President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday attended the Global South Summit, calling on the 120 members to agree on a common agenda regarding ways to reduce the increasing burden of debt.
The Global South Summit is hosted by India and it brings 120 developing countries together. The theme for this year’s summit is ‘Unity of Voice and Unity of Purpose’.
The Nigerian leader participated in the virtual summit from the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the nation’s capital, urging leaders of the Global South to work out ways to address inflation in that region of the world.
“This huge debt burden has significantly derailed many countries’ development plans. The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia/Ukraine conflict has further aggravated the situation,” the Nigerian leader said, according to a statement by the presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina.
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‘‘In this regard, I wish to advise fellow leaders to agree on a common agenda to enable us to put forward our collective demands to the Global North through India as a voice of the South.
“I would urge India to further intensify efforts to facilitate the flow of Foreign Direct Investment to the Global South using its leverage as President of G20.”
Describing the decision to convene the summit as commendable, Buhari said Global South was driven by historical ties and sense of deep solidarity in pursuit of bridging the gap between the South and the North.
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Buhari hailed India’s emergence as a voice of the Global South, considering the role the country played during its two-year term at the United Nations Security Council and the humanitarian gesture it extended during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He added, “Excellencies, it is in line with the vision of One Earth, One Family, One Future that India calls for this Summit, bringing together leaders of the South to share their perspectives and priorities on a common platform ahead of the G20 Summit later this year.
“Nigeria is in full support of this noble initiative and hopes that the outcome of the Summit will be given the top priority at the G20 meetings.”
Leaders of India, Kazakhstan, Ecuador, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Suriname and Peru delivered statements at the Summit.
The Chinese state media rallied citizens on Wednesday for a “final victory” over the coronavirus as global health officials tried to determine the facts of China’s raging COVID-19 outbreak and how to prevent a further spread.
China’s axing of its stringent virus curbs last month has unleashed COVID on a 1.4 billion population that has little natural immunity having been shielded from the virus since it emerged in the central city of Wuhan three years ago.
Many funeral homes and hospitals say they are overwhelmed, and international health experts predict at least 1 million deaths in China this year, but China has reported five or fewer deaths a day since the policy U-turn.
“That is totally ridiculous,” a 66-year-old Beijing resident who only gave his last name Zhang said of the official death toll.
“Four of my close relatives died. That’s only from one family. I hope the government will be honest with the people and the rest of the world about what’s really happened here.”
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China has rejected foreign skepticism of its statistics as politically motivated attempts to smear its achievements in fighting the virus.
“China and the Chinese people will surely win the final victory against the epidemic,” the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, said in an editorial, rebutting criticism of China’s three years of isolation, lockdowns and testing that triggered historic protests late last year.
Having lifted the restrictions, Beijing is hitting back against some countries demanding that visitors from China show predeparture COVID-19 tests, saying the rules were unreasonable and lacked a scientific basis.
Japan became the latest country to require a preboarding negative test, joining the United States, Australia and others. European Union health officials were due to meet Wednesday to discuss a coordinated response to China travel.
Willie Walsh, head of the world’s biggest airline association IATA, also criticized what he described as knee-jerk” measures that he said had proven to be ineffective in preventing the spread of COVID-19.
China, which has been largely shut off from the world since the pandemic began, will stop requiring inbound travelers to quarantine from Jan. 8. But it will still demand that arriving passengers get tested before they begin their journeys.
Data Doubts World Health Organization officials met Chinese scientists Tuesday amid concern over the accuracy of China’s data on the spread and evolution of its outbreak.
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The U.N. agency had invited the scientists to present detailed data on viral sequencing, hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations.
The WHO would release information about the talks later, probably at a Wednesday briefing, its spokesperson said.
Last month, Reuters reported that the WHO had not received data from China on new COVID hospitalizations since Beijing’s policy shift, prompting some health experts to question whether it might be concealing the extent of its outbreak.
China reported five new COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the official death toll to 5,258, very low by global standards.
British-based health data firm Airfinity has said about 9,000 people in China are probably dying each day from COVID.
There were chaotic scenes at Shanghai’s Zhongshan hospital where patients, many of them elderly, jostled for space on Tuesday in packed halls between makeshift beds where people used oxygen ventilators and got intravenous drips.
A Reuters witness counted seven hearses in the parking lot of Shanghai’s Tongji hospital Wednesday. Workers were seen carrying at least 18 yellow bags used to move bodies.
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Booking Boom With COVID disruptions slowing China’s $17 trillion economy to its lowest growth in nearly half a century, investors are now hoping for policy stimulus.
China’s yuan hovered at a four-month high against the dollar on Wednesday, after its finance minister pledged to step up fiscal expansion. The central bank has also flagged more policy support.
UBS analysts expect the “big bang” approach to reopening to cause a “deeper but shorter setback” to the economy, but also predicted that activity would recover from February.
Despite the new restrictions in some countries, interest in traveling abroad is reviving, Chinese media reported.
International flight bookings have risen 145% year-on-year in recent days, state-run China Daily reported, citing data from travel platform Trip.com.
Before the pandemic, global spending by Chinese tourists exceeded $250 billion a year but the number of flights to and from China is still a fraction of pre-COVID levels.
Thailand expects at least five million Chinese arrivals this year. More than 11 million Chinese visited Thailand in 2019, nearly a third of its total visitors.
But there are already signs that an increase in travel from China could pose problems abroad.
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South Korea, which began testing travelers from China on Monday, said more than a fifth of the test results were positive.
Authorities there were searching for one Chinese national who tested positive but went missing while awaiting quarantine.
An explosion of Covid-19 cases in China as the country lifts its zero-Covid measures could create a “potential breeding ground” for new variants to emerge, health experts warn.
China announced this week that incoming travellers would no longer have to quarantine from January 8, the (Watch Video Here) latest major reversal of strict restrictions that have kept the country largely closed off to the world since the start of the pandemic.
While the country’s National Health Commission has stopped issuing daily case numbers, officials in several cities estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have been infected in recent weeks. Hospitals and crematoriums have been overwhelmed across the country.
