detoxifying granules, all originate from ancient classic TCM prescriptions. The herbal products come in granular form.

They were developed from TCM remedies that had been used early in the pandemic, and that were "screened by many academics and experts on the front line."

The safety and effectiveness of TCM is, however, still debated in China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has himself been a strong advocate for TCM. Throughout the outbreak, Xi has repeatedly exhorted doctors to treat patients with a mix of Chinese and Western medicines.

Tens of thousands of Covid-19 patients received herbal remedies alongside mainstream antiviral drugs last year, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), which gave its first-ever endorsement of TCM in 2018, had originally advised against using traditional herbal remedies for Covid-19 on its website. The line was, however, later removed.

Authorities have praised TCM as helping contain Covid symptoms and limit the outbreak. Chinese state media has also promoted TCM in its coverage, and state-run news agency Xinhua reported that TCM offered a source of "hope" for Chinese Americans in New York.

China has approved three traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) products for sale to help treat Covid-19. The government's National Medical Products Administration used a special approval procedure to green-light the three products, which "provide more options for Covid-19 treatment".

China has approved three traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) products for sale to help treat Covid-19. The government's National Medical Products Administration used a special approval procedure to green-light the three products, which "provide more options for Covid-19 treatment". The three medicines, namely Lung Cleansing and Detoxifying granules, Dampness Resolving and Detoxifying granules and Lung Diffusing and Detoxifying granules, all originate from ancient classic TCM prescriptions. The herbal products come in granular form. They were developed from TCM remedies that had been used early in the pandemic, and that were "screened by many academics and experts on the front line." The safety and effectiveness of TCM is, however, still debated in China. Chinese President Xi Jinping has himself been a strong advocate for TCM. Throughout the outbreak, Xi has repeatedly exhorted doctors to treat patients with a mix of Chinese and Western medicines. Tens of thousands of Covid-19 patients received herbal remedies alongside mainstream antiviral drugs last year, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The World Health Organisation (WHO), which gave its first-ever endorsement of TCM in 2018, had originally advised against using traditional herbal remedies for Covid-19 on its website. The line was, however, later removed. Authorities have praised TCM as helping contain Covid symptoms and limit the outbreak. Chinese state media has also promoted TCM in its coverage, and state-run news agency Xinhua reported that TCM offered a source of "hope" for Chinese Americans in New York.

China approves sale of traditional medicine products to treat Covid-19

Cyprus will open its doors from May 1 to British tourists who have been vaccinated against Covid.

The Mediterranean island's vital tourism industry had otherwise been devastated due to the coronavirus pandemic -- with arrivals slumping to 631,609 in 2020 from nearly four million in 2019.

Britain is the island's largest market for tourists, making up a third of its arrivals in 2019,

"We informed the British government that as of May 1,&nbsp;we would facilitate the arrival of British citizens immunised with EU-licenced vaccines to enter Cyprus with no negative Covid-19 test and no quarantine," Tourism Minister Savvas Perdios said, quoted by the state-funded Cyprus News Agency.

He added the policy was subject to the British government's Covid-19 restrictions, which currently ban international travel.

The announcement comes after Cyprus and Israel agreed a deal last month allowing vaccinated citizens of the two countries to travel each way without limitations, once passenger flights resume.

"This is a very important development for tourism and follows the arrangement with Israel, as they are two of Cyprus' main tourist markets," said Perdios.

Under the Cypriot government's plan, UK citizens who have received the second dose of a Covid vaccine at least seven days before travelling would be allowed entry, but could still be subject to random testing at airports.

Britons would also still have to comply with health protocols such as mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing.

The Republic of Cyprus has so far recorded 232 coronavirus deaths and 36,004 infections.

Cyprus will open its doors from May 1 to British tourists who have been vaccinated against Covid. The Mediterranean island's vital tourism industry had otherwise been devastated due to the coronavirus pandemic -- with arrivals slumping to 631,609 in 2020 from nearly four million in 2019.

Cyprus will open its doors from May 1 to British tourists who have been vaccinated against Covid. The Mediterranean island's vital tourism industry had otherwise been devastated due to the coronavirus pandemic -- with arrivals slumping to 631,609 in 2020 from nearly four million in 2019. Britain is the island's largest market for tourists, making up a third of its arrivals in 2019, "We informed the British government that as of May 1, we would facilitate the arrival of British citizens immunised with EU-licenced vaccines to enter Cyprus with no negative Covid-19 test and no quarantine," Tourism Minister Savvas Perdios said, quoted by the state-funded Cyprus News Agency. He added the policy was subject to the British government's Covid-19 restrictions, which currently ban international travel. The announcement comes after Cyprus and Israel agreed a deal last month allowing vaccinated citizens of the two countries to travel each way without limitations, once passenger flights resume. "This is a very important development for tourism and follows the arrangement with Israel, as they are two of Cyprus' main tourist markets," said Perdios. Under the Cypriot government's plan, UK citizens who have received the second dose of a Covid vaccine at least seven days before travelling would be allowed entry, but could still be subject to random testing at airports. Britons would also still have to comply with health protocols such as mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing. The Republic of Cyprus has so far recorded 232 coronavirus deaths and 36,004 infections.

Cyprus opens doors to vaccinated British tourists

Japan&nbsp;will extend a virus state of emergency in the Tokyo area by a fortnight, officials said Friday, less than five months before the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics.

The decision came as Moderna filed for approval of its Covid-19 vaccine in Japan, becoming the third major drug firm to do so, its distribution partner Takeda said.

The Pfizer/BioNTech is so far the only jab approved for use in Japan, which is taking a cautious approach to its inoculation campaign that launched in a limited fashion last month.

Despite a winter spike in infections, Japan has seen a comparatively small outbreak overall with just over 8,000 deaths, and has avoided imposing the blanket lockdowns seen in other countries.

The state of emergency, which primarily calls for bars and restaurants to close from 8pm, was due to end on Sunday and has been lifted early in other regions.

It has brought infections down in the capital but the rate of decline is slowing and experts warn of a potential resurgence when restrictions are removed.

Top government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said the virus emergency would continue in Tokyo and three surrounding regions until March 21 -- four days before the nationwide Olympic torch relay kicks off in northeastern Fukushima prefecture.

The two-week extension, expected to be formally announced later on Friday, could cost the economy an extra 700 billion yen ($6.5 billion) in lost consumption, Tokyo-based think-tank NRI predicted.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga apologised for the imminent extension but said the government was "doing its utmost to prevent a rebound" in infections.

Tokyo logged around 270 daily cases on average over the past week.

Japan's response to the virus is in the spotlight as Tokyo prepares to host the postponed Olympics, due to start on July 23.

Tokyo 2020 organisers have outlined measures they say will keep the Games safe -- even without requiring participants to be vaccinated or quarantined on arrival.

Border restrictions currently bar almost all foreign arrivals, which has forced the postponement of the year's first test event, an artistic swimming qualifier.

Japan began its vaccination programme on February 17 and has so far given first doses to around 39,000 healthcare workers.

The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine was also filed for approval a month ago and domestic clinical trials are underway.

Japan will extend a virus state of emergency in the Tokyo area by a fortnight, officials said Friday, less than five months before the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics.

Japan will extend a virus state of emergency in the Tokyo area by a fortnight, officials said Friday, less than five months before the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics. The decision came as Moderna filed for approval of its Covid-19 vaccine in Japan, becoming the third major drug firm to do so, its distribution partner Takeda said. The Pfizer/BioNTech is so far the only jab approved for use in Japan, which is taking a cautious approach to its inoculation campaign that launched in a limited fashion last month. Despite a winter spike in infections, Japan has seen a comparatively small outbreak overall with just over 8,000 deaths, and has avoided imposing the blanket lockdowns seen in other countries. The state of emergency, which primarily calls for bars and restaurants to close from 8pm, was due to end on Sunday and has been lifted early in other regions. It has brought infections down in the capital but the rate of decline is slowing and experts warn of a potential resurgence when restrictions are removed. Top government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said the virus emergency would continue in Tokyo and three surrounding regions until March 21 -- four days before the nationwide Olympic torch relay kicks off in northeastern Fukushima prefecture. The two-week extension, expected to be formally announced later on Friday, could cost the economy an extra 700 billion yen ($6.5 billion) in lost consumption, Tokyo-based think-tank NRI predicted. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga apologised for the imminent extension but said the government was "doing its utmost to prevent a rebound" in infections. Tokyo logged around 270 daily cases on average over the past week. Japan's response to the virus is in the spotlight as Tokyo prepares to host the postponed Olympics, due to start on July 23. Tokyo 2020 organisers have outlined measures they say will keep the Games safe -- even without requiring participants to be vaccinated or quarantined on arrival. Border restrictions currently bar almost all foreign arrivals, which has forced the postponement of the year's first test event, an artistic swimming qualifier. Japan began its vaccination programme on February 17 and has so far given first doses to around 39,000 healthcare workers. The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine was also filed for approval a month ago and domestic clinical trials are underway.

Japan to extend virus state of emergency in Tokyo area

Modified vaccines designed to protect against emerging coronavirus variants will get fast-track approval under a pact announced on Thursday by medicines regulators in Britain and four other countries.

The agreement will avert the need for lengthy clinical studies if authorised vaccines are adapted in future, as long as the manufacturers offer "robust evidence" of their potency and safety, according to the agreement by the ACCESS Consortium.

The consortium comprises Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and counterparts from Australia, Canada, Singapore and Switzerland. 

"Our priority is to get effective vaccines to the public in as short a time as possible, without compromising on safety," MHRA chief scientific officer Christian Schneider said in a statement.

"Should any modifications to authorised Covid-19 vaccines be necessary, this regulatory approach should help to do just that.

"The public should be confident that no vaccine would be approved unless the expected high standards of safety, quality and effectiveness are met."&nbsp;

The approach is based on the "tried and tested" regulatory process used for seasonal influenza vaccines, which need to be adapted every year to combat new strains, the MHRA said.

- 'Remain vigilant' -

Britain began rolling out the world's first mass vaccination programme for the coronavirus in December. But health experts are concerned that new variants of the disease, including one from Brazil, could prove more resistant to the vaccines.

That would undermine plans by Britain and others to start unwinding lockdowns in the coming weeks, which hinge on the vaccines giving enough people protection and bringing down a winter surge in infections and deaths.

In England, the latest wide-scale survey of more than 165,000 volunteers tested for Covid-19 showed that prevalence fell by two-thirds last month from January, with one in every 204 people infected.

