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 Millions more under lockdown in China
China posted its biggest daily jump in COVID cases in more than five
months on Wednesday, stepping up containment measures that have seen
four cities put under lockdown.
Most of the new cases were reported near the capital, Beijing, but a
province in the far northeast also saw a rise in infections, amid a
resurgence that has seen more than 28 million people put under home
quarantine.
While the Chinese city of Wuhan was the initial epicenter of the
novel coronavirus, which emerged there in late 2019, China had in
recent months largely kept it at bay.
U.S. to require negative tests for air passengers
Nearly all air travelers will need to present a negative coronavirus
test to enter the United States under expanded testing requirements
announced on Tuesday.
All travelers aged 2 and older must comply except passengers who are
only transiting through the United States. The U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention will also consider waivers of testing
requirements for airlines flying to countries with little or no
testing capacity, including some places in the Caribbean.
The order dramatically broadens a requirement imposed on Dec. 28 for
travelers arriving from the UK as a more transmissible variant of
the virus circulated there.
Bolsonaro sabotaged anti-COVID efforts, says rights body
Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro has tried to sabotage
efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 in his country and pursued
policies that undermine the rights of Brazilians, Human Rights Watch
said on Wednesday.
Other institutions have stepped up to protect Brazilians and blocked
some of Bolsonaro's most damaging policies, the rights group said in
the Brazil chapter of its annual world report.
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Bolsonaro wanted to remove the authority of states to restrict
people's movements, as they sought to contain the world's
second-deadliest coronavirus outbreak after the United States, but
the Supreme Court ruled against him.
Working people jabbed first in Indonesia’s vaccination drive
Indonesia launched one of the world's biggest COVID-19 vaccination
campaigns on Wednesday with President Joko Widodo getting the first
shot of a Chinese vaccine as his country fights one of the worst
outbreaks in Asia.
The drive aims to inoculate 181.5 million people, with the first to
be vaccinated receiving the CoronaVac vaccine from China's Sinovac
Biotech, which Indonesia authorised for emergency use on Monday.
Unlike many countries, Indonesia intends to inoculate its working
population first, rather than the elderly, partly because it does
not have enough data from clinical trials on CoronaVac's efficacy on
older people.
Japanese cool to holding Olympics
Japan expanded a state of emergency in the Tokyo area to seven more
prefectures on Wednesday amid a steady rise in cases as a survey by
public broadcaster NHK showed most people want to cancel or postpone
the already delayed Summer Olympics.
The governors of Osaka, Kyoto and other hard-hit prefectures asked
the government to announce the emergency, which gives local
authorities the legal basis to curb movement and business.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has been wary about taking measures
that would hamper economic activity, while he has put on a brave
face against the mounting challenges of hosting the Olympics,
delayed from 2020, in Tokyo.
(Compiled by Linda Noakes; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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