With the virus now able to circulate among nearly one-fifth of the world’s population — almost all of whom lack immunity from previous infection and many of whom remain unvaccinated — other nations and experts fear China will become fertile ground for new variants. (Watch Video Here)
Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva, told AFP that each new infection increased the chance the virus would mutate.
“The fact that 1.4 billion people are suddenly exposed to SARS-CoV-2 obviously creates conditions prone to emerging variants,” Flahault said, referring to the virus that causes the Covid-19 disease.
Bruno Lina, a virology professor at France’s Lyon University, told the La Croix newspaper this week that China could become a “potential breeding ground for the virus”. (Watch Video Here)
Soumya Swaminathan, who served as the World Health Organization’s chief scientist until November, said a large part of the Chinese population was vulnerable to infection in part because many elderly people had not been vaccinated or boosted.
“We need to keep a close watch on any emerging concerning variants,” she told the website of the Indian Express newspaper.
Countries test Chinese travellers In response to the surging cases, the United States, Italy, Japan, India and Malaysia announced this week they would increase health measures for travellers from China. (Watch Video Here)
The lack of transparent data from China — particularly about viral genomic sequencing — is making it “increasingly difficult for public health officials to ensure that they will be able to identify any potential new variants and take prompt measures to reduce the spread”, US officials said Tuesday.
India and Japan have already said they will impose mandatory PCR testing on all passengers from China, a measure Flahault said could be a way around any delays in information from Beijing. (Watch Video Here)
“If we succeed to sample and sequence all viruses identified from any travellers coming in from China, we will know almost as soon as new variants emerge and spread” in the country, he said.
Variant ‘soup’ Xu Wenbo, head of the virus control institute at China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said last week that hospitals across the country would collect samples from patients and upload the sequencing information to a new national database, allowing authorities to monitor possible new strains in real-time.
More than 130 Omicron sublineages have been newly detected in China over the last three months, he told journalists. (Watch Video Here)
Among those were XXB and BQ.1 and their sublineages, which have been spreading in the US and parts of Europe in recent months as a swarm of subvariants has competed for dominance worldwide.
However BA.5.2 and BF.7 remain the main Omicron strains detected in China, Xu said, adding that the varying sublineages would likely circulate together.
Flahault said “a soup” of more than 500 new Omicron subvariants had been identified in recent months, although it had often been difficult to tell where each had first emerged. (Watch Video Here)
“Any variants, when more transmissible than the previous dominant ones — such as BQ.1, B2.75.2, XBB, CH.1, or BF.7 — definitely represent threats, since they can cause new waves,” he said.
“However, none of these known variants seems to exhibit any particular new risks of more severe symptoms to our knowledge, although that might happen with new variants (Watch Video Here) in the coming future.”
Japan will require Covid-19 tests on arrival for travellers from mainland China from Friday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, after Beijing announced it will end inbound quarantine requirements.
Tokyo has eased its restrictions on tourists in recent months and the move means travellers from China will be the only visitors required to take Covid-19 tests on arrival, other than those who are displaying symptoms. (Watch Video Here)
Kishida said on Tuesday the decision was taken because “there is information that infection is spreading rapidly” in China.
“It is difficult to ascertain the precise situation due to major discrepancies between central and local authorities and between the government and private sector,” he told reporters.
“This is causing growing concern in Japan.”
The move comes after Beijing announced that inbound travellers will no longer be required to quarantine on arrival from January 8 after three years of strict (Watch Video Here) pandemic control.
China abruptly lifted many of its harsh Covid restrictions after nationwide protests and is seeing an unprecedented surge in infections.
Travellers from mainland China, or who have been there within seven days, will be required to test on arrival in Japan from Friday, Kishida said. (Watch Video Here)
Those who test positive will be quarantined for seven days at designated facilities.
Tokyo will also cap flights coming from mainland China, Kishida said.
Japan only fully reopened to tourists in October after two-and-a-half years of Covid restrictions that kept out almost all foreign travellers. (Watch Video Here)
In November, 934,500 people visited Japan from overseas, around 40 percent of the figures in the same month in pre-pandemic 2019.
In 2019, travellers from mainland China made up 30 percent of inbound tourists visiting Japan. (Watch Video Here)
China said Monday it would scrap mandatory quarantine on arrival, further unwinding years of strict virus controls as the country battles a surge in cases.
Having mostly cut itself off from the rest of the world during the pandemic, China is now experiencing an unprecedented surge in infections after abruptly lifting restrictions that torpedoed the economy and sparked nationwide protests. (Watch Video Here)
And in a sudden end to nearly three years of strict border controls, Beijing said late Monday it would scrap mandatory quarantines for overseas travellers.
Since March 2020, all passengers arriving in China have had to undergo mandatory centralised quarantine. This decreased from three weeks to one week this summer, and to five days last month.
But under new rules that will take effect January 8, when Covid-19 will be downgraded to a Class B infectious disease from Class A, they will no longer need to. (Watch Video Here)
“According to the national health quarantine law, infectious disease quarantine measures will no longer be taken against inbound travellers and goods,” the National Health Commission (NHC) said.
The move is likely to be greeted with joy from Chinese citizens and diaspora unable to return and see relatives for much of the pandemic.
But it comes as China faces a wave of cases that studies have estimated could kill around one million people over the next few months. (Watch Video Here)
Many are now grappling with shortages of medicine, while emergency medical facilities are strained by an influx of undervaccinated elderly patients.
“At present, Covid-19 prevention and control in China are facing a new situation and new tasks,” President Xi Jinping said in a directive Monday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
“We should launch the patriotic health campaign in a more targeted way… fortify a community line of defence for epidemic prevention and control, and effectively protect people’s lives, safety and health,” he said. (Watch Video Here)
– ‘Impossible’ to track – Hospitals and crematoriums across the country have been overflowing with Covid patients and victims, while the NHC on Sunday announced it would stop publishing daily nationwide infection and death statistics.
That decision followed concerns that the country’s wave of infections is not being accurately reflected in official statistics.
Beijing has admitted the scale of the outbreak has become “impossible” to track following the end of mandatory mass testing. (Watch Video Here)
And last week, the government narrowed the criteria by which Covid-19 fatalities were counted — a move experts said would suppress the number of deaths attributable to the virus.
