Feb. 19 - Foreign ministers of the so-called Quad grouping of countries seen as a forum to stand up to China in Asia agreed that democracy must be restored quickly in Myanmar and to strongly oppose attempts to upset the status quo by force, Japan’s foreign minister said on Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his counterparts from India, Japan and Australia met virtually for the first time under the Biden administration and discussed Myanmar, COVID-19, climate, and Indo-Pacific territorial and navigation issues, the State Department said in a statement.
“We’ve all agreed on the need to swiftly restore the democratic system (in Myanmar),” and to strongly oppose all unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters.
“I stressed that, with challenges to existing international order continuing in various fields, the role we, the countries that share basic values and are deeply committed to fortifying free and open international order based on the rule of law, play is only getting bigger,” Motegi said.
The State Department said Blinken and his counterparts discussed counterterrorism, countering disinformation, maritime security and “the urgent need to restore the democratically elected government in Burma.”
They also addressed the “the priority of strengthening democratic resilience in the broader region,” it said.
The State Department said the four reiterated a commitment for the Quad to meet at least annually at ministerial levels and regularly at senior and working levels “to strengthen cooperation on advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region, including support for freedom of navigation and territorial integrity.”
Myanmar’s military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a Feb. 1 coup. The United States has responded with sanctions and urged other countries to follow suit.
President Joe Biden has said working closely with allies will be key to his strategy toward China, in which he has said the United States will aim to “out-compete” Beijing.
Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed in a telephone call last week to strengthen Indo-Pacific security through the Quad.
The United States and other Quad members are concerned about China’s extensive maritime claims in Asia, including in the South China Sea, where Beijing has established military outposts in disputed waters. In the East China Sea, China claims a group of uninhabited islets administered by Japan, a dispute that has plagued bilateral relations for years. (Reuters)
Feb. 18 - Hong Kong has formally approved China’s Sinovac vaccine for emergency use with the rollout starting on Feb. 26, the city’s health secretary said on Thursday, paving the way for residents in the global financial hub to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
Sophia Chan said the vaccine met the “safety, efficacy and quality requirements specified in Hong Kong emergency situations” and that the benefits outweighed the risks.
Patrick Nip, secretary for civil service, said the government expected to receive a million doses of Sinovac vaccines on Friday afternoon with vaccinations expected to start on Feb. 26.
Chan, who was speaking at a news briefing together with Nip, addressed what she called “doubts” about vaccine safety and said all vaccines authorised by the government have been assessed to be safe by experts.
“The vaccines give us hope of returning to normal lives.”
A Hong Kong government advisory panel on COVID-19 vaccines said on Tuesday it recommended Sinovac vaccine for emergency use.
The recommendation came after the government exempted Sinovac from publishing results of its third phase clinical trials in medical journals due to the “urgency” for vaccination.
The BioNTech vaccine – the first vaccine approved by Hong Kong’s Health department - was required to have results published in a medical journal before being examined by the advisory panel on COVID-19 vaccines.
Nip said the BioNTech vaccine would arrive in Hong Kong before the end of February.
Residents will be able to get vaccinated at 29 centres across the city with five offering Sinovac and 24 offering BioNtech vaccines. Priority will be given to health workers, over 60s and those working in cross-border transportation. (Reuters)
Feb. 18 - India will make COVID-19 molecular tests mandatory for people arriving directly or indirectly from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil in a bid to contain the spread of more infectious virus variants found in those countries.
India, which has reported the highest number of overall COVID-19 cases after the United States, detected the South African variant in four people last month and the Brazilian one in one person this month.
The government has said the South African and Brazilian strains can more easily infect a person’s lungs than the UK mutation. India has so far reported 187 cases of infection with the UK variant.
The government late on Wednesday said airlines would be required from next week to segregate inbound travellers from those countries. India does not have direct flights with Brazil and South Africa, and most people travelling from these countries generally transit through Middle Eastern airports.
“All the travellers arriving from/transiting through flights originating in United Kingdom, Europe or the Middle East shall be mandatorily subjected to self-paid confirmatory molecular tests on arrival,” India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.
All flyers will also have to carry a recent COVID-negative report before boarding any flight to India, except in extraordinary circumstances like death in a family.
India’s coronavirus infections rose by of 12,881 in the past 24 hours to about 11 million, while deaths increased by 101 to more than 156,000. It was the highest daily increase in cases in a week. The states of Kerala and Maharashtra have seen a recent uptick in cases possibly due to further reopening of economic and other activities.
