China has announced that its requirement for travellers arriving in the country to go into quarantine will end on 8 January.

The measure is the latest in a series of restrictions to be lifted as China abandons its zero-Covid policy.

China is seeing an explosion in Covid-related infections and medical workers have said they are struggling to cope.

In his first comments on the changes, President Xi Jinping urged officials to do what was “feasible” to save lives.

State media quoted him as saying the country faced new situations demanding a more targeted response.

China has stopped publishing Covid statistics, but it is thought thousands of people may be dying every day.

Since March 2020, all passengers arriving in China have had to undergo mandatory centralised quarantine.

But the length of time has been progressively reduced, from three weeks originally to just five days at present.

Under the new rules, Covid will be downgraded from a Class A infectious disease to Class B, meaning that quarantine will no longer be enforced.

China’s about-turn on how it manages the pandemic has left Mr Xi in an uncomfortable position, analysts say.

He was the driving force behind the zero-Covid policy, which was blamed for restricting people’s lives excessively and harming the economy.

But having abandoned it, he now has to take responsibility for the huge wave of infections and hospital admissions, mainly among older people.

Public anger over the president’s handling of the pandemic is one of the areas in which he is most vulnerable.

By Robert Plummer – BBC News

L’article China to end Covid quarantine for foreign arrivals est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Lundi 28 novembre, les manifestations continuent en Chine. Les Chinois expriment leur refus des différents confinements ainsi que de la politique zéro Covid du gouvernement.

Des disputes entre force de l’ordre et manifestants, c’est le genre de scènes qui se multiplient dans les rues des villes chinoises. Plusieurs personnes ont été arrêtées pour ne pas avoir respecté les ordres de policiers. Pour empêcher de nouvelles manifestations, des barricades ainsi que des barrières ont été mises en place par les autorités. Dimanche 27 novembre, des manifestations historiques se sont déroulées dans les villes chinoises.

Une situation difficile à supporter

Les manifestants scandaient : “On ne veut plus de test PCR, on veut la liberté”. Pour des habitants français qui vivent en Chine, la situation est difficile à supporter. “Ce qui est dur, ce sont les tests PCR en permanence, les confinements qui peuvent arriver du jour au lendemain”, réagit Benoit Viguier, designer automobile. Les manifestants tendent aussi des feuilles blanches pour réclamer plus de libertés d’expression.

World Opinions + Agences

L’article Chine : les manifestations contre la politique zéro Covid continuent est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Urumqi residents angered after blaze killed 10 in a residential building under lockdown due to China’s zero-COVID policy.

BREAKING:

A large crowd has surrounded the Municipal Government building in Urumqi (Xinjang’s largest city).

It’s a rare case of a joint Uyghur & Han protest against the authorities.

It comes after 10 people died in fire in a high-rise under lockdown.pic.twitter.com/lmXcHQ5Ggp

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 25, 2022

A fire that killed 10 people in China’s Xinjiang region has sparked anger at the zero-COVID policy as Beijing faces increasing public disapproval over its hardline approach to stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

On Thursday night, 10 people were killed and nine injured after a fire in a residential building in the northwest region’s capital Urumqi, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

Chinese and overseas social media posts which have emerged since Friday claimed rescue attempts were hampered because of COVID lockdowns, and that residents could not escape in time.

China’s COVID policy has led to public frustration and some videos appeared to show crowds of people protesting against the policy in the streets of Urumqi, following demonstrations in other cities.

China has put the vast Xinjiang region, home to 10 million Uighurs, under some of the country’s longest lockdowns, with many of Urumqi’s four million residents barred from leaving their homes for as long as 100 days.

BREAKING:

A large crowd has surrounded the Municipal Government building in Urumqi (Xinjang’s largest city).

It’s a rare case of a joint Uyghur & Han protest against the authorities.

It comes after 10 people died in fire in a high-rise under lockdown.pic.twitter.com/lmXcHQ5Ggp

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 25, 2022

While the rest of the world is living with COVID-19, China has stuck with a strict “zero-COVID” strategy that relies on snap lockdowns, mass testing, lengthy quarantines, and border controls to stamp out the virus wherever it pops up.