The survey overseen by London's Imperial College showed the "R" number in England came to 0.86. Anything under 1.0 signals the virus is no longer growing exponentially in the population.

But it also found that the rate of decrease was slowing, prompting Health Secretary Matt Hancock to urge continued caution as England prepares to reopen schools to in-class teaching next Monday in the first phase of ending its lockdown.

"There is some cause for concern that our hard-won progress may be slowing down, and even reversing in some regions so it is important we remain vigilant -- this is on all of us," Hancock said.

More than 123,000 people have died of Covid-19 across the UK, in one of the world's worst outbreaks.

Modified vaccines designed to protect against emerging coronavirus variants will get fast-track approval under a pact announced on Thursday by medicines regulators in Britain and four other countries.

Modified vaccines designed to protect against emerging coronavirus variants will get fast-track approval under a pact announced on Thursday by medicines regulators in Britain and four other countries. The agreement will avert the need for lengthy clinical studies if authorised vaccines are adapted in future, as long as the manufacturers offer "robust evidence" of their potency and safety, according to the agreement by the ACCESS Consortium. The consortium comprises Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and counterparts from Australia, Canada, Singapore and Switzerland.  "Our priority is to get effective vaccines to the public in as short a time as possible, without compromising on safety," MHRA chief scientific officer Christian Schneider said in a statement. "Should any modifications to authorised Covid-19 vaccines be necessary, this regulatory approach should help to do just that. "The public should be confident that no vaccine would be approved unless the expected high standards of safety, quality and effectiveness are met." The approach is based on the "tried and tested" regulatory process used for seasonal influenza vaccines, which need to be adapted every year to combat new strains, the MHRA said. - 'Remain vigilant' - Britain began rolling out the world's first mass vaccination programme for the coronavirus in December. But health experts are concerned that new variants of the disease, including one from Brazil, could prove more resistant to the vaccines. That would undermine plans by Britain and others to start unwinding lockdowns in the coming weeks, which hinge on the vaccines giving enough people protection and bringing down a winter surge in infections and deaths. In England, the latest wide-scale survey of more than 165,000 volunteers tested for Covid-19 showed that prevalence fell by two-thirds last month from January, with one in every 204 people infected. The survey overseen by London's Imperial College showed the "R" number in England came to 0.86. Anything under 1.0 signals the virus is no longer growing exponentially in the population. But it also found that the rate of decrease was slowing, prompting Health Secretary Matt Hancock to urge continued caution as England prepares to reopen schools to in-class teaching next Monday in the first phase of ending its lockdown. "There is some cause for concern that our hard-won progress may be slowing down, and even reversing in some regions so it is important we remain vigilant -- this is on all of us," Hancock said. More than 123,000 people have died of Covid-19 across the UK, in one of the world's worst outbreaks.

UK and others agree to fast-track adapted Covid vaccines

China is consistently using social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook to attack the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in a state-backed disinformation campaign to undermine critical reporting by Western media of the human rights abuse of Uighur minorities in Xinjiang province.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/china-bans-bbc-world-news-for-its-reporting-on-uighur-genocide-covid-19-363002">Also read: China bans BBC World News for its reporting on Uighur genocide, Covid-19</a> 
 
An Australian research group has said that China’s attempts to discredit the BBC show an increased sophistication in tailoring propaganda for Western audiences.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/china-bans-british-broadcaster-bbc-post-report-on-rape-of-uighur-women-363066/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been actively running a social media campaign against the BBC after it aired a report on February 2 featuring Uighur women who alleged that detainees in camps in the province of Xinjiang were systematically raped, sexually abused and tortured. China’s Foreign Ministry denied the allegations and accused the BBC of making a “false report.”

According to a report published by a think tank — Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) provides a snapshot of the CCP’s ongoing coordinated response targeting the BBC, which leveraged YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and was broadly framed around three prominent narratives:

<ol>
	<li>That the BBC spreads disinformation and is biased against China</li>
	<li>That the BBC’s domestic audiences think that it’s biased and not to be trusted</li>
	<li>That the BBC’s reporting on China is instigated by foreign actors and intelligence agencies.</li>
</ol>

The report says that "to contest and blunt criticism of the CCP’s systematic surveillance and control of minority ethnic groups, the party will continue to aggressively deploy its propaganda and disinformation apparatus."

International rights groups estimate that over one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minority groups in Xinjiang have been held in internment camps since early 2017.

Uighurs who were once detained in internment camps in China’s Xinjiang region say they have been sexually abused and raped during interrogations by Chinese authorities, while also witnessing other fellow detainees being raped.

(With inputs from agencies)

China is consistently using social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook to attack the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in a state-backed disinformation campaign to undermine critical reporting by Western media of the human rights abuse of Uighur minorities in Xinjiang province.

China is consistently using social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook to attack the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in a state-backed disinformation campaign to undermine critical reporting by Western media of the human rights abuse of Uighur minorities in Xinjiang province. Also read: China bans BBC World News for its reporting on Uighur genocide, Covid-19 An Australian research group has said that China’s attempts to discredit the BBC show an increased sophistication in tailoring propaganda for Western audiences. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been actively running a social media campaign against the BBC after it aired a report on February 2 featuring Uighur women who alleged that detainees in camps in the province of Xinjiang were systematically raped, sexually abused and tortured. China’s Foreign Ministry denied the allegations and accused the BBC of making a “false report.” According to a report published by a think tank — Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) provides a snapshot of the CCP’s ongoing coordinated response targeting the BBC, which leveraged YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and was broadly framed around three prominent narratives: That the BBC spreads disinformation and is biased against China That the BBC’s domestic audiences think that it’s biased and not to be trusted That the BBC’s reporting on China is instigated by foreign actors and intelligence agencies. The report says that "to contest and blunt criticism of the CCP’s systematic surveillance and control of minority ethnic groups, the party will continue to aggressively deploy its propaganda and disinformation apparatus." International rights groups estimate that over one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking minority groups in Xinjiang have been held in internment camps since early 2017. Uighurs who were once detained in internment camps in China’s Xinjiang region say they have been sexually abused and raped during interrogations by Chinese authorities, while also witnessing other fellow detainees being raped. (With inputs from agencies)

China using social media to discredit BBC in state propaganda campaign, says Australian think tank

A World Health Organisation (WHO) team investigating the origins of the novel coronavirus is planning to scrap an interim report on its recent mission to China.

The latest development has come amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington over the investigation and an appeal from one international group of scientists for a new probe, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The group of two dozen scientists have, in an open letter, called for a new international inquiry. They say the WHO team that last month completed a mission to Wuhan -- the Chinese city where the first known cases were found -- had insufficient access to adequately investigate possible sources of the virus.

Their appeal comes close on the heels of the US saying it is waiting to scrutinise the report on the Wuhan mission.

The US has also urged China to release all relevant data, including on the first confirmed infections in December 2019, and potential earlier ones.

Beijing, meanwhile, has pressed for similar WHO-led missions to other countries, including the US, to investigate whether the virus could have originated outside China and spread to Wuhan via frozen food packaging.

The leader of the WHO team has said that studies should be carried out to find if the virus was imported into China, adding it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab.

The findings of the WHO report came as a relief for the Chinese who have repeatedly denied owning up to any responsibility for the origination of the virus.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) team investigating the origins of the novel coronavirus is planning to scrap an interim report on its recent mission to China. The latest development has come amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington over the investigation and an appeal from one international group of scientists for a new probe, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) team investigating the origins of the novel coronavirus is planning to scrap an interim report on its recent mission to China. The latest development has come amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington over the investigation and an appeal from one international group of scientists for a new probe, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The group of two dozen scientists have, in an open letter, called for a new international inquiry. They say the WHO team that last month completed a mission to Wuhan -- the Chinese city where the first known cases were found -- had insufficient access to adequately investigate possible sources of the virus. Their appeal comes close on the heels of the US saying it is waiting to scrutinise the report on the Wuhan mission. The US has also urged China to release all relevant data, including on the first confirmed infections in December 2019, and potential earlier ones. Beijing, meanwhile, has pressed for similar WHO-led missions to other countries, including the US, to investigate whether the virus could have originated outside China and spread to Wuhan via frozen food packaging. The leader of the WHO team has said that studies should be carried out to find if the virus was imported into China, adding it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab. The findings of the WHO report came as a relief for the Chinese who have repeatedly denied owning up to any responsibility for the origination of the virus.

WHO investigators to scrap interim report on probe of coronavirus origin

The US Senate is expected to begin debating President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as soon as Thursday.

The Democratic-controlled Senate is scheduled to reconvene to consider a motion to launch 20 hours of debate on the massive bill. Republicans' response to the motion will likely be an early indication of the steep opposition the bill faces in the chamber.

The Senate is set to convene despite a warning by the US Capitol Police that it had obtained intelligence about a militia group's possible plot to breach the Capitol on Thursday.

The House of Representatives earlier cancelled its Thursday session in the wake of the Capitol Police's warning.

The relief bill includes funding for vaccines and medical supplies, and among other things extends jobless assistance and provides a new round of emergency financial aid to households, small businesses and state and local governments.

But it will block individual Americans earning $80,000 or more a year or couples earning $160,000 or more a year from receiving stimulus checks.

The legislation passed by the Democratic-majority House of Representatives last week had a higher income cutoff - $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for couples filing their taxes jointly. The compromise means that 9 million fewer households will receive a stimulus payment than in the last tranche of payouts in 2020.

Democrats hope Biden can sign it into law before March 14, when some of the current benefits run out.

In the Senate, bills usually require the support of 60 senators. But the coronavirus relief bill is being advanced under a legislative maneuver known as reconciliation that allows passage with a simple majority vote.

The 48 Senate Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them control 50 seats, exactly half the 100-seat chamber, but Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, can cast votes to break ties.

The House version of the bill is 630 pages long.

(with inputs from agencies)

The US Senate is expected to begin debating President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as soon as Thursday. The Democratic-controlled Senate is scheduled to reconvene to consider a motion to launch 20 hours of debate on the massive bill.

