World
UK urges commitment to vaccinate the world by end of 2022
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will use the Group of Seven wealthy democracies’ summit next week to urge world leaders to commit to vaccinating the global population by the end of 2022.
Johnson is expected to stress the importance of a global vaccination drive when he meets with fellow world leaders on Friday in Cornwall, on England’s southwestern coast, for the first face-to-face G-7 summit since the pandemic hit.
Read:European regulators OK Pfizer vaccine for children 12-15
“The world is looking to us to rise to the greatest challenge of the postwar era: defeating COVID and leading a global recovery driven by our shared values,” he said in a statement Sunday. “Vaccinating the world by the end of next year would be the single greatest feat in medical history.”
U.S. President Joe Boden and the leaders of Canada, France, Italy and Japan will arrive in Cornwall from Friday for three days of talks focusing on the global recovery from the pandemic.
Read:In time for summer, Europe sees dramatic fall in virus cases
Britain’s government pledged in February to give most of the country’s surplus vaccine supply to COVAX, the U.N.-backed program aiming to supply poorer countries with jabs.
But the U.K. hasn’t yet put a figure on how many doses it will donate. The country, with a population of about 70 million people, has ordered around 400 million doses of vaccines. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that the U.K. doesn’t have any excess doses at the moment and that “we’re just getting them into arms as quickly as possible.”
Read:Rise in UK coronavirus cases stoke concerns over 3rd wave
The Sunday Times reported that Johnson is set to announce at the summit that the U.K. will pledge to donate over 2 billion pounds’ worth of jabs this year, with further donations in 2022.
The U.S. has said it plans to share 80 million doses of its surplus vaccine globally by the end of June, most of them through COVAX.
2 trains collide in southern Pakistan, killing 30
Two express trains collided in southern Pakistan early Monday, killing at least 30 passengers, authorities said, as rescuers and villagers worked to pull injured people and more bodies from the wreckage.
Between 15 to 20 passengers are still trapped in the wreckage of the Millat Express train and authorities were trying to arrange heavy machinery to rescue those people who are crying for help, said Umar Tufail, a police chief in Ghotki district in Sindh province, where the collision occurred before dawn.
Read:Egypt says 11 killed in train crash north of Cairo
The Millat Express derailed and the Sir Syed Express train hit it soon afterward, said Usman Abdullah, a deputy commissioner in Ghotki. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the derailment and the subsequent collision.
“Right now the challenge for us is to quickly rescue those passengers who are still trapped in the wreckage,” he said.
Abdullah said so far 30 people had died. According to railway officials, about 1,100 passengers were on board the two trains, and arrangements were being made to help the surviving passengers.
According to local media, some of the passengers were traveling by the Millat Express train to attend a wedding party but it was unclear whether they were among the dead or injured.
TV footage showed ambulances transporting injured passengers to hospitals. According to Pakistani TV stations, heavy machinery had not reached the scene about four hours after the crash.
Read: Taiwanese man involved in deadly train derailment released on bail
Officials at Pakistan railways said they had ordered an investigation and rescue work was still in progress.
Some of the injured passengers were listed in critical condition at a hospital.
Authorities said troops had also arrived at the scene of the accident to participate in the rescue work.
Malik Aslam, a local villager, told Pakistan’s Geo News TV that about 100 people were injured and he counted at least 30 bodies of passengers during the rescue and recovery work.
Read:Train crashes in eastern Taiwan, killing 48, injuring dozens
Train accidents are common in Pakistan, where successive governments have paid little attention to improving the poorly maintained signal system and aging tracks.
In 1990, a packed passenger plowed into a standing freight train in southern Pakistan, killing 210 people in the worst rail disaster in Pakistan’s history.
Brazil set to produce 8 mln doses of Sputnik V
Brazil plans to produce about eight million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, which could be exported to Latin American nations, Brazil’s Ambassador to Russia Tovar da Silva Nunes told reporters on Saturday.