The winter surge comes ahead of two major public holidays next month, in which millions of people are expected to travel to their hometowns to reunite with relatives.
Authorities are expecting the virus to hit under-resourced rural areas hard, and on Monday called for the guaranteed supply of drugs and medical treatment during New Year’s Day and late January’s week-long Lunar New Year holiday. (Watch Video Here)
In recent days, health officials in the wealthy coastal province Zhejiang estimated that one million residents were being infected per day.
The coastal city of Qingdao also predicted roughly 500,000 new daily infections and the southern manufacturing city of Dongguan eyed up to 300,000.
Unofficial surveys and modelling based on search engine terms suggest that the wave may have already peaked in some major cities like Beijing and Chongqing. (Watch Video Here)
A poll of over 150,000 residents of the southwestern province of Sichuan organised by disease control officials showed that 63 percent had tested positive for Covid, and estimated that infections peaked Friday.
Only six Covid deaths have been officially reported since Beijing unwound most of its restrictions earlier this month.
But crematorium workers interviewed by AFP have reported an unusually high influx of bodies, while hospitals have said they are tallying multiple fatalities per day, as emergency wards fill up. (Watch Video Here)
The main funeral service centre in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou postponed all ceremonies until January 10 to focus on cremations due to the “large workload”, according to a notice published online Sunday.
China’s censors and mouthpieces have been working overtime to spin the decision to scrap strict travel curbs, quarantines and snap lockdowns as a victory, even as cases soar. (Watch Video Here)
Attached to a breathing tube under a pile of blankets, an old man racked with Covid-19 lay groaning on a stretcher in the emergency department of a hospital in central China.
A paramedic at Chongqing Medical University First Affiliated Hospital, who confirmed the old man was a Covid patient, said he had picked up more than 10 people a day, 80 to 90 percent of whom were infected with coronavirus.
“Most of them are elderly people,” he said.
“A lot of hospital staff are positive as well, but we have no choice but to carry on working.”
The old man waited half an hour to be treated, while in a nearby room AFP saw six other people in sick beds surrounded by harried doctors and relatives.
They, too, were mostly elderly and, when asked if they were all Covid patients, a doctor said: “Basically.”
Five were strapped to respirators and had obvious breathing difficulties.
Millions of elderly people across China are still not fully vaccinated, raising concerns that the virus may kill the most vulnerable citizens in huge numbers.
Under new government guidelines, however, many of those deaths would not be blamed on Covid.
In Shanghai, the corridors of an emergency department were lined with stretchers filled with elderly people hooked up to oxygen tanks.
An AFP reporter counted at least 15 such patients spilling out from the wards into the hallway, some with suitcases next to their trolleys.
Swaddled in colourful duvets, they wheezed weakly through their masks as medical workers attended to them. Many appeared mostly unresponsive.
Staff and visitors did not respond to questions from AFP.
– ‘Constantly busy’ – At a large crematorium on the rural outskirts of Chongqing, a long line of cars waited for parking spaces inside the compound on Thursday afternoon.
Dozens of bereaved relatives milled around in groups, some carrying wooden urns, as funeral gongs sounded and mourners burned incense.
One middle-aged man carrying an urn told AFP an elderly relative died after testing positive for the virus.
“It’s been constantly busy lately,” said one crematorium driver as he sat smoking in his car.
“We work more than 10 hours a day with few breaks.”
Another staffer wearing an overcoat and face shield agreed.
“It’s not possible to put bodies in cold storage, they must be cremated on the same day,” he said.
Around 20 hearses lined the road to another crematorium in the city’s south on Thursday evening.
Inside was a large car park, where bodies on stretchers were being unloaded onto a small raised platform before being transferred to the upper levels.
AFP saw about 40 bodies loaded onto the platform in two hours.
Next to the raised platform were two rooms of cold storage freezers. In one, AFP saw two covered bodies on stretchers and another partially uncovered body on the floor.
Police and security guards patrolled the premises.
– ‘He died too quickly’ – A steady stream of cars carrying mourners arrived at a separate building where families were holding wakes.
Some relatives watched through glass as their loved ones were cremated in adjacent rooms.
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A woman in her 20s told AFP she suspected her father had died of the virus, though he had not been tested.
“He died too quickly, while on the way to hospital,” she sobbed. “He had lung issues to begin with… He was only 69.”
Another mourner said their relative had died of pneumonia, though they were not certain it was caused by Covid.
“He wasn’t feeling well so we took him to the clinic the day before yesterday — the hospital wouldn’t take him in,” he said.
One woman said her elderly relative, who was suffering from cold symptoms, had tested negative but died after they could not get an ambulance in time.
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Carlo Ancelotti’s team successfully added to their four cups from 2014 to 2018, and their triumph meant European teams have won the past 10 editions of the tournament.
The head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday said he was “very concerned” about an unprecedented wave of Covid cases in China, as the health body urged Beijing to accelerate vaccination of the most vulnerable.
“WHO is very concerned over the evolving situation in China, with increasing reports of severe disease” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a weekly news conference, appealing for detailed information on disease severity, hospital admissions and intensive care requirements.
“WHO is supporting China to focus its efforts on vaccinating people at the highest risk across the country, and we continue to offer our support for clinical care and protecting its health system”, he added.
Since 2020, China has imposed strict health restrictions as part of a so-called “zero Covid” policy.
But the government ended most of those measures without notice in early December amid growing public exasperation and a significant impact on the economy.
The number of cases has since soared, raising fears of a high mortality rate among the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable.
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Chinese authorities said on Tuesday that only those who had directly died of respiratory failure caused by the virus would now be counted under Covid death statistics.
The change in the criteria for recording virus deaths means most are no longer counted, and China said on Wednesday that not a single person had died of Covid-19 the previous day.
WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan stressed the need for more vaccinations: “We’ve been saying this for weeks that this highly infectious virus was always going to be very hard to stop completely, with just public health and social measures”.
“And most countries have really transitioned to a mixed strategy”.
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The bank also denied reports that it wants to close some deposit money banks in Nigeria over their inability to dispense new naira notes amid a cash crunch in the…
The wave of civil disobedience, which has included protests in Urumqi where the fire occurred as well as elsewhere in Beijing and in other cities, has reached unprecedented levels in mainland China since Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago.