The US Senate is expected to begin debating President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as soon as Thursday. The Democratic-controlled Senate is scheduled to reconvene to consider a motion to launch 20 hours of debate on the massive bill. Republicans' response to the motion will likely be an early indication of the steep opposition the bill faces in the chamber. The Senate is set to convene despite a warning by the US Capitol Police that it had obtained intelligence about a militia group's possible plot to breach the Capitol on Thursday. The House of Representatives earlier cancelled its Thursday session in the wake of the Capitol Police's warning. The relief bill includes funding for vaccines and medical supplies, and among other things extends jobless assistance and provides a new round of emergency financial aid to households, small businesses and state and local governments. But it will block individual Americans earning $80,000 or more a year or couples earning $160,000 or more a year from receiving stimulus checks. The legislation passed by the Democratic-majority House of Representatives last week had a higher income cutoff - $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for couples filing their taxes jointly. The compromise means that 9 million fewer households will receive a stimulus payment than in the last tranche of payouts in 2020. Democrats hope Biden can sign it into law before March 14, when some of the current benefits run out. In the Senate, bills usually require the support of 60 senators. But the coronavirus relief bill is being advanced under a legislative maneuver known as reconciliation that allows passage with a simple majority vote. The 48 Senate Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them control 50 seats, exactly half the 100-seat chamber, but Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, can cast votes to break ties. The House version of the bill is 630 pages long. (with inputs from agencies)

US Senate expected to begin debating coronavirus package on Thursday

Global police organisation Interpol said on Wednesday that police in China and South Africa had seized thousands of fake COVID vaccines. Interpol warned that this may well be 'tip of the iceberg'.

The Lyon-based Interpol said 400 vials -- equivalent to around 2,400 doses -- containing the fake vaccine were found at a warehouse in Germiston outside Johannesburg in South Africa, where officers also recovered fake masks and arrested three Chinese and a Zambian national.

"Whilst we welcome this result, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Covid-19 vaccine-related crime," said Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock.

In China, police identified a network selling fake vaccines. The investigation was supported by Interpol.

The police raided manufacturing premises, arrested around 80 suspects and seized more than 3000 fake vaccines

Interpol said that in addition to the arrests in South Africa and China it was also receiving additional reports of fake vaccine distribution and scam attempts targeting health bodies such as nursing homes.

It warned that no approved vaccines are currently available for sale online. &nbsp;

"Any vaccine being advertised on websites or the dark web will not be legitimate, will not have been tested and may be dangerous."&nbsp; 
Stock had warned in December in an interview with German weekly WirtschaftsWoche of a sharp rise in crime due to the vaccine rollout, with thefts and warehouse break-ins and attacks on vaccine shipments.

(With AFP inputs)

Global police organisation Interpol said on Wednesday that police in China and South Africa had seized thousands of fake COVID vaccines. Interpol warned that this may well be 'tip of the iceberg'.

Global police organisation Interpol said on Wednesday that police in China and South Africa had seized thousands of fake COVID vaccines. Interpol warned that this may well be 'tip of the iceberg'. The Lyon-based Interpol said 400 vials -- equivalent to around 2,400 doses -- containing the fake vaccine were found at a warehouse in Germiston outside Johannesburg in South Africa, where officers also recovered fake masks and arrested three Chinese and a Zambian national. "Whilst we welcome this result, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Covid-19 vaccine-related crime," said Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock. In China, police identified a network selling fake vaccines. The investigation was supported by Interpol. The police raided manufacturing premises, arrested around 80 suspects and seized more than 3000 fake vaccines Interpol said that in addition to the arrests in South Africa and China it was also receiving additional reports of fake vaccine distribution and scam attempts targeting health bodies such as nursing homes. It warned that no approved vaccines are currently available for sale online. "Any vaccine being advertised on websites or the dark web will not be legitimate, will not have been tested and may be dangerous." Stock had warned in December in an interview with German weekly WirtschaftsWoche of a sharp rise in crime due to the vaccine rollout, with thefts and warehouse break-ins and attacks on vaccine shipments. (With AFP inputs)

Fake coronavirus vaccines seized in China and South Africa, says Interpol

RIO DE JANEIRO — COVID-19 has already left a trail of death and despair in Brazil, one of the worst in the world. Now, a year into the pandemic, the country is setting another wrenching record.

No other nation that experienced such a major outbreak is still grappling with record-setting death tolls and a health care system on the brink of collapse. Many other hard-hit nations are, instead, taking tentative steps toward a semblance of normalcy.

But Brazil is battling a more contagious variant that has trampled one major city and is spreading to others, even as Brazilians toss away precautionary measures that could keep them safe.

On Tuesday, Brazil recorded more than 1,700 COVID-19 deaths, the highest single-day toll of the pandemic.

“The acceleration of the epidemic in various states is leading to the collapse of their public and private hospital systems, which may soon become the case in every region of Brazil,” the national association of health secretaries said in a statement. “Sadly, the anemic rollout of vaccines and the slow pace at which they’re becoming available still does not suggest that this scenario will be reversed in the short term.”

And the news just got worse for Brazil — and possibly the world.

Preliminary studies suggest that the variant that swept through the city of Manaus is not only more contagious, but it also appears able to infect some people who have already recovered from other versions of the virus. And the variant has slipped Brazil’s borders, showing up in two dozen other countries and in small numbers in the United States.

Although trials of a number of vaccines indicate they can protect against severe illness even when they do not prevent infection with the variant, most of the world has not been inoculated. That means even people who had recovered and thought they were safe for now might still be at risk and that world leaders might, once again, be lifting restrictions too soon.

“You need vaccines to get in the way of these things,” said William Hanage, a public health researcher at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, speaking of variants that might cause reinfections. “The immunity you get with your cemeteries running out of room, even that will not be enough to protect you.”

That danger of new variants has not been lost on scientists around the world. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pleaded with Americans this week not to let their guards down. “Please hear me clearly,” she said. “At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we’ve gained.”

Brazilians hoped they had seen the worst of the outbreak last year. Manaus, capital of the northern state of Amazonas, was hit so hard in April and May that scientists wondered if the city might have reached herd immunity.

But then in September, cases in the state began rising again, perplexing health officials. An attempt by Amazonas Gov. Wilson Lima to impose a new quarantine ahead of the Christmas holiday was met with fierce resistance by business owners and prominent politicians close to President Jair Bolsonaro.

By January, scientists had discovered that a new variant, which became known as P.1, had become dominant in the state. Within weeks, its danger became clear as hospitals in the city ran out of oxygen amid a crush of patients, leading scores to suffocate to death.

Dr. Antonio Souza remains haunted by the horrified faces of his colleagues and relatives of patients when it became clear his Manaus hospital’s oxygen supply had been exhausted. He thinks about the patient he sedated, to spare her an agonizing death, when the oxygen ran out at another clinic.

“Nobody should ever have to make that decision,” he said. “It’s too terrible.”

Maria Glaudimar, a nurse in Manaus, said she felt trapped in a nightmare early this year with no end in sight. At work, patients and their relatives pleaded for oxygen, and all the intensive care beds were full. At home, her son caught tuberculosis after contracting COVID-19, and her husband shed 22 pounds as he fought the virus.

“No one was prepared for this,” Glaudimar said. “It was a horror film.”

Since then, the coronavirus crisis has eased somewhat in Amazonas but worsened in most of Brazil.

Scientists have scrambled to learn more about the variant and to track its spread across the country. But limited resources for testing have kept them behind the curve as they try to determine what role it is playing.

Anderson Brito, a Brazilian virus expert at Yale University, said his lab alone sequenced almost half as many coronavirus genomes as all of Brazil had. While the United States has done genetic sequencing on roughly one in 200 confirmed cases, Brazil sequences about one in 3,000.

The variant spread quickly. By the end of January, a study by government researchers found it was present in 91% of samples sequenced in the state of Amazonas. By the end of February, health officials had reported cases of the P.1 variant in 21 of 26 Brazilian states, but without more testing it is hard to gauge its prevalence.

Throughout the pandemic, researchers have said that COVID-19 reinfections appear to be extremely rare, which has allowed people who recover to presume they have immunity, at least for a while. But that was before P.1 appeared and doctors and nurses began to notice something strange.

João Alho, a doctor in Santarém, a city in Pará, a state that borders Amazonas, said that several colleagues who recovered from COVID-19 months ago had fallen ill again and tested positive.

Juliana Cunha, a nurse in Rio de Janeiro who has been working at COVID-19 testing centers, said she assumed she was safe after catching the virus in June. But in November, after experiencing mild symptoms, she tested positive again.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Cunha, 23, said. “It must be the variants.”

But there is no way to be sure what is happening to people who are reinfected, unless both their old and new samples are kept, genetically sequenced and compared.

One way to tamp down the surge would be through vaccinations, but the rollout in Brazil, as in so many countries, has been slow.

Brazil began vaccinating priority groups, including health care professionals and the elderly, in late January. But the government has failed to secure a large enough number of doses. Wealthier countries have snapped up most of the available supply, while Bolsonaro has been skeptical both of the disease’s impact and of vaccines.

Just over 5.8 million Brazilians — roughly 2.6% of the population — had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday, according to the health ministry. Only about 1.5 million had received both doses. The country is currently using the Chinese-made CoronaVac — which laboratory tests suggest is less effective against P.1 than against other variants — and the one made by British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

Margareth Dalcolmo, a pulmonologist at Fiocruz, a prominent scientific research center, said Brazil’s failure to mount a robust vaccination campaign set the stage for the current crisis.

“We should be vaccinating more than a million people per day,” she said. “That is the truth. We aren’t, not because we don’t know how to do it, but because we don’t have enough vaccines.”

Other countries should take heed, said Ester Sabino, an infectious disease researcher at the University of São Paulo who is among the leading experts on the P.1 variant.

“You can vaccinate your whole population and control the problem only for a short period if, in another place in the world, a new variant appears,” she said. “It will get there one day.”

Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, who called the variant a “new stage” of the pandemic, said last week that the government was ramping up its efforts and hopes to vaccinate roughly half of its population by June and the rest by the end of the year.

But many Brazilians have little faith in a government led by a president who has sabotaged lockdowns, repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus and promoted untested remedies long after scientists said they clearly did not work.

Just last week, the president spoke dismissively of masks, which are among the best defenses to curb contagion, claiming that they are harmful to children, causing headaches and difficulty concentrating.

Pazuello’s vaccine projections have also been met with skepticism. The government last week placed an order for 20 million doses of an Indian vaccine that has not completed clinical trials. That prompted a federal prosecutor to argue in a legal filing that the $286 million purchase “puts millions of lives at risk.”

Even if it proves effective, it will be too late for many.

Tony Maquiné, a 39-year-old marketing specialist in Manaus, lost a grandmother, an uncle, two aunts and a cousin in the span of a few weeks during the latest surge of cases. He said time has become a blur of frantic efforts to find hospitals with free beds for the living, while arranging funerals for the dead.