Also read: Serum gets govt nod to produce Sputnik vaccine in India
"As you know, we have already started the production of Sputnik V in Brazil, so I think we will be able to use it in Brazil to the amounts that is allowed, but also to provide for other countries as export. For example, there is an area where Brazil could sell, that is Latin America," the diplomat said. "So I think once the production is put forward in June and July, as I think we will have, as I heard from Uniao Quimica (Brazil’s pharmaceutical company), at least eight million doses a month that will be put available to the market."
Also read: Russian Vaccine Sputnik V: Things we should know to fight COVID-19
Russia was the world’s first nation to register its coronavirus vaccine on August 11, 2020. The vaccine was named Sputnik V. Brazil has become the 67th nation to approve the use of Sputnik V. Its 91.6% efficacy was confirmed by the publication of data in The Lancet, a world-acclaimed medical journal.
COVID-19 lockdowns cause increase in alcohol intake: OECD
People drank more alcohol both in terms of amount and how often it was consumed during the initial coronavirus lockdowns across the world last year, according to an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development survey.
Of about 60,000 individuals from 11 countries surveyed for seven weeks from May to June 2020, 43 percent said they drank more often than before the first wave of COVID-19, 26 percent said less often and 31 percent saw no change.
Thirty-six percent said their alcohol consumption increased, while 21 percent said it decreased and 43 percent said it was unchanged.
Stefano Scarpetta, director for employment, labor and social affairs at the OECD, said alcohol sales at restaurants and bars plummeted but drinking at home increased.
Increased alcohol consumption possibly reflects high stress levels, Scarpetta said.
Also read: Distilleries using high-proof alcohol to make hand sanitizer
It was also found that the number of emergency calls about domestic violence rose 60 percent across European Union countries during the pandemic, according to the Paris-based club of 38 mostly wealthy countries.
"Lockdown and stay at home orders exacerbated some of the negative behaviors associated with harmful alcohol consumption," it said.
Sales of alcohol drinks and accompanying tax revenues grew some 3 to 5 percent last year from 2019 in some nations such as Britain, the United States and Germany.
The survey showed the probability of binge drinking -- which it defined as having over 80 percent of a bottle wine or 1.5 liters of beer per drinking occasion -- increased for 23 percent of the respondents, but was reduced for 29 percent. Nearly half answered that it did not change.
Also read: Alcohols in air may slow down haze formation: study
Since late 2019 when the first virus outbreak was detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, many major cities have taken confinement measures such as hard lockdowns to curb the virus spread, forcing restaurants and bars to shut down or close earlier than usual and people to stay at home.
Scarpetta warned the reopening of the economy means that supportive measures for pandemic-hit sectors and individuals will be removed, a development that could lead to further bankruptcies and unemployment, and put people at risk of engaging in "harmful patterns of drinking" to get rid of stress.
"It is difficult to know whether these changes will continue when living conditions go back to normality, but the experience of previous crises suggests that we may see an increase in problematic drinking in the medium term," he said.
The data was collected in 10 OECD members -- Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Britain and the United States -- plus Brazil, a non-OECD member.
Indian cities unlocking after declining COVID-19 infections
With COVID-19 infections coming down to the lowest level country-wide in nearly two months to 120,529 new cases during the last 24 hours, India’s major cities today announced significant relaxations in lockdowns in New Delhi and Mumbai.
Government and private offices will be allowed to reopen with 50 percent attendance from Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said at a media briefing. Markets and malls will reopen on an odd-even basis from 10 am to 8 pm. Delhi Metro will operate at 50 percent capacity.
In Mumbai too, offices will only be allowed from Monday to function with 50 percent capacity till 4 pm. The same restriction will apply to restaurants both in occupancy level and timing of service. Fifty persons will be permitted at weddings and 20 at funerals.
Also read: Increase in Covid-19 vaccine production in India to be 'game changer' beyond borders: US
Malls and entertainment places, such as theatres, will continue to be locked down, but individual stores may stay open till 4 pm. Local train services will be restricted to those engaged in essential services, but buses may operate at full capacity with no standee passengers.
