TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021 www.thepeninsula.qa 21 JUMADA I - 1442 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 8493 Up to 5 numbers under 1 plan Terms & Conditions Apply Sport | 12 GWC logistics hub in Ras Bufontas Free Zone inaugurated Qatar's Al Attiyah wins stage 2 as Dakar battle begins to heat up Business | 01 2 RIYALS More health centers added for COVID-19 vaccination FAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA Within 10 days after launch of COVID-19 vaccination campaign, Qatar has seen considerable number of initial target group receive the vaccine and added more centres to provide the vaccine, a senior health official said yesterday. Managing Director of Primary Health Care Corpo- ration (PHCC), Dr. Mariam Abdulmalik, said that COVID-19 vaccines will be made available at health centers at Qatar Uni- versity, Al Waab and Al Khor. “Ultimately, we will have (the vaccine) in all health centers,” said Dr. Abdulmalik speaking at a press conference yesterday. The three health centres are in addition to Al Wajbah, Leabaib, Al Ruwais, Umm Salal, Rawdat Al Khail, Al Thumama and Muaither — that are already designated to provide COVID-19 vaccination. Dr. Abdulmalik also said that 10 percent of the initial target group has received the COVID-19 vaccine since its launch on December 23. “We hope that in the coming months the entire country will be covered (vaccinated against COVID-19),” said Dr. Abdulmalik. The target group includes people aged above 65 years (initially 70), healthcare workers with repeated exposure to COVID-19 and people with severe and chronic diseases. PHCC has also activated a dedicated hotline number 4027707 to enable those 65 years and over to book, cancel or re-schedule COVID-19 vac- cination appointments. At present the hotline is available from 7am to 11pm. “This number will be available to the elderly priority group (above 65 years of age) only at this stage,” said Dr. Abdulmalik. “To ensure that we are further prioritising those mostly at risk of severe complications from COVD-19 we have now activated a dedicated hotline number. This dedicated number will improve accessibility for our clients and encourage uptake of the vaccine by pro- viding further flexibility on appointment booking,” she added. On Sunday, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) announced that it has lowered the age threshold for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility from 70 years to 65 years of age. Vaccinations at health centers will continue to be given to people with pre-arranged appointments that fall under the priority groups — people aged 65 years of age and above, people with severe chronic conditions and healthcare workers with repeated exposure to COVID-19. Members of the community who are eligible for the vaccine will continue to be contacted through phone/SMS by the PHCC team to invite them to attend an appointment at one of the ten designated health centres. The vaccine will be offered more widely throughout year. MoPH has said that it is working with the pharmaceutical com- panies to ensure the next shipment of vaccines arrives in Qatar as early as possible in 2021 and everyone who needs to be vaccinated will be able to do so throughout the year. 71 winners of 14th Education Excellence Award announced SANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA The Organising Committee of Education Excellence Award yesterday announced 71 winners of 14th Education Excellence Award 2021 in a press conference held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The winners will be hon- oured at the conclusion cer- emony of the award scheduled to be held on March 1, 2021. Speaking at the press con- ference, CEO of Education Excellence Award, Dr. Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti, said the number of winners for 14th edition reached 71 out of 374 contestants in all nine categories. She said that the nine cate- gories include excellent student (primary, preparatory and sec- ondary school separately), excellent student of university, excellent teacher and excellent scientific research, master degree holder, PhD degree holder and excellent school. “Qatar Academy students secured the largest number, seven, awards in the primary level category, Al Bayan Prepar- atory School received two awards and Amina Bint Wahab Prepar- atory School bagged two awards for the category of preparatory grade and Qatar Banking Studies and Business Administration bagged three awards. Students of Al Bayan Sec- ondary School for Girls received three awards in the category of secondary grade, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar received five awards in the category of excellent uni- versity student,” said Al Sulaiti. A total of 19 students won the award in the excellent student category for primary grade while 51 students applied for the award. P2 Sponsorship transfer rules will preserve rights of all parties, Shura Council told QNA — DOHA Speaking in Shura Council on labor laws yesterday, the Minister of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs H E Yousuf bin Mohamed Al Othman Fakhroo said that the transfer of spon- sorship has rules, controls, and procedures that will preserve the rights of all parties. The Minister said that the number of workers who requested a transfer is few and that those whose requests were approved are smaller, adding that the law gave the worker the opportunity to submit a request to change the employer, but this request is subject to approval or rejection after communicating with the concerned parties. He pointed out that there is a platform for the transfer of workers in coordination with the Qatar Chamber. The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting yes- terday under the chairmanship of Speaker of the Council H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud. At an invitation from Speaker of the Council, the Min- ister of Administrative Devel- opment, Labour and Social Affairs attended the session to explain the articles in Decree- Law No. 18 of 2020 amending some provisions of the Labour Law promulgated by Law No. 14 of 2004, and to present the Ministry’s viewpoint on what was stated in the general debate request submitted by a number of the Council members regarding the change of employer and travel without notice for expatriate workers. The Minister of Adminis- trative Development, Labour and Social Affairs began the discussions, explaining that the Ministry is currently seeking to develop legal legislation based on the Qatar National Vision 2030, and within the framework of implementing the national strategy projects so that the labour market is modern and dynamic. P3 UDC’s The Pearl-Qatar, Gewan Island win four Arabian Property Awards THE PENINSULA — DOHA The United Development Company (UDC), a leading Qatari public shareholding company and the master developer of The Pearl-Qatar and Gewan Island, recently won four accolades at the 2020 Arabian Property Awards. The awards include the Mixed-Use Development award for The Pearl-Qatar, Best Mixed-Use Architecture for Gewan Island, Best New Hotel Construction & Design for Cor- inthia Gewan Island Qatar hotel, and Best Residential Property for Gewan Island’s private villas. Commenting on this recog- nition, Ibrahim Jassim Al Othman, UDC President, CEO and Member of The Board said: “These prestigious awards are a strong affirmation of our commitment in making The Pearl-Qatar and Gewan Island some of the region’s most remarkable destinations. P2 Amir to lead state’s delegation to GCC summit QNA / AGENCIES — DOHA/KUWAIT Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will lead the State of Qatar’s delegation participating in the 41st session of the Supreme Council of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), set to take place today in Al-Ula Governorate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, QNA reported yesterday. On the reconciliation aspects, the State of Kuwait announced yesterday that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Qatar reached an agreement to open airspace as well as land and sea borders starting last night. Foreign Minister of the State of Kuwait, H E Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah, said in a statement broadcast on Kuwait Tele- vision that Amir of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, held a phone call with the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and HRH Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The Foreign Minister of Kuwait added that the calls stressed the commitment of all parties involved to unity by signing the Al-Ula declaration, which he added would serve as a fresh start for brotherly ties unobstructed by any differences. He added that, based on a proposal by H H the Amir of Kuwait, the two sides agreed to open airspace as well as land and sea borders starting yesterday night. Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah added that H H the Amir of Kuwait expressed his great gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz for their com- mitment to the success of the summit. His Highness also expressed his confidence that leaders of GCC members and the Arab Republic of Egypt are keen to ensure that the summit will be one of reconciliation and solidarity, and that all issues could be addressed so that things could return to normal. The Gulf Cooperation Council 41st Summit will begin today at the invitation of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia with the participation of the member states’ leaders, KUNA reported. The summit will be hosted in the historic city of Al Ula in northwest Saudi Arabia amid the exceptional circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which reflects the keenness of the Gulf leaders to continue coordination and cooperation under the umbrella of this inter- connected system. On January 3, the GCC Sec- retary-General Dr. Nayef Falah Mubarak Al Hajraf pointed out that the economic file will be the title of the fifth decade of the GCC’s march by strengthening and supporting joint action to contribute to restoring economic recovery, restoring growth and returning to normalcy after the pandemic and achieving sustainable development goals. Kuwait announces agreement between Qatar, Saudi Arabia to open borders Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with Kuwait Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah, at Al Bahr Palace, yesterday. H H the Amir received a verbal message from the Amir of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, pertaining to the solid fraternal ties between the two countries and the prospects for enhancing and developing them, in addition to the joint GCC action. The message was conveyed by the Kuwait Foreign Minister. The State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reached an agreement to open airspace as well as land and sea borders starting last night. Gewan Island won the Best Mixed-Use Architecture Award.
Transcript
TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021 www.thepeninsula.qa21 JUMADA I - 1442 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 8493
Up to 5 numbers under 1 plan Terms & Conditions Apply
Sport | 12
GWC logistics hub in Ras
Bufontas Free Zone
inaugurated
Qatar's Al Attiyah wins stage 2as Dakar battle begins to heat up
Business | 01
2 RIYALS
More health centers added for COVID-19 vaccinationFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA
Within 10 days after launch of COVID-19 vaccination campaign, Qatar has seen considerable number of initial target group receive the vaccine and added more centres to provide the vaccine, a senior health official said yesterday.
Managing Director of Primary Health Care Corpo-ration (PHCC), Dr. Mariam Abdulmalik, said that COVID-19 vaccines will be made available at health centers at Qatar Uni-versity, Al Waab and Al Khor.
“Ultimately, we will have (the vaccine) in all health centers,” said Dr. Abdulmalik
speaking at a press conference yesterday.
The three health centres are in addition to Al Wajbah, Leabaib, Al Ruwais, Umm Salal, Rawdat Al Khail, Al Thumama and Muaither — that are already designated to provide COVID-19 vaccination.
Dr. Abdulmalik also said that 10 percent of the initial target group has received the COVID-19 vaccine since its launch on December 23.
“We hope that in the coming months the entire country will be covered (vaccinated against COVID-19),” said Dr. Abdulmalik.
The target group includes people aged above 65 years (initially 70), healthcare
workers with repeated exposure to COVID-19 and people with severe and chronic diseases.
PHCC has also activated a dedicated hotline number 4027707 to enable those 65 years and over to book, cancel or re-schedule COVID-19 vac-cination appointments. At present the hotline is available from 7am to 11pm.
“This number will be available to the elderly priority group (above 65 years of age) only at this stage,” said Dr. Abdulmalik.
“To ensure that we are further prioritising those mostly at risk of severe complications from COVD-19 we have now
activated a dedicated hotline number. This dedicated number will improve accessibility for our clients and encourage uptake of the vaccine by pro-viding further flexibility on appointment booking,” she added.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) announced that it has lowered the age threshold for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility from 70 years to 65 years of age.
Vaccinations at health centers will continue to be given to people with pre-arranged appointments that fall under the priority groups — people aged 65 years of age and above, people with severe chronic
conditions and healthcare workers with repeated exposure to COVID-19.
Members of the community who are eligible for the vaccine will continue to be contacted through phone/SMS by the PHCC team to invite them to attend an appointment at one of the ten designated health centres.
The vaccine will be offered more widely throughout year. MoPH has said that it is working with the pharmaceutical com-panies to ensure the next shipment of vaccines arrives in Qatar as early as possible in 2021 and everyone who needs to be vaccinated will be able to do so throughout the year.
71 winners of
14th Education
Excellence Award
announced
SANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA
The Organising Committee of Education Excellence Award yesterday announced 71 winners of 14th Education Excellence Award 2021 in a press conference held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
The winners will be hon-oured at the conclusion cer-emony of the award scheduled to be held on March 1, 2021.
Speaking at the press con-ference, CEO of Education Excellence Award, Dr. Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti, said the number of winners for 14th edition reached 71 out of 374 contestants in all nine categories.
She said that the nine cate-gories include excellent student (primary, preparatory and sec-ondary school separately), excellent student of university, excellent teacher and excellent scientific research, master degree holder, PhD degree holder and excellent school.
“Qatar Academy students secured the largest number, seven, awards in the primary level category, Al Bayan Prepar-atory School received two awards and Amina Bint Wahab Prepar-atory School bagged two awards for the category of preparatory grade and Qatar Banking Studies and Business Administration bagged three awards.
Students of Al Bayan Sec-ondary School for Girls received three awards in the category of secondary grade, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar received five awards in the category of excellent uni-versity student,” said Al Sulaiti.
A total of 19 students won the award in the excellent student category for primary grade while 51 students applied for the award. �P2
Sponsorship transfer rules
will preserve rights of all
parties, Shura Council toldQNA — DOHA
Speaking in Shura Council on labor laws yesterday, the Minister of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs H E Yousuf bin Mohamed Al Othman Fakhroo said that the transfer of spon-sorship has rules, controls, and procedures that will preserve the rights of all parties.
The Minister said that the number of workers who requested a transfer is few and that those whose requests were approved are smaller, adding that the law gave the worker the opportunity to submit a request to change the employer, but this request is subject to approval or rejection after communicating with the concerned parties. He pointed out that there is a platform for the transfer of workers in coordination with the Qatar Chamber.
The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting yes-terday under the chairmanship of Speaker of the Council H E
Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud.
At an invitation from Speaker of the Council, the Min-ister of Administrative Devel-opment, Labour and Social Affairs attended the session to explain the articles in Decree-Law No. 18 of 2020 amending some provisions of the Labour Law promulgated by Law No. 14 of 2004, and to present the Ministry’s viewpoint on what was stated in the general debate request submitted by a number of the Council members regarding the change of employer and travel without notice for expatriate workers.
The Minister of Adminis-trative Development, Labour and Social Affairs began the discussions, explaining that the Ministry is currently seeking to develop legal legislation based on the Qatar National Vision 2030, and within the framework of implementing the national strategy projects so that the labour market is modern and dynamic. �P3
UDC’s The Pearl-Qatar, Gewan Island
win four Arabian Property AwardsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA
The United Development Company (UDC), a leading Qatari public shareholding company and the master developer of The Pearl-Qatar and Gewan Island, recently won four accolades at the 2020 Arabian Property Awards.
The awards include the Mixed-Use Development award for The Pearl-Qatar, Best Mixed-Use Architecture for Gewan Island, Best New Hotel Construction & Design for Cor-inthia Gewan Island Qatar hotel, and Best Residential Property for Gewan Island’s private villas.
Commenting on this recog-nition, Ibrahim Jassim Al Othman, UDC President, CEO and Member of The Board said: “These prestigious awards are a strong affirmation of our commitment in making The Pearl-Qatar and Gewan Island some of the region’s most remarkable destinations. �P2
Amir to lead state’s delegation to GCC summit
QNA / AGENCIES — DOHA/KUWAIT
Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will lead the State of Qatar’s delegation participating in the 41st session of the Supreme Council of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), set to take place today in Al-Ula Governorate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, QNA reported yesterday.
On the reconciliation aspects, the State of Kuwait announced yesterday that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Qatar reached an agreement to open airspace as well as land and sea borders starting last night.
Foreign Minister of the State of Kuwait, H E Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah, said in a statement broadcast on Kuwait Tele-vision that Amir of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, held a phone call with the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and HRH Crown
Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
The Foreign Minister of Kuwait added that the calls stressed the commitment of all parties involved to unity by signing the Al-Ula declaration, which he added would serve as a fresh start for brotherly ties unobstructed by any differences.
He added that, based on a proposal by H H the Amir of Kuwait, the two sides agreed to open airspace as well as land and sea borders starting yesterday night.
Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah added that H H the Amir of Kuwait expressed his great gratitude to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz for their com-mitment to the success of the summit.
His Highness a lso expressed his confidence that leaders of GCC members and the Arab Republic of Egypt are keen to ensure that the summit will be one of reconciliation and solidarity, and that all issues could be addressed so that things could return to normal.
The Gulf Cooperation Council 41st Summit will begin today at the invitation of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia with the participation of the member states’ leaders, KUNA reported.
The summit will be hosted in the historic city of Al Ula in
northwest Saudi Arabia amid the exceptional circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which reflects the keenness of the Gulf leaders to continue coordination and cooperation under the umbrella of this inter-
connected system.On January 3, the GCC Sec-
retary-General Dr. Nayef Falah Mubarak Al Hajraf pointed out that the economic file will be the title of the fifth decade of the GCC’s march by
strengthening and supporting joint action to contribute to restoring economic recovery, restoring growth and returning to normalcy after the pandemic and achieving sustainable development goals.
Kuwait announces agreement between
Qatar, Saudi Arabia to open borders
Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with Kuwait Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah, at Al Bahr Palace, yesterday. H H the Amir received a verbal message from the Amir of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, pertaining to the solid fraternal ties between the two countries and the prospects for enhancing and developing them, in addition to the joint GCC action. The message was conveyed by the Kuwait Foreign Minister.
The State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reached an agreement to open airspace as well as land and sea borders starting last night.
Gewan Island won the Best Mixed-Use Architecture Award.
02 TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021HOME
HMC studies
impact of staying
at home on
people's lifestyle
THE PENINSULA — DOHA
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has urged the public to take part in a research on the impact of ‘staying at home’ during the COVID 19 pandemic on lifestyle of Qatar’s popu-lation.
A team of researchers from the Community Medicine Department at HMC is con-ducting the research among people above the age of 18 years.
“We invite you to fill an online survey which will take 10 to 15 minutes to answer, designated for people of 18-years-old and above who have stayed in Qatar for at least two months from March to August 2020,” said HMC on its social media accounts yesterday.
The survey is available in four languages — English, Arabic, Malayalam and Urdu.
139 referred to prosecution for not wearing masksQNA — DOHA
The designated authorities yesterday referred 139 people to the Public Prosecution for not wearing masks in places where they are mandatory.
The measure is in line with the Cabinet decision, Decree Law No. 17 of 1990 on infectious diseases, and the precautionary measures in force in the country to contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
The designated authorities called on the public to adhere to the precaut ionary measures announced by the Ministry of Public Health to ensure their safety and the safety of others.
Qatar, Kuwait FMs review ties
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met yesterday with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Kuwait H E Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah, who is currently visiting the country. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral cooperation and relations and issues of common concern.
Qatar Visa Center in Colombo to reopen soon: MoI officialSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA
As part of the reopening of Qatar Visa Centres abroad, the Colombo Centre in Sri Lanka would be operational soon, a senior official at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said.
“We have reopened the Qatar Visa Centres abroad in India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Nepal, and Bangladesh. The Colombo Centre will reopen soon to facilitate the movement of labour,” said Captain Nasser Al Khalaf, Assistant Director of the Visa Support Services Department at the General Directorate of Passports.
Speaking to Qatar Radio yesterday, Al Khalaf said that reopening of some centres was delayed due to new procedures in some countries because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Colombo Center in Sri Lanka was the first overseas Qatar Visa Centre inaugurated in October 2018.
The project targets employment through 20 service centres in eight countries, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, Tunisia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.
One of the significant ben-efits of QVCs is that they allow workers to get detailed infor-mation about their work con-tracts, including salaries, vaca-tions, incentives, and allow-ances — in their own languages — before they leave their coun-tries for Doha.
“The Visa Support Services Department is keen on proce-dural accuracy and security standards in these centres, as we rely on a precise security system regarding the recruitment of expatriates,” he said.
“In all procedures, we rely on devices for tests, finger-prints, etc., and all results are sent automatically. Also, the employees working in the centres have been carefully selected and have high com-petence through their training in the state and are qualified to use the programmes and
systems.”Al Khalaf said that the visa
centres aim to prevent exploi-tation as the expatriate agrees to the contract while still in his/her country.
He noted that some pro-spective employees might not agree to the contract, or have security restrictions, while some may not be medically fit either.
Currently, when the appli-catns arrive at the centre, the contract is presented to them, and if they agree, the employee must undergo fingerprinting, medical examinations, and other procedures.
Regarding the types of visas provided by the centres, Al Khalaf said that work visas are granted for private or semi-governmental establishments. Family visits, tourist visas, and visas for participation in events and conferences are also granted.
He stressed that the project is being implemented in cooperation with the Min-istry of Interior, the Ministry of Administrative Devel-opment, Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Public Health, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Five arrested for
violating home
quarantineQNA — DOHA
The designated authorities arrested yesterday five persons who violated the requirements of the home quarantine, they committed to following, which they are legally accountable for, in accordance with the proce-dures of the health authorities in the country.
The arrest of the violators came in implementation of the precautionary measures in force in the country, approved by health authorities repre-sented in the Ministry of Public Health, to curb the spread of the COVID-19.
The violators, who are currently being referred to the designate prosecution, are Tahseen Haqqi Ismail Al Issawi, Mohammed Farouq A b d u l a z i z , A b d u l l a h Mohammed Abdullah Saad Al Kharaan, Mohammed Nasser Mubarak Al Awad Al Marri and Ekilish Komar Shokla.