“It was a nightmare,” Maquiné said. “I’m scared of what lies ahead.”

RIO DE JANEIRO — COVID-19 has already left a trail of death and despair in Brazil, one of the worst in the world. Now, a year into the pandemic, the country is setting another wrenching record.

RIO DE JANEIRO — COVID-19 has already left a trail of death and despair in Brazil, one of the worst in the world. Now, a year into the pandemic, the country is setting another wrenching record. No other nation that experienced such a major outbreak is still grappling with record-setting death tolls and a health care system on the brink of collapse. Many other hard-hit nations are, instead, taking tentative steps toward a semblance of normalcy. But Brazil is battling a more contagious variant that has trampled one major city and is spreading to others, even as Brazilians toss away precautionary measures that could keep them safe. On Tuesday, Brazil recorded more than 1,700 COVID-19 deaths, the highest single-day toll of the pandemic. “The acceleration of the epidemic in various states is leading to the collapse of their public and private hospital systems, which may soon become the case in every region of Brazil,” the national association of health secretaries said in a statement. “Sadly, the anemic rollout of vaccines and the slow pace at which they’re becoming available still does not suggest that this scenario will be reversed in the short term.” And the news just got worse for Brazil — and possibly the world. Preliminary studies suggest that the variant that swept through the city of Manaus is not only more contagious, but it also appears able to infect some people who have already recovered from other versions of the virus. And the variant has slipped Brazil’s borders, showing up in two dozen other countries and in small numbers in the United States. Although trials of a number of vaccines indicate they can protect against severe illness even when they do not prevent infection with the variant, most of the world has not been inoculated. That means even people who had recovered and thought they were safe for now might still be at risk and that world leaders might, once again, be lifting restrictions too soon. “You need vaccines to get in the way of these things,” said William Hanage, a public health researcher at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, speaking of variants that might cause reinfections. “The immunity you get with your cemeteries running out of room, even that will not be enough to protect you.” That danger of new variants has not been lost on scientists around the world. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pleaded with Americans this week not to let their guards down. “Please hear me clearly,” she said. “At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we’ve gained.” Brazilians hoped they had seen the worst of the outbreak last year. Manaus, capital of the northern state of Amazonas, was hit so hard in April and May that scientists wondered if the city might have reached herd immunity. But then in September, cases in the state began rising again, perplexing health officials. An attempt by Amazonas Gov. Wilson Lima to impose a new quarantine ahead of the Christmas holiday was met with fierce resistance by business owners and prominent politicians close to President Jair Bolsonaro. By January, scientists had discovered that a new variant, which became known as P.1, had become dominant in the state. Within weeks, its danger became clear as hospitals in the city ran out of oxygen amid a crush of patients, leading scores to suffocate to death. Dr. Antonio Souza remains haunted by the horrified faces of his colleagues and relatives of patients when it became clear his Manaus hospital’s oxygen supply had been exhausted. He thinks about the patient he sedated, to spare her an agonizing death, when the oxygen ran out at another clinic. “Nobody should ever have to make that decision,” he said. “It’s too terrible.” Maria Glaudimar, a nurse in Manaus, said she felt trapped in a nightmare early this year with no end in sight. At work, patients and their relatives pleaded for oxygen, and all the intensive care beds were full. At home, her son caught tuberculosis after contracting COVID-19, and her husband shed 22 pounds as he fought the virus. “No one was prepared for this,” Glaudimar said. “It was a horror film.” Since then, the coronavirus crisis has eased somewhat in Amazonas but worsened in most of Brazil. Scientists have scrambled to learn more about the variant and to track its spread across the country. But limited resources for testing have kept them behind the curve as they try to determine what role it is playing. Anderson Brito, a Brazilian virus expert at Yale University, said his lab alone sequenced almost half as many coronavirus genomes as all of Brazil had. While the United States has done genetic sequencing on roughly one in 200 confirmed cases, Brazil sequences about one in 3,000. The variant spread quickly. By the end of January, a study by government researchers found it was present in 91% of samples sequenced in the state of Amazonas. By the end of February, health officials had reported cases of the P.1 variant in 21 of 26 Brazilian states, but without more testing it is hard to gauge its prevalence. Throughout the pandemic, researchers have said that COVID-19 reinfections appear to be extremely rare, which has allowed people who recover to presume they have immunity, at least for a while. But that was before P.1 appeared and doctors and nurses began to notice something strange. João Alho, a doctor in Santarém, a city in Pará, a state that borders Amazonas, said that several colleagues who recovered from COVID-19 months ago had fallen ill again and tested positive. Juliana Cunha, a nurse in Rio de Janeiro who has been working at COVID-19 testing centers, said she assumed she was safe after catching the virus in June. But in November, after experiencing mild symptoms, she tested positive again. “I couldn’t believe it,” Cunha, 23, said. “It must be the variants.” But there is no way to be sure what is happening to people who are reinfected, unless both their old and new samples are kept, genetically sequenced and compared. One way to tamp down the surge would be through vaccinations, but the rollout in Brazil, as in so many countries, has been slow. Brazil began vaccinating priority groups, including health care professionals and the elderly, in late January. But the government has failed to secure a large enough number of doses. Wealthier countries have snapped up most of the available supply, while Bolsonaro has been skeptical both of the disease’s impact and of vaccines. Just over 5.8 million Brazilians — roughly 2.6% of the population — had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday, according to the health ministry. Only about 1.5 million had received both doses. The country is currently using the Chinese-made CoronaVac — which laboratory tests suggest is less effective against P.1 than against other variants — and the one made by British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Margareth Dalcolmo, a pulmonologist at Fiocruz, a prominent scientific research center, said Brazil’s failure to mount a robust vaccination campaign set the stage for the current crisis. “We should be vaccinating more than a million people per day,” she said. “That is the truth. We aren’t, not because we don’t know how to do it, but because we don’t have enough vaccines.” Other countries should take heed, said Ester Sabino, an infectious disease researcher at the University of São Paulo who is among the leading experts on the P.1 variant. “You can vaccinate your whole population and control the problem only for a short period if, in another place in the world, a new variant appears,” she said. “It will get there one day.” Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, who called the variant a “new stage” of the pandemic, said last week that the government was ramping up its efforts and hopes to vaccinate roughly half of its population by June and the rest by the end of the year. But many Brazilians have little faith in a government led by a president who has sabotaged lockdowns, repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus and promoted untested remedies long after scientists said they clearly did not work. Just last week, the president spoke dismissively of masks, which are among the best defenses to curb contagion, claiming that they are harmful to children, causing headaches and difficulty concentrating. Pazuello’s vaccine projections have also been met with skepticism. The government last week placed an order for 20 million doses of an Indian vaccine that has not completed clinical trials. That prompted a federal prosecutor to argue in a legal filing that the $286 million purchase “puts millions of lives at risk.” Even if it proves effective, it will be too late for many. Tony Maquiné, a 39-year-old marketing specialist in Manaus, lost a grandmother, an uncle, two aunts and a cousin in the span of a few weeks during the latest surge of cases. He said time has become a blur of frantic efforts to find hospitals with free beds for the living, while arranging funerals for the dead. “It was a nightmare,” Maquiné said. “I’m scared of what lies ahead.”

Brazil’s Covid crisis is a warning to the whole world, scientists say

African countries have now started the COVAX-AIDED vaccination drive as efforts to inoculate the world's poorest nations.

African countries begin COVAX-AIDED vaccination drive

The Centres for Disease Control & Prevention has sent out a stern warning of the possibility of the 4th wave of COVID-19 infections in the United States. This has come at a time when the National Public Health Institute has given the green signal to Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine.

Despite vaccines, CDC warns of a 4th wave of COVID-19 in US

While the world fears vaccine inequity could slow down the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, wealthy countries are politicising and wasting vaccines.

Europe bought 400 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines and is now wasting the life-saving drugs. In Germany, over 14,00,000&nbsp;doses of AstraZeneca vaccines have been delivered. It administered only 1,89,000 doses as of February 24. The number of unused doses stands at over 12,62,000.&nbsp;

In Italy, nearly 5,00,000 doses were delivered of which&nbsp;less than 1,00,000 were administered. The number of unused doses in Italy amount to over 4,02,000.

Belgium received over 2,00,000 doses of the vaccine, out of which it could not administer even 10,000 doses by February 24. The country has 1,91,000 unused doses of the vaccine, as per data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

According to The Guardian, four out of five of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses that have been delivered to the EU countries are yet to be used.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-do-eu-nations-not-trust-astrazeneca-367523">WATCH |</a>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-do-eu-nations-not-trust-astrazeneca-367523/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

What explains this? 
European countries have used 80 per cent of their available Pfizer jabs. Then why are they wasting the AstraZeneca ones? In January, French President Emmanuel Macron said the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was "quasi-ineffective'' for older age groups. Germany, France, and Poland are not using Astazeneca vaccines for those above 65 years of age citing the lack of clinical trial data on the elderly.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/france-lifts-restrictions-on-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-for-over-65s-367388" hreflang="en">France lifts restrictions on AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for over -65s</a>

The EU has approved the vaccine for all age groups. But national regulators are restricting the jabs to those below 65. In Germany, there is a call for updating the guidelines but there is also ample misinformation. In January, a German daily published a report which said the AstraZeneca vaccine maybe only 8 per cent effective among those over the age of 65. 
 
AstraZeneca called the report "completely incorrect'', and it was already denied by the German health ministry, saying that 8 per cent was the number of people in the study between the age of 56 and 69. Fewer than 10 per cent of the volunteers in the trials were in this age group, but results so far have been positive.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/astrazeneca-sells-stake-in-moderna-for-more-than-1-billion-report-367063" hreflang="en">AstraZeneca sells stake in Moderna for more than $1 billion: Report</a>

Reports say the jab is cutting the chance of people aged 80 and over from contracting coronavirus by 80 per cent just a few weeks after the first dose. 
 
Why are European countries not administering the dose to their elderly? 
France recently changed its mind after its Health Minister Olivier Veron said that the jabs would now be made available to those aged between 65-75 with serious health risks.

Europe was supposed to receive 80 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of March. In January, AstraZeneca said it may only be able to deliver around 31 million doses - 60 per cent less than the agreed amount. While AstraZeneca was citing producing issues at a Belgium factory, European Union called it a breach of contract.

While the world fears vaccine inequity could slow down the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, wealthy countries are politicising and wasting vaccines. Europe bought 400 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines and is now wasting the life-saving drugs.