In Maharashtra state, the government has announced a five-level plan to relax the lockdowns based on the weekly positivity rate and the occupancy of oxygen beds.
Also read: Serum gets govt nod to produce Sputnik vaccine in India
Kejriwal said the Delhi government was preparing for the third wave of COVID-19 infections and projecting 37,000 daily cases at its peak. It was making arrangements for beds, ICUs and medicines with that projection in mind.
India’s latest infection figures show less than 200,000 daily new cases for nine days consecutively and a decrease in active cases by 80,745 in the last 24 hours. Such a pattern of decreases over a sustained period has prompted cities like New Delhi and Mumbai to relax restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Both cities had high infection rates during the second wave of COVID-19.
Indian govt books 300 million doses of new Indian jab
India made its first advance commitments for a coronavirus vaccine under development, announcing a ₹1,500 crore deal with Hyderabad’s Biological E to stockpile 300 million doses of its candidate that has shown promising signs but is currently in the last stage of clinical trials, reported Hindusthan Times on Friday .
The commitment, announced by the Union health ministry on Thursday, represents the first time the government has placed an advance purchase order, which typically helps secure large volumes of doses, and has been a strategy used by countries that managed to procure doses early. “The arrangement with Biological-E is part of the wider endeavour of Government of India to encourage indigenous vaccine manufacturers by providing them support in research & development and also financial support,” the ministry said in a statement.
The move comes a day after the Supreme Court pulled up the government for its vaccination policy and gave it two weeks to submit all files and notings that “reflect its thinking and the culmination” of its vaccination policy, which judges said appeared to be “arbitrary and irrational”.
Also read: Increase in Covid-19 vaccine production in India to be 'game changer' beyond borders: US
The criticism around the Covid-19 vaccination drive stems from an acute shortage of doses in the country, where under 19% of the 940 million eligible people have received at least one dose.
The order that the government disclosed on Thursday will help India get guaranteed access to large doses of the vaccines made by Biological E once the dose is approved. The amount committed will go towards development as well as stockpiling of the doses in advance, which will help push large quantities as soon as clearances are secured. The vaccine is likely to be marketed as Corbevax, according to names previously disclosed by the company.
The 300 million doses appeared to be the cumulative capacity that Biological E told the Centre it will be able to produce for the rest of 2021. Niti Aayog’s VK Paul on May 13 said the company’s 300 million doses was among the 2.16 billion doses of various vaccines that the government was expecting to be available between August and December. It was not immediately clear when the 300 million doses will begin to become available since Phase III trials were only approved in late April, and the developers – Biological E and its partner, Texas-based Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) – are yet to release data from the Phase 1/2 studies.
Dr Peter Hotez, the dean of BCM’s National School of Tropical Medicine and one of the scientists involved in the development, said in an interview to an Indian TV channel last month that clinical trials have shown there will be cross-protection against a number of variants of concern. The vaccine is made using a tried-and-tested platform that is also used in the development of the Hepatitis B vaccine, which Biological E has past experience of making.
In an interview to HT in January, BCM’s Maria Elena Bottazzi said that the vaccine could particularly help inoculate children. “A hepatitis vaccine platform will also help be reassuring for paediatrics use since mRNA and viral vectors have never been used in children,” she said.
Bottazzi said Biological E has worked on the technology for long and the Texas-based institute transferred the technology in summer of 2020. “They were very quick not only in scaling up and reproducing (necessary biologicals) -- we now know they can make 1.2 billion doses of the protein -- but they are also very quick at doing the formulation science,” she said.
Experts welcomed Thursday’s announcement.
“I am just glad that the government is taking some risk now, to do advance purchase of products that might be useful. They should have done this a year ago. Knowing you have a commitment to buy and an advanced paid from the government will encourage vaccine manufacturers to ramp up production even as they do clinical trials,” said Dr Gagandeep Kang, one of country’s top vaccinologist and physician-scientist, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
“They should also look at supporting Gennova for their mRNA product,” she added.