The designated authorities called on citizens and residents under home quarantine to fully commit to the Ministry of Public Health’s condition, to ensure their safety and the safety of others. They added that anyone who violates the quarantine will be subject to article no. 253 of law no. 11 of 2004, provisions of law no. 17 of 1990 on communicable dis-eases, and law no. 17 of 2002 on protecting society.
Qatar Airways expands South America connectivityTHE PENINSULA — DOHA
Qatar Airways has announced it has increased São Paulo services to 10 weekly flights and expanded codeshare cooper-ation with LATAM Airlines Brasil, optimising connectivity for both airlines' passengers to and from destinations in Asia, the Middle East and South America.
The new codeshare agreement will further strengthen the two airlines’ strategic partnership, first ini-tiated in 2016 and recently expanded in June 2019.
The expanded agreement will allow Qatar Airways pas-sengers to book travel on 45 additional LATAM Airlines Brasil flights and to access over 40 domestic and international destinations on the South American carrier’s network, including Brasilia, Curitiba, Porto Velho, Rio Branco, Rio de Janeiro, San Jose, Lima (Peru), Mon-tevido (Uruguay) and San-tiago (Chile).
LATAM Airlines Brasil pas-sengers will also benefit from
access to the recently ex-panded 10 weekly flights to and from Sao Paulo, operated by Qatar Airways’ state-of-the-art Airbus A350-1000 that features the World’s Best Business Class Seat, Qsuite. LATAM Airlines Brasil passengers will also be able to book travel to eight additional Qatar Airways’ des-tinations such as Bangkok, Hong Kong, Maldives, Nairobi, Seoul and Tokyo along with additional Qatar Airways’ con-necting flights to destinations such as Baku, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
With an existing loyalty cooperation, frequent fliers with
both airlines are also able to earn and redeem miles for travel across the partners’ com-plete network as well as recog-nition of their tier status at select airports with benefits such as priority check-in and priority boarding.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, H E Akbar Al Baker, said: “South America is a stra-tegically important market for Qatar Airways. We are proud to demonstrate our strong com-mitment to passengers trav-elling to and from South America by providing even more flexible travel options. By increasing São Paulo services
to 10 weekly flights and expanding our codeshare agreement with LATAM Airlines Brasil, we will further cement our position as the airline of choice for customers travelling between Asia, the Middle East and South America.
“Since 2016, both Qatar Airways and LATAM Airlines Brasil have witnessed the sig-nificant mutual benefits com-mercial cooperation have brought, providing our pas-sengers with unrivalled service and seamless connectivity and it is why our codeshare coop-eration has been expanded twice in recent years. We look forward to further strength-ening our commercial cooper-ation with LATAM Airlines Brasil to enhance the travel experience for our millions of customers.”
LATAM Brasil CEO, Jerome Cadier, said: “We are expanding connectivity and the choice of destinations for our customers. Even in a year as difficult as 2020, we are committed to offering our passengers more options to travel further with
greater convenience and simplicity.”
In May 2020, Qatar Airways’ most technologically advanced passenger aircraft, the A350-1000, arrived to São Paulo International Airport (GRU). The award-winning airline is the first to fly this revolutionary air-craft to South America. One of the latest additions to the Airbus family of twin-aisle, wide-body jetliners, the A350-1000 offers 327 seats across two cabins – 46 Qsuite Business Class seats and 281 extra-wide 18-inch seats in Economy Class. Similar to the A350-900 – for which Qatar Airways was also the global launch customer – the high-performance A350-1000 boasts an advanced airframe with extensive use of com-posite materials.
Coupled with a fuselage innovatively built with carbon-fiber rein-forced plastic, the jet-liner burns lesser fuel, reducing harmful effects to the envi-ronment. On the inside, LED mood lighting mimics a natural sunrise and sunset to help reduce the effects of jet lag.
By increasing São Paulo services to 10 weekly flights and
expanding our codeshare agreement with LATAM Airlines
Brasil, we will further cement our position as the airline of
choice for customers travelling between Asia, the Middle
East and South America.
H E Akbar Al Baker
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive
Qatar Visa Centres have
already opened in India,
Pakistan, the
Philippines, Nepal, and
Bangladesh.
CEO of Education Excellence Award Dr. Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti (right) addressing the press conference.
71 winners of 14th Education Excellence Award announced
FROM PAGE 1
Eight students won the award in the excellent student category for preparatory grade while 32 students applied for the award.
Speaking about adding more categories to the award, she said that many ideas have been floated recently which are under study at the committee to give the final approval.
Fifteen students won the award in the excellent student category for secondary grade, 59 students applied for the award. Nineteen students won the award in the excellent uni-versity student category, 84 students applied for the award. Four teachers won the award in the excellent teacher cat-egory, 37 teachers applied for the award. Two master degree holders received the award out of 55 scholars who applied for the ward. A total of 20 PhD degree holders also applied for
the award but luck favoured only two scholars to win the award. Thirteen schools applied under excellence school cat-egory, two of them bagged the award. Nine students received platinum medals and 10 stu-dents bagged gold medals in the excellent student category for primary grade. Five students received platinum medals and 3 students bagged gold medals in the excellent student cat-egory for preparatory grade.
Four students received platinum medals and 11 stu-dents bagged gold medals in the excellent student category for secondary grade. Six students received platinum medals and 13 students bagged gold medals in the university student cat-egory of the award.
One teacher from primary school, one teacher from sec-ondary school and two teachers from secondary school received the award.
UDC’s The Pearl-Qatar, Gewan Island win four Arabian Property Awards
FROM PAGE 1
UDC’s commitment to quality and innovation continues with more residential, retail, enter-tainment and hospitality projects in the pipeline that serve to create unmatched lifestyle and leisure experiences to our residents and visitors.”
Having won the Mixed-Use Development award for the fourth time, The Pearl-Qatar incor-porates a variety of distinct properties including apartments, villas, townhouses, penthouses, diverse entertainment facilities and retail offerings, in addition to beautiful serene beaches and the award-winning Porto Arabia marina which is also the Middle East’s largest marina.
UDC continues to enhance its offerings at The Pearl-Qatar with the construction of luxury res-idential villa compounds and shopping centers in Giardino Village and Floresta Gardens’ new precincts, in addition to the state-of-the-art “United School International” in Giardino Village and an exclusive yacht club in Porto Arabia.
UDC is also going forward with
the development of Gewan Island which will comprise the award-winning ‘Corinthia Gewan Island Qatar’ Hotel, Beach Club and Golf Course, as well as 657 residential units, including 586 apartments and the winner private villas con-sisting of 21 beachfront villas with a private beach, 26 waterfront villas that are equipped with private pontoons for private boats and six inde-pendent island mansions.
Gewan Island’s unique mixed-use archi-tecture further encompasses a lively retail hub at the heart of the Island surrounded by an air conditioned outdoor ‘Crystal Walkway’ and seaside ‘Promenade’, with public parks and green areas as well as comprehensive leisure facilities for residents. The Island will also be accessible via a cable-stayed bridge which promises to be a landmark and an architectural and engineering masterpiece that complements Gewan Island’s distinct character.
The Arabian Property Awards are considered the largest, most prestigious, and widely recog-nized award programme marking their 27th year. The awards therefore reflect UDC’s leading position ahead of hundreds of firms across 45 real estate categories including residential and commercial properties that have been carefully appraised by a panel of 80 international experts led by three members of the UK’s House of Lords. The evaluation is based on criteria such as design, quality, services, innovation and commitment to sustainability.
UDC President and CEO Ibrahim Jassim Al Othman
UDC is also going forward with the
development of Gewan Island which will
comprise the award-winning ‘Corinthia
Gewan Island Qatar’ Hotel, Beach Club and
Golf Course, as well as 657 residential
units.
03TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021 HOME
Artists turn mobile phones into creative pieces under Ooredoo, QM initiative THE PENINSULA — DOHA
Ooredoo's cultural initiative ‘The Art and the Mobile’ — launched in partnership with Qatar Museums — is well underway, with artists busy turning smart-phone devices into creative masterpieces.
The Art and the Mobile is a unique project intended to enrich Qatar’s cultural and artistic scene and showcase its young and
upcoming artists, highlighting their skills and achievements.
A select group of artists was chosen to take part in the chal-lenge. The artists were given many smartphone devices as their canvases and have now begun work to turn these devices into unique pieces of art by painting or to decorate their back panels.
Each artist will decorate two to three devices, depending on
the technique used, and will get to keep an extra device as a gift.
The finished masterpieces will be exhibited for the public at the Qatar Fire Station later this month, and part of the collection will be donated or auctioned for a worthy cause in Qatar.
Director PR at Ooredoo Qatar Sabah Rabiah Al Kuwari said: “We’re excited that this awesome initiative is now underway, and were delighted
to get a sneak peek of how the masterpieces are progressing recently! Part of our corporate social responsibility is a firm commitment to supporting the communities in which we operate. We’re proud to be working with Qatar Museums on such a worthwhile project to promote arts and culture in Qatar’s communities. We can’t wait to see the finished artworks very soon!”
Health Minister meets first two recipients of vaccine in QatarTHE PENINSULA — DOHA Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, has met with Dr. Abdulla Al Kubaisi and Dr. Mohammed Frazat, the first two people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Qatar.
“Qatar was among the first countries in the world to provide a safe, effective and approved COVID-19 vaccine for its population and the vaccinations of Dr. Al Kubaisi and Dr. Frazat signalled the launch of Qatar’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign on December 23. The cam-paign has seen thousands of the most at-risk members of the community and healthcare workers receive the vaccine in the first week and a half,” said the Minister.
“I was delighted to meet Dr. Al Kubaisi and Dr. Frazat and hear from them how receiving the first dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine has given them cause for optimism and how they are now advocating the vaccine to other at-risk members of the community. I would like to thank everyone who has received the vaccine for taking action to protect themselves and for playing their part in ending this pandemic.
"Clinical trials have shown that the vaccine becomes fully effective only after one week of receiving the second dose and people who have had the first dose are still at risk of catching the virus and should continue to apply the preventive
measures,” the Minister added. During the first phase of the cam-
paign vaccines are being prioritised for those most at risk of severe complica-tions from the virus: people 65 years of age and older, those with multiple chronic conditions, and healthcare workers with repeated exposure to COVID-19.
Dr. Al Kubaisi, a 79-year-old Qatari citizen and former president of Qatar
University, said, “It was an honour for me to become the first person in Qatar to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccination process was straightforward and painless, and I have had no side effects since receiving the vaccine. I am happy to see many other people in the community receiving their first dose and I encourage anyone who is eligible to have the vaccine as soon as possible.”
88-year-old Syrian resident and
former Qatar University professor, Dr. Frazat, explained how it has been a dif-ficult year for him and his family living under the threat of COVID-19. “Knowing that older people are more at risk from severe symptoms of COVID-19 has meant I have been living under the threat of this virus for most of the year. I am thankful to the leadership of Qatar and to the health authorities for ensuring the most vulnerable members of Qatar’s population can access the vaccine so quickly. I have had no side effects fol-lowing my first vaccine dose and I look forward to receiving my second dose soon,” said Dr. Frazat.
“The response to the launch of the vaccination campaign has been very encouraging. Every day, more and more people in the most high-risk priority groups are being vaccinated against the virus. As greater numbers of eligible people receive their vaccinations — including many prominent members of society and senior health officials who meet the eligibility criteria — this is helping to build trust among the popu-lation in the safety of the vaccine. We recommend that people who got both doses continue to apply the preventive measures for extra protection,” said Chair of the National Health Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of Infec-tious Diseases at Hamad Medical Cor-poration, Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal who also attended the meeting.
Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, with Dr. Mohammed Frazat, Dr. Abdulla Al Kubaisi and Chair of the National Health Strategic Group on COVID-19 Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal, during the meeting held yesterday.
PHCC's new mobile app allows easy access to health servicesFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA
With the launch of a new mobile app by the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), people in Qatar are now able to easily access health care services pro-vided by health centres through smartphones.
Nar’aakom, the bilingual mobile app, provides compre-hensive healthcare man-agement on-the-go, from accessing upcoming appoint-ments to applying for a health card online.
“Nar’aakom app allows people in Qatar to benefit from many of PHCC’s digital services from their smartphones,” said Managing Director of PHCC, Dr. Mariam Abdul Malik yesterday.
“It is an extension of the digital transformation of health care services that PHCC rolled out early last year. With the mobile app, we empower
people with the ability to access health services anywhere, anytime at their convenience in a secure platform; thus encouraging patients to take ownership of their health,” said Dr. Abdul Malik speaking at a press conference held yesterday to announce the launch of the app.
She also emphasised that during the COVD-19 pandemic, PHCC accelerated its digital transformation to facilitate minimal-contact care delivery through virtual consultations, a 24x7 community call centre and an electronically-dispensed medication facility with home-delivery service.
The new mobile app, Nar’aakom is available for both iphones and android devices, the Nar’aakom app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in Qatar.
Residents and citizens can also request for many services
including applying for a health card, change the health centre, changing family physician, request for an appointment, adding dependent account and renewing a health card.
“Nar’aakom gives complete control to manage your and your family’s health service requirements. It includes, requesting a new appointment at one of health centres, to applying for a change of your assigned health centre or changing the assigned family physician. It also allows you to add dependents to your account, so as to manage requests for any of these services on their behalf,” said Assistant Managing Director at PHCC, Musallam Mubarak Al Nabit.
He said Nar’aakom is a secure app, and PHCC has suc-cessfully been awarded with two ISO certification — the ISO 20000 related to IT service management and ISO 27001
related to IT security.“There is an opportunity to
give feedback on the appli-cation and we look forward to receiving them from the people. We have many plans to improve the application and ideas to improve services. Soon, people will be able to request an elec-tronic copy of their medical records,” said Executive Director of Health Information
and Communication Tech-nology (HICT) at PHCC, Alex-andra Tarazi.
In October 2020, PHCC had launched their new website which provides an easy access to all primary care information online. Patients can also access e-services on the PHCC website that allows conducting ‘day-to-day’ administrative business on-line.
PHCC Managing Director, Dr. Mariam Abdul Malik (left) and Assistant Managing Director, Musallam Mubarak Al Nabit displaying the ISO 20000 and 20001 certificates, at a press conference held to announce the launch of PHCC's new mobile app yesterday. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA
Speaker of Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud; Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, H E Yousuf bin Mohamed Al Othman Fakhroo; and other dignitaries attending the Shura Council meeting yesterday.
MoPH: 207 new
COVID-19 cases,
117 recoveriesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA
The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 207 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. Among them 50 were trav-ellers returning from abroad.
Another 117 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 141,925. All new cases have been introduced to isolation and are receiving necessary healthcare according to their health status.
While the first phase of COVID-19 vaccinations has started in Qatar and in the coming months it will be available for the public for free, the Ministry has stressed it is important for everyone to play their role in controlling the virus by following precau-tionary measures including adhering to physical dis-tancing; avoiding close contact with others, crowded places, and confined closed spaces where other people con-gregate; wearing a face mask and washing hands regularly.
The Ministry further said that measures to tackle COVID-19 in Qatar have suc-ceeded in flattening the curve and limiting the spread of the virus. Also Qatar’s proactive and extensive testing of sus-pected cases has enabled us to identify a high number of pos-itive cases in the community.
The Ministry further said that Qatar has one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world, as a result of the country’s young population, proactive testing to identify cases early and expanding hospital capacity, especially intensive care to ensure all patients receive the medical care they need and protecting the elderly and those with chronic diseases.
The Ministry asked people to be careful and protect the most vulnerable, while COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted. “Even though restrictions are being lifted, and numbers are declining, this does not mean that the COVID-19 pan-demic is finished in Qatar – people continue to be admitted with moderate to severe COVID-19 symptoms,” said the Ministry.
Sponsorship transfer rules will preserve rights of all parties, Shura Council told
FROM PAGE 1It also enhances the State’s economic level to attract foreign investment and compete in global markets, achieve balance in the demographics of the State of Qatar in terms of the quality and size of the resident popu-lation, reduce the number of unskilled and illegal workers, rotate and retain skilled labor, while achieving legal guar-antees for all parties that are compatible with international standards.
The Minister stated that the amendments have been expe-dited to accelerate handling of coronavirus crisis and its eco-nomic impact and the difficulty of returning workers to their countries due to the measures taken by the State and the labor-sending countries to reduce the spread of the disease, adding that the situ-ation did not allow workers to leave Qatar, which had a neg-ative impact on the conditions of companies and workers.
He added that the
amendment included intro-ducing the benefits of free movement of workers in the State of Qatar locally according to specific controls, and that the aforementioned amendments meet the required balance and justice between the two parties to the labor contract repre-sented by the employer and the worker, as both parties have the freedom to terminate the con-tract with the obligation to com-pensate the other party, and with the employer’s right to oblige the worker to a non-competition clause as a clause in the contract, and the worker must respect this clause for a full year and is banned from working for a competitor in the same economic sector for the employer, in addition to the possibility of adding other con-ditions and clauses to be included in an appendix to the standard labor contract to pre-serve the employer’s right to compensation for the costs incurred by him in order to recruit and train the worker as
well as any other costs.The Minister added that the
new amendments included setting rules and procedures by the Ministry in general in order to define the mechanism and controls for the transfer and decide on the approval of the submitted applications, which are being studied to achieve flex-ibility in developing these proce-dures in a way that preserves the rights of all the parties.
He affirmed the Ministry’s keenness to follow up on employers’ observations regarding these procedures to develop them in a manner that preserves the rights of all parties.
In his response to the ques-tions and inquiries of the members of the Council, the Minister explained that getting rid of illegal workers comes at the forefront of the ministry’s priorities and that there are radical solutions to this matter, and announced that a study is underway to classify companies.
At the end of the session, Speaker of the Shura Council directed the joint committee of the Services and Public Utilities Committee and the Internal and External Affairs Committee to complete its report on Decree Law No. 18 of 2020 amending some provisions of the Labor
Law promulgated by Law No. 14 of 2004, and regarding the request for public debate sub-mitted by a number of members of the Council related to the transfer of the employer and travel without notice for the expatriate workers, in light of the clarifications made by
Minister of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs and the discussions with him during the session in this regard, in order to submit its report to the Council in prepa-ration for referring its recom-mendations to the esteemed government.
04 TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021HOME
Qatar Forum for Female Engineers launchedTHE PENINSULA —DOHA
The first meeting for Qatar Forum for Female Engineers recently took place virtually. Over half of the Forum’s 80 registered members, repre-senting various sectors in the State of Qatar, attended the event. The meeting included the opening speech by the Forum’s Chairperson, Dr. Hanan Farhat, and the Vice-Chairperson, Eng. Abeer Buhelaiqa.
Aysha Al Mudahka, Director of Strategic Initiative and Partnership Development at Qatar Foundation’s CEO’s office, praised this important initiative to enhance capabil-ities, job opportunities, and development for Qatar’s female engineers. Two leading female figures in Qatar delivered keynote speeches, Dr. Amal Al Maliki, Founding Dean of the College of Human-ities and Social Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and Dr. Buthaina Al Ansari, an expert in strategic devel-opment and human resources at Beacon Consulting and one of the influential women in the Middle East.
Dr. Al Malki’s talk focused on the challenges that women in Qatar face. “It is easy to find bright, successful examples if we look at other Arab women and their stories, yet every country has its distinctive history, culture, and sociopo-litical characteristics that shape the stories of its women. Our countries in the Arabian Gulf are unique and different from other Arab countries. As a cul-tural entity, it has been most resistant to change. The case
in Qatar is a reflection of that with its developing climate that is in constant negotiation in terms of gender identity and gender parity and what it means to the existing cultural and religious structures,” Al Malki said.
“Qatari women now enjoy somehow equal opportunities in both education and employment, and this is being translated into laws and regu-lations that are and hopefully will continue to be set to protect such rights.”
Al Malki emphasised Qatar Foundation’s support for a thriving climate that connects education, community, and decision and policy-makers.
“The number of female graduates across Education City has increased dramati-cally, feeding the job market and more importantly pro-viding new career areas with the first women employees. For example, in Texas A&M-Qatar, 46 percent of the student body are women, and 51.6 percent of undergraduate engineers are women,” she said.
On the other hand, Dr. Al Ansari focused on the devel-opment and the importance of empowering women. She stressed the importance of Qatar’s indicators, numbers, and advanced centers from the sus-tainable development goals in developing major projects, as the numbers and indicators indicate the quality of services provided to the individual and society.