Videos of the protests have been circulating online. One showed people in a plaza singing China’s national anthem with its lyric: “Rise up, those who refuse to be slaves!”, while others shouted they wanted to be released from lockdowns.

Another video shows dozens of people marching through a neighbourhood in the east of the city, shouting the same slogan before confronting a line of hazmat-clad officials and security personnel.

Posts on the Chinese social media platform Weibo said rescue vehicles were unable to get past electric cars to get to the residential building which was on fire. Rescue workers and residents were unable to move the cars which had not been charged because of the lockdowns.

City fire and rescue chief Li Wensheng said “a lack of parking spaces and a large number of private vehicles parked on both sides” caused rescue efforts to be delayed, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Urumqi police said in a Friday post on Weibo they detained a woman for “spreading online rumours” relating to the number of casualties from the blaze.

Urumqi Mayor Maimaitiming Kade issued a rare formal apology but denied allegations online, including that residents’ doors were sealed shut with iron wiring.

“Some residents’ ability to rescue themselves was too weak … and they failed to escape in time,” Wensheng said.

But social media posts showed many residents were locked in their homes because of COVID-19 controls.

China on Friday reported more than 32,000 infections in the past 24 hours, up from more than 31,000 reported on Thursday. The vast majority of the cases have been asymptomatic.

The numbers on Thursday and Friday surpassed a previous record set in April of just under 30,000 cases. That surge resulted in the commercial hub of Shanghai, home to 25 million people, being placed under lockdown which lasted for two months.

The newest wave has been accompanied by restrictions which have slowly tightened across the country.

World Opinions – Aljazeera

L’article China: Protests erupt over COVID curbs after deadly fire.. Video est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

The world is in the grip of an unprecedented hunger crisis. A toxic combination of climate crisis, conflict and Covid had already placed some of the poorest countries under enormous strain, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent grain and fuel prices soaring.

“We thought it couldn’t get any worse,” said David Beasley, director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), in June. “But this war has been devastating.”

Globally, the UN says, the number of people living with hunger, or chronic undernourishment, rose to as many as 828 million last year, an increase of about 150 million since the outbreak of the pandemic. There is a “real danger”, warned Beasley on Wednesday, that the ripple effect of Ukraine will cause it to rise even further in the months ahead – and that some countries will be pushed into famine as a result.

“The result will be global destabilisation, starvation, and mass migration on an unprecedented scale,” he warned. “We have to act today to avert this looming catastrophe.”

A toxic combination of climate emergency, conflict and Covid is pushing some of the poorest countries into an acute hunger crisis

What is famine?

In 2004, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization developed the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), as a tracking tool for global hunger. It has become the primary means of identifying famine, with a sliding scale from phase 1 (no or minimal food insecurity) to phase 5 (catastrophe or famine).

It defines a famine as an extreme deprivation of food where “starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition are or will likely be evident”.

To meet the criteria, an area will have at least 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food, at least 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition, and two people for every 10,000 a day dying “due to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease”.

If a number of households are experiencing famine conditions but not at the required level (20% of the population), or if local malnutrition or mortality levels have not reached the required thresholds for famine, those households will be put in the IPC phase-5 catastrophe category, even if the area as a whole is not in phase-5 famine.

Another term – used by UN agencies, aid organisations and the media – is “famine likely”. It is useful for situations in which, for instance, humanitarian access is limited. This applies to places where, although available information indicates that famine is likely to be unfolding, there is not enough evidence to meet the criteria for a full classification.

Where is famine most likely to occur?

According to the IPC, no area meets the criteria for a phase-5 famine classification. However, several countries – Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan – have sections of their population living with phase-5 catastrophic levels of hunger.

In Ethiopia last year, 352,000 people facing this level of hunger were living in the north, but the reality of the situation is unclear due to access issues.

In its June to September projection for Somalia, the IPC said there was a reasonable chance of famine unfolding in eight areas of the country in the event of widespread crop failure, food prices continuing to rise and humanitarian aid not being scaled up. About 213,000 people are expected to face catastrophic conditions. In certain districts the signs are bad: in the southern district of Baidoa, for example, home to tens of thousands of displaced people, the acute malnutrition threshold for famine has been breached.

If famine does occur, what is the likely human toll?