Also read: Serum gets govt nod to produce Sputnik vaccine in India
A senior public health expert, who asked not to be named, however, asked Biological E to release clinical trial data. “Permission to progress to the next phase cannot be given unless you have submitted trial results of the previous phase; therefore I don’t see why the vaccine makers should hold on to the data. If results are promising put them out for other experts to scrutinise who were not a part of the trial,” said this person
“How are they so sure that phase III results will be favourable; those who understand science know that earlier phases of clinical trials are about promise and the third phase is actually what determines the real performance,” the expert added.
The move comes a day after the Supreme Court pulled up the government for its vaccination policy and gave it two weeks to submit all files and notings that “reflect its thinking and the culmination” of its vaccination policy, which judges said appeared to be “arbitrary and irrational”.
The criticism around the Covid-19 vaccination drive stems from an acute shortage of doses in the country, where under 19% of the 940 million eligible people have received at least one dose.
The order that the government disclosed on Thursday will help India get guaranteed access to large doses of the vaccines made by Biological E once the dose is approved. The amount committed will go towards development as well as stockpiling of the doses in advance, which will help push large quantities as soon as clearances are secured. The vaccine is likely to be marketed as Corbevax, according to names previously disclosed by the company.
The 300 million doses appeared to be the cumulative capacity that Biological E told the Centre it will be able to produce for the rest of 2021. Niti Aayog’s VK Paul on May 13 said the company’s 300 million doses was among the 2.16 billion doses of various vaccines that the government was expecting to be available between August and December. It was not immediately clear when the 300 million doses will begin to become available since Phase III trials were only approved in late April, and the developers – Biological E and its partner, Texas-based Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) – are yet to release data from the Phase 1/2 studies.
Dr Peter Hotez, the dean of BCM’s National School of Tropical Medicine and one of the scientists involved in the development, said in an interview to an Indian TV channel last month that clinical trials have shown there will be cross-protection against a number of variants of concern. The vaccine is made using a tried-and-tested platform that is also used in the development of the Hepatitis B vaccine, which Biological E has past experience of making.
In an interview to HT in January, BCM’s Maria Elena Bottazzi said that the vaccine could particularly help inoculate children. “A hepatitis vaccine platform will also help be reassuring for paediatrics use since mRNA and viral vectors have never been used in children,” she said.
Bottazzi said Biological E has worked on the technology for long and the Texas-based institute transferred the technology in summer of 2020. “They were very quick not only in scaling up and reproducing (necessary biologicals) -- we now know they can make 1.2 billion doses of the protein -- but they are also very quick at doing the formulation science,” she said.
Experts welcomed Thursday’s announcement.
“I am just glad that the government is taking some risk now, to do advance purchase of products that might be useful. They should have done this a year ago. Knowing you have a commitment to buy and an advanced paid from the government will encourage vaccine manufacturers to ramp up production even as they do clinical trials,” said Dr Gagandeep Kang, one of country’s top vaccinologist and physician-scientist, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
“They should also look at supporting Gennova for their mRNA product,” she added.
A senior public health expert, who asked not to be named, however, asked Biological E to release clinical trial data. “Permission to progress to the next phase cannot be given unless you have submitted trial results of the previous phase; therefore I don’t see why the vaccine makers should hold on to the data. If results are promising put them out for other experts to scrutinise who were not a part of the trial,” said this person
“How are they so sure that phase III results will be favourable; those who understand science know that earlier phases of clinical trials are about promise and the third phase is actually what determines the real performance,” the expert added.
The move comes a day after the Supreme Court pulled up the government for its vaccination policy and gave it two weeks to submit all files and notings that “reflect its thinking and the culmination” of its vaccination policy, which judges said appeared to be “arbitrary and irrational”.
The criticism around the Covid-19 vaccination drive stems from an acute shortage of doses in the country, where under 19% of the 940 million eligible people have received at least one dose.