She discussed the com-parison between equality and justice to empower women socially, economically, and legally to become partners for men in developing society and providing women with skills and proper education and equal opportunities in posi-tions, elections, and promo-tions in the labour market. She talked about the importance of developing and updating human resources policies, including working hours, pro-motions strategy in the career ladder, the maternity leave period, training, and devel-opment methodology. These policies should focus on women’s leadership skills,
including communication skills, negotiation skills, decision-making skills, and team building.
Dr. Hanan Farhat, the Chairperson of the Forum, who worked in the oil and gas industry for over 25 years before joining Qatar Foun-dation, said, “Establishing this Forum dates back to 2019, when we noticed that a large number of women, who have obtained an engineering degree find it difficult to get engineering jobs, especially engineering field positions. Several of these women leave the workforce within the first three years of employment. This raised an alarm, especially that women are half of the workforce in the country, who should be empowered and strengthened.”
Engineer Abeer Buhelaiqa, Vice-Chairperson of the Forum, an active member in the oil and gas sector, said, “The Forum’s vision is to inspire and empower female engineers as leaders in the engineering field.”
Aysha Al MudahkaDr. Hanan FarhatDr. Amal Al Maliki Foundation course organised for assistant public prosecutors
QNA — DOHA
The Institute of Criminal Studies at the Public Prose-cution organised the third foundation course for preparing assistant public pros-ecutors.
Thirty-three assistant public prosecutors are partic-ipating in the one-year course which includes a theoretical study of penal and procedural laws and other laws related to the public prosecution, as well as practical training and field visits to prisons, forensic
medicine, forensic evidence and the crime scene.
The assistants are trained by an elite group of prose-cutors, professors and experts in this field.
The Public Prosecution is always working to develop the capabilities and performance of its members of all ranks by holding foundational and refresher courses with the aim of preparing cadres and leaders who will take the responsibility for criminal cases and estab-lishing and achieving justice for all.
Paticipants during a session of the course
QBRI and KHCC launch initiative for breast cancer researchTHE PENINSULA — DOHA
Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI) – part of Qatar Foundation member Hamad Bin Khalifa University and the King Hussain Cancer Center (KHCC) in Jordan, together with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), have launched a strategic initi-ative aimed at developing a better understanding of breast cancer complexity in the Arab region, employing cutting-edge technologies and engaging scientists and clinicians with varied expertise.
Regionally, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women accounting for approximately 30 percent of female cancer cases in Qatar and the MENA region, meaning it represents a major health burden.
The chief goal of the
Qatar-Jordan collaboration is to discover novel susceptibility genes in the Arab population which could help to identify and monitor families with a high genetic risk of developing breast cancer; and to enable pre-vention, early detection, and treatment, improve breast cancer patients’ prospects of
surviving the condition. It could also lead to more personalized treatment for patients, by allowing the most appropriate therapy to be selected based on their genetic background.
Chief Scientific Officer at KHCC, Dr. Amal Al Omari, “Breast cancer is still the most common malignancy among
w o m e n w o r l d w i d e and consti-tutes a signif-icant per-centage of all
cancer cases diagnosed in Arab females.
“Breast cancer in Arab women is also characterized by distinctive features, such as the younger age at the point of diagnosis compared to Western countries. Today, our under-standing of disease mechanisms and gene functions enables us to guide treatment strategies and design medical interven-tions that are appropriate to the individual patient’s needs and assess the extent of the response t o t h e s e t a r g e t e d
interventions.”Among the well-known familial breast cancer risk factors are mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which account for only 10-20 percent of high-risk cancer cases. This means the genetic driver behind other high-risk familial breast cancer phenotypes in the MENA region remain unidentified.
As a first step towards iden-tification of those driver genes, QBRI has received the first batch of genomic DNA from patients with familial breast cancer not related to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations from KHCC. Those samples have undergone whole genome sequencing, with the data currently being ana-lyzed. Initial analysis of those samples has revealed the presence of large number of genetic alterations.
Through complex compu-tational algorithms, scientists at QBRI are currently working to decipher genetic data to identify novel susceptibility driver genes beyond BRCA1 and BRCA2. They are doing this by analyzing additional samples
from KHCC while also inte-grating data from Qatari patients though the collabo-ration with HMC, to provide a wider picture of genomic alter-ations in breast cancer patients from the MENA region.
Executive Director of QBRI, Dr. Omar El Agnaf said, “Breast cancer can be a result of dif-ferent underlying genetic causes, and this variability lends itself to the growing field of pre-cision medicine, which can result in immense patient benefits.
Chief Executive Officer and Director General of KHCC, Dr. Asem Mansour, said, “There is great optimism for this unique scientific cooperation between the exceptional research capa-bilities of Qatar Biomedical Research Institute and the dis-tinguished medical and research expertise at the King Hussein Cancer Center. He said “We hope that, in the near future, there will be a transfor-mation in healthcare and diag-nostic technology in the Arab world."
Dr. Asem Mansour Dr. Amal Al Omari Dr. Omar El Agnaf
Landmark Group launches all new Shukran Gift Card THE PENINSULA — DOHA
Landmark Group Qatar has announced the launch of ‘Shukran Gift Card’, offering its customers a seamless and convenient gifting experience for family and friends on all special occasions and festive seasons.
Redeemable and available for purchase in over 70 Landmark Group retail stores across Qatar, the Shukran Gift Card will allow shoppers access to varied brands across the Group. The card will also be redeemable for online shopping and later this year customers will also be able to buy them online.
The all new gift card will be available in variable denomination as preferred by the customers and will be valid for 12 months, with customizable cards available for bulk purchases for Corporate gifting. In addition to in-store purchase, recipients of the Shukran Gift card can also choose to use the card for making online purchase from any of the participating brands.
Speaking about the launch, Group Director, Landmark Group, Rahul Jagtiani said: “Being relevant to our customers and catering to
their preferences have always been a top priority for our Group. Globally, personalisation is paving the way for retailers and we are delighted to announce the launch of the Shukran Gift Card, as a part of our continued commitment to creating memorable and customized shopping experiences for all our loyal customers.
“With the new Shukran Gift card, our aim was to offer the convenience of a single card consolidating all our brands so that our customers will have wider access to our products. They can now select from diverse categories including fashion, beauty, footwear, home furnishing and more - all with one card. We are constantly working to establish a stronger connection between our customers and our products by providing them
convenience and options to choose what works best for their needs. We have also added some of our popular F&B brands to enable gifting ‘experi-ences’ as well. This is a significant step forward for us in our commitment to offer endless possibilities to our cus-tomers,” Jagtiani added.
Chief Operating Officer Landmark Group Qatar, Clive Freeman said: “Consolidation of Landmark Group brand specific gift cards to Shukran Gift Card provides flexibility and con-venience to our customers for their gifting needs. In addition to our stores, Shukran Gift Cards can be used across our apps and websites presenting an omni-channel usage. With our store reach and growing popularity of online channels, Shukran Gift Cards addresses current day gifting needs of shoppers.”
The largest of its kind in the Middle East as well as the most successful retail and hospitality loyalty pro-gramme, Shukran, rewards over 10 million active members yearly as they shop across a range of the Group’s brands and other partner brands across the GCC region. The Shukran programme also offers timely and per-sonalised brand offers in line with the customers preference.
MoCI recalls 2019 model of Toyota Hilux
THE PENINSULA — DOHA
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), in cooper-at ion with Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros Co W.L.L, dealer of Toyota in Qatar, announced the recall of the Toyota Hilux model of 2019 due to the possibility of a
defect in the brake booster, which may lead to increasing the stopping distance of the vehicle. The recall campaign comes within the framework of the Ministry’s continuous efforts to protect consumers and ensure that car dealers follow up on vehicle defects and repairs.
THE PENINSULA — DOHA
Due to the limited published data related to the clinical pres-entation of peripartum cardio-myopathy (PPCM), a study aimed to examine the clinical presentation, management, and outcomes of patients with PPCM using data collected from 47 hospitals in seven Middle East countries.
PPCM also known as post-partum cardiomyopathy, is an uncommon form of heart failure that happens during the last month of pregnancy or up to five months after giving birth. Cardiomyopathy literally means heart muscle disease.
The study included 64 patients hospitalized with acute heart failure (HF) with the diagnosis of PPCM. Most of the patients were Arabs (96.9%), with a mean age of 32.5 ± 5.8 years. A family history of cardiomyopathy/HF was present in 11 patients (17.2%), and 12 patients (18.8%) had a history of HF. Hyper-tension was present in seven patients (10.9%) and diabetes mellitus in three patients (4.7%).
Based on the results, the study suggests using transtho-racic echocardiography and
B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) biomarker as useful screening tests to aid in an early diagnosis to limit life-threatening complications. Future HF registries should include variables specific to pregnancy and fetal outcomes when PPCM is the etiology of HF, enabling a detailed study of this uncommon condition. A high index of suspicion of PPCM is required to diagnose as associated symptoms and signs can be indistinguishable from those related to normal pregnancy.
Mohamed Badie Ahmed, a sixth-year medical student,
said: “Every research expe-rience carries its lessons that help build the research’s knowledge and skills. This experience is unique as it was my first time collaborating with researchers from different countries, which added a lot to my experience.
"Besides, being the only student in this amazing research group was a chal-lenge, as I was not repre-senting only myself, but all QU-CMED students. With confidence, I can say that the impression taken about the students is great. We proved that QU-CMED students could originate and publish research in well-reputed journals with high impact factors. I believe that this publication is the
spark that will lead to flames of achievements," he said.
This paper is a great addition to this field as it will help guide the management approach of PPCM patients because of the lack of published data on this topic, particularly from the Middle East.
The main authors of this paper include Dr. Amar M. Salam, Mohamed Badie Ahmed, and Dr. Alison S. Carr. They are affiliated with the College of Medicine, QU Health, and Qatar University.
05TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021 HOME
PPCM also known as
postpartum
cardiomyopathy, is an
uncommon form of heart
failure that happens during
the last month of pregnancy
or up to five months after
giving birth.
Cardiomyopathy literally
means heart muscle disease.
QU-Health study sheds light on rare heart condition
Mohamed Badie Ahmed
QRCS provides life-saving medical assistance in YemenTHE PENINSULA — DOHA
Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has inaugurated a project to help the patients with hydrocephalus in Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen.
The opening ceremony was attended by the project’s manager at QRCS’s represen-tation mission, Mohamed Al Shumairi; Deputy Manager of the Handicap Care and Reha-bilitation Fund (implementing partner), Othman Al Salawi staff of the fund, and parents of children with disability.
Around 1,000 children in all governorates of Yemen will benefit from the project. Speaking at the ceremony, Al Salawi valued QRCS's human-itarian and life-saving role in alleviating the suffering of children with hydrocephalus in Yemen, amid absolute absence of international organizations.
Under the project, both external ventricular drains (EVDs) and intraventricular catheters (IVCs) will be pro-vided, as well as the pre-, during, and post-procedure medications. It also involves payment for the costs of trans-portation and accommodation for the poor families that cannot afford the travel to Amanat Al Asimah.
These activities will cost $309,000, totally paid by QRCS, while the Handicap Care and Rehabilitation Fund will pay for the costs of procedures.
Before the ceremony, the public were informed about hydro-cephalus, its symptoms, and treatment by the surgical placement of a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt system.
Both the personnel of QRCS and the partner made a tour of several governorates, under the theme of ‘Save a Life’. They told the public that the machines and surgical interventions are entirely free of charge.
The project’s coordinator, Hassan Al Hanani talked about the tragedy lived by the patients. “Due to the lack of CSF machines at all government health facilities, and the prices are too high for the patients to purchase the machines on the market, the children with hydrocephalus are likely to develop serious conditions, such as brain cancer or vision loss. So, an early surgical inter-vention can minimise the impact and boost their survival chances,” said Al Hanani.
Al Shumairi said, “As we completed phase 1 of the free-of-charge treatment cam-paign, we were contacted by many families. Over the early days, 23 children were operated on their brains. Every family received $200 in cash. So far, the project paid for the transportation and accommo-dation of 14 poor families from remote areas. For Phase 1, 100 CSF machines have already been procured and delivered by QRCS, out of 1,000 machines.
A child receiving a treatment in Yemen.
Ooredoo Group and Ericsson sign five-year strategic 5G agreementTHE PENINSULA — DOHA
Ooredoo Group and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) have signed a global frame agreement for the supply of 5G radio, core, and transport products and solu-tions, as well as related imple-mentation and integration services for all 10 of the Group’s operating companies in Qatar, Indonesia, Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, Tunisia, Myanmar, and the Maldives.
The agreement covers the Ericsson Radio System, including MINI-LINK 6000 products capable of the 10 Gbps, Ericsson Cloud Core, Cloud Infrastructure, and Ericsson Cloud Communication solutions.
This will enable end-to-end 5G support to digitally transform and modernize Oore-doo’s existing mobile networks across its operating companies. These solutions will also signif-icantly shorten time-to-market for new services and improve Ooredoo’s network per-formance to meet consumers’ and enterprises’ growing expectations.
Ericsson Radio System is already deployed and live in several of Ooredoo’s operating
companies. In Ooredoo Qatar’s network, Ericsson Radio System, using the 4G+5G Ericsson Spectrum Sharing solution, has facilitated a fast nationwide 5G coverage. Fur-thermore, in preparation for Ooredoo Qatar’s network to host multiple global sporting events, Ericsson is deploying its latest 5G mid-band Massive MIMO radios to create a unique digital experience for millions of sports fans in the stadiums, at home, or on-the-go.
Deputy Group Chief Exec-utive Officer, Ooredoo Group Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Thani, said: “Today’s
agreement represents another step in the longstanding and successful partnership between Ericsson and Ooredoo, which enables our company to con-tinue network expansion, enhancement, and digital trans-formation. Ericsson is bringing state-of-the-art global technol-ogies to the countries we operate in, which enables us to provide the latest digital solu-tions for communities to enjoy the best of the internet, including connecting the most remote areas, supporting start-ups digitally, and providing immersive experiences for sports fans at upcoming mega-sporting events.”
With a turnkey responsi-bility, Ericsson will deliver a comprehensive portfolio of telecom services.
Under the agreement, Ericsson will provide hardware and software expansions of the core network, radio network, and transmission network, and enhanced mobile multimedia functionality for new service offerings.
Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Net-works at Ericsson Fredrik Jej-dling, commented: “5G as a platform for innovation will speed up Ooredoo’s journey towards digital transformation. It will fuel new use cases that cater to evolving consumer and enterprise demands. It is with great pride that we strengthen our collaboration as we con-tinue supporting Ooredoo’s ambition of delivering high-performing networks and superior user experience.”
Ericsson’s network design expertise, deployment, inte-gration, and software upgrades will support Ooredoo’s tran-sition to advanced multimedia services. Under the agreement, Ericsson will also provide support and maintenance services.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Thani
Fredrik Jejdling
Ibn Al-Rayb Cultural Street in Katara attracts book loversTHE PENINSULA — DOHA
The ongoing book fair being held at the recently launched Ibn al-Rayb Street at Katara in which 15 publishing houses and a library are participating has been very popular with the public across all ages.
Participating publishing houses have expressed optimism about the success of this event, which has caused movement in book sales, greatly impacted by the pan-demic locally and globally.
Amira Al-Hababi from Qatar University (QU) Press said that the university publishing house publishes books and sci-entific journals on various dis-ciplines, and its participation in the Ibn Al-Rayb Cultural Street event came at a time when people need books in light of the pandemic and the cancel-lation of book fairs at the local and international level.
Al-Hababi pointed out that QU Press is exhibiting in its stall important recently published books such as “Qatar on the Arabian Gulf Sea” by Muhammad Harb Farzat which was released on the occasion of Qatar National Day, and “Qatar and the Gulf Crisis - Where are the Arabs ? “ trans-lated by QU Press and edited by Reem Al-Athba.
Ahmed Hammad of the Arab Center for Research and Policy
Studies said that the center is concerned with issuing and pub-lishing books on social sciences and aims to develop awareness and enrich the cultural movement. He stressed that the book event in Ibn Al-Rayb Street, which is a joint cultural event between Katara and the Qatari Distributors Publishers’ Forum, meets an urgent need at the present time, and it is a good initiative to fill the gap in the absence of book fairs.
Abdul Aziz Al-Sayed, owner of a library, said they are inter-ested in the masterpieces of Arab and world literature and the classic novels of the masters of fictional writing in the Arab world, rare books and ancient dynasties and encyclopedias that document the history the Arab countries, among others. He said the library aims to preserve and document the memory of the Arab world and humanity and
build bridges between contem-porary generations and the history of humanity.
Al-Sayed lauded the fruitful cooperation between Katara and the Qatari Publishers and Dis-tributors Forum of the Ministry of Culture and Sports expressing his support to such collaboration and their initiatives.
Muhammad Al-Mahdi from Dar Al-Thaqafa expressed his thanks Katara, the Qatari Pub-lishers and Distributors Forum for inviting them to participate in the event extends bridges of communication with the reader. He explained that Dar Al-Thaqafa is one of the old Arab publishing houses, as it was established in 1963 as a library selling books, which turned into a publishing house followed by several libraries.
The book fair is open daily from 3pm to 9pm until summer.
A view of the Ibn Al-Rayab Cultural Street in Katara.
06 TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021HOME
07TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA
Iran resumes 20% uraniumenrichment at Fordow N-facilityREUTERS — DUBAI
Iran has resumed 20 percent uranium enrichment at an underground nuclear facility, the government said yesterday, breaching a 2015 nuclear pact with major powers and possibly compli-cating efforts by US Pres-ident-elect Joe Biden to rejoin the deal.
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Iran’s arch foe Israel, said the move was aimed at developing nuclear weapons and Israel would never allow Tehran to build them.
The enrichment decision, Iran’s latest contravention of the accord, coincides with increasing tensions between Iran and the United States in the last days of President D o n a l d T r u m p ’ s administration.
Tehran started violating the accord in 2019 in response to Trump’s withdrawal from it in 2018 and the reimpo-sition of US sanctions that had been lifted under the deal.
The agreement’s main aim was to extend the time Iran would need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb, if it chose to, to at least a year from roughly two to three months. It also lifted international sanctions against Tehran.
“A few minutes ago, the process of producing 20 percent enriched uranium has started in Fordow enrichment complex,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei told
Iranian state media.The step was one of many
mentioned in a law passed by Iran’s parliament last month in response to the killing of the country’s top nuclear sci-entist, which Tehran has blamed on Israel. Such moves by Iran could complicate attempts by the incoming Biden administration to re-enter the agreement.
The head of the Interna-tional Atomic Energy Agency was set to inform members yesterday about develop-ments in Iran, the IAEA said, after the announcement by Tehran.
Later, Iran’s envoy to the IAEA said the agency had con-firmed in a report to member states that Tehran has begun the process of enriching uranium to a higher level.
In Brussels, a European Union Commission spokes-person said that the “move, if confirmed, would constitute a considerable departure
from Iran’s commitments”.“All participants are inter-
ested in keeping deal alive. The deal will be kept alive as long as all participants keep their commitments.” On Jan 1, the IAEA said Tehran had told the watchdog it planned to resume enrichment up to 20 percent at Fordow site, which is buried inside a mountain.
“The process of gas injection to centrifuges has started a few hours ago and the first product of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas will be available in a few hours,” Rabiei said.
“The process has started after taking measures like informing the UN nuclear watchdog.”
Iran had earlier breached the deal’s 3.67 percent limit on the purity to which it can enrich uranium, but it had only gone up to 4.5 percent so far, well short of the 20 percent level and of the 90 p e r c e n t t h a t i s weapons-grade.
US intelligence agencies and the IAEA believe Iran had a secret, coordinated nuclear weapons programme that it halted in 2003. Iran denies ever having had one.
In Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Iran’s enrichment decision could be explained only as a bid to “continue to carry out its intention to develop a military nuclear programme”.
“Israel will not allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons,” he added in a statement.
A South Korean-flagged tanker vessel which was seized by Iran, is seen in Gulf, Iran, yesterday.
South Korean-flagged tanker seized by Iran, crew detainedREUTERS — DUBAI/SEOUL
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps seized a South Korean-flagged tanker in Gulf waters and detained its crew, Iranian media said yesterday, amid tensions between Tehran and Seoul over Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks due to US sanc-tions.
Seoul confirmed the seizure of a South Korean chemical tanker by Iranian authorities in the waters off Oman, and demanded its immediate release.
Several Iranian media outlets, including state TV, said the Guards navy captured the vessel for polluting the Gulf with chemicals.
“According to initial reports
by local officials, it is purely a technical matter and the ship was taken to shore for polluting the sea,” state television quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency published pictures showing the Guards’ speed boats escorting the tanker HANKUK CHEMI, which it said was car-rying 7,200 tonnes of ethanol.