In Shanghai, China’s most populous city, residents gathered on Saturday night at Wulumuqi Road, which is named after Urumqi, for a candlelight vigil that turned into a protest in the early hours of Sunday.
As a large group of police looked on, the crowd held up blank sheets of paper – a protest symbol against censorship.
Later on, they shouted, “lift lockdown for Urumqi, lift lockdown for Xinjiang, lift lockdown for all of China!”, according to a video circulated on social media.
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At another point, a large group began shouting, “Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping,” according to witnesses and videos, in a rare public protest against the country’s leadership.
The police tried at times to break up the crowd.
A large crowd gathered at the campus of Beijing’s Tsinghua University, according to images and videos posted on social media. Some people also held blank sheets of paper.
Thursday’s fire that killed 10 people in a high-rise building in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, saw crowds take to the street on Friday evening, chanting “End the lockdown!” and pumping their fists in the air, according to videos on social media.
Many internet users surmised that residents were not able to escape in time because the building was partially locked down, which city officials denied. In Urumqi, a city of 4 million, some people have been locked down for as long as 100 days.
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Buhari, according to a statement issued on Saturday night by the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, will unveil the equipment at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
Photos of crowds without masks at the World Cup in Qatar have drawn massive criticism in China, where the recent surge spike in COVID-19 cases has raised concerns, forcing the country to shut parks, shopping malls, and museums.
China is the last major economy still attempting to stamp out the domestic spread of COVID-19 and has continued to shut down entire cities, seal off neighborhoods and impose mandatory tests on millions.
Driven by the fast-spreading omicron variant, daily cases in the country hit 29,157 on Wednesday – low compared to most other countries but nearing the domestic record set earlier this year.
Authorities have put more than a quarter of the Chinese population under some form of lockdown as of Tuesday, according to Nomura analysts – a contrast with the raucous World Cup crowds that have infuriated many Chinese social media users.
“Some people are watching World Cup matches in person with no masks, some have been locked at home for a month, locked on campus for two months without even being able to step out the door,” a Guangdong-based user on the Twitter-like Weibo platform wrote on Wednesday.
“Who has stolen my life? I won’t say.”
Another Weibo user from Shaanxi province said they were “disappointed” in their country.
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“The World Cup has allowed most Chinese people to see the real situation abroad, and worry about the economy of the motherland, and their own youth,” the user wrote.
An open letter questioning the country’s COVID-19 policies and asking if China was “on the same planet” as Qatar spread on the popular WeChat messaging app on Tuesday before censors removed it from the platform.
World Cup matches are aired in China by state-owned CCTV – the same broadcaster that has bombarded domestic audiences with negative reports of mass deaths and chaos caused by the coronavirus in geopolitical rival the United States.
“Nigeria’s anti-epidemic work has clear results … we don’t learn from Nigeria, and only look at U.S. data, what is the real meaning of this for our epidemic prevention?” the open letter asked.
Public anger over the seemingly arbitrary restrictions and sudden disruptions has recently erupted in rare protests, including in southern China’s Guangzhou this month where hundreds of residents took to the streets in defiance of a compulsory lockdown.
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Fans were hyped earlier this month when Drake announced the release of his joint album with 21 Savage entitled Her Loss. The Canadian rapper and the Atlanta emcee announced the news along with a music video for their Honestly, Nevermind song, “Jimmy Cooks.”
However on Wednesday (October 26), just one day before the album’s release, Drake revealed that Her Loss will now arrive next week instead of this Friday as initially planned. He took to his Instagram Story to share with his millions of followers that his producer, Noah “40” Shebib, contracted Covid-19 — which ultimately forced them to push back the project
“Our brother @ovo40 got Covid while mixing and mastering the crack so he’s resting up,” Drake shared in a message. “NOVEMBER 4th is HER LOSS day we’ll see you soon.” The delay comes on the heels of both rappers recently celebrating their birthdays just days apart. 21 Savage hosted a star-studded Freaknik themed party, while Drake skipped his usual costume themed celebration for a low-key turn up in Miami.
Fans were excited to hear new music from the 6 God and the “A Lot” rapper, whose project was slated to drop the same day as Rihanna’s new single “Lift Me Up,” and new music from SZA. “Drake and 21 Savage already went 4/4 this album is going to be insane,” one fan tweeted. Another added, “21 Savage and Drake collab album this friday then new Metro Boomin album the next friday we eatin good.”
Aside from “Jimmy Cooks,” Drake and 21 have also joined forces on “Knife Talk” from the 6 God’s Certified Lover Boy album, “Mr. Right Now” from 21’s Savage Mode II joint album with Metro Boomin in 2020, and Drake’s “Sneakin’” in 2016.
Stream Her Loss when it drops next Friday, November 4.
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Syria’s lead of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Akjemal Magtymova, is under historic scrutiny involving more than 20 internal and external investigators looking into several allegations, including corruption, diversion of funds, deliberate violation of COVID-19 protocols and abuse of power.
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In a series of confidential documents made available to the Associated Press, the Turkish-born medical doctor is being investigated for pressuring the WHO to sign shady contracts with high-ranking Syrian government politicians, misspending the organisation’s reliefs and donor funds as well as grievous psychological abuse of her colleagues and subordinates.
Financial reports showed that Ms Magtymova lavished $10,000 (over 25 million in Syrian pounds) on a party to herald her personal achievements as the country lead of the organisation at a time when the country was struggling to get supplies of COVID-19 vaccines.
Her colleagues also raised concerns about the agency’s inability to monitor its support of health facilities in Syria, but they received no response. Investigations later showed a worrisome “spot check” showing discrepancies between what the agency paid for and what was delivered to a health project in the northern part of the country.
She was also accused of bypassing qualified candidates to hire incompetent relatives of Syrian politicians, including politicians on watch lists of international human rights violations. This act of favouritism gave rise to scandals and reports of fraud and placed Syrian citizens at a disadvantage while discouraging potential donors.
Ms Magtymova also allegedly forced more than 100 subordinates to participate in a flash mob dance, tasking them to film the choreography, violating WHO coronavirus protocols when the disease was at its peak and refusing to encourage a remote work mode that was globally adopted to curb the spread of the virus.