While the world fears vaccine inequity could slow down the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, wealthy countries are politicising and wasting vaccines. Europe bought 400 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines and is now wasting the life-saving drugs. In Germany, over 14,00,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines have been delivered. It administered only 1,89,000 doses as of February 24. The number of unused doses stands at over 12,62,000. In Italy, nearly 5,00,000 doses were delivered of which less than 1,00,000 were administered. The number of unused doses in Italy amount to over 4,02,000. Belgium received over 2,00,000 doses of the vaccine, out of which it could not administer even 10,000 doses by February 24. The country has 1,91,000 unused doses of the vaccine, as per data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. According to The Guardian, four out of five of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses that have been delivered to the EU countries are yet to be used. WATCH | What explains this? European countries have used 80 per cent of their available Pfizer jabs. Then why are they wasting the AstraZeneca ones? In January, French President Emmanuel Macron said the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was "quasi-ineffective'' for older age groups. Germany, France, and Poland are not using Astazeneca vaccines for those above 65 years of age citing the lack of clinical trial data on the elderly. Also read: France lifts restrictions on AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for over -65s The EU has approved the vaccine for all age groups. But national regulators are restricting the jabs to those below 65. In Germany, there is a call for updating the guidelines but there is also ample misinformation. In January, a German daily published a report which said the AstraZeneca vaccine maybe only 8 per cent effective among those over the age of 65. AstraZeneca called the report "completely incorrect'', and it was already denied by the German health ministry, saying that 8 per cent was the number of people in the study between the age of 56 and 69. Fewer than 10 per cent of the volunteers in the trials were in this age group, but results so far have been positive. Also read: AstraZeneca sells stake in Moderna for more than $1 billion: Report Reports say the jab is cutting the chance of people aged 80 and over from contracting coronavirus by 80 per cent just a few weeks after the first dose. Why are European countries not administering the dose to their elderly? France recently changed its mind after its Health Minister Olivier Veron said that the jabs would now be made available to those aged between 65-75 with serious health risks. Europe was supposed to receive 80 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of March. In January, AstraZeneca said it may only be able to deliver around 31 million doses - 60 per cent less than the agreed amount. While AstraZeneca was citing producing issues at a Belgium factory, European Union called it a breach of contract.

Why are wealthy European countries wasting AstraZeneca COVID-19 jabs?

A 29-year-old American man who has fathered dozens of children by offering sperm donations online has said that the demand has risen during the coronavirus pandemic.

Kyle Gordy from Los Angeles, California, USA, has travelled across the country to impregnate scores of women who have sought out his sperm.

He has also started the Facebook group Sperm Donation USA and says it provides a more personalised experience than a sperm bank.

<img alt="Kyle Gordy" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="57ba097f-ec0b-4260-9e38-87d93888568d" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Kyle%20Gordy.JPG" />

Gordy has fathered at least 35 children and keeps in touch with all of them.

Gordy said he first donated sperm to a lesbian couple who wanted a baby and he now has a website where women can contact him.

"I don't charge a fee for my&nbsp;sperm but ask&nbsp;that the "recipient" covers my&nbsp;travel expenses," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

A 29-year-old American man who has fathered dozens of children by offering sperm donations online has said that the demand has risen during the coronavirus pandemic.

A 29-year-old American man who has fathered dozens of children by offering sperm donations online has said that the demand has risen during the coronavirus pandemic. Kyle Gordy from Los Angeles, California, USA, has travelled across the country to impregnate scores of women who have sought out his sperm. He has also started the Facebook group Sperm Donation USA and says it provides a more personalised experience than a sperm bank. Gordy has fathered at least 35 children and keeps in touch with all of them. Gordy said he first donated sperm to a lesbian couple who wanted a baby and he now has a website where women can contact him. "I don't charge a fee for my sperm but ask that the "recipient" covers my travel expenses," he said. (With inputs from agencies)

Demand has risen during Covid pandemic, says sperm donor 'who has fathered 35 children'

Sri Lanka on Wednesday faced criticism over its plan to bury Muslim coronavirus victims on a remote islet.

Colombo banned burials of Covid victims in April, despite evidence they would not spread the virus. This resulted in forced cremations.

Sri Lanka's majority Buddhists, strong backers of the current government, are typically cremated, as are Hindus.

Muslims, who make up 10 per cent of Sri Lanka's 21 million people, challenged the policy, pointing out that cremations are forbidden under Islamic law.

The policy was revoked last week after a visit from Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who urged Colombo to respect Muslims' religious funeral rites.

However, in an apparent U-turn on Tuesday, officials proposed burying Muslim&nbsp;victims of the pandemic on the remote islet of Iranaitivu, 8.6 miles (13 kilometres) off the country's northern coast, sparking protests from locals as well as from Muslim leaders.

They held banners saying the one-square-kilometre (0.4-square-mile) island should not be used as a "graveyard" for the pandemic.

Ahead of Khan's visit to Colombo in February, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation criticised the cremations policy at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, citing similar religious concerns.

By Wednesday, Sri Lanka had recorded more than 83,000 coronavirus infections, with 483 related deaths.

Sri Lanka on Wednesday faced criticism over its plan to bury Muslim coronavirus victims on a remote islet. Colombo banned burials of Covid victims in April, despite evidence they would not spread the virus.

Sri Lanka on Wednesday faced criticism over its plan to bury Muslim coronavirus victims on a remote islet. Colombo banned burials of Covid victims in April, despite evidence they would not spread the virus. This resulted in forced cremations. Sri Lanka's majority Buddhists, strong backers of the current government, are typically cremated, as are Hindus. Muslims, who make up 10 per cent of Sri Lanka's 21 million people, challenged the policy, pointing out that cremations are forbidden under Islamic law. The policy was revoked last week after a visit from Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who urged Colombo to respect Muslims' religious funeral rites. However, in an apparent U-turn on Tuesday, officials proposed burying Muslim victims of the pandemic on the remote islet of Iranaitivu, 8.6 miles (13 kilometres) off the country's northern coast, sparking protests from locals as well as from Muslim leaders. They held banners saying the one-square-kilometre (0.4-square-mile) island should not be used as a "graveyard" for the pandemic. Ahead of Khan's visit to Colombo in February, the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation criticised the cremations policy at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, citing similar religious concerns. By Wednesday, Sri Lanka had recorded more than 83,000 coronavirus infections, with 483 related deaths.

Sri Lanka's plan to bury Muslim Covid-19 victims on islet sparks outcry

Kenya received over a million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, while Rwanda said it was the first in Africa to secure shots from Pfizer, as efforts to inoculate the world's poorest nations accelerated.

With fewer resources and tougher logistics than other regions, African nations are racing to secure the doses needed to protect their roughly 1.3 billion people and allow the safe reopening of economies.

Africa has been relatively lightly hit by the coronavirus relative to other regions, recording 104,000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally, That is lower than national tallies in the United States, India, Brazil, Russia and Britain.

Kenya's batch, which arrived on a Qatar Airways passenger flight, is the first of an initial allocation of 3.56 million doses by the global COVAX facility.

"We have received ... machine guns, bazookas, and tanks to fight this war against COVID-19," Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe exulted as the doses arrived at Nairobi's main airport.

COVAX, which is led by the GAVI vaccines alliance along with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners, aims to deliver over 1.3 billion doses to 92 lower- and middle-income countries, covering up to 20% of their populations.

Backers of the initiative hope to level a playing field that has seen wealthier nations quickly vaccinate millions, ahead of poorer regions. Only a few African nations have started inoculating citizens with vaccines acquired outside of COVAX.

First shots under COVAX are arriving at several African nations this week, including Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda.

COLD STORAGE

In Kigali, officials said Rwanda will get the first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 shots to be dispatched to Africa under the vaccine-sharing scheme. The Pfizer vaccine presents an extra logistical challenge because it requires ultra-cold storage.

The batch of 102,960 doses were due in Kigali on Wednesday, hours after a flight landed carrying 240,000 AstraZeneca doses from the Serum Institute of India, the health ministry said. The government has installed special infrastructure to keep the vaccine at -70 degrees.

"Rwanda is one of the first countries among the low income countries to have ultra-cold chain," said Fode Ndiaye, the United Nations' resident coordinator.

Rwanda plans to start its vaccination drive on Friday, prioritising frontline health workers and others at high risk. It hopes to vaccinate 30% of its roughly 12 million people before the end of this year.

Africa has reported relatively few COVID-19 deaths compared with other continents, but economies across the continent are also reeling from lockdown measures.

Kenya, which has so far recorded 106,470 infections and 1,863 deaths from the virus, has taken a major economic hit from the virus, which cut the flow of tourists, a crucial source of foreign exchange and jobs.

Nairobi plans to prioritise 400,000 health workers nationwide in a vaccination campaign starting on Friday, the health ministry said.

It will join Ivory Coast, Ghana and South Africa among the nations in sub-Saharan Africa to start vaccination drives.

Kenya received over a million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, while Rwanda said it was the first in Africa to secure shots from Pfizer, as efforts to inoculate the world's poorest nations accelerated.

Kenya received over a million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, while Rwanda said it was the first in Africa to secure shots from Pfizer, as efforts to inoculate the world's poorest nations accelerated. With fewer resources and tougher logistics than other regions, African nations are racing to secure the doses needed to protect their roughly 1.3 billion people and allow the safe reopening of economies. Africa has been relatively lightly hit by the coronavirus relative to other regions, recording 104,000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally, That is lower than national tallies in the United States, India, Brazil, Russia and Britain. Kenya's batch, which arrived on a Qatar Airways passenger flight, is the first of an initial allocation of 3.56 million doses by the global COVAX facility. "We have received ... machine guns, bazookas, and tanks to fight this war against COVID-19," Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe exulted as the doses arrived at Nairobi's main airport. COVAX, which is led by the GAVI vaccines alliance along with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners, aims to deliver over 1.3 billion doses to 92 lower- and middle-income countries, covering up to 20% of their populations. Backers of the initiative hope to level a playing field that has seen wealthier nations quickly vaccinate millions, ahead of poorer regions. Only a few African nations have started inoculating citizens with vaccines acquired outside of COVAX. First shots under COVAX are arriving at several African nations this week, including Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda. COLD STORAGE In Kigali, officials said Rwanda will get the first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 shots to be dispatched to Africa under the vaccine-sharing scheme. The Pfizer vaccine presents an extra logistical challenge because it requires ultra-cold storage. The batch of 102,960 doses were due in Kigali on Wednesday, hours after a flight landed carrying 240,000 AstraZeneca doses from the Serum Institute of India, the health ministry said. The government has installed special infrastructure to keep the vaccine at -70 degrees. "Rwanda is one of the first countries among the low income countries to have ultra-cold chain," said Fode Ndiaye, the United Nations' resident coordinator. Rwanda plans to start its vaccination drive on Friday, prioritising frontline health workers and others at high risk. It hopes to vaccinate 30% of its roughly 12 million people before the end of this year. Africa has reported relatively few COVID-19 deaths compared with other continents, but economies across the continent are also reeling from lockdown measures. Kenya, which has so far recorded 106,470 infections and 1,863 deaths from the virus, has taken a major economic hit from the virus, which cut the flow of tourists, a crucial source of foreign exchange and jobs. Nairobi plans to prioritise 400,000 health workers nationwide in a vaccination campaign starting on Friday, the health ministry said. It will join Ivory Coast, Ghana and South Africa among the nations in sub-Saharan Africa to start vaccination drives.