It said the vessel’s detained crew members included nationals of South Korea, Indo-nesia, Vietnam and Myanmar. Iran’s state TV said the tanker was being held at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port city. The ship had 20 crew members, according to South Korea’s foreign ministry.
The US Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet is aware of the incident and is monitoring the situation, spokeswoman Rebecca Rebarich said.
The incident comes ahead of an expected visit by South Korea’s deputy foreign minister to Tehran. Khatibzadeh said the visit would happen in coming days, during which officials would discuss Iran’s demand that South Korea release $7 billion in funds frozen in South Korean banks because of US sanctions.
British firm Ambrey said the South Korean-flagged vessel, owned by DM Shipping Co, had departed from the Petroleum Chemical Quay in Jubail, in Saudi Arabia, before the incident.
Israeli soldier uses pepper spray against PalestiniansAn Israeli soldier uses pepper spray as he grabs a Palestinian demonstrator during a protest against Israeli settlements, in Halhul in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, yesterday.
Israel minister favours one more F-35 squadron
REUTERS — JERUSALEM
Israel’s defence minister said yesterday that he wants the country to buy a third squadron of stealth F-35 warplanes from the United States, and that he hoped a deal could be clinched before President Donald Trump steps down on January 20.
Israel has been in talks with Washington on how to preserve its military advantage after the Trump administration approved a possible F-35 sale to a country in the region last year. The plane was previously available only to Israel in the region.
“Without doubt, we need to expand the F-35 array. Right now we have two squadrons. I reckon we will expand that. That is what I requested of the Americans,” Defence Minister Benny Gantz told Ynet TV.
“I would buy another F-35 squadron and then examine what to do with the balance - continuing to expand the F-35 (procurement), going for F-15s?” Gantz did not specify the number of F-35s in the pro-posed new squadron. Defence officials have said the two squadrons already ordered by Israel consist of 50 planes.
Gantz’s coalition government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fell apart last month, triggering a March 23 ballot. Both men remain in their posts until a new government is formed after the ballot.
Asked if Israel might com-plete a defence procurement deal with the United States before Trump steps down, he said: “I hope so. I think the defence budget needs to be handled properly, to be safe-guarded. It is a kind of active insurance policy.” The F-35 is made by Lockheed Martin Corp and the F-15 by Boeing Co.
Israeli prosecutors spell out allegations against NetanyahuAP — JERUSALEM
Israeli prosecutors yesterday released an amended indictment spelling out detailed charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a corruption case in which he is accused of trading favours with a powerful media mogul.
Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three corruption cases. One of them alleges that Netanyahu promoted regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the owner of the Bezeq telecom company in exchange for positive coverage on its popular Walla news site.
In response to a request from Netanyahu’s lawyers for more details, Israeli prose-cutors released a letter on Sunday alleging there had been 315 incidents of Walla being requested to make its coverage more favorable for Netanyahu and his family. They said there were indications that Netanyahu was personally involved in 150 of those incidents.
It said the requests included giving more time or promi-nence to positive articles about Netanyahu and his family, changing headlines and low-ering or even removing unfa-vorable stories.
It also included alleged requests for negative coverage
of Netanyahu’s rivals.The document listed all 315
suspected incidents, which allegedly included numerous requests to publish flattering articles and photos of Netan-yahu’s wife Sara, to conceal reports of embarrassing expen-ditures and personal infor-mation about the Netanyahu family and attempts to embarrass his rivals. It quoted Bezeq’s controlling shareholder at the time, Shaul Elovitch, as expressing concerns that Netanyahu would not approve lucrative business deals for the company if negative articles were published.
On January 17-19, 2013, for instance, it said a Netanyahu associate persuaded Elovitch to publish stories saying that the wife of Naftali Bennett, head of a rival religious party, worked in a non-kosher res-taurant. Several weeks later, Netanyahu, through the same associate, allegedly pressed Walla to remove critical articles about a lacy dress his wife had worn to the swearing-in of the new parliament and replace it with favourable reviews. The site consented to both requests, it said.
On another occasion, Elo-vitch, at Netanyahu’s request, allegedly ordered Walla to halt a live broadcast of a rally by Netanyahu’s opponents during the country’s 2015 election campaign.
“A few minutes ago, the process of producing 20 percent enriched uranium has started in Fordow enrichment complex,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei told Iranian state media.
Lebanon gears up for lockdown as infections surgeAP — BEIRUT
Lebanon is gearing up for a new nationwide lockdown, as offi-cials vowed yesterday to take stricter measures against the coronavirus following the holiday season, which saw a large increase in infections and caused jitters in the country’s already-battered health sector.
First responders say they have been transporting nearly 100 patients a day while hos-pitals report near-full occu-pancy in beds and ICUs.
Nurses say they are over-whelmed, and private hospitals have been roped into the national response despite complaints that
the cash-strapped government owes them large sums of out-standing debt.
“We are facing a very critical phase and we need exceptional and firm measures as well as strict implemen-tation,” caretaker Prime Min-ister Hassan Diab said at the start of a government meeting to discuss how to deal with the spreading virus.
A meeting of the highest security committee is to follow later in the day before new measures are announced. Armenian Orthodox Christmas is celebrated in Lebanon this week.
Lebanon, a country of
nearly 6 million, including 1 million refugees, has registered around 3,000 infections cases every day for the past week - nearly doubling the number from previous weeks. Since February, nearly 190,000 infec-tions have been recorded and almost 1,500 deaths.
The numbers began increasing this summer, fol-lowing a massive explosion in Beirut’s port that shook the city and its heath sector, killing over 200 people and injuring 6,000. The infections following the August explosion increased by over 300 percent from the month before and have been climbing since.
Despite a two-week lockdown in November, the numbers kept increasing - only worsening with the holiday seasons and the return of nearly 80,000 expats to celebrate at home.
The holidays have also seen increased testing but reports suggested many of those were carried out to allow celebra-tions, only driving up infections. Lockdowns of towns and vil-lages failed to contain new infections and fines for violators did not stop large New Year Eve’s gatherings. At one, a hotel hosted a famous Lebanese singer in an indoor party that included hundreds of people,
raising criticism of lax penalty implementation.
Many feared the figures may surpass 5,000 infections a day and have expressed fear of “the Italian scenario” — a reference to overloading the health sector with no ability to trace new cases.
Lebanon is already strug-gling with an unprecedented economic crisis that has caused it to default on debt, and has sent its local currency plunging and losing 80 percent of its value to the dollar. That has severely curbed imports in the import-dependent countries, including of medicine and medical supplies.
Nigerian scientist
studies country’s
coronavirus
variant
AP — LAGOS
A Nigerian scientist has spent the holiday season in his labo-ratory doing genetic sequencing to learn more about the coun-try’s COVID-19 variant, as cases increase in the country.
Virologist Sunday Omilabu says the information he gathers about the variant will help battle the spread of the disease in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.
Nigeria has confirmed 89,163 COVID-19 cases, including 1,302 deaths, according to the figures Sunday from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The variants discovered in the UK and South Africa, they are distantly different from the variants discovered in Nigeria,” said Omilabu, who said it is not unusual for viruses to mutate and cause variants.
Nigeria is seeing more infections of COVID-19 but it is not yet certain if that is from the variant, said Omilambu, the director of the Center for Human and Zoonotic Virology at the Lagos University College of Medicine and Teaching Hospital.
“What we could say clini-cally is that we have more people coming down with severe signs and symptoms,” he said, describing how one person can spread the disease to four or five family members, which is a higher rate of transmission than had been recorded earlier.
“That shows us that some-thing is happening. There’s a surge so we are recording that but we are yet to sequence any of those isolates,” to determine if the increased transmissions are caused by the variant, said Omilabu. “I think we need to calm our mind down, there are going to be more variants to come,” he said.
“We need to be monitoring the virus, we need to sequence. If we sequence then we would have more information about what is in circulation and then, of course, we need to continue with surveillance, we need to monitor how active the virus is in the environment... so the public health experts, they have work to do and then government must support all these.”
The homeland of vaccine pioneer Louis Pasteur, and the source of major scientific victories such as the discovery of HIV in the 1980s, is today at the bottom of the charts when it comes to coronavirus jabs.
IN a breakthrough, Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will lead the State of Qatar’s delegation par-ticipating in the 41st session of the GCC Supreme Council, set to take place today in Al-Ula Governorate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Prior to this announcement, H H the Amir received a verbal message from the Amir of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, per-taining to the solid fraternal ties between the two coun-tries and the prospects for enhancing and developing them, in addition to the joint GCC action. The message was handed over by Kuwaiti Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al Mohammed Al Sabah, during his meeting with H H the Amir at his office at Al Bahr Palace yesterday evening.
Later, the Kuwait Foreign Minister announced that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Qatar reached an agreement to open airspace as well as land and sea borders starting yesterday night. The Minister said in a statement broadcast on Kuwait Television that H H the Amir of Kuwait held a phone call with H H the Amir, and H R H Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The calls stressed the commitment of all parties involved to unity by signing the Al-Ula declaration, which he added would serve as a fresh start for brotherly ties unobstructed by any differences.
On December 30, H H the Amir had received a written message from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of the sis-terly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, inviting H H the Amir to attend the 41st session of the summit of the GCC Supreme Council.
Since the crisis emerged in June 2017, Kuwait, led by the late Amir, H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, worked sincerely to bring all parties together to end the crisis and yesterday’s announcement is a huge step forward for peace in the region.
On December 23, 2020 the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul-rahman Al Thani had said that there are no obstacles to resolving the Gulf crisis at the political level. H E the Foreign Minister stressed the importance of a Gulf Coop-eration Council united front. “We will all emerge victo-rious from the crisis if we rebuild confidence in the GCC as a regional institution,” H E the Foreign Minister said. “We believe the end of the crisis is important for the security of the region and for the sake of our people. This crisis needs to end based on mutual respect and the rights of all people of the Gulf.”
As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under
more pressure from COVID than at any time since
the start of the pandemic. New virus variant was
spreading in a frustrating and alarming way.
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of UK
Health Minister Olivier Veran of France speaks to the media as he arrives to attend the vaccination of health workers, at the vaccination centre of Hotel Dieu, in Paris yesterday.
About the best thing you can say about the start of France’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign is that it surely can’t get any worse.
The homeland of vaccine pioneer Louis Pasteur, and the source of major scientific vic-tories such as the discovery of HIV in the 1980s, is today at the bottom of the charts when it comes to coronavirus jabs. France had administered 516 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine as of Sunday, two weeks after it was approved by the European Union. That’s far behind Germany’s 238,809 inoculations and the UK’s 947,206.
While the French tend to like comparing themselves to their nearest neighbours - in economic performance or technology the popular mindset is to imagine France and the UK duking it out for silver behind the uber-efficient Germans - this snapshot is far more global and far more humbling. The only country on Bloomberg’s COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker with fewer vaccinations is Costa Rica, at 55. At this rate, it would take France about 400 years to vaccinate its people; Israel, meanwhile, has already covered the equivalent of 12 percent of its population.
The usual excuses and explanations are being trotted out: Vaccines aren’t a toy, this isn’t a race, and it’s over the top to judge countries by what happens over the course of a couple of weeks. It’s true that forecasts have been foiled many times in this pandemic.
But so much of what’s happening now speaks to deeper, worrying cracks in the French state - which should, judging by the amount of money flowing into the state’s coffers every year, be very good at deploying public resources for a centrally planned operation. Instead, much like the shortage of masks and the failed test-and-trace infrastructure seen last year, the opposite is being proven.
Despite having known for some time that the logistics of the Pfizer vaccine would be complex and that the French are among the most vaccine-hesitant in the world, foresight failed to translate
into pragmatism. The doses are there, but the supply chain looks long, requiring in one case a cross-country delivery by taxi. A rollout strategy by age group and vulnerability now looks too narrow and meticulous, restricting care workers by age. And a focus on informed consent, while noble, has generated a lot of paperwork without a robust mass communication campaign on the benefits of vaccination.
President Emmanuel Macron should have been a force for good here. As a former minister and product of an elite French civil-service education, he knows where the bottlenecks of central planning lie. And his voter base, the affluent pro-European urbanites labeled as the “bourgeois bloc” by French pollster Jerome Fourquet, are on the whole pro-vaxxers - far more so than fans of Macron’s oppo-nents on the far-right and far-left.
Yet Macron’s brand of techno-populism is working against him. He has become politically defensive as he fights for re-election next year, extending his direct grip over the country’s opaque pandemic strategy while simultaneously blasting exe-cution as too slow. His fear of a return to the widespread Gilets Jaunes protests of 2018 has also seen him make some strange choices, such as promising to pick 35 French people at random to give their view on the vaccine rollout. This could easily backfire.
At a time when France
needs both leadership and a strong state, both seem curi-ously absent. Macron’s current prime minister, Jean Castex, looks lost at sea. His popular predecessor, Edouard Philippe, who was fired last year by the pres-ident, sounds like the voice of reason from the sidelines. “I know what humanity owes to vaccines,” he said last month.
It’s not too late for France to turn things around. Access to the vaccine can be expanded without making it mandatory. A more positive promotion of its benefits shouldn’t be hard to make in a country where several areas are now in the grip of a 6 p.m. curfew. Too much focus on anti-vaxxers risks failing to sway those who are still on the fence.
Yet doing so means drawing the right lessons from pandemics past and present. The 2009 H1N1 pan-demic was written off as an overblown failure of excess intervention: Batches of shots were bought at great expense but went unused and a stockpile of masks was left to gather dust. That has driven an opposite approach in France - to go slow, while putting the focus on blunter solutions like lockdowns and state support for the economy.
Yes, this is a marathon and not a sprint. But the starting blocks matter. After the success of other countries, particularly in Asia, in deploying their state appa-ratus to impressive effect in containing cases, it’s time for France to look abroad on vac-cines too.
THE WASHINGTON POST
The essence of scientific inquiry is to discover truth: Ask questions, seek evidence, develop hypotheses, conduct experiments and validate findings. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman pledged on Thursday that China will approach the investigation into the origins of the corona-virus in an "open, transparent and responsible spirit." But what if the investigation turns up something that China's leaders do not want to hear, or reveal?
China's authoritarian system, led by a party-state that demands obedience, does not permit the free flow of ideas and information. It covered up the spreading virus
in the early weeks of the out-break in Wuhan. An investi-gation by the Associated Press, published on Dec. 30, strongly suggests that China has decided to impose tough political controls over research into origins of the virus.
According to a Chinese internal document uncovered by the AP, in early March, China created a high-level task force to exert control over many aspects of research on the virus, including pre-vention, medicines, vaccines, viral origins and transmission routes. The document, marked "not to be made public," applied to all universities, companies, and medical and research institutions. It said that communication and pub-lication of research had to be
orchestrated like "a game of chess," that propaganda and public opinion teams were to "guide publication," and warned against publishing without permission. This is the police-state view of science: It must obey.
Scientists have said the novel coronavirus probably originated in nature with bats or another animal, perhaps passing through an interme-diary host before infecting a person. If the spillover pathway is found, it could greatly help prepare for, and prevent, a future pandemic.
But the possibility of a lab-oratory accident or inad-vertent leak having caused the coronavirus outbreak must not be ignored. The genetic makeup of the coronavirus is
similar to a variant found in bats. Research into bat coro-naviruses was being con-ducted by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which collected samples from a mine in Yunnan province in 2012 and 2013. Earlier in 2012, six miners there exposed to bats and bat feces were hospi-talized suffering from an illness similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome, and three died. China has denied that a laboratory leak or accident caused the Wuhan outbreak.
Under the high-level con-trols that the Associated Press disclosed, will China allow foreign scientists to freely ask questions about the research and methods of the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
Vaccine chaos in the land of Louis Pasteur
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Established in 1996
LIONEL LAURENT BLOOMBERG
09TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021 OPINION
The brighter outlook and cautious easing of restrictions reflects Singapore’s success at containing COVID-19 infections, and makes the place look great relative to the US and Europe, where the disease is again spreading rapidly.
Julian Assange, an activist and whistleblower, has pitted himself against the US government for more than a decade.
On Monday, US efforts to extradite him to stand trial over allegations of leaking classified intelligence materials were thwarted by a British court, which found that the WikiLeaks founder was depressed and at extreme risk of suicide. US prosecutors are expected to appeal the decision to Britain’s High Court, a process that could take several months, if not longer.
The extradition request denial in the latest stage in an international game of cat and mouse that began nearly a decade ago. Assange spent seven years in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, claiming political asylum to avoid arrest after jumping bail when Sweden requested his extra-dition due to abuse allegations.
The Swedish charges were dropped in 2017, but after the embassy evicted Assange last year he was arrested by the British police on behalf of the United States. His trial was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Assange’s fate is the subject of political importance
in the United States, where WikiLeaks, which published hacked Democratic National Committee data, has been accused of playing a signif-icant role in the 2016 election.
Free expression advocates have argued that an Assange trial in the United States would be a setback for press freedom. Some of Assange’s supporters have urged Pres-ident Trump, during his final days in office, to issue a pardon.
Who is Julian Assange and what is WikiLeaks?
Assange, 49, was born in Queensland, Australia, and became known as a computer hacker during his teens. In 2006, he was a co-founder of an anti-secrecy organization called WikiLeaks in 2006 with the stated aim of creating a platform that would allow leaked documents to be pub-lished safely online.
In 2010, Assange and WikiLeaks gained interna-tional attention, and consid-erable acclaim, for a series of leaks on the Iraq and Afghan-istan wars. One leak from this time, dubbed “Collateral Murder” by WikiLeaks, showed a 2007 incident in which a US Army helicopter shot and killed a dozen people, including two employees of news agency Reuters.
Assange, with his prema-turely white hair and icono-clastic style, became an interna-tional celebrity. But WikiLeaks suffered a set back when Chelsea Manning, a former US solder who had leaked hun-dreds of thousands of docu-ments, was arrested in 2010.
Manning was convicted at a court-martial in 2013 and sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Barack Obama commuted her sen-tence in 2017, following seven years in prison.
Why did Assange spend seven years in the Ecua-doran Embassy?
In November 2010, Swedish authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Assange in relation to questioning over allegations of abuset. Assange initially cooperated with police in Britain, where he was living, but denied the allegations and argued they were a pretext for him to be extradited from Sweden to the United States.
After losing a lengthy legal battle in 2012 that had seen the case go all the way to Brit-ain’s Supreme Court, Assange entered the Ecuadoran Embassy in London in June and refused to leave. He was granted political asylum in August, but was unable to leave the building as British police guarded it around-the-clock.
Though the Swedish investigation was eventually dropped, Assange remained in the embassy for years. However, amid faltering rela-tions with his Ecuadoran hosts, his asylum status was withdrawn in 2019 and British police entered the building and arrested him on charges of breaching his bail conditions.
What was his role in the 2016 US election?
While Assange was in the Ecuadoran Embassy, he con-tinued his work on WikiLeaks.
In July and October of 2016, WikiLeaks published material that had been stolen from the Democratic National Com-mittee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.
The material, widely viewed to have affected the election in favor of the eventual winner, Trump, is believed to have been stolen by Russia-backed hackers. An investigation into the allega-tions of Russian electoral interference by special counsel Robert Mueller did not publicly release any evi-dence of direct links between Russia and WikiLeaks.
Trump initially welcomed WikiLeak’s intervention, at one point saying “I love WikiLeaks” during the 2016 campaign. But after entering office, his administration dis-tanced itself from Assange.
Why is the US seeking him now?
The Trump adminis-tration wants Assange, an Australian citizen, to stand trial in a federal court in Vir-ginia on charges of violating the US Espionage Act, among other alleged violations. In total he faces charges of 18 federal crimes with a potential punishment of 175 years in a maximum-security prison.
In the initial hearing in February, US government lawyer James Lewis told the court that Assange endan-gered the lives of informants when in 2010 he illegally obtained and published clas-sified information related to the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The charges include accusations that he helped Manning hack gov-ernment computers and attain and spread the clas-sified documents.
Why was he on trial in Britain?
The trial was on whether the British government can extradite him based on a 2003 treaty with Washington. Analysts say the terms of the agreement favored the United States, which must mainly prove there is reasonable sus-picion that the crimes of which he is accused were committed.
The extradition hearings began in February and were then adjourned until May to allow the sides more time to prepare arguments. In April, the trial date was pushed back to September because of the coronavirus pandemic, as London’s lockdown pre-vented lawyers from reaching the court.