The embattled WHO Syria head was also accused of not quarantining herself after she tested positive for COVID-19, infecting four of her colleagues. Six of her staffers further accused her of severally calling them “cowards” and “retarded.”
Also, in an action that could jeopardise the entire WHO humanitarian mission in the region through the violation of the United Nations neutrality principle, Ms Magtymova met with officials of the Russian military outside officially sanctioned relations.
The WHO said it had been one of its most complex investigations, giving no timeline for when the investigations will be concluded.
“It has been a protracted and complex investigation, with the situation in the country and the challenges of gaining appropriate access while ensuring the protection of staff, bringing additional complications. In view of the security situation, confidentiality and respect for due process do not allow us to comment further on the detailed allegations,” said WHO.
Ms Magtymova described the allegations as defamatory but refused to comment further. She is currently placed on leave pending the outcome of the investigation but continues to receive salaries
The National Economic Council (NEC), chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, says no fewer than 46 million eligible Nigerians have been successfully vaccinated against.
Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHDA) virtually briefed State House correspondents after a virtual NEC meeting anchored from the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Mr Shuaib said he made a presentation to the council on three broad areas—the COVID-19 vaccination update, polio eradication and also routine immunisation.
“In terms of where we are with COVID-19 vaccination, we now have vaccinated successfully, 46 million Nigerians.
“This represents about 42 per cent of the totally eligible Nigerians and it is in keeping with what the Presidential Steering Committee and the Federal Ministry of Health have been tracking in term of our targets.
“We have also recognised an increase in the number of people who are getting vaccinated; a few months ago, the average daily vaccination rate was about 200, 000 people per day but now we are vaccinating over 350, 000 Nigerians per day.
“And this is really commendable; it is worth mentioning as well that the Federal Government has adequate numbers of COVID-19 vaccinations to cover all Nigerians.’’
Mr Shuaib said there is the need for more Nigerians to come out enmasse to take the vaccinations.
On polio eradication, the NPHDA boss said that the last case of the wild polio virus in Nigeria was in August, 2016.
“So, this means that as we celebrate world polio virus day by next week Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari has actually his promise that he will not hand over a Nigeria that has children with these viruses.
“Then, we have seen in the last 24 months, an increase in the reported cases circulating variant polio viruses but thanks to the incredible work of states working with our partners under the leadership of the president.
“We recorded a decrease in the numbers of circulating polio viruses from 806 cases around this time last year; we now have reported 133 cases in 2022 given the same period.
“And then the number of local government areas that are reporting circulating variant polio viruses have also decreased from 186 to just 48 local government areas.
“Again significant improvement in the success rate; thanks to Nigerians coming forth with their children and getting vaccinated.’’
He added that there had been massive improvements in routine immunisation.
According to him, Nigeria is only one of five countries globally where the pandemic did not negatively impact routine immunisation coverage.
“Again, this thanks to all the leadership we have seen at the national and sub-national level and of course, the hard work of frontline health workers,’’ he said.
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has travelled to Europe on business.
The former Vice President travelled last night on a scheduled trip to meet with the technical partners of one his business entities that was impacted by the Covid-19 global lockdown and the consequent economic downturn.
The meeting will also focus on conclusive discussions for a planned expansion of its production facility.
Paul Ibe
Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar
Presidential candidate of the PDP and former Vice President of Nigeria (1999-2007)
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has travelled to Europe on business.
The former Vice President travelled last night on a scheduled trip to meet with the technical partners of one his business entities that was impacted by the Covid-19 global lockdown and the consequent economic downturn.
The meeting will also focus on conclusive discussions for a planned expansion of its production facility.
Paul Ibe
Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar
Presidential candidate of the PDP and former Vice President of Nigeria (1999-2007)
A European Union proposal to cap the price its member countries pay for Russian gas did not receive broad support from energy ministers on Friday, diplomats said, as they met to work out steps to shield citizens and businesses from sky-high energy bills.
But ministers arriving for the emergency meeting indicated broad backing for moves to prevent power providers from being crushed by a liquidity crunch and several said it was urgent to decouple the price of gas from other cheaper energy sources.
Friday’s ministerial talks aimed to whittle down options for further discussion, rather than reaching a final decision on ways to tackle a crisis fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But many said agreement and action needed to be swift.
“We are in an energy war with Russia,” Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela said. “We have to send a clear signal that we would do whatever it takes to support our households, our economies.”
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Energy bills, already surging as demand for gas recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, have rocketed higher since the Ukraine war. As Russia has reduced gas deliveries to Europe following the imposition of Western sanctions, EU governments have scrambled to limit the resulting energy price shock.
An EU proposal to cap Russian gas prices has so far failed to win support from a majority of countries, with Russia threatening to completely cut off the dwindling supplies that have continued to flow if such a step is taken.
“There was a big debate about capping the price of gas, and the Commission should come up with a proposal that will help reduce the prices of all gas, but at the same time will not jeopardize gas supplies to Europe,” one of the diplomats with knowledge of the closed-door talks told Reuters.
Baltic states are among those backing the idea, saying it would deprive Moscow of cash to fund military action in Ukraine.
“Russia has said if you want our gas, take down the sanctions. It is blackmail. We cannot back down, we have to be united, we have to have the political will to help Ukraine win,” Estonian Economic Affairs Minister Riina Sikkut said.
But central and eastern European states, many of them more reliant than others on Russian fuel, fear losing all their supplies, while some question whether a cap would have much impact on reducing prices when deliveries are so low.
“If price restrictions were to be imposed exclusively on Russian gas, that would evidently lead to an immediate cut-off in Russian gas supplies. It does not take a Nobel Prize to recognize that,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.
Market reforms German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said EU ministers should give Brussels the green light to prepare legislation to decouple the gas price from the price consumers pay for power from other energy carriers.
The European Commission this week said it would propose a measure to claw back revenues from non-gas power generators and spend the cash on cutting consumer bills.
A draft of the commission proposal, seen by Reuters, would cap at 200 euros ($201.74) per megawatt hour the revenues non-gas producers receive. It would apply to wind, nuclear and coal generators.