A government serological survey released this month said nearly 300 million of India’s 1.35 billion people may already have been infected by the virus.
The country has also administered 9.2 million vaccine doses since starting its campaign on Jan. 16.
A survey conducted by New Delhi-based online platform LocalCircles, released on Thursday, found that half of its 8,211 respondents were willing to get inoculated, compared with a vaccine hesitancy of 69% in the first week of January. (Reuters)
Feb. 17 - Japan launched its COVID-19 inoculation drive on Wednesday by administering Pfizer Inc’s vaccine shots to Tokyo hospital workers, TV footage showed, as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga aims to defy the odds and hold the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
After vaccinating the initial group of 40,000 medical workers, Japan plans to move to the remaining 3.7 million medical personnel who come into contact with COVID-19 patients, and then to the 36 million people aged 65 or above. (Reuters)
Feb. 16 - France will keep supporting the people of Myanmar in their struggle for democracy, a spokeswoman for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.
The deployment of armoured vehicles in several cities and increasing use of violence was of serious concern, the spokeswoman added.
“Together with its European and international partners, France will continue to support the people of Myanmar in their struggle for democracy and the rule of law,” spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said in a statement.
Protesters in Myanmar kept up demands for the release of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and an end to military rule on Monday despite the deployment of armoured vehicles and more soldiers on the streets. (Reuters)
Feb. 15 - Indonesian tycoon Hary Tanoesoedibjo, a business partner of former U.S. president Donald Trump, launched on Monday construction on a movie studio as part of a tourism complex on Java island that is set to receive tax breaks.
Lido City is the umbrella project located around 60 km (37 miles) south of the capital Jakarta in the Bogor area, where the Trump Organization will operate luxury villas, a resort and a golf course.
The project has been designated a special economic zone (SEZ) for tourism, which means it can benefit from corporate tax cuts, luxury goods sales tax cuts and get some leniency on permits, PT MNC Studios International said in a statement.
“For around 1,000 hectares in Bogor Regency, a special economic zone permit has been obtained,” MNC Group executive chairman Tanoesoedibjo said in a text message, adding the movie studios will be wholly controlled by his company.Tanoesoedibjo told local media he hoped the Movieland studios will become a creative hub and Indonesia’s version of Hollywood.
Indonesia’s National Council for Special Economic Zones, which recommended President Joko Widodo approve the status, projected Lido City could attract $2.4 billion in investment and 3.17 million tourist per year through 2038.
Businesses investing 1 trillion rupiah ($71.92 million) or more in SEZs are eligible for tax holidays of up to 20 years that could be extended for two more years with a 50% tax cut.
It was not clear whether the Trump Organization would benefit from tax breaks since MNC has not disclosed any profit-sharing schemes over the management of the properties. Trump Organization is also partnering with MNC on another project in Bali.
In a 2019 visit to Indonesia, Donald Trump Jr dismissed any risk of conflict of interest in the Southeast Asian country and said the projects were among the last the Trump Organization signed up before his father became president.
The former U.S. President kept ownership of his global business empire, but handed off control to his two oldest sons through a trust while in office.
Meanwhile, MNC Group is undergoing debt restructuring after Singapore’s High Court on Jan. 29 ratified a bond restructuring, which will involve holders exchanging $231 million of notes for shares or new bonds, Refinitiv publication IFR said. (Reuters)
Feb. 15 - South Korea said on Monday it will not use AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine on people aged 65 and older, reversing an earlier decision, and scaled back initial vaccination targets due to delayed shipments from global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX.
South Korea had said it would complete vaccinations on 1.3 million people by the first quarter of this year with AstraZeneca shots, but it slashed the target sharply to 750,000.
The decision is largely due to adjustments in the supply timetable of the 2.6 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from COVAX, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Monday.
It did not mention any production issues in Europe for the delayed schedule, which it put down to administrative processes at COVAX, and reiterated that its plan to reach herd immunity by November remained in tact.
“We do not believe the adjustments in inoculations in February and March will impact our goal of herd immunity by November,” KDCA director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing.
South Korea also reversed its earlier plan on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine and said it would delay inoculation of the elderly using the shot until more efficacy data becomes available.
South Korean authorities said last week they would grant their first approval for a coronavirus vaccine to AstraZeneca, and would allow its use on the elderly, despite warnings from advisory panels about a lack of data on its efficacy in older patients.