Assange and his lawyers have pointed to this shift as support for their claim that the charges are political retaliation for having published
unflattering information about Washington and its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They argue that the case is a precedent-setting assault on freedom of speech and media rights.
Why was Assange not extradited?
Assange’s lawyers had argued at trial that their client was in poor mental health, citing evidence that he had written a will and that a razor blade was found hidden in his cell at Belmarsh prison in London. In her decision on Monday, British Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser agreed with this assessment and pointed to conditions at the Adminis-trative Maximum Facility or AMX, in Florence, Colo., where prisoners can be kept isolated for up to 23 hours a day.
“Faced with the conditions of near total isolation without the protective factors which limited his risk at HMP Bel-marsh, I am satisfied the pro-cedures described by the US will not prevent Mr. Assange from finding a way to commit suicide and for this reason I have decided extradition would be oppressive by reason of mental harm and I order his discharge,” Baraitser said from the bench, reading from her ruling. US prose-cutors are expected to appeal and take the case to High Court. If that appeal fails, they could also try to take the case to Britain’s Supreme Court. It was not immediately clear if Assange will remain jailed during an appeal or if he would be given bail.
Could he be pardoned?In an article published in
the Daily Mail newspaper on Sunday, Assange’s partner Stella Moris appealed to Trump to pardon the WikiLeaks activist, arguing that the case against him had been tainted by politics. After losing November’s election, Trump is due to leave the White House in late January. In recent weeks, he has issued pardons to more than a dozen people, including some who were prosecuted after the 2016 election like Paul Man-afort, his former campaign manager.
Last year, Assange’s legal team said that former con-gressman Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., an ally of president, told the activist in 2017 that Trump could offer a pardon if Assange said publicly that Russia had nothing to do with the 2016 hack of emails from the Democratic National Committee.
In a statement posted on his website after the allega-tions came out, Rohrabacher denied offering such an exchange.
The story behind Julian Assange’s extradition case and legal saga
At the dawn of 2021, Singapore feels like a coiled spring where growth is just waiting to be unleashed. Last-minute dinner reservations are once again almost impos-sible to secure and the
countless malls that dot the map are hopping on weekends. The Central Expressway, a core artery running north from downtown, is again prone to congestion. Children - merci-fully - are in school. The government projects gross domestic product will increase between 4% and 6% this year, compared with a contraction in 2020 that may amount to as much 6.5%, the worst in history. This brighter outlook and cautious easing of restrictions reflects Singa-pore’s success at containing COVID-19 infections, and makes the place look great relative to the US and Europe, where the disease is again spreading rapidly. Even Japan and South Korea, generally praised for their handling, are wrestling with new outbreaks.
But as real as Singapore’s coronavirus-fighting achieve-ments are, they rest on a model that isn’t easily exported. Its results are facili-tated by a degree of state influence that other countries might find uncomfortable.
Granted, there aren’t many places I would rather have been during this pandemic. Still, I find it doubtful that Sin-gapore’s approach can work beyond its borders. In numerous cases, constitutions don’t easily give national gov-ernments the ability to do what’s been achieved here.
Last week, the country entered phase three of its reo-pening. The government now allows social gatherings of eight people, up from five. The size of congregations at reli-gious services has been expanded, subject to tight reg-ulations, and authorities are trying to make it less onerous for workers to be in their offices.
If this sounds enviable, consider the amount of com-pliance it took to get here. It’s compulsory to swipe into any establishment using its QR code, preferably with a government app on your smartphone, though taking a photo works, too. You also must submit to a temper-ature check, and keep your mask on. The first-time
offence for not wearing a mask is a fine of S$300 ($225); second transgressions receive a S$1,000 penalty. Repeat offences invite prosecution and, for foreigners, revocation of work permits. For those without a smartphone or who prefer not to use the app, the government is rolling out a token that you are urged to carry when leaving home. Even kids above age seven are expected to comply.
Officials tied this stage of reo-pening to wider adoption of the TraceTogether app and tokens. By mid-December, about 65% of the population used them. “Please understand that even as we enter phase three, the battle is far from won,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in an address last month. “The COVID-19 virus has not been eradicated.”The effectiveness of Singapore’s approach lies in its combination of subtlety and per-vasiveness. Even taxis have bar-codes to be scanned. Wearing masks has become so routine that it’s easy to forget them when leaving the house. I was horrified to learn that
despite the recent outbreak in the northern suburbs of Sydney, mask-wearing was only just made mandatory, starting Monday. In France, winter resorts have sued the gov-ernment to keep ski lifts oper-ating over the holidays, and more than a million people a day passed through US air-ports in the week leading up to Christmas. My Singaporean friends shake their heads in amazement. It all strikes them as an own-goal, and they are right.
There’s little disquiet about the enforcement of these precautions. Even the political opposition, which made gains in July’s election, refrained from directly attacking the gov-ernment’s handling of COVID-19. Public gatherings are tightly controlled, ruling out the kind of protests over social and economic curbs that gripped the US last summer. Safe Dis-tancing Ambassadors, civilians who make sure pedestrians and shoppers don’t get too close to each other, were an ubiquitous
and forceful presence when the lockdown started easing in June. A good number were furloughed staff from state-backed companies like Singapore Airlines Ltd.
The last contact I had with an SDA - everything and eve-ryone in Singapore has an acronym - was to ask direc-tions to a taxi queue at a shopping center. She was friendly, knowledgeable and appeared almost relieved to have someone approach her. A few meters away, two bored-looking attendants sat at a desk near the entrance, monitoring people's smart-phone displays to make sure they had "checked in.” The duo looked up every now and then to cast an eye over the temperature-screening machine. The once excep-tional has become mundane. That might be its genius. When I checked into Toast Box, a popular local cafe chain, nobody badgered me to scan in with my phone. Their assumption was I would do it of my own volition, and they were correct.
COVID-19 success in Singapore isn’t easily replicated
ADAM TAYLOR & MIRIAM BERGER AL JAZEERA
DANIEL MOSS BLOOMBERG
The extradition request denial in the latest stage in an international game of cat and mouse that began nearly a decade ago. Assange spend seven years in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, claiming political asylum to avoid arrest after jumping bail when Sweden requested his extradition due to abuse allegations.
Stella Morris, partner of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, gestures as she addresses the media outside the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court, in London, yesterday.
10 TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021ASIA
NSW state in Australia reports zero COVID-19 casesREUTERS — SYDNEY
Australia’s most populous state New South Wales (NSW) yesterday reported zero local coronavirus cases for the first time in nearly three weeks, as Sydney battled multiple outbreaks and authorities urged tens of thousands of people to get tested.
NSW daily testing numbers have dropped to around 20,000 in the last two days from a peak of about 70,000 recorded on Christmas Day, December 25. The overwhelming majority of tests are in the state capital Sydney.
“The numbers are far too low... if we’re going to succeed in staying ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, testing is crucial in large numbers so we can be con-fident of the data when we’re making decisions,” NSW Acting Premier John Barilaro told reporters.
Authorities imposed man-datory masks in indoor spaces and on public transport from yes-terday for Sydney’s five million residents or face a spot fine of A$200 ($154).
NSW officials had rejected calls for mandatory face masks
since the pandemic started and the change of policy follows the latest Sydney outbreak, which seems to be highly infectious, and ahead of a cricket test match between Australia and India in the city scheduled to start January 7. Two cases linked to Sydney’s fresh cluster centred around a beverage store were recorded after the daily deadline of 2000 local time. These will be added to Tuesday’s tally.
Low single-digit cases from a cluster in northern seaside suburbs in recent days suggest a strict lockdown there since mid-December may have effec-tively eliminated the virus, but a KPMG report said the lockdown cost NSW economy A$3.20bn ($2.46bn) in December.
NSW and Sydney, Australia’s largest city, have been isolated from the rest of Australia by state border closures or 14 day
mandatory quarantine rules for interstate arrivals from NSW.
Neighbouring Victoria state, which is also battling new cases in state capital Melbourne, on Monday reported three local
cases bringing the active cases in the state to 36. Australia has largely avoided the high number of cases and deaths from the new coronavirus compared with other developed countries but the latest
COVID-19 clusters in Sydney have sparked fears of a wider outbreak.
It has reported just under 28,500 COVID-19 cases and 909 deaths since the pandemic began.
A person wearing a protective respirator enters a queue in the city centre amid the tightening of regulations to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease in Sydney, Australia.
India: Govt, farmers fail to break impasse on farm lawsREUTERS — NEW DELHI
The Indian government yesterday refused to roll back farm reform laws, prompting farmers to threaten to step up their weeks-long protests, but the two sides agreed to meet again on Friday.
Tens of thousands of farmers have been camping out on roads around the capital, New Delhi, for 40 days, insisting that the government withdraw the reforms and guarantee a
minimum support price for their produce.
“I am hopeful the stalemate will be resolved very soon,” Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told reporters after the seventh round of meetings between the ministers and 40 farming unions.
“For resolution, the coop-eration of both sides is essential.” Farmers leaders, however, said they would not give up their fight unless the government agrees to repeal
the laws, approved by par-liament in September.
“Our agitation will continue till the three laws are with-drawn. There is no other way,” said Rakesh Tikait, one of the farmers’ leaders who attended the meeting with ministers.
Reliance Industries asked authorities to help stop attacks on its telecommunication masts by protesting farmers, who say the conglomerate has profited from the reforms at their expense..
The majority of India’s farmers sell their produce largely to small retailers at a much lower price than the gov-ernment guaranteed price - offered to only a fraction of farmers. They fear that with the introduction of the new laws, big retailers like Reliance will enter the market to buy their produce at a lower price, while the government may slowly dis-mantle the current system of procurement at the guaranteed price.
Indonesia to release allegedmastermind of Bali bombingsREUTERS — JAKARTA
Indonesia will release cleric and alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings Abu Bakar Bashir from prison later this week, its government said yesterday, upon completion of his jail term.
Bashir, 82, is considered the spiritual leader of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network.
He was jailed in 2011 for his links to militant training
camps in Aceh province.Bashir will be released on
Friday “in accordance with the expiration date and the end of his term,” Rika Aprianti, spokeswoman of the correc-tions directorate general at the law and human rights ministry, said in a statement.
Jemaah Islamiah is accused of plotting several big attacks in Indonesia and includes oper-atives trained in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the southern Philippines.
Indonesia to startmass vaccinationprogramme next weekREUTERS — JAKARTA
Indonesia’s mass vaccination programme is set to start next week, a senior minister said yesterday, pending authorisation from the country’s food and drug agency (BPOM), as about 700,000 doses of vaccines have already been widely distributed.
Currently battling one of Asia’s most stubborn coronavirus epidemics, Indonesia has secured more than 329 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, most notably from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, and AstraZeneca.
Those to be used in the first phase are CoronaVac, the vaccine of China’s Sinovac, of which Indonesia has received 3 million doses.
Airlangga Hartarto, the country’s chief economic minister, said the vaccination programme is scheduled to start next week, pending data from BPOM, which he said draws findings from the clinical trials in Brazil and Turkey.
The vaccine will be administered for free across the archipelago, with the rollout expected to be completed within 15 months. The government expected the programme to cost more than 74 trillion rupiah ($5.33bn), Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.
Indonesia’s state-owned drugmaker Bio Farma has already dispatched about 714,000 CoronaVac doses to the country’s
32 provinces, it said yesterday.Bambang Heriyanto, corporate sec-
retary for Bio Farma, said the vaccines had been pre-positioned to save time and allow inoculations to start as soon as BPOM’s authorisation is given.
Senior BPOM official Lucia Rizka Anda-lusia said interim data from late stage clinical trials in West Java plus findings from Brazil and Turkey needed to be studied, but she was hopeful the emergency use author-ization would be issued.
Early results from CoronaVac late-stage trials showed it was 91.25% effective, while researchers in Brazil have said it was more than 50% effective, though full results were yet to be released at the company’s request.
Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indonesia’s health minister, has said that Indonesia needs to inoculate about 181 million people, or roughly 67% of its population, to reach herd immunity. He said 1.3 million health workers would be first in line for the shots, followed by public servants.
Visitors arriving at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport following Indonesia government decision to ban foreign tourists from entry to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease, in Tangerang, on the outskirts of Jakarta.
Duterte lauds guards’ courage in using unauthorised vaccine
REUTERS — MANILA
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has commended his security detail for their “loyalty and courage” in inoculating themselves with unauthorised COVID-19 vaccines, his spokesman said yesterday, as some lawmakers called their actions illegal.
The military detail broke no laws when they administered the COVID-19 vaccines to themselves, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said, even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has yet to approve any coronavirus vaccines.
“The president is saluting the PSG for what they did. They risked their lives to protect our president,” he told a media briefing, referring to the Pres-idential Security Group.
“We thank you for your loyalty and courage,” he said, quoting Duterte’s remarks.
Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana last week called the PSG’s move “justified” even as he said the vaccines they gave
themselves as far back as Sep-tember, without his knowledge, had been smuggled into the Philippines.
The FDA has said any importation, distribution and sale of a COVID-19 vaccine is at present illegal and warned of potential dangers from using vaccines it has not approved.
It has said it was working with the Bureau of Customs to determine how the vaccines were brought into the country.
Some senators are demanding answers and want the head of Duterte’s guard to appear before an inquiry on the government’s vaccination plan set for next week. Senator Richard Gordon has said PSG chief Brigadier General Jesus Durante should consider resigning for violating the law.
Durante last week said a handful of unit members used the vaccine “in good faith” because they could not afford to wait for regulatory approval, adding the president was only informed afterwards. Durante did not name the vaccine used or say how it was obtained.
HK extends school closures until Lunar New YearBLOOMBERG — HONG KONG
Hong Kong pushed back the re-opening of classrooms for more than a month as part of government measures to stamp out the spread of the corona-virus.
The suspension of in-person classes at kindergartens through high school, a restriction origi-nally scheduled to expire January 10, will be extended until the lunar new year hol-idays, which begin on February 12, Education Secretary Kevin Yeung said during a briefing yes-terday. The city reported 53 new cases for the day, 43 of which were local.
Six of yesterday’s cases were untraceable, the lowest number since November 19.
Hong Kong has been one of the most aggressive places worldwide to close schools despite research from the likes of the United Nations warning about the adverse consequences of doing so. Still, the city has continued to suspend classes as part of its arsenal to bring down case numbers and re-open its
economy to travelers, particu-larly to those from mainland China. Besides schools, the gov-ernment will extend other social distancing measures by another two weeks until January 20.
The city recently banned travelers from the UK in the wake of a more contagious
strain of the coronavirus being detected there. An earlier effort to open up quarantine-free flights to and from Singapore — the first major air travel bubble — collapsed last month after a resurgence of cases in Hong Kong.
Separately, Hong Kong
reported that a pet cat tested positive for COVID-19 after its owner became infected by the virus. So far, eight dogs and eight cats have tested positive in the city, though the gov-ernment said there’s no evi-dence that pets are spreading the coronavirus to people.
Two women gesture next to the water front of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong amid the spread of coronavirus disease.
Vietnam agrees to buy 30 milliondoses of AstraZeneca vaccineREUTERS — HANOI
Vietnam has agreed to buy 30 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Astra-Zeneca Plc, the government said yesterday, adding that author-ities are also seeking to purchase vaccines from other sources, including Pfizer Inc.
The Southeast Asian country has previously agreed to get a Russian vaccine though also said it would not rush to secure vaccine deals, citing the potential for high financial costs and after managing to contain its coronavirus outbreaks to only 1,494 cases, with 35 deaths.
The AstraZeneca and Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine is cheaper than some others and can be stored at fridge temper-ature, which makes it easier to transport and use, particularly in developing countries.
“We’ve already signed an agreement to guarantee the AstraZeneca vaccine for 15 million people, which is equiv-alent to 30 million doses,” deputy health minister Truong
Quoc Cuong told a government meeting.
Vietnam is also in talks to purchase vaccines from Pfizer Inc, Russia’s Sputnik V and China, the deputy minister said. Cuong did not name the Chinese vaccine candidate.
Cuong also said Vietnam would be eligible to buy vac-cines from the World Health Organization’s COVAX pro-gramme to cover 16%, or 15.6 million of its almost 98 million population, but said more infor-mation would be available in the first quarter.
Vietnam, which has yet to give formal regulatory approval to any vaccine, is also devel-oping vaccines domestically.
The country has conducted human trials of its ‘Nano Covax’ vaccine and a second home-grown vaccine is expected to start undergoing human trials this month.
Vietnam in August said it had signed up for 50 million-150 million doses of the Russian vaccine, though delivery remains unclear.
NSW daily testing numbers have dropped to around 20,000 in the last two days from a peak of about 70,000 recorded on Christmas Day, December 25. The overwhelming majority of tests are in the state capital Sydney.
11TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021 ASIA
Thailand PM urges people to stay homeREUTERS — BANGKOK
Thailand’s prime minister yesterday urged the public to stay at home to help contain its biggest coronavirus outbreak and avoid a strict lockdown, as authorities confirmed a daily record of 745 new infections.
The government has declared 28 provinces, including Bangkok, as high-risk zones and asked people to work from home and avoid gathering or travelling beyond provincial borders, as infection numbers climb after an outbreak was detected last month at a seafood market near the capital.
Prime Minister Prayuth
Chan-ocha said the government was mindful of the potential economic damage from strong containment measures.
“We don’t want to lock down the entire country because we
know what the problems are, therefore can you all lock down yourselves?” he told reporters.
“This is up to everyone,” Prayuth said. “If we don’t want to get infected, just stay home
for 14 to 15 days. If you think like this then things will be safe, easier for screening.”
Thailand has recorded 8,439 coronavirus cases and 65 deaths overall, among the lowest
numbers in Asia.Most new cases are linked
to a cluster among migrant workers that started in Samut Sakhon, a coastal province southwest of Bangkok, and led to infections in more than half of the country’s provinces.
The government’s COVID-19 taskforce has recommend extending an emergency decree that gives power to health authorities and provincial gov-ernors until the end of February.
Restaurants and food vendors in Bangkok have to halt dine-in services at 9pm, Prayuth said, softening an earlier 7pm to 6am dine-in sus-pension imposed by Bangkok authorities, citing economic concerns. Take-outs will be allowed.
Alcohol sales in restaurants have been banned and clubs and other entertainment venues closed in high-risk provinces. Provincial governors have been empowered to set their own restrictions.
Schools and education centres nationwide have been closed for a month.
A government worker sprays disinfectant on a street amid the coronavirus disease outbreak in Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday.
Pakistan to open educational institutions in phases from January 18INTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD
The Inter-provincial Education Ministers conference decided yesterday to reopen educational institutions from January 18.
Addressing a press con-ference, Federal Education Min-ister Shafqat Mahmood announced that in the first
phase, classes nine to 12 would be allowed to resume from January 18. In the second phase, the minister said, primary to class 8 will resume on January 25.
Whereas higher education institutions; universities and col-leges will reopen on February 1, Mahmood said. The education
minister further said that online classes can resume from January 11.
He added that teachers and administrative staff would also be allowed to come back to schools from January 11 after the winter vacations were over. He also announced that board exams scheduled for March and
April were postponed to May and June. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan also addressed the presser and said that after looking at data and analyzing it, it became clear that we need to take some more COVID-19 pre-cautions and delay reopening schools.
Sultan said that data showed that closing the educational institutions earlier had led to a delay in the spread of the novel virus.
On November 23, the gov-ernment had announced to close educational institutions across the country amid the second wave of the coronavirus.
US Congress passes
‘Malala Yousafzai
Scholarship Act’
INTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD
The US Congress has passed a bill named after Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai that expands the number of scholarships to women in Pakistan under a merit and needs-based programme.
According to information posted on the congressional website, the ‘Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act’ was passed by the House of Representatives in March last year, and the US Senate adopted it by a voice vote on Friday last.
It has now been sent to President Donald Trump to sign it into law.
The bill requires the USAID to award at least 50 per cent of scholarships to Pakistani women, across a range of aca-demic disciplines and in accordance with existing eli-gibility criteria.
Malala Yousafzai
Pakistan, Russia
to start work on
pipeline from July
INTERNEWS — LAHORE
Pakistan will initiate work on the North-South Gas Pipeline Project (NSGPP) with Russia from July.
“Yes, we are working on the pipeline with Russians,” Nadeem Babar, special assistant to the prime min-ister on petroleum, told Arab News.
“The construction of the 1,100 km long pipeline that will transport 1.6 bcfd gas will start in July.”
The gas pipeline project has been revised upwards by changing its route and diameter.