European power prices are typically set by gas plants, so the cap would aim to skim off excess profits made in recent months by non-gas producers that have lower running costs but have still been able to sell their power at soaring prices.
“The measures the Commission has recommended in taking some of those excess profits and recycling them back into the households makes sense,” Irish Environment Minister Eamon Ryan said.
But France, home to Europe’s biggest nuclear power fleet, questioned whether the same limit should be applied to all non-gas generators.
EU diplomats said governments broadly supported the EU’s proposal to offer emergency liquidity to power firms facing soaring collateral requirements, although the details of this have yet to be fleshed out.
Finland and Sweden have already offered billions of dollars in liquidity guarantees to power companies in a bid to prevent the cash squeeze from toppling firms.
Pilots at German airline Lufthansa will strike again this week, a labor union said on Tuesday, escalating a wage dispute that will further plague a summer of travel chaos.
It follows a strike last week that forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
The strike would affect pilots of both passenger and cargo divisions of the airline, said the union, Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), which groups more than 5,000 pilots.
Passenger pilots will strike on Wednesday and Thursday, and cargo pilots from Wednesday through Friday.
Last week’s strike forced the German airline to cancel about 800 flights at its main bases in Frankfurt and Munich, affecting 130,000 passengers.
Strikes and staff shortages have already forced several airlines, including Lufthansa, to cancel thousands of flights this summer, leading to long queues at major airports and frustrating people keen to start traveling again after COVID-19 lockdowns.
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The VC union is demanding a 5.5% pay raise this year and automatic inflation compensation thereafter as well as better terms for entry-level pilots.
Lufthansa has said VC’s demands would raise its staff costs by 40% or around 900 million euros ($899 million) over the next two years.
The airline has offered a total of 900 euros ($901.35) more in basic pay per month in two stages over an 18-month period, which it said would result in more than 18% higher pay for entry-level jobs and 5% more for senior positions.
VC’s demands also come against the backdrop of soaring energy and food prices, with German inflation rising to its highest level in almost 50 years in August.
Foreign holidaymakers, spearheaded by Europe, continue to pour into Antalya, helping Türkiye’s Mediterranean gem have its most intense summer since the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The southern resort has seen around 8.5 million foreigners arrive so far this year, already nearing the 9 million who arrived throughout the whole of 2021. This figure peaked in 2019, dubbed the best tourism season ever, when arrivals reached 16 million, before the slump caused by the pandemic.
The big rebound this year has been driven by flocks of tourists from Europe, particularly Germany and the United Kingdom, in addition to arrivals from Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine had sparked fears across the vital industry.
This summer season, Antalya is witnessing a boom in demand that has been accumulating following the pandemic, according to Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers and Investors Association (AKTOB) chair Erkan Yağcı.
Yağcı stressed they expect to approach the peak levels seen in 2019. “When we look from January to today, we have reached 90% to 95% of the 2019 figures during the high season. If it continues in this way, we can get closer to the 2019 figures,” he told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Türkiye itself attracted over 23 million foreign visitors from January through July, surging 128% annually, according to the official data, paving the way for $37 billion in tourism revenues sought by the government.
The arrivals have been mainly backed by Russian visitors who opted for Türkiye due to Western flight restrictions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The numbers of German and British visitors also rose strongly.
“The U.K. is on its way to becoming a source market,” said Yağcı. “The British market has made a significant comeback. This year, we will have hosted nearly 1 million British guests in Antalya. This is extremely important.”
He stressed the country’s efforts to diversify markets, saying that “our main goals are to increase the number of tourists in other markets such as Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium. We are in a period in which our basic strategies set before the pandemic have been revived.”
From January through July, Germans were Türkiye’s top source market with 2.99 million visitors, followed by 2.2 million Russians and 1.8 million Britons, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry data.
Despite concerns over the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the government raised its year-end targets last month to 47 million tourists and $37 billion in revenues, up from its earlier targets of 45 million arrivals and $35 billion in income.
The current trend has somewhat washed away the panic from the beginning of the season, said Kemer Promotion Foundation head Volkan Yorulmaz. Kemer is one of the most popular districts of Antalya.
Yorulmaz said the 8 million figure was exceeded as of the beginning of August, which he says reaffirms his expectations for 12 million by the year-end.
He highlighted that the summer season has been extended, in part due to market diversification and that they expected a buoyant November. Yorlumaz cited a big jump in markets that to some extent managed to compensate for the loss that stemmed from the Ukraine war.
“There are serious increases in Polish, Czech, Serbian, German and British tourists. This year we have seen that we should not only do tourism based on Ukraine and Russia, and that this can be achieved. It is necessary to continue this.”
Backed by the easing COVID-19 measures, the number of foreign visitors soared 94.1% to 24.71 million last year. Tourism revenues doubled to almost $25 billion but remained well below the level recorded in 2019.
Russians and Ukrainians were the country’s first and third biggest sources of visitors, respectively. Russians accounted for 19% of foreign tourists, with 4.7 million people, while Ukraine was the third-largest at 8.3%, with 2.1 million people.
Officials had hoped tourism this year could replicate or exceed the numbers from 2019, when some 52 million visitors – including about 7 million Russians and 1.6 million Ukrainians – brought in $34 billion in revenue
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At least 31 people died while 117,095 more tested positive for COVID-19 as Turkey experienced a spike in weekly cases between July 4-10, according to the Health Ministry.
It is more than a twofold increase from the numbers in the previous week when 57,113 tested positive and threatens Turkey’s normalization process.
According to the latest data, while some 117,095 people got infected and 61,047 patients recovered during the last week.
The latest figures pushed the total number of cases seen since March 11, 2020, when the first COVID-19 case was detected in Turkey, to 99,088 death and over 15,297,539 positive cases.
The country has administered a total of 148,117,265 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to date.
Osmaniye, Ordu, Amasya, Muğla, Kırklareli, Çanakkale, Eskişehir, Balıkesir, Manisa and Zonguldak were the 10 provinces with the highest rate of those over the age of 18 who had at least two doses of vaccine.
The provinces with the lowest rate of those who received at least two doses of vaccine were listed as Şanlıurfa, Batman, Siirt, Diyarbakır, Bingöl, Muş, Mardin, Bitlis, Ağrı and Elazığ.