It is impossible to say for certain, but history has some lessons. The 1992 famine in Somalia is thought to have killed about 220,000 people, a total surpassed between 2010 and 2012, when another famine claimed nearly 260,000 lives, half of them children. The consensus was that the relief organisations had been too slow to act; by the time a famine had been declared, more than 100,000 people had already died.

The last time a famine was declared – in parts of South Sudan in 2017 – the official famine period lasted just three months and the death toll is thought to have been lower (there are no official figures available), partly as a result of a generous humanitarian response. In 2017-18, as part of that effort, UK government aid to the wider region totalled £861m. In 2021-22, according to Oxfam, aid to the four east African countries most affected by hunger (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan) was just £288m – two-thirds of the figure from the previous crisis in 2017-18..

World Opinions – theguardian.com

L’article Famine: what is it, where will it strike and how should the world respond? est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Moscow’s mayor has ordered unvaccinated people over 60 and those with chronic illnesses to stay at home, as Russia struggles with record Covid-19 deaths and infections.

Sergei Sobyanin said the restrictions would last four months, starting on Monday. Those affected will only be allowed to leave home to take exercise.

Officials blame the low vaccination rate and more infectious Delta variant.

Romania, Ukraine and Latvia also have record Covid cases now.

The Russian government has proposed a week-long workplace shutdown, from 30 October to 7 November, in the hope of curbing the new surge in infections. Many hospitals are now struggling to cope with the influx of Covid patients.

The official death toll from Covid on Tuesday was 1,015 – a new record. Saturday’s toll went above 1,000 for the first time in Russia’s pandemic. The number of new cases on Tuesday was 33,740.

In Russia, 35% of the population of more than 140 million people has had at least one jab against Covid – a lower rate than in most of Europe.

The authorities blame widespread suspicion of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for the low rate, but there have also been production delays.

Businesses in Moscow will have to let at least 30% of their staff work from home during the four-month period of restrictions announced by Mayor Sobyanin.

On his blog, he wrote angrily that out of three million Muscovites aged 60 and above, just 1.14 million had been vaccinated: “As a result, today 60% of Covid patients in intensive care are over-60 Muscovites,” he said.

Elsewhere in Europe:

• Romania has reported its worst Covid death figures so far: 574 in a day. Just over one-third of adults in Romania have been fully vaccinated – well below the average rate in the EU
• Latvia is introducing a strict lockdown lasting nearly a month, from this Thursday to 15 November, to tackle a Covid surge which has made its death rate among the highest in the EU. Its total of confirmed new cases last week was 49% higher than the week before
• In Ukraine, the daily death toll rose to a record 538 on Tuesday, and daily new infections have gone above 16,000, stretching hospital emergency wards to breaking point.

Latvia’s Baltic neighbours Estonia and Lithuania also have Covid infection rates among the highest in the EU.

More than 225,000 people have died from Covid in Russia, according to official figures – the highest toll in Europe.

World Opinions News – BBC News

L’article Covid: Moscow imposes new restrictions as infections soar est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

All of greater Sydney, the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong regions will enter a two-week coronavirus lockdown until 9 July and new restrictions will be in place for the remainder of New South Wales.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced the expanded lockdown – the first lockdown of greater Sydney since last year – would commence at 6pm Saturday, following crisis talks due to the growing number of exposure sites associated with the Sydney outbreak of the Delta Covid-19 variant.

The state recorded 29 cases up to 8pm on Friday, including 17 that had been announced Friday morning. Only 12 of those had been in isolation while infectious.

“We’re never afraid to take a decision we need to keep our citizens safe,” Berejikilan said on Saturday afternoon. “Unfortunately this is a situation where we absolutely have to.”

Until 11.59pm on 9 July, anyone in greater Sydney, the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong will only be permitted to leave their homes for essential reasons: shopping for food and essential goods and services, medical care or compassionate needs, exercise outdoors in groups of up to 10, and essential work or education where that cannot occur at home. There will be no curfew.

Weddings will be able to proceed on Saturday 26 June up to 11.59pm on Sunday 27 June but then cannot go ahead for the remainder of the two-week period.

Funerals can take place with up to a maximum of 100 people, with one person per four square metres and mask-wearing if indoors.