Its transmission capacity was also enhanced from one to 1.6 billion cubic feet (bcf). The current capacity for gas supply will be two bcf, which can increase up to three bcf in the next 10 years.
In October 2020, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nadeem Babar stated that the government was compelled to show progress on the pro-posed pipeline till February 2021, in line with a directive of the Supreme Court in the gas infrastructure devel-opment cess (GIDC) case.
South Korea reviews AstraZeneca vaccine; expands gatherings banREUTERS — SEOUL
South Korea is reviewing Astra-Zeneca’s request for approval of its coronavirus vaccine, as it expands a ban on private gath-erings of more than four people to the whole country with daily cases topping more than 1,000 in four days.
South Korea’s drug safety ministry said it will aim to approve the British shot for emergency use in 40 days. The approval would mark the first for the country, which has been grappling with a prolonged surge in infections during the latest wave that has led to a sharp increase in deaths.
South Korea signed a deal in December with AstraZeneca to secure 20 million doses of its vaccine, with the first shipment expected as early as January.
It also has deals with three other drugmakers — Pfizer Inc, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen, Moderna Inc — and the global COVAX initiative, backed by the World Health Organization.
The country has secured 106 million doses to allow for cov-erage of 56 million people, more than the 52 million residents of the country, Korea Disease
Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a briefing.
Authorities plan to start vac-cinations in February, with health workers and vulnerable people first in line, but the gov-ernment has been criticised for that schedule in light of vacci-nations underway in the United States and European Union.
The AstraZeneca shot is already approved in Britain, Argentina, El Salvador, and India. It is cheaper and can be stored at fridge temperature, which makes it easier to transport and use than some rival shots, such as one from Pfizer.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, however, has been plagued by uncertainty about its most effective dosage ever since data published in November showed a half dose followed by a full dose had a 90% success rate, while two full shots were 62% effective.
In November, SK Bio-science, 98% owned by SK Chemical, received regulatory approval to begin human clinical trials of AstraZeneca’s experimental vaccine, having agreed in July to manufacture
the shots to help the British company build global supplies.
South Korea reported 1,020 new coronavirus cases as of midnight Sunday, bringing the total to 64,264 infections, with 981 deaths, according to the KDCA.
A ban on small private gath-erings that was in place in the Seoul greater area was expanded nationwide until Jan. 17.
“The reason we have expanded the ban on gatherings of four or above across the
country is because gathering of people itself is far more dan-gerous than a specific venue,” Jeong said.
The extended social-dis-tancing rules imposed on Seoul and neighbouring areas include curbs on churches, restaurants, cafes, ski resorts and other venues.
More than 60% of South Korea’s cases are from Seoul, Gyeonggi province and city of Incheon, with mass cluster out-breaks centred around nursing homes and prisons.
Prime Minister Chung
Sye-kyun called for an all-out effort to prepare for the coun-try’s vaccination programme.
“The KDCA should be per-fectly ready for the entire process the moment the vaccine arrives - the distribution, storage, inoculation and follow-ups,” Chung told a government meeting.
He also called on the related health, safety and transport ministries to help speed up the process so to not face the sorts of problems seen in the United States and some countries in Europe.
A health worker waits to screen passengers at Incheon international airport in Seoul, South Korea.
Cambodia reopens schools and museums, eases curbsREUTERS — PHNOM PENH
Cambodia has started reopening schools and museums as it relaxes a six-week lockdown following a coronavirus outbreak late last year, marking a contrast with some neighbouring countries that are facing new restrictions due to rising COVID-19 cases.
The Southeast Asian country of just over 16 million people, one of the least impacted by the novel coronavirus with just 382 infections and no deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, saw a rare cluster of cases in November.
Yesterday, students wearing masks lined up for temperature checks and hand washing before being allowed to enter the Sovannaphumi primary school in the capital Phnom Penh.
While private schools have started reopening this week, students at public schools are
due to return next week.At the Tuol Sleng Genocide
Museum, a former Khmer Rouge torture centre and prison in the capital, staff and “tuk tuk” motorcyle taxi drivers awaited the arrival of visitors.
“I am worried that we can get infected, but I see that we Cambodians are following the instructions set by the gov-ernment on wearing masks, washing hands with sanitizer or soap and social distancing,”
said Theun Ngor, a 43 year-old tuk-tuk driver.
In November, Cambodia put in a place of range of restric-tions after a rare outbreak of community transmission linked to a 56-year-old woman who had travelled to the country’s two biggest cities since November 20.
As Cambodia loosens curbs, authorities in neighbouring Thailand warned on Monday that the country could face a strict lockdown as infection numbers climbed and spurring it to declare 28 provinces high-risk zones.
While welcoming the prospect of more business, a coffee vendor near the Tuol Sleng museum was concerned after hearing that some Cam-bodians working in Thailand had been infected.
“I am so worried that they could spread it here again,” said Ngeth Sokuntheary, 27, as she prepared iced coffee.
Students from the Sovannaphumi school wearing face masks queue up to have their temperature checked in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, yesterday.
Virus contact-tracing dataaccessible to Singapore policeREUTERS — SINGAPORE
Singapore said yesterday its police will be able to use data obtained by its coronavirus contact-tracing technology for criminal investigations, a decision likely to increase privacy concerns around the system.
The technology, deployed as both a phone app and a physical device, is being used by nearly 80% of the 5.7 million population, authorities said after announcing its use would become compulsory in places like shopping malls.
The TraceTogether scheme, one of the most widely used in any country, has raised privacy fears but authorities have said the data is encrypted, stored locally and only tapped by authorities if individuals test positive for COVID-19.
“The Singapore Police Force is empowered... to obtain any data, including TraceTogether data, for criminal investigations,”
Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan said in response to a question in parliament.
The privacy statement on the TraceTogether website says: “data will only be used for COVID-19 contact tracing”.
Privacy concerns have been raised about such apps in various places, including Israel and South Korea.
“Concerns have focused on data security issues associated with the collection, use and storage of the data,” law firm Norton Rose Fullbright said on Singapore’s scheme in a review of global contact-tracing tech-nology last month.
Asked about the TraceTo-gether privacy statement by an opposition MP, Tan said: “We do not preclude the use of TraceTo-gether data in circumstances where citizens’ safety and security is or has been affected, and this applies to all other data as well.”
The government has
declared 28 provinces,
including Bangkok, as
high-risk zones and
asked people to work
from home and avoid
gathering or travelling
beyond provincial
borders.
12 TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021EUROPE
UK judge rejects extradition of Assange to United StatesREUTERS — LONDON
A British judge ruled yesterday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be extra-dited to the United States to face criminal charges including breaking a spying law, saying his mental health problems meant he would be at risk of suicide.
The United States said it would continue to seek the extradition of Australian-born Assange and US prosecutors are set to appeal yesterday’s decision to London’s High Court.
The US authorities accuse the 49-year-old of 18 offences relating to the release by WikiLeaks of vast troves of con-fidential US military records and diplomatic cables which they say put lives in danger.
Assange’s lawyers will seek bail tomorrow (Wednesday) for their client, who has spent most of the last decade either in
prison or self-imposed confinement.
“We will continue to seek Mr. Assange’s extradition to the United States,” a US Department of Justice statement said, adding that the United States had won on all the legal points, including arguments relating to freedom of speech and political motivation.
Assange’s legal team had argued the entire prosecution was brought on by pressure from US President Donald Trump’s administration, and that Assange’s extradition would pose a severe threat to press freedom.
But it was only the real risk he would commit suicide if he were held in a US maximum security jail that led Judge Vanessa Baraitser to reject the extradition request.
Assange, she said, suffered at times from severe depression and had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and
autism. Half a razor blade was found in his London prison cell in May 2019, and he had told medical staff about his suicidal thoughts and made plans to end his life.
“I find that Mr Assange’s risk of committing suicide, if an extradition order were to be made, to be substantial,” Baraitser said in her ruling, delivered at London’s Old Bailey court.
“The overall impression is of a depressed and sometimes despairing man, who is genu-inely fearful about his future,” she added, saying he had made
regular calls from jail to the Samaritans charity.
Wearing a navy suit and a mask, Assange showed little emotion at the ruling. Outside court, his partner Stella Moris, with whom he had two children while seeking asylum in Lon-don’s Ecuadorean Embassy,
said the decision was a victory but the threat of extradition was still hanging over him.
“I call on the president of the United States to end this now: Mr President, tear down these prison walls, let our little boys have their father. Free Julian, free the press, free us
all,” she said. The US authorities say more than 100 people were put at risk by the disclosures and about 50 had received assistance, with some fleeing their home countries with their spouses and families to move to the United States or another safe country.
People celebrate after a British judge ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be extradited to the United States, outside the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court, in London, yesterday.
UK first in world to start using AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccineAP — LONDON
The UK yesterday became the first nation in the world to start using the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca, ramping up a nationwide inoculation programme as rising infection rates are putting an unprecedented strain on British hospitals.
Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old dialysis patient, received the first shot at 7:30 am at Oxford University Hospital.
“The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant, and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife, Shirley, later this year,” Pinker said in a statement released by the National Health Service.
The rollout of the new vaccine comes at a crucial moment for UK authorities, who are battling a surge in infections blamed on a new virus variant that authorities have said is much more con-tagious. Scotland imposed a lockdown until the end of January amid increasing pressure on officials to tighten restric-tions throughout the U.K.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has said tougher measures are imminent, was due to address the nation later yes-terday. The UK Parliament will be recalled to sit tomorrow (Wednesday).
“If you look at the numbers, there’s no question we will have to take tougher measures and we will be announcing
those in due course,” Johnson said while visiting some of the people receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at Chase Farm Hospital in north London.
The UK is in the midst of an acute outbreak, recording more than 50,000 new coronavirus infections a day over the past six days. On Sunday, it notched up another 54,990 cases and 454 more virus-related deaths to take its confirmed pandemic death toll total to over 75,000, one of the worst in Europe.
Some areas northeast of London have infection rates of over 1,000 cases per 100,000 people.
UK regulators last week authorised emergency use of the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca shot, giving public health offi-cials a second vaccine in their medical arsenal. Britain’s mass vaccination pro-gramme began on December 8 with the shot developed by New York-based Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
Britain has secured the rights to 100
million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is cheaper and easier to use than some of its rivals. In particular, it doesn’t require the super-cold storage needed for the Pfizer vaccine.
The new vaccine will be adminis-tered at a small number of hospitals for the first few days so authorities can watch out for any adverse reactions. But the NHS said hundreds of new vacci-nation sites — including local doctors’ offices — will open later this week, joining the more than 700 vaccination sites already in operation.
A “massive ramp-up operation” is now underway in the vaccination pro-gramme, Johnson said. But aspects of Britain’s vaccination plans have spurred controversy.
Both vaccines require two shots, and Pfizer had recommended that the second dose be given within 21 days of the first. But The UK’s Joint Committee on Vac-cination and Immunization said author-ities should give the first vaccine dose to as many people as possible, rather than setting aside shots to ensure others receive two doses. It has stretched out the time between the doses from 21 days to within 12 weeks.
While two doses are required to fully protect against COVID-19, both provide high levels of protection after the first dose, the committee said. Making the first dose the priority will “maximize benefits from the vaccination pro-gramme in the short term,” it said.
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks on as a nurse receives the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine at the Chase Farm Hospital, in London yesterday.
Go-slow vaccination strategy backfires in FranceAP — PARIS
France’s cautious approach to rolling out a coronavirus vacci-nation programme appears to have backfired, leaving barely 500 people inoculated in the first week and rekindling anger over the government’s handling of the pandemic.
President Emmanuel Macron was holding a special meeting with top government officials yesterday to address the vaccine strategy and other virus developments.
The slow rollout of the vaccine made by Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech was blamed on mismanagement, staffing shortages during holiday vacations and a complex French consent policy designed to accommodate unusually broad vaccine scep-ticism among the French public.
Doctors, mayors and oppo-sition politicians pleaded yes-terday for speedier access to vaccines.
“It’s a state scandal,” said Jean Rottner, president of the Grand-Est region of eastern France, where infections are surging and some hospitals are over capacity.
“Getting vaccinated is becoming more complicated than buying a car,” he said on France-2 television.
In France, a country of 67 million people, only 516 people were vaccinated in the first six days, according to the French Health Ministry. Germany’s first-week total surpassed 200,000 and Italy’s was over 100,000 — and even those countries are under fire for being too slow to protect the public from a pandemic that has killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide.
The US and China, mean-while, have vaccinated mil-lions. France started its vacci-nation campaign on December 27 in nursing homes, because so many elderly people have died with the virus. But facing fears that people with cognitive problems would be vaccinated against their will, the gov-ernment devised a time-con-suming screening process before the vaccines can be ordered and administered.
Macron’s government is also keen not to appear that it is forcing vaccines on anyone.
Though France has lost more lives to the virus than most countries — over 65,000 — polls suggest the French are unusually wary of vaccines.
They remember past French drug scandals, worry about how quickly these new vaccines were developed and their long-term impact, and
wonder about the profits they bring to big pharmaceutical companies.
But many other French people are eager to get vacci-nated and have been frustrated by the surprisingly slow rollout.
“We are doing anything we can to motivate people to get vaccinated,” said Frederic Leyret, director of the Saint Vincent Hospital in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, whose geriatric rehabilitation facility started vaccinations Monday. He lamented a mixed message from leading French officials, who he claims say “go get vaccinated, but we will go slowly because it could be dan-gerous.” The French gov-ernment adjusted its policies over the weekend to allow immediate vaccinations for medical workers over 50, alongside nursing home residents.
Catalonia tightens restrictions to tackle new surge in virus infectionsREUTERS — BARCELONA
Catalonia announced yesterday a tightening of restrictions to tackle an uptick in COVID-19 infections, banning people from leaving their municipality, closing gyms and shopping malls, and allowing only essential shops such as pharmacies to open at the weekend.
The new restrictions in Catalonia, which has Spain’s second-highest number of infections and deaths after Madrid, will start on Thursday and last until January 17.
“We have to stop the trans-mission and the main way to do so is to reduce all social activity,” Catalan health chief Alba Verges told a news con-ference, adding that financial aid would be given to the sectors most hit by the new restrictions.
The new measures will not affect restaurants, which can still have clients eat in for breakfast and lunch and offer take-away food for dinner.
Other regions such as Andalusia, Murcia or Extrem-adura have announced new measures over the past days. Madrid continues to have lighter restrictions than most of the country but has locked down some districts with a higher infection rate.
Spain has been one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, registering more than 50,000 deaths and close to 2 million cases.
Sturgeon orders
Scots to stay at
home as new
variant advances
REUTERS — LONDON
Scotland yesterday imposed the most stringent COVID-19 lockdown since last March and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would shortly impose tougher curbs in England to contain a rapidly spreading outbreak of a new variant of the coronavirus.
The United Kingdom has the world’s sixth-highest official coronavirus death toll — 75,024 — and the number of new infections is soaring across the country.
As Johnson mulled tougher measures for England, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the new variant accounted for nearly half of new cases in Scotland and is 70% more transmissible.
Scots, she said, would be legally required to stay at home for January from mid-night. Schools will close for all but the children of essential workers.
“I am more concerned about the situation that we face now than I have been at any time since March,” Sturgeon told the Scottish par-liament. “As a result of this new variant, (the virus) has just learned to run much faster, and has most definitely picked up pace in the past couple of weeks,” Sturgeon said.
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland implement their own COVID-19 responses though they are trying to coordinate more across the United Kingdom. England is currently divided into four tiers of restrictions, depending on the prevalence of the virus, with the vast majority of the country in Tiers 3 and 4 where social mixing is restricted and restaurants are closed.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier that the rules in Tier 3 were clearly not working.
The government has spent the year trying to balance the need to shut down the country to contain the virus without hammering the economy.
People queue at a COVID-19 vaccination centre at the Treptow Arena in Berlin, Germany, yesterday.
“I find that Mr Assange’s
risk of committing
suicide, if an extradition
order were to be made,
to be substantial,” the
judge said in her ruling.
Germany heading towards extension of hard lockdown until January 31REUTERS — BERLIN
The German government and the country’s 16 federal states have agreed to extend a strict lockdown until January 31 in an effort to bring coro-navirus infections under control, Bild newspaper reported yesterday, without providing a source.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and the state premiers are scheduled today to discuss a possible extension of the lockdown beyond January 10. Some, including Bavaria’s premier Markus Soeder, have already spoken in favour of an extension.
Speaking after the Bild report, a
government source said: “All but two federal states support (a lockdown extension until) January 31. However, the formal decision will be made on Tuesday.”
Germany was more successful than many European countries in keeping the coronavirus in check during the first wave in the spring but has seen a surge in new infections since the autumn.
It imposed a second hard lockdown on December 16, closing schools, shops and restaurants after a partial lockdown introduced in early November did not bring the hoped-for reduction in new infections.
13TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021 EUROPE
Vaccinations
programmes in the 27
nation-bloc have gotten
off to a slow start and
some EU members have
been quick to blame the
EU’s executive arm for a
perceived failure of
delivering the right
amount of doses.
EU rejects criticism for slow vaccine rolloutAP — BRUSSELS
The European Commission defended its coronavirus vacci-nation strategy yesterday amid growing criticism in member states about the slow rollout of COVID-19 shots across the region of 450 million inhabitants.
Vaccinations programmes in the 27 nation-bloc have gotten off to a slow start and some EU members have been quick to blame the EU’s exec-utive arm for a perceived failure of delivering the right amount of doses. In Finland, health authorities are reportedly unhappy that the country only received about 40,000 doses in December, instead of the 300,000 that were expected.
Facing a barrage of ques-tions on vaccines during a news conference, EU Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said the main problem with the
deployment of vaccination pro-grams “is an issue of production capacity, an issue that eve-rybody is facing.”
“We have actually signed contracts that would allow member states to get access to 2 billion doses, largely enough to vaccinate the whole of the EU population,” he said.
As part of its strategy, the EU h a s s e a l e d s i x
vaccines contracts, with Moderna, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Pfizer-BioNTech and CureVac. But only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been approved for use so far in the 27-nation bloc.
The European Medicines Agency said its human medicines committee, CHMP, was meeting “to discuss the Moderna vaccine.” The Amsterdam-based agency had been scheduled to discuss authorising the US company’s vaccine for use in the EU tomorrow.
“The CHMP meeting scheduled for tomorrow, 6 January, is also still planned in case the committee does not reach a decision today,” the agency said in an email to The Associated Press. Monday’s meeting was behind closed doors. Mamer also clarified the role of the commission in
securing contracts with potential drug makers. He said the commission did not directly buy doses of vaccines but “acted as an investor” to provide funding to pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines. The goal was to speed up pro-duction capacities and research, with all EU nations free to decide how many doses they would buy from the vaccine producers of their choice.
“Ultimately, these vaccines have to be produced, delivered, and some of the logistic chains involved are very sophisti-cated,” Mamer said, insisting that vaccination programs have just started, and that the big deliveries of doses are foreseen around April.
Asked why the Commission did not buy more doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Stefan de Keersmaecker, the Commis-sion’s health policy spokesman,
said the “main philosophy was to diversify our portfolio, not to put all our eggs in one basket.”
De Keersmaecker said the contract with Moderna provides for an initial purchase of 80
million doses on behalf of all EU nations but that the commission intends to use its option to request a further 80 million doses once the vaccine is approved.
Belgian police officers checking the papers of passengers at the terminal of Brussels airport due to the new rules imposed by the government amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, in Brussels, Belgium, on Saturday.
Belgium to step upvaccinations innursing homesREUTERS — BRUSSELS
Belgium is stepping up its coro-navirus vaccination campaign in nursing homes, where more than half of all COVID-19 deaths in the country have been recorded.
Amid strong criticism over its slowness in deploying vac-cines, Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said yesterday that 87,000 shots will be given every week to nursing home residents and staff.
Speaking to RTL radio, Vandenbroucke said Belgium took a cautious approach in rolling out vaccines and made safety a priority, adding that logistical issues due to the super-cold temperatures needed for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine did not help.
Vandenbroucke took satis-faction in the high rate of vac-cination so far, with about 85% of the nursing home residents willing to take the shots.
Last month, Amnesty Inter-national said Belgium author-ities “abandoned” thousands of elderly people who died in nursing homes during the pan-demic following an investi-gation in which the group cited “human rights violations.”
And last week, authorities said 27 elderly people died in an outbreak at a Belgian nursing home from a super-spreading St. Nick party. One of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, Belgium has reported more than 19,700 deaths linked to the virus.