As the pandemic seems to be slowing down and normalcy returning, the number of new coronavirus cases rose in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe last week, while the number of deaths globally dropped by 16%, according to the World Health Organization’s latest weekly pandemic report issued Wednesday.
The WHO said there were 3.3 million new COVID-19 infections last week, marking a 4% decrease, with more than 7,500 deaths. But cases jumped by about 45% in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and by about 6% in Europe. Southeast Asia was the only region to report a slight 4% increase in deaths, while figures fell elsewhere. Globally, the number of new COVID-19 cases has been falling after peaking in January.
Salim Abdool Karim, an epidemiologist and vice-chancellor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, said the recent fall in COVID-19 numbers had reached “trough” levels and had not been seen much in the last two and a half years. He warned, however, that some countries, including Britain, were starting to see a slight resurgence in cases.
British health officials said last week there were early signs the country could be at the start of a new wave of infections driven by omicron variants, although hospitalization rates have so far remained “very low.”
The country dropped nearly all of its COVID restrictions months ago. Last week, the U.K. recorded a 43% rise in cases following the street parties, concerts and other festivities celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee earlier this month, which marked her 70 years as monarch.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., officials began rolling out vaccines for the littlest children late last week, with shots for kids aged six months to five years.
Advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control authorized vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna on Saturday, saying they helped prevent severe disease, hospitalization and deaths in young children.
While young children generally don’t get as sick from COVID-19 as older kids and adults, their hospitalizations surged during the omicron wave and American experts determined that the benefits from vaccination outweighed the minimal risks
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Global elite policymakers, business gurus and activists are regathering Monday as the much-ballyhooed World Economic Forum (WEF) gets underway this week after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual meeting in the Swiss Alpine town of Davos returns to face another momentous crisis: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia would normally have its own “house” at the World Economic Forum as a showcase for business leaders and investors.
This year, the space on the dressed-up main street in Davos has been transformed by Ukrainian artists into a “Russian War Crimes House,” portraying images of misery and devastation.
Russia has denied allegations of war crimes in the conflict.
Ukraine is top of the agenda for the four-day meeting that kicks off with a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The theme of the World Economic Forum, “History at a Turning Point,” also sets the tone for the meeting in the glitzy Swiss mountain resort that will be dominated by the political and economic fallout from the conflict.
When the WEF last took place in Davos in January 2020, the coronavirus was just brewing in China before morphing into a devastating pandemic.
A Davos forum took place virtually last year, with Russian President Vladimir Putin among the speakers.
Russian business and political leaders, who used to participate in debates and mingle with other A-listers at parties, were barred by organizers from attending this year’s gathering over the war.
Ukrainians, meanwhile, have deployed a strong contingent, including the foreign minister, to plead their case, in addition to Zelenskyy, who is scheduled to address the forum via videolink on Monday.
“This is the world’s most influential economic platform, where Ukraine has something to say,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Sunday night.
“The major request to the whole world here is: do not stop backing Ukraine,” Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush Tsintsadze told reporters on the eve of the summit.
Another deputy, Anastasia Radina, appealed for NATO-style heavy weaponry to “win the war.”
“We actually need weapons more than we need anything else,” she said.
WEF founder Klaus Schwab said last week that Davos would do what it can to support Ukraine and its recovery.
“Russia’s aggression on the country will be seen in future history books as the breakdown of the post-World War II and post-Cold War order,” he said.
Market meltdown Aside from the Ukraine crisis, the post-pandemic recovery, tackling climate change, the future of work, accelerating stakeholder capitalism and harnessing new technologies are among the topics scheduled for discussion at Davos.
More than 50 heads of state or government will be among the 2,500 delegates, ranging from business leaders to academics and civil society figures.
Some of the biggest names include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. climate envoy John Kerry.
On the business agenda, discussions are likely to focus on the souring state of financial markets and the global economy.
After a sharp bounceback from the downturn triggered two years ago by the onset of the pandemic, there are now myriad threats to that recovery, leading the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to downgrade its global growth forecast for the second time since the year began.
Inflation due to hobbled supply chains emerged as a problem last year, particularly in the U.S. economy.
That has been compounded since the beginning of 2022 by events including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and waves of COVID-19 lockdowns across China that have stalled a recovery.
‘Define tomorrow’ The Ukrainian artists are hoping to get their message of fighting for a better future to world leaders in Davos.
Visitors are confronted by images such as a badly burned man in Kharkiv after Russian shelling and a film made up of thousands of pictures of dead civilians and bombed houses.
“This is a place where all influencers and all decision-makers of the world come together,” the artistic director of the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv, Bjorn Geldhof, told Reuters TV.
“What is happening in Ukraine will define tomorrow,” he added.
Putin calls the invasion a “special military operation” to disarm the country and rid it of radical anti-Russian nationalists.
Ukraine and its allies have dismissed that as a baseless pretext for the nearly three-month war, which has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and shattered cities
While the WEF meeting may not be back to pre-pandemic levels, with Zurich’s airport expecting the number of flights to be about two-thirds of previous levels, its return comes as a welcome relief to the ski resort’s hotels and restaurants.
“It is another step back to normality,” Samuel Rosenast, spokesperson for the local tourism board, said last week.
The number of COVID-19 infections in Turkey fell below the 1,000 mark on Sunday, as the health minister promised further easing of mask restrictions if the numbers remain the same for three consecutive days.
The Health Ministry confirmed 905 new COVID-19 infections, five related deaths and 1,019 recoveries in the last 24 hours. As many as 118,852 tests were conducted.
“The day we’ve been waiting for so long has come. The number of cases fell below 1,000. The number of deaths is 5. When the number of cases is below a thousand for three consecutive days, the use of masks will be optional, not mandatory, in public transportation!” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.
To stem the spread of the virus, Turkey has administered more than 147.67 million vaccine doses since it launched an immunization drive in January 2021.
More than 57.83 million people have received their first jabs, while over 53.05 million are fully vaccinated.
Turkey lifted its longtime indoor mask mandate last month, except for public transportation and in hospitals.
More than 525.4 million COVID-19 cases and over 6.27 million deaths have been reported in at least 192 countries and regions since December 2019, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.