Kenya calls first vaccines 'bazookas', Rwanda secures Pfizer shots

Brazil on Tuesday registered a record 1,641 deaths in 24 hours from Covid-19, health authorities announced, as the country endures a further worsening of the pandemic.

The country of 212 million inhabitants has recorded a total of 257,361 Covid-19 deaths, according to the health ministry, and has the second-highest national death count after the United States.

Brazil continues to have a piecemeal response, with individual cities and states setting their own policies in the face of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's repeated attacks on restrictive measures and face masks.

Several cities and states last week began imposing a new round of restrictions in a bid to avoid overwhelming their already stretched hospitals.

The country began vaccinating in mid-January, but is far off-pace to meet a government pledge of immunizing the entire population by the end of the year.

Brazil on Tuesday registered a record 1,641 deaths in 24 hours from Covid-19, health authorities announced, as the country endures a further worsening of the pandemic.

Brazil on Tuesday registered a record 1,641 deaths in 24 hours from Covid-19, health authorities announced, as the country endures a further worsening of the pandemic. The country of 212 million inhabitants has recorded a total of 257,361 Covid-19 deaths, according to the health ministry, and has the second-highest national death count after the United States. Brazil continues to have a piecemeal response, with individual cities and states setting their own policies in the face of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's repeated attacks on restrictive measures and face masks. Several cities and states last week began imposing a new round of restrictions in a bid to avoid overwhelming their already stretched hospitals. The country began vaccinating in mid-January, but is far off-pace to meet a government pledge of immunizing the entire population by the end of the year.

Brazil reports record 1,641 Covid deaths in 24 hours

An explosion on Wednesday rattled a coronavirus testing centre north of Amsterdam, shattering windows but causing no injuries in what police called an intentional attack.

An explosives team was on site in the town of Bovenkarspel, 55 km (35 miles) north of the capital, to examine the device, police in the province of North Holland said.

The metal remains of the explosive, about 10 cm by 10 cm (4 inches by 4 inches) in size, were later found in front of the building.

A security guard who was inside the testing centre at the time was not injured, national broadcaster NOS reported.

The incident comes shortly before national elections on March 17, widely seen as a referendum on the government's handling of the pandemic.

Another test location was burned down during several days of rioting in January sparked by the introduction of a night-time curfew from 9 pm to 4.30 am.

The region around Bovenkarspel, a rural town, is currently suffering one of the Netherlands' worst COVID-19 outbreaks, with 181 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with around 27 per 100,000 nationally. At least one hospital has been forced to send patients to other provinces due to lack of space in its intensive care units.

(with inputs)

An explosion on Wednesday rattled a coronavirus testing centre north of Amsterdam, shattering windows but causing no injuries in what police called an intentional attack.

An explosion on Wednesday rattled a coronavirus testing centre north of Amsterdam, shattering windows but causing no injuries in what police called an intentional attack. An explosives team was on site in the town of Bovenkarspel, 55 km (35 miles) north of the capital, to examine the device, police in the province of North Holland said. The metal remains of the explosive, about 10 cm by 10 cm (4 inches by 4 inches) in size, were later found in front of the building. A security guard who was inside the testing centre at the time was not injured, national broadcaster NOS reported. The incident comes shortly before national elections on March 17, widely seen as a referendum on the government's handling of the pandemic. Another test location was burned down during several days of rioting in January sparked by the introduction of a night-time curfew from 9 pm to 4.30 am. The region around Bovenkarspel, a rural town, is currently suffering one of the Netherlands' worst COVID-19 outbreaks, with 181 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with around 27 per 100,000 nationally. At least one hospital has been forced to send patients to other provinces due to lack of space in its intensive care units. (with inputs)

Explosion at Dutch Covid test centre appears intentional, police say

The global tally for confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed above 114.4 million on Tuesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University

Can a fourth wave of COVID-19 be prevented?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr&nbsp;Zelensky&nbsp;on Tuesday received a coronavirus vaccine injection in the war-torn east, saying there was nothing to fear and urging others to follow his example.

The 43-year-old Ukrainian leader released a topless picture of himself receiving his jab, with a health worker disinfecting his shoulder.

"There is nothing to be afraid of. I am setting a personal example,"&nbsp;Zelensky&nbsp;said in a post on Instagram, ahead of talks with visiting European Council chief Charles Michel.

"Did this on the frontline with our soldiers," he added on Twitter.&nbsp;

Zelensky&nbsp;received the jab in Severodonetsk, a government-controlled town located roughly 70 kilometres (44 miles) northwest of the separatist stronghold Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, his spokeswoman Yulia Mendel said.

Last week the ex-Soviet nation of 40 million people launched a nationwide vaccination campaign, following delays that sparked anger against the government in one of Europe's poorest countries.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/ukraine-disposes-unused-coronavirus-shots-as-medical-workers-skip-vaccinations-367327" hreflang="en">Ukraine disposes unused coronavirus shots as medical workers skip vaccinations</a>

Ukraine has banned the use of one of the most popular vaccines in former Soviet republics, the Russian-developed Sputnik V jab, and instead has sought to source vaccine doses elsewhere.

It last week received 500,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, marketed under the name Covishield and produced in India.

Zelensky&nbsp;said he had received an AstraZeneca dose, in an apparent attempt to overcome scepticism towards the jab from the British-Swedish firm.&nbsp;

"I believe it's a quality vaccine, one of the best in the world," he said in a statement.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/ukrainian-president-zelensky-rejects-trumps-claim-that-ukraine-is-corrupt-280875" hreflang="en">Ukrainian President Zelensky rejects Trump's claim that Ukraine is corrupt</a>

In November last year,&nbsp;Zelensky&nbsp;tested positive for the coronavirus and spent two weeks in self-isolation, first at home and then in a clinic. He said Tuesday that his antibody levels were "very low."

Ukraine's health ministry said that nearly 5,000 people had been vaccinated in the first six days of the vaccination campaign.&nbsp;

More than 1.3 million infections have been recorded in Ukraine and more than 26,000 people have died of the virus.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday received a coronavirus vaccine injection in the war-torn east, saying there was nothing to fear and urging others to follow his example.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday received a coronavirus vaccine injection in the war-torn east, saying there was nothing to fear and urging others to follow his example. The 43-year-old Ukrainian leader released a topless picture of himself receiving his jab, with a health worker disinfecting his shoulder. "There is nothing to be afraid of. I am setting a personal example," Zelensky said in a post on Instagram, ahead of talks with visiting European Council chief Charles Michel. "Did this on the frontline with our soldiers," he added on Twitter. Zelensky received the jab in Severodonetsk, a government-controlled town located roughly 70 kilometres (44 miles) northwest of the separatist stronghold Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, his spokeswoman Yulia Mendel said. Last week the ex-Soviet nation of 40 million people launched a nationwide vaccination campaign, following delays that sparked anger against the government in one of Europe's poorest countries. Also read: Ukraine disposes unused coronavirus shots as medical workers skip vaccinations Ukraine has banned the use of one of the most popular vaccines in former Soviet republics, the Russian-developed Sputnik V jab, and instead has sought to source vaccine doses elsewhere. It last week received 500,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, marketed under the name Covishield and produced in India. Zelensky said he had received an AstraZeneca dose, in an apparent attempt to overcome scepticism towards the jab from the British-Swedish firm. "I believe it's a quality vaccine, one of the best in the world," he said in a statement. Also read: Ukrainian President Zelensky rejects Trump's claim that Ukraine is corrupt In November last year, Zelensky tested positive for the coronavirus and spent two weeks in self-isolation, first at home and then in a clinic. He said Tuesday that his antibody levels were "very low." Ukraine's health ministry said that nearly 5,000 people had been vaccinated in the first six days of the vaccination campaign. More than 1.3 million infections have been recorded in Ukraine and more than 26,000 people have died of the virus.

Ukraine's Zelensky receives coronavirus vaccine in war-torn east, urges others to follow suit

Vaccine inequity continues to plague the world struggling to cope with coronavirus infections. Now, the world's richest countries have bought a billion doses of vaccine in excess. Specifically, they have bought a billion more vaccines than they need. This surplus is enough to vaccinate Africa's adult population.

An analysis undertaken by the "One" campaign claims that 27 European Union countries, along with Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States have already secured over 3 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-india-expands-its-vaccination-programme-367263">WATCH |</a>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-india-expands-its-vaccination-programme-367263/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Australia is home to 25 million-plus people, and it has purchased over 114 million doses of virus vaccines whereas it only needs around 60 million doses. Australia alone has purchased over 64 million extra vaccine doses. 
 
Around 130 countries have not received a single dose of the vaccine so far. "Vaccine equity is the biggest moral test before the global community", the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had recently said. India has passed this test in an exemplary manner by finding the right balance by not just inoculating its own, but also healing the world.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/doctors-in-ukraine-skipped-vaccination-appointments-forcing-officials-to-throw-away-vaccines-367231" hreflang="en">Doctors in Ukraine skipped vaccination appointments forcing officials to throw away vaccines</a>

India is running the world's largest vaccination campaign which began in January. India's priority was to innoculate its healthcare workers first, and over 14 million people have been vaccinated so far. India is now expanding its vaccination campaign. People above the age of 60 will now be getting the vaccines. Those above 45 with a medical condition are also eligible for vaccination.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his first dose of vaccine on March 1. The PM was administered a shot of Covaxin - a made-in-India vaccine which was produced by Bharat Biotech and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

India's prime minister put out this tweet with a picture of himself getting vaccinated. "Took my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at AIIMS. Remarkable how our doctors and scientists have worked in quick time to strengthen the global fight against COVID-19. I appeal to all those who are eligible to take the vaccine. Together, let us make India COVID-19 free!", he Tweeted.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/fauci-urges-americans-to-get-any-of-the-three-covid-19-vaccines-available-366898" hreflang="en">Fauci urges Americans to get any of the three COVID-19 vaccines available</a>

India is not just working towards making itself coronavirus free but is also helping the world fight the virus.