Britain yesterday took another giant step in the fight against COVID-19, ramping up its immunization program by giving the first shots in the world from the vaccine created by Oxford University and phar-maceutical giant AstraZeneca.
Dialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, was the first to get the new vaccine shot, adminis-tered by the chief nurse at Oxford University Hospital. Pinker said he was so pleased and now he can “really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
Since December 8, Britain’s National Health Service has been using a vaccine made by Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech to inoculate health care workers and nursing home residents and staff. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine boosts that medical arsenal and is cheaper and easier to use since it does not require the super-cold
storage needed by the Pfizer vaccine.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was being administered at a small number of UK hos-pitals for the first few days so authorities can watch out for any adverse reactions. But hun-dreds of new vaccination sites — at both hospitals as well as local doctors’ offices—will launch this week, joining the more than 700 already in oper-ation, NHS England said.
Russia reported yesterday that its number of new corona-virus cases hit a six-week low, continuing a steady decline that began in late December. The national coronavirus taskforce said 23,551 cases were recorded in the previous day, the lowest
daily toll since Nov. 18 and sub-stantially lower than the high of 29,335 reported on Dec 24.
The taskforce reported 482 new deaths from COVID-19, down from 635 on Dec. 24. More than 3.26 million coronavirus infections have been recorded in Russia throughout the pandemic and 58,988 deaths.
Despite a surge in new infections this fall, Russian offi-cials have shied away from imposing a national lockdown in an effort to protect the economy, relying instead on local restrictions. Russia has been inoculating medical workers and other key groups with its own Russian-made coronavirus vaccine called Sputnik V. Passenger traffic at
the Netherlands’ biggest airport plummeted by 71% in 2020 as coronavirus restrictions slammed the global aviation industry.
Schiphol Airport announced Monday that 20.9 million pas-sengers departed, arrived or transited at the busy aviation hub on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The annual pas-senger number reflects the entire year — before the first wave of coronavirus hit Europe, the relative lull over the summer and surges in infec-tions later in the year that forced re-imposition of lock-downs in many countries. The airport processed 1.4 million metric tons of cargo, a decrease of 9% compared to 2019.
Ukrainian police said yesterday they were investigating docu-ments and audio recordings dating back to 2012 about plans to murder a Belarusian jour-nalist who was subsequently killed by a car bomb in Kiev in 2016.
The police released a statement on the case on the same day as online newspaper EUobserver published a recording of what it said was the Belarusian KGB security
service in 2012 discussing plans to kill investigative journalist Pavel Sheremet.
The Ukrainian police gave few details of the audio recordings it is looking into and did not identify any suspects.
If the veracity of the recording published by EUob-server is confirmed, it would increase suspicions that Belarus’s KGB was involved in killing Sheremet, a critic of the Bela-rusian leadership under Pres-ident Alexander Lukashenko.
The Belarusian KGB did not
reply to a request for comment.In the recording, which
EUobserver said it obtained through a Belarusian opposition activist, plans are discussed to kill enemies of Lukashenko’s rule with poison or explosives.
The Ukrainian police said they obtained their own material through the country’s foreign intelligence service.
Fragments of the infor-mation they obtained “have been published on the internet. U n i d e n t i f i e d p e r s o n s
are discussing the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet,” the police statement said.
Lukashenko has cracked down on protests since a dis-puted election in August which his opponents say was rigged. Lukashenko has denied elec-toral fraud. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made investigating the killing a pri-ority when he came to power two years ago.
Three Ukrainian suspects are on trial in Ukraine in con-nection with the killing but the
authorities have not established who ordered the murder. The suspects deny wrongdoing.
Sheremet was given Russian citizenship after fleeing alleged persecution in Belarus but relo-cated permanently to Ukraine in 2014 after no longer feeling safe in Moscow.
Sheremet worked for the online news website Ukrayinska Pravda whose founder, Georgiy Gongadze, was also murdered in 2000. Gongadze’s decapi-tated body was discovered in a forest outside Kiev.
Greece PM keeps key ministers in cabinet makeover
REUTERS — ATHENS
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reshuffled his cabinet yesterday in an attempt to give a boost to his conservative government, but left key ministers in place to signal policy continuity for the economy and foreign affairs.
As Greece aims to reopen schools next week and start mass vaccinations this month, the government is keen to kick-start the economy after the novel coronavirus pan-demic destroyed hopes of a recovery last year.
To face the challenges, Mitsotakis has switched some ministers around and brought in a few new faces, including Christos Tarantilis, an Athens University professor who was appointed the government’s spokesman to help polish its image.
In addition, the prime min-ister appointed Nicholas Yat-romanolakis, a former member of the centrist Potami party, as deputy culture min-ister. “Every government needs to demonstrate flexi-bility at the right time,” Taran-tilis said, announcing the cabinet line-up.
Finance Minister Christos Staikouras, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Defence Minister Nikos Panagi-otopoulos remain in place.
An elderly woman receives a vaccine against the coronavirus disease at a nursing home in Athens, Greece, yesterday.
A migrant rescued in the Atlantic Ocean sits on the ground after disembarking from a Spanish coast guard vessel, in the port of Arguineguin, to the south part of the island of Gran Canaria, Spain, yesterday.
Canary Islands sees morethan 8-fold increase inarrival of migrants in 2020REUTERS — MADRID
The number of undocumented migrants arriving in Spain’s Canary Islands on rickety boats was more than eight times higher in 2020 from the previous year, the Spanish Interior Ministry said yesterday.
As north and sub-Saharan Africans grew desperate after losing incomes from tourism and other industries because of the COVID-19 pandemic, 23,023 migrants arrived in the archipelago last year, up from 2,687 in 2019, the ministry said.
Hundreds of people died last year making the perilous crossing to the Spanish islands in the Atlantic Ocean, often in overcrowded boats with unreliable engines, the International Organization for Migration said.
The migrants tend to see the Canary Islands as a staging post to get to mainland Europe, but the islands are still more than 1,000km from continental Spain.
Overall, the number of illegal migrants intercepted by Spanish authorities across the country in 2020 rose by 29% to 41.861, as fewer people sailed to continental Spain and the Balearic Islands or crossed the land border between Morocco and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
Greece church
tells priests to
ignore pandemic
closure orderAP — ATHENS
Greece’s powerful Orthodox Church is rebelling against a government order to briefly close places of worship under a weeklong drive to tighten virus restrictions before the planned reopening of schools.
T h e c o n s e r v a t i v e Church’s ruling body issued a statement yesterday directing priests to admit worshippers during indoor services for tomorrow's feast of the Epiphany.
The Holy Synod said it “does not accept” the new restrictions, in force from January 3-10, and would send a letter of protest to the center-right government.
T h e g o v e r n m e n t responded with a mildly worded statement voicing hope that the Church “will realise, as it has so far respon-sibly done, how crucial this time is for Greek society.”
It added that Greeks are still free to offer individual prayers in church, but not to attend services. This had not been specified when the restrictions were announced on Saturday.
After Greece saw a spike of new COVID-19 infections and deaths in November, when intensive care units bor-dered on full capacity, author-ities imposed a second lockdown, closing schools and suspending much economic and social activity.
14 TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021AMERICAS
Private clinics in Brazil to buy
COVID-19 vaccine from India
REUTERS — SAO PAULO
Private Brazilian clinics plan to buy 5 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by India’s Bharat Biotech, their association said yesterday in a statement.
Bharat Biotech has not yet applied for approval by Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa for its Covaxin vaccine.
Geraldo Barbosa, head of the Brazilian Association of Vaccine Clinics (ABCVAC) who will lead a delegation to India, said a mem-orandum of understanding has already been signed with Bharat Biotech.
“This should be the first vaccine available on the private market in Brazil,” he said. The plan is for the 5 million doses of Covaxin to arrive in Brazil in mid-March, to be sold by private clinics. Anvisa said in a statement on Sunday that Covaxin does not fit the con-tinuous data submission process for vaccine registration and the vaccine would have to undergo clinical trial in Brazil.
Bharat Biotech is a pharmaceutical company based in Hyderabad in southern India that produces millions of doses of vaccines for hepatitis, Zika, Japanese encephalitis and others ill-nesses. In November, Bharat Biotech executives visited Brazil and offered the vaccine and a possible technology transfer part-nership. Covaxin is a whole-virion inactivated vaccine that could be licensed by the second quarter of 2021 in India, an executive said.
Migrants rest outside the Posada Belen migrant shelter, which is closed due to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease, in Saltillo, Mexico.
Shuttered shelters hit migrants in Mexico as pandemic ragesREUTERS — SALTILLO, MEXICO
Dozens of migrant refuges in Mexico have closed their doors or scaled back operations in recent weeks to curb the ravages of coronavirus, exposing people to greater peril just as migration from Central America to the United States is on the rise again.
Reuters spoke to people responsible for over 40 shelters that had offered refuge to thou-sands on a route where illegal immigrants often face assaults, robberies and kidnappings - before the pandemic forced them to shut or limit capacity.
The closures are a fresh headache for migrants already coping with reductions to the southern routes of a Mexican cargo train known as “La Bestia” (The Beast) that has long helped them get north.
Fewer shelters mean fewer safe places for Central Amer-icans to take cover, even as many walk hundreds more miles than before, over a dozen migrants told Reuters.
When the main shelter in the northern city of Saltillo, a busy staging post on the road to Texas, shut before Christmas due to a COVID-19 outbreak that killed its founder, dozens of migrants were left to camp
on the sidewalk outside. Alarmed by the prospect of gang-sters who often prey on migrants in the city, an important transit point for violent drug gangs, they organized their own night patrol.
“At night, suspicious cars park nearby or circle the area with two or three men inside,” said Honduran migrant Michael Castaneda, 27, who helped organize the sentry. “We know
the gangs are watching us, and they know we’re watching them.”
A network of privately funded shelters provides food, legal and medical aid to tens of thousands of migrants tra-versing Mexico each year. Run by non-governmental agencies or religious organisations, they are subject to government rules, including health laws that have forced some to close in the
pandemic. Castaneda wants to reach the United States to work and send money back to his parents and three younger sib-lings to rebuild their family home, which was hammered by two devastating hurricanes that hit Central America in November.
But his journey across Mexico has been slow, he said, after he injured his leg en route and could not access medical
care or rest properly because of shuttered shelters.
Estimates vary over how many refuges there are, but a 2020 study by bank BBVA Ban-comer identified 96 shelters, rest houses and canteens for migrants on Mexico’s main migration routes. The mounting risks Castaneda and other migrants face could complicate Mexican-US efforts to improve their lot under the incoming US president, Joe Biden, who has pledged to pursue more humane policies than the incumbent, Donald Trump.
Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20 and the two hurricanes have already encouraged some Central Americans to head north. Social media chats used by migrants say a major migrant caravan is organizing to depart Honduras on January 15.
The number of Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans caught trying to cross the US border rose more than three-fold between July and November, US official data show. In the southern town of Tenosique, a gathering point for migrants entering Mexico from Gua-temala, an influential shelter known as “The 72” had to close its doors to new arrivals after a coronavirus outbreak there at the end of November.
US Treasury Dept affirms recognition of opposition-held Venezuela congressREUTERS — WASHINGTON
The US Treasury Department yesterday issued a new license allowing certain transactions with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido despite US sanctions on the country, reaf-firming Washington’s support for the politician as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
The license, which replaces a similar previous one, also allows for certain transactions with Venezuela’s National Assembly and some others, effectively recognising the extension of the opposition-controlled National Assembly’s term by a year.
The term was extended after the mainstream oppo-sition boycotted a parlia-mentary election on December 6 handily won by President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling socialists that the opposition and most Western democracies said was neither free nor fair. Venezuela’s Supreme Court last week ruled that the move by the opposition-controlled National Assembly to extend its term an additional year was invalid, paving the way for allies of Maduro to take over the body this month.
Washington in January 2019 recognized Venezuelan politician Guaido as the OPEC nation’s rightful leader and has ratcheted up sanctions and dip-lomatic pressure in the aftermath of Maduro’s 2018
re-election, widely described as fraudulent.
Maduro remains in power, backed by Venezuela’s military as well as Russia, China and Cuba.
The recognition of Guaido as interim president by the United States and others derives from his position as speaker of the National Assembly. Guaido invoked Venezuela’s constitution to assume a rival interim presi-dency in 2019, declaring Maduro was usurping the pres-idency after rigging his 2018 re-election.
The Treasury Department in the license said that trans-actions involving the Vene-zuelan National Constituent Assembly convened by Maduro or the National Assembly scheduled to be seated on Tuesday are not authorised.
REUTERS — LA PAZ
Bolivia’s Tuni glacier is disap-pearing faster than initially anticipated, according to scien-tists in the Andean nation, a predicament that will likely make worse water shortages already plaguing the capital La Paz, just 60 km away.
Scientists from the Univer-sidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), who monitor the Tuni and other regional glaciers, told Reuters the once sprawling glacier had been reduced to just one square kilometer.
Where once they had pre-dicted it would last through 2025, now they say its disap-pearance is imminent.
“This entire sector was once covered with ice,” said Dr. Edson Ramírez, a university
glaciologist. Across much of the glacier´s former path, now only discolored rock remains, exposed for the first time in centuries.
Though the glacier has been receding since the Little Ice Age, when massive ice fields topped many Andean mountains, the fast-changing climate has accelerated the process, according to the Bolivian scientists.
Torrential rains and drought have become more common, and mountain snows less predictable, they said.
The changing climate and fast-disappearing glaciers have coincided with a move from the countryside to the cities of Bolivia, researchers say, pres-suring already faltering water sources. Yola Choque, who
grows quinoa in the town of Viacha, about 25km from the city of La Paz, says his crop has suffered. “It has not rained for months, I think it must be due to climate change, that is why Pachamama (Mother Earth) got angry and it does not rain,” he said in his native Aymara language.
Meanwhile, El Alto, the city sister to the capital La Paz, is growing at approximately 5% per year, according to glacier scientist Ramirez.
While the populations located at the foot of the Andes do not depend entirely on water from Bolivia’s high Andean glaciers, the mountain ice has fed rivers used for irri-gation of crops and at least 20% of La Paz’ water supply, the sci-entists say.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford watches a healthcare worker preparing a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the Michener Institute, in Toronto yesterday.
Bolivia’s Tuni glacier is disappearing, and so is the water it supplies
Venezuela’s Supreme Court last week ruled that the move by the opposition-controlled National Assembly to extend its term an additional year was invalid, paving the way for allies of Maduro to take over the body this month.
Moderna to make
600 million doses
of COVID-19
vaccine this year
BLOOMBERG — WASHINGTON
Moderna Inc. said it will make at least 600 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, with a goal of finishing the year with as many as 1 billion doses produced. The shares rose.
The announcement increased the bottom end of the company’s production forecast by 100 million doses. Moderna is “continuing to invest and add staff” to produce the two-shot vaccine, according to a statement by the Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech company yesterday.
The announcement comes as a key government official has said the US is considering cutting Moderna’s dosage levels by half for those 18 to 55 to boost the amount of vaccine available. Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Moncef Slaoui, Operation Warp Speed’s chief scientific adviser, said there is evidence that a half-dose provides the same level of protection as a full dose.
A Moderna spokesman declined to comment about any potential ongoing regulatory discussions. The company’s shares rose 6.1% to $110.84 at 1:42 pm in New York.
The vaccine, Moderna’s first product, has been authorised for use in the US and Canada, and the company’s application for use in Europe could get the go-ahead within days from the European Medicines Agency.
In the US, Moderna has sup-plied 18 million doses so far to the government, according to the statement. That puts Moderna roughly in line with its
goal of delivering approxi-mately 20 million doses to the US last year.
The US has ordered 200 million doses of the vaccine, with options for buying 300 million more, and Moderna confirmed in the statement that it still expects to deliver all 200 million doses by the end of the second quarter.
Juan Andres, Moderna’s chief technical operations and quality officer, said the com-pany’s early delivery of supply and its ability to boost baseline production estimates for 2021 “are both signals that our scale up of mRNA vaccine production is a success.”
Meanwhile, Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York’s public and private hos-pitals could be fined as much as $100,000 and risk not
receiving further coronavirus vaccine shipments if they don’t administer doses within a week of getting them, .
As more than half of the shots received by hospitals statewide remain unused, Cuomo called out individual hospitals that have been slow to administer the vaccines to their staff. While some of the 194 public and private hospitals have used nearly all of their allocation, others have given out as little as 15%, he said. New York City’s public hospitals have administered 31%, according to Cuomo. “I need those public officials to step in and manage those systems,” Cuomo said Monday at a virus briefing. “You have the allo-cation, we want it in people’s arms as soon as possible.”
Hospital providers who are
“seriously deficient” in admin-istering vaccines can be subject to further sanctions, including limited allocations in the future. If hospitals aren’t able to speed it up, they should say so, Cuomo said. “You would be fined for accepting an allocation that you can’t administer or won’t administer,” he said.
About 300,000 New Yorkers have been vaccinated so far, with the main focus on front-line medical workers. The state is looking to hasten its vaccination efforts as Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations con-tinue to climb. Beyond hospital systems, Cuomo laid blame for the slower-than-expected rollout on a federally-run program to inoculate residents and staff at nursing homes administered by Walgreens and CVS.
Man arrestedin Mexico forbeating threesons to death
AP — MEXICO CITY
A man has been arrested in northern Mexico for allegedly beating to death his three sons in order to get back at the chil-dren’s mother, prosecutors said.
The prosecutors’ office in the northern state of Sonora said the boys were aged 3, 7 and 8. The deaths occurred in the north-central state of Hidalgo on January 2. The suspect called his own father to tell him what he had done and the grandfather called police.
The suspect apparently fled to Sonora, but was quickly detained there and returned to Hidalgo to face charges.
Prosecutors said the man had an argument with the boys’ mother and killed the kids “in order to cause her great pain.”
“Apparently in revenge against his wife, he killed his sons,” the office said in a statement.
Boat with over 20migrants sinksoff Colombia
AP — BOGOTA
Rescue workers in Colombia are trying to locate more than 20 migrants whose boat sank as it tried to reach Panama.
The sinking was reported yesterday by officials in Acandi, a municipality along the Gulf of Uraba, an inlet of the Caribbean sea that is lined by dense jungle.
Thousands of undocu-mented migrants cross the gulf each year on small boats.
Migrants traveling through the Uraba region are mostly trying to make it to the United States. Many come from Cuba and Haiti. But it is also common to see migrants from Africa and Asia along this route.
Colombia’s navy confirmed the shipwreck and says it is still trying to determine how many migrants were on the boat, and how many survived the accident.
15TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021 AMERICAS
The state’s two seats are
both up for grabs and if
Republicans manage to
keep just one of them, the
party would have a
narrow majority in the
Senate, giving Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell
the power to block
Biden’s initiatives,
nominees to his
administration and the
judiciary.
Nancy Pelosi re-elected House SpeakerAP — WASHINGTON
Nancy Pelosi was narrowly reelected on Sunday as Speaker, giving her the reins of Demo-crats’ slender House majority as she and President-elect Joe Biden set a challenging course of producing legislation to tackle the pandemic, revive the economy and address other party priorities.
“We accept a responsibility as daunting and demanding as any that previous generations of leadership have faced,” the California Democrat told the chamber as she accepted a fresh two-year term in her post, perhaps her last. Citing the 350,000 Americans who’ve died from COVID-19 and the millions who’ve lost jobs and livelihoods, she won a standing ovation when she said, “Our most urgent priority will con-tinue to be defeating the coro-navirus. And defeat it, we will.”
Yet even before House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., ceremo-nially handed her the speaker’s gavel - a normally genial moment - he provided a stark reminder of the partisan divide coloring Congress.
McCarthy accused Pelosi of over the past two years leading “the least productive Congress in nearly 50 years” and said there was a clear message in last November’s elections, when Republicans gained seats by defeating a dozen Democratic incum-bents. “It was a wake-up call,” he said. “The question I ask of
this majority: were you listening?”
Those are assertions that Democrats strongly dispute, saying it’s Republicans, espe-cially in the GOP-led Senate, who’ve blocked progress on pandemic aid and other issues.
Pelosi, who has led her party in the House since 2003 and is the only woman to be speaker, received 216 votes to 209 for McCarthy, who again will be the chamber’s minority leader. It was the first vote of the new Congress, which con-vened Sunday with COVID-19
guidelines requiring testing and face coverings for lawmakers. There was widespread mask-wearing and far fewer legislators and guests in the chamber than usual, an unimaginable tableau when the last Congress com-menced two years ago, before the pandemic struck.