Several European countries have warned that AstraZeneca/Oxford University’s shot should only be given to those ages 18 to 64, but the company has said it triggers a good immune response in older people.
South Korea’s first vaccinations will begin on Feb. 26, with healthcare workers and vulnerable residents, including the elderly, the first in line. (Reuters)
Feb. 15 - A coronavirus outbreak that sent New Zealand’s biggest city into a snap lockdown over the weekend involved the more transmissable UK variant, health officials confirmed on Monday, the first time the strain has been detected locally.
Auckland’s nearly 2 million residents were plunged into a new three-day lockdown on Sunday after three new COVID-19 cases were detected in the city.
Genome sequencing of two the cases - all three are immediate family - revealed they were the B1.1.7 variant. The source of the cases remains unknown, authorities said, adding they were scanning international genome databases for a match.
“We were absolutely right to make the decision to be extra cautious because we assumed it was going to be one of the more transmissible variants,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Facebook Live post on Monday.
The Auckland lockdown is the first in New Zealand in six months, after a hard shutdown early in the pandemic appeared to have largely eliminated local transmission. The country was ranked the best performing nation in an index by Australia’s Lowy Institute of almost 100 countries based on containment of the coronavirus.
The fresh outbreak prompted neighbouring Australia to suspend an arrangement that allowed New Zealanders to enter Australia without serving a 14-day hotel quarantine period.
New Zealand’s health department said on Monday there were no new cases of community transmission, but five in managed isolation facilities.
The country has reported a total of 2,330 confirmed and probable cases since the start of the pandemic, a fraction of those reported by other developed nations, including 25 deaths. Forty-seven cases remained active, health officials said on Monday.
In Auckland, long queues formed outside supermarkets after Sunday’s announcement as people tried to stock up on goods ahead of the implementation of the order that requires them to stay at home except for essential shopping and work.
The COVID-19 alert for the rest of the country was raised up a notch to Level 2, with all gatherings limited to 100 people. (Reuters)
Feb. 15 - Israel’s largest healthcare provider on Sunday reported a 94% drop in symptomatic COVID-19 infections among 600,000 people who received two doses of the Pfizer’s vaccine in the country’s biggest study to date.
Health maintenance organization (HMO) Clalit, which covers more than half of all Israelis, said the same group was also 92% less likely to develop severe illness from the virus.
The comparison was against a group of the same size, with matching medical histories, who had not received the vaccine.
“It shows unequivocally that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is extremely effective in the real world a week after the second dose, just as it was found to be in the clinical study,” said Ran Balicer, Clalit’s chief innovation officer.
He added that the data indicates the Pfizer vaccine, which was developed in partnership with Germany’s BioNTech, is even more effective two weeks or more after the second shot.
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, who have been tabulating national data, said on Sunday that a sharp decline in hospitalisation and serious illness identified earlier among the first age group to be vaccinated - aged 60 or older - was seen for the first time in those aged 55 and older.
Hospitalisations and serious illness were still rising in younger groups who began vaccinations weeks later.
Israel has been conducting a rapid vaccine rollout and its database offers insights into vaccine effectiveness and at what point countries might attain herd immunity. (Reuters)
Thousands protest in Myanmar on Feb 14, 2021, 14 days after the coup. (Photos: Naung Kham) - CNA
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Myanmar’s major cities for a ninth straight day of anti-coup demonstrations on Sunday (Feb 14), after a fearful night as residents formed patrols and the army rolled back laws protecting freedoms.
Engineering students marched through downtown Yangon, the biggest city, wearing white and carrying placards demanding the release of former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in detention since Myanmar’s military overthrew her elected government on Feb 1.Her detention, on charges of importing walkie-talkies, is due to expire on Monday. Her lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, could not be reached for comment on what was set to happen.
More than 384 people have been detained since the coup, the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said, in a wave of mostly nightly arrests.
Residents banded together late on Saturday to patrol streets in Yangon and second city Mandalay, fearing arrest raids as well as common crime after the junta ordered the release of thousands of prisoners.
In different neighbourhoods, groups of mostly young men banged on pots and pans to sound the alarm as they chased down what they believed to be suspicious characters.
Also late on Saturday, the army reinstated a law requiring people to report overnight visitors to their homes, suspended laws constraining security forces from detaining suspects or searching private property without court approval, and ordered the arrest of well-known backers of mass protests.
The coup has prompted the biggest street protests in more than a decade and has been denounced by Western countries, with the United States announcing some sanctions on the ruling generals and other countries also considering measures//CNA