Beijing closed dozens of subway stations and expanded Covid restrictions Wednesday, constricting movement around the Chinese capital despite logging only dozens of daily cases.
China has been battling its worst coronavirus flare-up since the early days of the pandemic, with most cases found in the business hub of Shanghai.
Scenes of chaos and anger at weeks of stay-at-home orders in Shanghai have alarmed people in the capital, who fear their city may be next.
On Wednesday Beijing reported 51 local infections, five of them asymptomatic, while Shanghai reported nearly 5,000 — part of a downward trend as the hub loosens some restrictions.
But municipal government spokesman Xu Hejian told reporters Wednesday that the capital would “temporarily extend” its tightened Covid curbs — including a ban on restaurant dine-ins and suspension of entertainment venues and gyms.
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Officials initially said the ramped-up curbs would apply to the traditionally busy Labour Day break ending Thursday.
“The whole district of Chaoyang and companies in areas where public transport operations have been adjusted will implement home office from May 5,” Xu added, referring to Beijing’s most populous district.
Housing compounds where infections have been reported have already been locked down, while Beijingers have started stocking up on essentials over worries they could suddenly be ordered to stay home.
The China World Trade Center — an office and shopping complex — was also temporarily closed this week.
Meanwhile, the city’s subway operator and officials announced the closure of about 60 stations Wednesday — around 18 percent of the network — many of them near locked down areas.
“The entrances and exits of stations will be closed… but transfers can be done within the stations,” said a notice on the Beijing Subway’s WeChat page.
But authorities also appeared to ease some rules, with Xu saying that eligible international arrivals to Beijing could do 10 days of centralised quarantine and a week of home isolation, down from 21 days of quarantine.
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‘Semi-closed state’ –
“I think the city is already in a semi-closed state,” said one Beijing resident in a sealed compound who declined to be identified.
“There is no timetable for when our lockdown will be lifted, and more places are being sealed,” he told AFP, saying freedoms were increasingly being limited.
Another Beijinger, aged 35, said he was buying groceries online to avoid contact with people at supermarkets.
“No one can really tell how long the restrictions will last… but I understand the reasoning,” he said.
Elsewhere in China, the central city of Zhengzhou has also ramped up Covid controls, with residents in the city centre ordered to remain in their housing compounds or at home.
Authorities in Shanghai have struggled to get fresh vegetables and other essentials to people in lockdown and patients have reported trouble accessing non-Covid medical care.
Local officials have been accused of bungling their response to the virus and being overzealous with the implementation of restrictions.
Hundreds have died of Covid in Shanghai, many of them unvaccinated elderly people
China’s capital Beijing tightened COVID-19 restrictions on Sunday as it battled an outbreak, while Shanghai let some of its 25 million residents venture out for light and air after reporting a second day of zero infections outside of quarantine areas.
Shanghai’s outbreak, which began in March, has been China’s worst since the early months of the pandemic in 2020. Hundreds of thousands have been infected and the city has forbidden residents from leaving their homes, to great public anger.
The outbreak in China’s most populous city and the risk of a spread in Beijing are testing the government’s zero-COVID-19 approach in a year when Xi Jinping is expected to secure an unprecedented third term as president.
Beijing, with dozens of daily infections in an outbreak now in its 10th day, has not locked down. More than 300 locally transmitted cases have been logged since April 22.
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But on Sunday the capital tightened social distancing rules and launched a fresh round of mass testing in its most populous and worst-hit district.
The city of 22 million has in the past week conducted mass testing in most of its 16 districts, suspended all entertainment venues and banned restaurant dining.
“The impact of all this on us is too great – 20,000 yuan ($3,000) in a day gone, just like that!” said Jia, a manager at a normally popular burger restaurant in the east of Beijing.
“Our boss is stressing out about this too,” Jia said, asking to be identified only by his surname. “We have three branches in Shanghai. They’ve all been shut and losing cash for a month. And now this.”
Beijing’s sprawling Universal Studios theme park closed on Sunday, while in the highly visited Badaling section of the Great Wall, visitors were told to show proof of negative COVID-19 test results before entering.
Chaoyang district, accounting for the biggest share of infections in Beijing’s outbreak, launched an additional round of mass testing, with public health workers knocking on doors to remind residents to get tested.
“I do the PCR test everyday and I know I am not sick,” said a Chaoyang resident surnamed Ma, whose local health app on her mobile phone had marked her profile as abnormal.
“I feel caged, like I am sick. These restrictions are too excessive,” said Ma, who works in finance.
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Anger in Shanghai Shanghai’s citywide lockdown since early April has upended the daily lives of its residents, sparking worries about food and concern about being taken to crowded quarantine centers should they catch the virus.
Extreme measures taken to seal up residential compounds, including fencing up entrances of buildings, have prompted outrage.
Some residents have turned to social media to vent their frustration, some clanged pots and pans outside their windows, and others clashed with public health workers.
The song “Do you hear the people sing?” from the musical “Les Miserables” has become a popular protest anthem. On Saturday, an online video of a Chinese orchestra playing the song, with the musicians performing from their respective homes, went viral with nearly 19,000 shares before it was blocked.
While much of the city remains in lockdown, Shanghai officials, striking a confident tone, said on Sunday that curbs on some areas would be eased after the city reined in COVID-19 transmission risks at the community level, excluding cases in quarantine centers.
Six of its 16 districts attained zero-COVID-19 status, meaning three consecutive days with no new daily increases in infections, senior city government official Gu Honghui told a virtual news conference.
Public transport will be allowed to resume in five districts, but residents must remain in their districts as they visit supermarkets, pharmacies and hospitals, a health official told the news conference.
Social media posts showed the streets of Fengxian, one of the six districts, filled with pedestrians and choked with scooters and bicycles. Reuters could not independently verify the videos.
But despite the fall in transmissions, Shanghai will launch a new round of citywide PCR and antigen tests from Sunday until May 7.
Excluding imported cases arriving from outside the mainland, China reported 8,256 new local cases for Saturday, down from 10,703 a day before. Beijing accounted for 59 of the infections, while Shanghai saw 7,872 new cases and all of the nation’s 38 fatalities.
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