Pelosi’s election came 17 days before Biden is inaugu-rated. Yet rather than a fresh start for him and Pelosi, there are issues and undercurrents that will carry over from Pres-ident Donald Trump’s tempes-tuous administration.
Though Congress enacted - and Trump finally signed - a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package late last month, Biden and many Democrats say they consider that measure a down payment. They say more aid is needed to bolster efforts to vac-cinate the public, curb the virus and restore jobs and businesses lost to the pandemic.
Biden’s priorities also include efforts on health care and the environment. Guiding such leg-islation through the House will be a challenge for Pelosi because her party’s narrow majority means just a handful of defectors could be fatal.
In addition, cooperation with Republicans could be made more difficult as many in the GOP are continuing to dem-onstrate fealty to the divisive Trump, backing his unfounded claims that his reelection loss was tainted by fraud. Congress will meet Wednesday to offi-cially affirm Biden’s clear Elec-toral College victory over Trump. Many House and Senate Republicans say they will contest the validity of some of those votes, but their efforts are certain to fail.
There was no widespread fraud in the election, which a range of election officials across the country including Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key bat-tleground states crucial to Biden’s victory, have also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) waves a gavel during the first session of the 117th Congress in the House Chamber at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Sunday.
CIA’s new recruitment website aims to diversify agencyAP — WASHINGTON
WANTED: Spies from all backgrounds and walks of life. Striving to further diversify its ranks, the CIA launched a new website yesterday to find top-tier candidates who will bring a broader range of life experi-ences to the nation’s premier intelligence agency
The days of all American spies being white male grad-uates from Ivy League schools are long gone. The CIA director is a woman and women head all five of the agency’s branches, including the directorates of science and technology, operations and digital innovation.
But while the CIA has been diversifying for years, intelligence agencies still lag the federal workforce in
minority representation. With thousands of job appli-cants annually, the CIA wants to do more to ensure its workforce reflects national demographics.
The revamped website has links for browsing CIA jobs complete with starting salaries and requirements, sections on working at the agency, and a streamlined application process.
“We’ve come a long way since I applied by simply mailing a letter marked ‘CIA, Washington, DC,’” said CIA Director Gina Haspel, who joined the agency in 1985. She said in a statement that she hopes the new website piques the interest of talented Amer-icans and gives them a sense of the “dynamic environment that awaits them here.”
Haspel has made
recruitment a priority since she became the first female director in May 2018. Since then, the CIA has started advertising on streaming services, launched an Instagram account and an online “onion site,” a feature that makes both the infor-mation provider and the person accessing information more difficult to trace.
Last year, the CIA desig-nated its first executive for Hispanic engagement, Ilka Rodriguez-Diaz, a veteran of more than three decades with the agency. She first joined after attending a CIA job fair in New Jersey.
“The CIA had never been on my radar,” she wrote in an op-ed in The Miami Herald after getting the job in October. “I didn’t think I fit the ‘profile.’ After all, the
spies I saw on TV were male Anglo-Saxon Ivy leaguers, not Latinas from New Jersey. Still, I went to my expert life coach, my mother, for advice. She said, ‘No pierdes nada con ir.’ (What have you got to lose in going?) So, I went to the job fair. The rest, as they say, is history.”
Across the more than a dozen US spy agencies, including the CIA, 61% of intelligence professionals in fiscal 2019 were men com-pared with 39% women, according to an annual demographics report com-piled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
In fiscal 2019, the intelli-gence community saw an incremental increase in the number of minority profes-sionals - 26.5%, up from
26.2%. But that’s still lower than 37 percent in the federal workforce as a whole and 37.4 percent in the civilian labor force, the report said.
The largest minority or ethnic group at all the intel-ligence agencies, including the CIA, was Black or African American at 12% followed by Hispanic at 7% and Asian at 4%. Persons with disabilities represent 11.5% of the work-force at all the US. intelli-gence agencies — up a point from the year before.
“Even with all the chal-lenges 2020 posed, it was a standout recruitment year for CIA. Our incoming class is the third largest in a decade and represents the most diverse talent pool, including persons with disabilities, since 2010,” said CIA spokesperson Nicole de Haay.
Trump and Biden hold rallies ahead of Georgia Senate voteBLOOMBERG & AP — MILNER, GEORGIA
Georgia voters are hearing final arguments from two presidents, as Donald Trump and Joe Biden each make their cases ahead of high-stakes Senate runoff elec-tions today that will determine who controls the chamber and with it, Biden’s agenda.
The state’s two seats are both up for grabs and if Repub-licans manage to keep just one of them, the party would have a narrow majority in the Senate, giving Majority Leader Mitch McConnell the power to block Biden’s initiatives, nominees to his administration and the judiciary.
If Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock can take both seats from Republican incum-bents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the Senate will be split 50-50, giving incoming Vice-President Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote.
Trump has linked the Senate races to his own fate in the state, pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a phone call to find a way to shift the state’s presidential results in his favor before Tuesday.
Trump suggested that if Raffensperger couldn’t find a way to turn the presidential results in the GOP’s favor, Georgia Repub-licans might hold it against the party in the Senate races.
“You know, the people of Georgia know that this was a
scam, and because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative because they hate what you did to the president. OK? They hate it,” he said.
The high stakes have sent a flood of cash pouring into the state. Spending in the two runoffs is approaching $500m, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Vice-President Mike Pence warned conservative Christian voters in Georgia yesterday that a pair of high-stakes Senate runoffs might offer “the last line of defence” against a Demo-cratic takeover in Washington.
The vice-president’s visit to a Georgia megachurch launched a day of last-minute headliners, as President Donald Trump and
President-elect Joe Biden cam-paign in the state ahead of today's runoff elections that will determine which party controls the US Senate. It comes two weeks ahead of Biden’s inaugu-ration and as Trump tries to gal-vanize Republicans around his efforts to subvert his election defeat and keep himself in power for a second term.
“In one more day, we need people of faith in this state to stand with leaders who will support life and liberty and the freedom of every American,” Pence declared at Rock Springs Church in Milner. “We’re going to keep Georgia, and we’re going to save America.”
Republican David Perdue, who is seeking a second term as senator, addressed the church crowd by telephone while quar-antining over coronavirus exposure, warning that “the very future of our republic is on the line” and declaring the duty to vote “a calling from God.”
The stakes have drawn hun-dreds of millions of dollars in campaign spending to a once solidly Republican state that now finds itself as the nation’s premier battleground. Trump is scheduled for a nighttime rally in north Georgia, his second trip of the runoff campaign. Biden, also making his second runoff foray, will campaign in Atlanta in the late afternoon with Per-due’s opponent, Jon Ossoff, and Loeffler’s challenger, the Rev. Raphael Warnock.
Hundreds demonstrate over fatal Minneapolis police shootingAP — MINNEAPOLIS
Hundreds of protesters marched in Minneapolis to demand justice in the fatal police shooting of a 23-year-old man, the city’s first police-involved death since George Floyd died after being restrained by officers in May.
As many as 1,000 demon-strators marched and chanted on Sunday near the site where Dolal Idd was killed last Wednesday during an attempted felony traffic stop.
Police said Idd was being sought in a weapons investi-gation. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo released a 27-second clip from one officer’s body-camera video and said it showed Idd fired his gun first.
“I’m encouraged to see that there’s such a huge turnout in solidarity for the brother and his family in the middle of the winter. That shows that there’s actually passion for the youth to really actually engage this indefinitely until there is some real change,” AJ Awed, 30, told the Star Tribune.
“But at the same time, I’m disappointed because we shouldn’t be here,” he added. “After the murder of George Floyd and countless others, I don’t understand how the police could be so careless, you know?”
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of Council on Amer-ican-Islamic Relations, which helped organise the protest, told the crowd the bodycam footage shared by Minneapolis police is “inconclusive” and criticized it for being edited.
The fatal shooting of Idd, a Somali American, happened less than a mile from the street corner where a white Minne-apolis officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for minutes, even as Floyd pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. The May 25 death of Floyd, who was Black, sparked days of sometimes violent protests that spread around the country and reso-nated worldwide.
US President-elect Joe Biden waves as he arrives to depart Wilmington for campaign travel to Georgia at New Castle Airport in New Castle, Delaware, US, yesterday.
Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by about 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast in November, though Trump con-tinues pushing false assertions of widespread fraud that even his attorney general and Geor-gia’s Republican secretary of state —along with a litany of state and federal judges — have said did not happen.
The president’s trip yes-terday comes a day after dis-closure of a remarkable tele-phone call he made to the Georgia secretary of state over the weekend. Trump pressured Republican Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn Georgia’s election results ahead of tomorrow’s joint session of Congress that
will certify Biden’s Electoral College victory. The call high-lighted how Trump has used the Georgia campaign to make clear his continued hold on Republican politics.
Angry after the Raffensperger call, Trump floated the idea of pulling out of the rally but was persuaded to go ahead with it so he will have a chance to reiterate his claims of election fraud. Republicans are wary as to whether Trump will focus only on himself and fail to promote the two GOP candidates.
Pence, who will preside over Wednesday’s congres-sional joint session, sidestepped Trump’s denials Monday until a man yelled out that he must “do the right thing on Jan. 6.”
Pence promised that “we’ll have our day in Congress,” though he offered no details about what that might mean. Scores of Republicans in Con-gress have pledged to protest the Electoral College count, but Pence has no legal authority to override Biden’s win.
With the rest of his remarks, Pence held to his usual line of tacitly acknowledging Biden’s coming presidency by empha-sizing Trump’s accomplish-ments and declaring them under threat under a Demo-cratic Senate majority. If Trump were going to remain in the Oval Office, he would have veto authority over Democrats’ leg-islation even if they ran both chambers of Congress.
Remorseful man returns statue’s stolen sword after 40 yearsAP — WESTFIELD
A veteran returned a sword he stole from a statue of a Revolutionary War general 40 years ago, telling the head of the Massa-chusetts town’s historical commission that he regretted taking it.
Cindy P. Gaylord, the chair of Westfield’s Historical Commission, said a man contacted the city hall saying he had the sword stolen from the town’s statue of Gen. William Shepard in 1980, the Springfield Republican reported. Gaylord agreed to give the man anonymity if he returned the bronze sword and arranged for him to drop it off at her home along with his wife, she said.
“He had a great deal of shame and remorse,” Gaylord told the newspaper. “He is a veteran and told me the fact that he did this to another soldier troubled him. He wants the story printed to remind people that something you do in your youth could haunt you for the rest of your life.”
As many as 1,000 demonstrators marched near the site where Dolal Idd was killed last Wednesday during an attempted traffic stop. Police said Idd was being sought in a weapons investigation. Police chief released a 27-second clip from one officer’s body-camera video and said it showed Idd fired his gun first.
16TUESDAY 5 JANUARY 2021
Indonesia vaccinating workingpopulation first, not the elderlyREUTERS — JAKARTA
As Indonesia prepares to begin mass inoculations against COVID-19, its plan to prioritise working age adults over the elderly, aiming to reach herd immunity fast and revive the economy, will be closely watched by other countries.
Several countries such as the United States and Britain that have already begun vaccinations are giving priority to elderly people who are more vulnerable to the respiratory disease.
The following are experts’ views on merits and risks of the Indonesian approach, under which working age adults will be vaccinated after frontline health workers and public servants.
WHY 18-59 YEAR-OLDS FIRST? Indonesia, which plans to begin mass inoculations with a vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, says it does not have enough data yet of the vac-cine’s efficacy on elderly people, as clinical trials underway in the country involves people aged 18-59.
“We’re not bucking the trend,” said Siti Nadia Tarmizi, a senior health ministry official, adding authorities would await recommendations from the country’s drug regulators to decide on vaccination plans for the elderly.
While Britain and the United States began immunisations with a shot developed by Pfizer Inc and its partner BioNTech that showed it works well in people of all ages, Indonesia has initial access only to the Sinovac vaccine.
The Southeast Asian country has a deal to receive 125.5 million doses of Sinovac’s Coro-naVac shot, and a first batch of 3 million doses are already in the country.
Shipments of the Pfizer vaccine to the country are expected to begin from the third quarter, while a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University will start being
distributed in the second quarter.“I don’t think anybody can
get too dogmatic about what is the right approach,” said Peter Collignon, professor of infectious diseases at Australian National University, adding that Indone-sia’s strategy could slow the spread of the disease, although it may not affect mortality rates.
“Indonesia doing it different to the US and Europe is of value, because it will tell us (whether) you’ll see a more dramatic effect in Indonesia than Europe or US because of the strategy they’re doing, but I don’t think anybody knows the answer.” Professor Dale Fisher from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the
National University of Singapore said he understood the rationale of Indonesia’s approach.
“Younger working adults are generally more active, more social and travel more so this strategy should decrease com-munity transmission faster than vaccinating older individuals,” he said.
“Of course older people are more at risk of severe disease and death so vaccinating those has an alternative rationale. I see merit in both strategies.”
WILL IT HELP ACHIEVE HERD IMMUNITY QUICKLY? By vaccinating more socially mobile and economically active groups first, Indonesian gov-ernment officials hope the gov-ernment can quickly reach herd immunity.
Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indo-nesia’s health minister, said the country needs to vaccinate 181.5 million people, or roughly 67% of its population, to reach herd immunity, and requires almost 427 million doses of vaccines, assuming a double-dose regimen and a 15% wastage rate.
Some experts are sceptical
about reaching herd immunity, as more research needs to be done to ascertain whether or not vaccinated people can transmit the virus.
“There could be the risk of people still capable of spreading the disease to the others,” said Hasbullah Thabrany, chief of the Indonesian Health Economic Association.
WILL IT HELP ECONOMIC RECOVERY? Economists have argued a successful vaccination programme covering around 100 million people will help jump-start the economy, as they are more likely to resume economic activity such as spending and production. Faisal Rachman, an economist with Bank Mandiri, said that the 18-59 age group has consumption needs that are higher than other groups.
“They could jack up the eco-nomic recovery faster because household consumption con-tributes more than 50% to Indo-nesia’s economy,” he said, warning that rising COVID-19 cases in the country could also risk lowering people’s confidence.
Workers offload a box of Sinovac’s vaccine for coronavirus disease as it arrives at the cold room of Indonesia’s local health department in Palembang, South Sumatra province, Indonesia, yesterday.
UK scientists say
vaccines may not
work on variant
in South Africa
REUTERS — LONDON
Scientists are not fully confident that COVID-19 vaccines will work on a new variant of the coronavirus found in South Africa, ITV’s political editor said yesterday, citing an unidentified scientific adviser to the British government.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier yes-terday that he was incredibly worried about the new variant. Public Health England did not answer phone calls requesting comment on the report.
“According to one of the government’s scientific advisers, the reason for Matt Hancock’s ‘incredible worry’ about the South African Covid-19 variant is that they are not as confident the vaccines will be as effective against it as they are for the UK’s variant,” ITV political editor Robert Peston said.
Both Britain and South Africa have discovered new var-iants in the coronavirus in recent months that have driven a surge in case numbers.
Scientists say the new South African variant is different from others circulating in the country because it has multiple muta-tions in the important “spike” protein that the virus uses to infect human cells.
It has also been associated with a higher viral load, meaning a higher concen-tration of virus particles in patients’ bodies, possibly con-tributing to higher levels of transmission.
John Bell, regius professor of medicine at University of Oxford who sits on the govern-ment’s vaccine taskforce, said on Sunday he thought vaccines would work on the British variant but said there was a “big question mark” as to whether it would work on the South African variant.
He told Times Radio that if the vaccine did not work on the South African variant the shots could be adapted and that would not take a year.
Malaysia coroner:
No foul play
in death of
French-Irish teenAP — KUALA LUMPUR
A Malaysian coroner ruled yesterday that the death of a French-Irish teenager whose body was found near a Malaysian jungle resort where she vanished while on vacation was most likely a misadventure that didn’t involve other people.
Coroner Maimoonah Aid ruled out homicide, natural death and suicide and said Nora Anne Quoirin likely got lost after leaving her family’s cottage on her own.
The 15-year-old disap-peared at the Dusun eco-resort in southern Negeri Sembilan state on Aug. 4, 2019, a day after the family arrived for a vacation. After a massive search, her body was found on August 13 beside a stream on a palm oil estate about 2.5km from the resort.
Police believed she climbed out of the cottage window on her own, with no evidence of any foul play. But her parents said she was likely kidnapped because she had mental and physical disabilities and wouldn’t have wandered off on her own.
‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’: Singer
Gerry Marsden dies at 78
AP — LONDON
Gerry Marsden, lead singer of the 1960s British group Gerry and the Pacemakers that had such hits as “Ferry Cross the Mersey” and the song that became the anthem of Liverpool Football Club, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” has died. He was 78.
His family said that Marsden died Sunday “after a short illness in no way connected with COVID-19” and that his wife, daughters and grandchildren are “devastated.” His friend Pete Price said on Instagram after speaking to Marsden’s family that the singer died after a short illness related to a heart infection.
“I’m sending all the love in the world to (his wife) Pauline and his family,” he said. “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Marsden
was the lead singer of the band that found fame in the Mer-seybeat scene in the 1960s.
Though another Liverpool band - The Beatles - reached superstardom, Gerry and the Pacemakers will always have a place in the city’s consciousness because of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
“I thought what a beautiful song. I’m going to tell my band we’re going to play that song,” Marsden said in 2018 when recalling the first time he heard the song at the cinema.
“So I went back and told my buddies we’re doing a ballad called ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’” Marsden is best known for his band’s rendition of the song from “Carousel,” which was a 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that became a feature film in 1956.
COVID-19 restrictions boost online shopping, create jobs for youthINTERNEWS — MULTAN
COVID-19 restrictions boosted online shopping and created job opportunities for youth by accommodating a large number of youngsters in the work of delivery services which not only provided jobs to youth but also increased sale of different products.
Different fast food points, hotels, shopkeepers and women have started online sale of their products by signing agreement with private delivery service companies and creating pages on social media.
A large number of young-sters have started jobs of delivery boy by using their
motorcycles with food points and other products and many others attached with courier services, Uber and Careem and private delivery service companies.
A fast food point owner Mohsin Ali told APP that more than 30 youngsters were working with his food point as a delivery boy.
He said that they were not only getting salary from him but also earning a handsome amount through tip and com-mission on each delivery.
He said that due to ban on dining in hotels during corona-virus pandemic, sale of fast food items has increased and the delivery boys are playing a vital
role in sale by delivering orders in time. A woman Sumera Ajmal said that she has started sale of home cooked food and earning a handsome income through the business.
She said that most of the job holders preferred home cooked food items instead of fast food. She said she has an agreement with foodpanda and also using social media to increase sale.
Sumera said that she was receiving 35 to 42 orders on daily basis which made her able to earn Rs25,000/- per month. She said that delivery boys play vital role in sale of her products. A delivery boy Muhammad Nadeem told this news agency that he started the work of delivery boy as educational institutions were closed due to coronavirus.
He said that he was earning Rs24,000 to Rs26,000 per month through this job and sup-
porting his family. He said that his friends and
classmates have also started this work to meet their own expenses. Another boy Sohail Arshad said that the only pos-itive thing which happened during the pandemic was the job opportunity for youth.
He said that all his friends and relatives were doing this job and added that more youngsters could also be able join this work. It is pertinent to mention that many youngsters who work in different sectors have also started working as a delivery boy on part time basis. They remain on duty from 8am to 2pm and then work as a delivery boy from 6pm to 12am and earn
about Rs15,000, besides their monthly salary.
Raheel Nawaz, who works at a private hospital, said that he was not only financially sup-porting his family but also putting some money in savings through both jobs.
However, some shop owners have fired the delivery boys from service without any solid reason because they knew that there would be no impact on their business as a large number of youngsters were in this field. The district adminis-tration has promised to look into their problems.
There would be proper rules and regulations for this sector to encourage youth doing jobs.
A man and his kids build a snowman after snowfall in Berlin, Germany.
Making of a snowman
Some experts are
sceptical about reaching
herd immunity, as more
research needs to be
done to ascertain
whether or not
vaccinated people can
transmit the virus.
Different fast food points,
hotels, shopkeepers and
women have started
online sale of their
products by signing
agreement with private
delivery service
companies and creating
pages on social media.
W ALRUWAIS : 16o → 22o W ALKHOR : 13o → 23o W DUKHAN : 13o → 21o W WAKRAH : 12o → 23o W MESAIEED : 12o → 23o W ABUSAMRA : 10o → 22o
Misty to foggy at places at first becomes moderate temperature daytime with scattered clouds, relatively cold by night.