Nana Akufo-Addo, the President of Ghana became the first person to receive a vaccine from Covax - a vaccine alliance that aims to vaccinate poor countries for free. The jab that Nana aAkufo-Addo is seen receiving is free of cost and is from India.

Ghana was the first country to receive vaccines from Covax after vaccines from India landed in Ghana last week. At least 145 countries participating in Covax will receive around 337 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by mid-2021. India is helping the world recover from the pandemic as the world's richest economies continue to be overwhelmed by the crisis at home.

Vaccine inequity continues to plague the world struggling to cope with coronavirus infections. Now, the world's richest countries have bought a billion doses of vaccine in excess.

Vaccine inequity continues to plague the world struggling to cope with coronavirus infections. Now, the world's richest countries have bought a billion doses of vaccine in excess. Specifically, they have bought a billion more vaccines than they need. This surplus is enough to vaccinate Africa's adult population. An analysis undertaken by the "One" campaign claims that 27 European Union countries, along with Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States have already secured over 3 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines. WATCH | Australia is home to 25 million-plus people, and it has purchased over 114 million doses of virus vaccines whereas it only needs around 60 million doses. Australia alone has purchased over 64 million extra vaccine doses. Around 130 countries have not received a single dose of the vaccine so far. "Vaccine equity is the biggest moral test before the global community", the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had recently said. India has passed this test in an exemplary manner by finding the right balance by not just inoculating its own, but also healing the world. Also read: Doctors in Ukraine skipped vaccination appointments forcing officials to throw away vaccines India is running the world's largest vaccination campaign which began in January. India's priority was to innoculate its healthcare workers first, and over 14 million people have been vaccinated so far. India is now expanding its vaccination campaign. People above the age of 60 will now be getting the vaccines. Those above 45 with a medical condition are also eligible for vaccination. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his first dose of vaccine on March 1. The PM was administered a shot of Covaxin - a made-in-India vaccine which was produced by Bharat Biotech and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. India's prime minister put out this tweet with a picture of himself getting vaccinated. "Took my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at AIIMS. Remarkable how our doctors and scientists have worked in quick time to strengthen the global fight against COVID-19. I appeal to all those who are eligible to take the vaccine. Together, let us make India COVID-19 free!", he Tweeted. Also read: Fauci urges Americans to get any of the three COVID-19 vaccines available India is not just working towards making itself coronavirus free but is also helping the world fight the virus. Nana Akufo-Addo, the President of Ghana became the first person to receive a vaccine from Covax - a vaccine alliance that aims to vaccinate poor countries for free. The jab that Nana aAkufo-Addo is seen receiving is free of cost and is from India. Ghana was the first country to receive vaccines from Covax after vaccines from India landed in Ghana last week. At least 145 countries participating in Covax will receive around 337 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by mid-2021. India is helping the world recover from the pandemic as the world's richest economies continue to be overwhelmed by the crisis at home.

As threat of vaccine inequity looms, here's how India is helping the world heal

Both Donald and Melania contracted and recovered from Covid-19 during the 2020 presidential campaign.

Former Prez Trump quietly got vaccinated

In just a matter of weeks, two variants of the coronavirus have become so familiar that you can hear their inscrutable alphanumeric names regularly uttered on television news.

B.1.1.7, first identified in Britain, has demonstrated the power to spread far and fast. In South Africa, a mutant called B.1.351 can dodge human antibodies, blunting the effectiveness of some vaccines.

Scientists have also had their eye on a third concerning variant that arose in Brazil, called P.1. Research had been slower on P.1 since its discovery in late December, leaving scientists unsure of just how much to worry about it.

“I’ve been holding my breath,” said Bronwyn MacInnis, a public health researcher at the Broad Institute.

Now three studies offer a sobering history of P.1’s meteoric rise in the Amazonian city of Manaus. It likely arose there in November and then fueled a record-breaking spike of coronavirus cases. It came to dominate the city due in part to increased contagiousness, the research found.

But it also gained the ability to infect some people who had immunity from previous bouts of COVID-19. And laboratory experiments suggest that P.1 could weaken the protective effect of a Chinese vaccine now in use in Brazil.

The new studies have yet to be published in scientific journals. Their authors caution that findings on cells in laboratories do not always translate to the real world, and they’ve only begun to understand P.1’s behaviour.

“The findings apply to Manaus, but I don’t know if they apply to other places,” said Nuno Faria, a virus expert at Imperial College London who helped lead much of the new research.

But even with the mysteries that remain around P.1, experts said it is a variant to take seriously. “It’s right to be worried about P.1, and this data gives us the reason why,” said William Hanage, a public health researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

P.1 is now spreading across the rest of Brazil and has been found in 24 other countries. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded six cases in five states: Alaska, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota and Oklahoma.

To reduce the risks of P.1 outbreaks and reinfections, Faria said it was important to double down on every measure we have to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Masks and social distancing can work against P.1. And vaccination can help drive down its transmission and protect those who do get infected from severe disease.

“The ultimate message is that you need to step up all the vaccination efforts as soon as possible,” he said. “You need to be one step ahead of the virus.”

Faria and his colleagues started tracking the coronavirus when it exploded in Brazil last spring. Manaus, a city of 2 million in the Brazilian Amazon, was hit particularly hard. At its springtime peak, the cemeteries of Manaus were overwhelmed by the bodies of the dead.

But after a peak in late April, Manaus seemed to have gotten past the worst of the pandemic. Some scientists thought that the drop meant Manaus had gained herd immunity.

Faria and his colleagues looked for coronavirus antibodies in samples from a Manaus blood bank in June and October. They determined that roughly three-quarters of the residents of Manaus had been infected.

But near the end of 2020, new cases began surging again. “There were actually far more cases than in the previous peak of cases, which had been in late April,” Faria said. “And that was very puzzling to us.”

Faria and his colleagues wondered if new variants might be partly to blame for the resurgence. In Britain, researchers were finding that B.1.1.7 was surging across the country.

To search for variants, Faria and his colleagues started a new genome sequencing effort in the city. While B.1.1.7 had arrived in other parts of Brazil, they didn’t find it in Manaus. Instead, they found a variant no one had seen before.

Many variants in their samples shared a set of 21 mutations not seen in other viruses circulating in Brazil. Faria sent a text message to a colleague: “I think I’m looking at something really strange, and I’m quite worried about this.”

A few mutations, in particular, worried him, because scientists had already found them in either B.1.1.7 or B.1.351. Experiments suggested that some of the mutations might make the variants better able to infect cells. Other mutations let them evade antibodies from previous infections or produced by vaccines.

As Faria and his colleagues analyzed their results, researchers in Japan were making a similar discovery. Four tourists returning home from a trip to the Amazon on Jan. 4 tested positive for the coronavirus. Genome sequencing revealed the same set of mutations Faria and his colleagues were seeing in Brazil.

Faria and his colleagues posted a description of P.1 on an online virology forum on Jan. 12. They then investigated why P.1 was so common. Its mutations may have made it more contagious, or it might have been lucky. By sheer chance, the variant might have shown up in Manaus just as the city was getting more relaxed about public health measures.

It was also possible that P.1 became common because it could reinfect people. Normally, coronavirus reinfections are rare, because the antibodies produced by the body after infection are potent for months. But it was possible that P.1 carried mutations that made it harder for those antibodies to latch onto it, allowing it to slip into cells and cause new infections.

The researchers tested these possibilities by tracking P.1 from its earliest samples in December. By early January, it made up 87% of samples. By February it had taken over completely.

Combining the data from genomes, antibodies and medical records in Manaus, the researchers concluded that P.1 conquered the city thanks not to luck but biology: Its mutations helped it spread. Like B.1.1.7, it can infect more people, on average, than other variants can. They estimate it is somewhere between 1.4 and 2.2 times more transmissible than other lineages of coronaviruses.

But it also gets an edge from mutations that let it escape antibodies from other coronaviruses. They estimate that in 100 people who were infected in Manaus last year, somewhere between 25 and 61 of them may have been reinfected by P.1.

The researchers found support for this conclusion in an experiment in which they mixed P.1 viruses with antibodies from Brazilians who had COVID-19 last year. They found that the effectiveness of their antibodies dropped sixfold against P.1 compared with other coronaviruses. That drop might mean that at least some people would be vulnerable to new infections from P.1.

“There seems to be an increasing body of evidence that suggests that most of the cases associated with the second wave are indeed sort of reinfections,” Faria said.

Faria and other researchers are now looking across Brazil to observe P.1’s spread. Dr. Ester Sabino, an infectious disease expert at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine, said that one of the new outbreaks arose in Araraquara, a Brazilian city of 223,000 people that did not have high rates of COVID-19 before P.1 arrived.

If people in Araraquara did not have high levels of antibodies before P.1’s arrivals, she said, that suggests that the variant may be able to spread in places without Manaus’ extreme history. “This might happen in any other place,” she said.

Michael Worobey, a virus expert at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the research, said it was time to pay attention to P.1 in the United States. He expected it would become more common in the United States, although it would have to compete with B.1.1.7, which may soon become the predominant variant in much of the nation.

“At the very least, it’s going to be one of the contenders,” Worobey said.

In their experiments, Faria and his colleagues also tested antibodies from eight people who received CoronaVac, a Chinese-made vaccine that has been used in Brazil. They found that the vaccine-generated antibodies were less effective at stopping the P.1 variant than other types.

Faria cautioned that these results, derived from cells in test tubes, don’t necessarily mean that vaccines will be less effective at protecting real people from P.1. Vaccines may very well provide strong protection from P.1 even if the antibodies they generate aren’t quite as potent. And even if the variant manages to infect vaccinated people, they will likely remain shielded from a severe bout of COVID-19.

For Sabino, the ultimate importance of P.1 is the threat that concerning variants pose when they can pop up anywhere in the world.

“It’s just a matter of time and chance,” she said.

In just a matter of weeks, two variants of the coronavirus have become so familiar that you can hear their inscrutable alphanumeric names regularly uttered on television news.

