|
 WHO Wuhan team heads to Hubei centre for disease control
A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of
the COVID-19 pandemic was due on Monday to visit the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention of Hubei province, the central
Chinese region where the outbreak emerged in late 2019. The group of
independent experts is conducting two weeks of field work, which has
included visits to hospitals, markets, and an exhibition
commemorating Wuhan's battle with the outbreak.
The WHO, which has sought to manage expectations for the mission,
has said that team members would be limited to visits organised by
their Chinese hosts and would not have any contact with community
members, because of health restrictions.
Two million Australians in lockdown over one case
About 2 million Australians begun their first full day of a strict
coronavirus lockdown on Monday following the discovery of one case
in the community in Perth, capital of Western Australia state, but
no new cases have since been found. Authorities ordered a five-day
lockdown after a security guard at a hotel used to quarantine people
returning from overseas was found to have contracted the virus.
The state government said 66 people have been deemed close contacts
of the unidentified guard and none of those already tested were
infected. Tests on the rest of the close contacts were expected to
be completed on Monday, state Premier Mark McGowan said.
Authorities seek to boost vaccination rates among Black New Yorkers
[to top of second column] |
 Black New Yorkers' skepticism
about vaccines developed at record speed to
fight COVID-19 means they lag behind other
racial groups in inoculations to fight the
pandemic that has killed more than 400,000
people in the United States, officials said on
Sunday.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state
plans to run an advertising campaign that will
seek to boost trust and dispel hesitancy among
many Black New Yorkers to get the potentially
life-saving vaccine. A similar pattern is seen
among Black hospital workers in the state,
according to Cuomo. Israel
extends lockdown, sees delay in COVID-19 turnaround
Israel extended a national lockdown on Sunday as coronavirus
variants offset its vaccination drive and officials predicted a
delay in a turnaround from the health and economic crisis.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promoted a speedy vaccination
of Israel's most vulnerable cohorts - around 24% of 9 million
citizens - and the lockdown as dual pathways to a possible reopening
of the economy in February. But a projected mid-January turnaround
in curbing the pandemic did not transpire. Serious cases have surged
among Israelis who have not yet been vaccinated. Officials blame
that on communicable foreign virus strains and on lockdown
scofflaws.
(Compiled by Karishma Singh; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content |