Berejiklian also asked people to use QR codes to check-in at all venues, including supermarkets and takeaway stores, no matter how brief the visit.

She said the length of the lockdown was necessary and flagged that support for businesses would be announced in coming days. She said the government would be pushing for commonwealth support payments for hotspots.

“If we’re going to do this, we need to do it properly,” she said. “There’s no point doing a three-day and then having the virus continue to bubble away in the community.”

She said if there was a dramatic change after seven days authorities would evaluate the situation but the best current advice was that two weeks was necessary “in order to make sure that we get to our target of zero community transmission, which has always been our target from the beginning of the pandemic”.

The remainder of NSW will move to restrictions including mandatory masks in all indoor non-residential settings and at organised outdoor events, no drinking while standing at indoor venues, no singing by audiences or choirs at indoor events or places of worship and no dancing at indoor hospitality venues or nightclubs.

Dancing will be permitted for the wedding party at weddings only, to a maximum of 20 people.

Anyone from the greater Sydney region who has arrived in a regional area on or after June 21 must observe a 14-day stay at home order from the date they left greater Sydney.

The lockdown was announced after crisis talks held on Saturday morning determined it should be expanded beyond the four council areas that had been subject to lockdown orders since Friday night.

More than 55,000 people were tested on Friday but the NSW premier said on Saturday morning “that’s where the good news ends” – with only 12 of the 29 new cases in isolation during their infectious period.

Berejiklian foreshadowed the lockdown due to the growing number of exposure sites beyond the Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick and the City of Sydney local government areas.

They included a workplace outbreak associated with the retail/wholesale business Great Ocean Foods in Marrickville, with staff and their household contacts asked to immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days and customers who had not used the QR code to check in asked to come forward.

The state’s chief health officer, Kerry Chant, said authorities were concerned that delivery drivers to that site had also become infectious, meaning anyone who received a delivery from Monday 21 June to Friday 25 June and their household contacts was also being asked to immediately get tested and isolate until further advice was provided by NSW Health.

Two other venues of concern were the Cheers Bar and Grill on George Street in Sydney, which was attended by a case in the early hours of Sunday 20 June, and the Rebel Sport store in Bankstown, which a case attended between 3.45pm and 4.30pm on Thursday 24 June.

“The situation overnight has highlighted that an increasing number of people have been undetected and infectious in the community,” Chant said. “Largely they were contained in the four LGAs, but now we are seeing the spread to exposure venues outside of those four LGAs, and that is the basis for my growing concern.”

The government reiterated its advice that people who live in the LGAs of City of Sydney, Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick, Canada Bay, Inner West and Bayside were not permitted to leave metropolitan Sydney.

The health minister, Brad Hazzard, said there was a “growing and more intense concern” from health authorities and the government about the Delta variant of Covid-19.

“The Delta variant is proving to be a very formidable foe,” he said. “No matter what defensive steps we are taking at the moment, the virus seems to understand how to counter-attack in different locations. That’s causing us a high level of concern.

“We had yesterday hoped to be able to continue community sport, but it’s become evident with the new cases that we’ve seen coming in today that that can’t continue.”

Hazzard also made a new public health order on Friday night enforcing compulsory face masks and at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine for drivers transporting international arrivals, including air crew.

Workers will have three days to get vaccinated before the vaccination order applies from 28 June. The mask order took effect on Friday night.

World Opinions News – theguardian.com

L’article NSW Covid outbreaks: Gladys Berejiklian locks down Sydney, Central Coast, Blue Mountains and Wollongong est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Canada and India joined European states in blocking flights from the UK while Europe-bound train services via the Channel Tunnel have been halted.

The new variant is said to be up to 70% more transmissible, but there is no evidence that it is more deadly.

There is also no proof to suggest that it reacts differently to vaccines.

Two meetings are taking place in Brussels on Monday – one involving health ministers and another with the EU’s crisis response team. But no decision is expected until Tuesday, when EU ambassadors meet.

A French official told the BBC’s Gavin Lee that they were desperate to reopen the borders “as soon as safely possible”, with one option discussed being the requirement that UK travellers – including lorry drivers – prove they have had a recent negative Covid-19 test.

World Opinions News – bbc.com

L’article Covid: Flights shut down as EU discusses UK virus threat est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.