In just a matter of weeks, two variants of the coronavirus have become so familiar that you can hear their inscrutable alphanumeric names regularly uttered on television news. B.1.1.7, first identified in Britain, has demonstrated the power to spread far and fast. In South Africa, a mutant called B.1.351 can dodge human antibodies, blunting the effectiveness of some vaccines. Scientists have also had their eye on a third concerning variant that arose in Brazil, called P.1. Research had been slower on P.1 since its discovery in late December, leaving scientists unsure of just how much to worry about it. “I’ve been holding my breath,” said Bronwyn MacInnis, a public health researcher at the Broad Institute. Now three studies offer a sobering history of P.1’s meteoric rise in the Amazonian city of Manaus. It likely arose there in November and then fueled a record-breaking spike of coronavirus cases. It came to dominate the city due in part to increased contagiousness, the research found. But it also gained the ability to infect some people who had immunity from previous bouts of COVID-19. And laboratory experiments suggest that P.1 could weaken the protective effect of a Chinese vaccine now in use in Brazil. The new studies have yet to be published in scientific journals. Their authors caution that findings on cells in laboratories do not always translate to the real world, and they’ve only begun to understand P.1’s behaviour. “The findings apply to Manaus, but I don’t know if they apply to other places,” said Nuno Faria, a virus expert at Imperial College London who helped lead much of the new research. But even with the mysteries that remain around P.1, experts said it is a variant to take seriously. “It’s right to be worried about P.1, and this data gives us the reason why,” said William Hanage, a public health researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. P.1 is now spreading across the rest of Brazil and has been found in 24 other countries. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded six cases in five states: Alaska, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota and Oklahoma. To reduce the risks of P.1 outbreaks and reinfections, Faria said it was important to double down on every measure we have to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Masks and social distancing can work against P.1. And vaccination can help drive down its transmission and protect those who do get infected from severe disease. “The ultimate message is that you need to step up all the vaccination efforts as soon as possible,” he said. “You need to be one step ahead of the virus.” Faria and his colleagues started tracking the coronavirus when it exploded in Brazil last spring. Manaus, a city of 2 million in the Brazilian Amazon, was hit particularly hard. At its springtime peak, the cemeteries of Manaus were overwhelmed by the bodies of the dead. But after a peak in late April, Manaus seemed to have gotten past the worst of the pandemic. Some scientists thought that the drop meant Manaus had gained herd immunity. Faria and his colleagues looked for coronavirus antibodies in samples from a Manaus blood bank in June and October. They determined that roughly three-quarters of the residents of Manaus had been infected. But near the end of 2020, new cases began surging again. “There were actually far more cases than in the previous peak of cases, which had been in late April,” Faria said. “And that was very puzzling to us.” Faria and his colleagues wondered if new variants might be partly to blame for the resurgence. In Britain, researchers were finding that B.1.1.7 was surging across the country. To search for variants, Faria and his colleagues started a new genome sequencing effort in the city. While B.1.1.7 had arrived in other parts of Brazil, they didn’t find it in Manaus. Instead, they found a variant no one had seen before. Many variants in their samples shared a set of 21 mutations not seen in other viruses circulating in Brazil. Faria sent a text message to a colleague: “I think I’m looking at something really strange, and I’m quite worried about this.” A few mutations, in particular, worried him, because scientists had already found them in either B.1.1.7 or B.1.351. Experiments suggested that some of the mutations might make the variants better able to infect cells. Other mutations let them evade antibodies from previous infections or produced by vaccines. As Faria and his colleagues analyzed their results, researchers in Japan were making a similar discovery. Four tourists returning home from a trip to the Amazon on Jan. 4 tested positive for the coronavirus. Genome sequencing revealed the same set of mutations Faria and his colleagues were seeing in Brazil. Faria and his colleagues posted a description of P.1 on an online virology forum on Jan. 12. They then investigated why P.1 was so common. Its mutations may have made it more contagious, or it might have been lucky. By sheer chance, the variant might have shown up in Manaus just as the city was getting more relaxed about public health measures. It was also possible that P.1 became common because it could reinfect people. Normally, coronavirus reinfections are rare, because the antibodies produced by the body after infection are potent for months. But it was possible that P.1 carried mutations that made it harder for those antibodies to latch onto it, allowing it to slip into cells and cause new infections. The researchers tested these possibilities by tracking P.1 from its earliest samples in December. By early January, it made up 87% of samples. By February it had taken over completely. Combining the data from genomes, antibodies and medical records in Manaus, the researchers concluded that P.1 conquered the city thanks not to luck but biology: Its mutations helped it spread. Like B.1.1.7, it can infect more people, on average, than other variants can. They estimate it is somewhere between 1.4 and 2.2 times more transmissible than other lineages of coronaviruses. But it also gets an edge from mutations that let it escape antibodies from other coronaviruses. They estimate that in 100 people who were infected in Manaus last year, somewhere between 25 and 61 of them may have been reinfected by P.1. The researchers found support for this conclusion in an experiment in which they mixed P.1 viruses with antibodies from Brazilians who had COVID-19 last year. They found that the effectiveness of their antibodies dropped sixfold against P.1 compared with other coronaviruses. That drop might mean that at least some people would be vulnerable to new infections from P.1. “There seems to be an increasing body of evidence that suggests that most of the cases associated with the second wave are indeed sort of reinfections,” Faria said. Faria and other researchers are now looking across Brazil to observe P.1’s spread. Dr. Ester Sabino, an infectious disease expert at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine, said that one of the new outbreaks arose in Araraquara, a Brazilian city of 223,000 people that did not have high rates of COVID-19 before P.1 arrived. If people in Araraquara did not have high levels of antibodies before P.1’s arrivals, she said, that suggests that the variant may be able to spread in places without Manaus’ extreme history. “This might happen in any other place,” she said. Michael Worobey, a virus expert at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the research, said it was time to pay attention to P.1 in the United States. He expected it would become more common in the United States, although it would have to compete with B.1.1.7, which may soon become the predominant variant in much of the nation. “At the very least, it’s going to be one of the contenders,” Worobey said. In their experiments, Faria and his colleagues also tested antibodies from eight people who received CoronaVac, a Chinese-made vaccine that has been used in Brazil. They found that the vaccine-generated antibodies were less effective at stopping the P.1 variant than other types. Faria cautioned that these results, derived from cells in test tubes, don’t necessarily mean that vaccines will be less effective at protecting real people from P.1. Vaccines may very well provide strong protection from P.1 even if the antibodies they generate aren’t quite as potent. And even if the variant manages to infect vaccinated people, they will likely remain shielded from a severe bout of COVID-19. For Sabino, the ultimate importance of P.1 is the threat that concerning variants pose when they can pop up anywhere in the world. “It’s just a matter of time and chance,” she said.

Virus variant in Brazil infected many who had already recovered from Covid-19

Israel's Supreme Court on Monday banned the government from unprecedented usage of mobile phone data to track carriers of coronavirus.&nbsp;The court referred to the tracking measure as a grave infraction of citizens' civil liberties. 
 
The surveillance technology, created by Shin Bet counter-terrorism agency has been used by Israeli authorities intermittently since March 2020. As part of this move, carriers were able to track mobile phones nearby to ascertain who they've come into contact with.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/jab-but-no-tab-israeli-bar-offers-free-drinks-with-vaccines-364877/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Ever since the tracking measure began, civil rights groups had raised privacy concerns and moved the courts. In addition, lawmakers expressed doubt over the effectiveness of the contact-tracing tool.

The court, in its ruling, claimed that it feared the mobile tracking measure was slowly becoming permanent, as opposed to its introduction as a temporary emergency measure.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/israel-confirms-will-vaccinate-palestinians-with-israeli-work-permits-366906" hreflang="en">Israel confirms will vaccinate Palestinians with Israeli work permits</a>

To limit the indiscriminate usage of the surveillance tool, the court has ordered the government to end its usage by March 14. In addition, the court has ordered the government to limit questioning to confirmed cases of COVID-19, especially those who refuse questioning.

In its ruling, the court said it feared mobile phone tracing. "We hope this ruling will lead the government and the Knesset (parliament) to pause and change course from this slippery slope of using extreme and undemocratic means in the fight against the epidemic," the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, one of the groups behind the court, said in a statement.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/half-of-the-population-received-one-dose-of-covid-vaccine-says-israel-366408" hreflang="en">Half of the population received one dose of COVID vaccine, says Israel</a>

By December, surveillance accounted for 7 per cent of case detections in Israel, as per data released by the Intelligence Ministry. The Health Ministry investigations had accounted for the rest.

Officials though claim that the move has helped save many lives. "I think this is a crime against the health of Israeli citizens," Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch said on Twitter after the court's verdict.

Israel's Supreme Court on Monday banned the government from unprecedented usage of mobile phone data to track carriers of coronavirus. The court referred to the tracking measure as a grave infraction of citizens' civil liberties.

Israel's Supreme Court on Monday banned the government from unprecedented usage of mobile phone data to track carriers of coronavirus. The court referred to the tracking measure as a grave infraction of citizens' civil liberties. The surveillance technology, created by Shin Bet counter-terrorism agency has been used by Israeli authorities intermittently since March 2020. As part of this move, carriers were able to track mobile phones nearby to ascertain who they've come into contact with. Ever since the tracking measure began, civil rights groups had raised privacy concerns and moved the courts. In addition, lawmakers expressed doubt over the effectiveness of the contact-tracing tool. The court, in its ruling, claimed that it feared the mobile tracking measure was slowly becoming permanent, as opposed to its introduction as a temporary emergency measure. Also read: Israel confirms will vaccinate Palestinians with Israeli work permits To limit the indiscriminate usage of the surveillance tool, the court has ordered the government to end its usage by March 14. In addition, the court has ordered the government to limit questioning to confirmed cases of COVID-19, especially those who refuse questioning. In its ruling, the court said it feared mobile phone tracing. "We hope this ruling will lead the government and the Knesset (parliament) to pause and change course from this slippery slope of using extreme and undemocratic means in the fight against the epidemic," the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, one of the groups behind the court, said in a statement. Also read: Half of the population received one dose of COVID vaccine, says Israel By December, surveillance accounted for 7 per cent of case detections in Israel, as per data released by the Intelligence Ministry. The Health Ministry investigations had accounted for the rest. Officials though claim that the move has helped save many lives. "I think this is a crime against the health of Israeli citizens," Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch said on Twitter after the court's verdict.

Israel's Supreme Court restricts usage of coronavirus smartphone tracking

The United States has officially authorised Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, making it the third approved vaccine of the county. It is the first single-dose vaccine to be available in the US.

US approves Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use

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