The order that the government disclosed on Thursday will help India get guaranteed access to large doses of the vaccines made by Biological E once the dose is approved. The amount committed will go towards development as well as stockpiling of the doses in advance, which will help push large quantities as soon as clearances are secured. The vaccine is likely to be marketed as Corbevax, according to names previously disclosed by the company.
The 300 million doses appeared to be the cumulative capacity that Biological E told the Centre it will be able to produce for the rest of 2021. Niti Aayog’s VK Paul on May 13 said the company’s 300 million doses was among the 2.16 billion doses of various vaccines that the government was expecting to be available between August and December. It was not immediately clear when the 300 million doses will begin to become available since Phase III trials were only approved in late April, and the developers – Biological E and its partner, Texas-based Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) – are yet to release data from the Phase 1/2 studies.
Dr Peter Hotez, the dean of BCM’s National School of Tropical Medicine and one of the scientists involved in the development, said in an interview to an Indian TV channel last month that clinical trials have shown there will be cross-protection against a number of variants of concern. The vaccine is made using a tried-and-tested platform that is also used in the development of the Hepatitis B vaccine, which Biological E has past experience of making.
In an interview to HT in January, BCM’s Maria Elena Bottazzi said that the vaccine could particularly help inoculate children. “A hepatitis vaccine platform will also help be reassuring for paediatrics use since mRNA and viral vectors have never been used in children,” she said.
Bottazzi said Biological E has worked on the technology for long and the Texas-based institute transferred the technology in summer of 2020. “They were very quick not only in scaling up and reproducing (necessary biologicals) -- we now know they can make 1.2 billion doses of the protein -- but they are also very quick at doing the formulation science,” she said.
Experts welcomed Thursday’s announcement.
“I am just glad that the government is taking some risk now, to do advance purchase of products that might be useful. They should have done this a year ago. Knowing you have a commitment to buy and an advanced paid from the government will encourage vaccine manufacturers to ramp up production even as they do clinical trials,” said Dr Gagandeep Kang, one of country’s top vaccinologist and physician-scientist, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
Also read: India’s recoveries exceed new cases
“They should also look at supporting Gennova for their mRNA product,” she added.
A senior public health expert, who asked not to be named, however, asked Biological E to release clinical trial data. “Permission to progress to the next phase cannot be given unless you have submitted trial results of the previous phase; therefore I don’t see why the vaccine makers should hold on to the data. If results are promising put them out for other experts to scrutinise who were not a part of the trial,” said this person
“How are they so sure that phase III results will be favourable; those who understand science know that earlier phases of clinical trials are about promise and the third phase is actually what determines the real performance,” the expert added.
Increase in Covid-19 vaccine production in India to be 'game changer' beyond borders: US
Increase in manufacturing capacity of Covid-19 vaccines in India has the potential to be a game changer well beyond its borders, the Biden Administration said Thursday.
"It's important to us because India has suffered immensely from the outbreak. Virtually, no element of Indian society has been left untouched by this horrible scourge. That is why we have spoken of the focus on increased manufacturing in India," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters, said a Hindustan Times report.
READ: Indian variant of Covid may wreak havoc on Bangladesh: GM Quader
"The increased manufacturing capacity in India, the volume of capacity has the potential to be a game changer well beyond India's borders. And that's precisely why this arrangement was reached and announced in the context of the Quad," he said.
Early this year at the first virtual Quad summit, composed of leaders from Australia, India, Japan and the United States, it was decided to work together to increase the Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity of India.
READ: Serum gets govt nod to produce Sputnik vaccine in India
Asia-Pacific trade ministers mull vaccine access, supply
Improved access to coronavirus vaccines and other tools needed to fight the pandemic are vital to crushing the pandemic and hastening a recovery, officials said Saturday in an online meeting of Pacific Rim economies.
The unprecedented crisis brought on by COVID-19 requires a coordinated, cooperative response, said New Zealand’s Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor, who hosted the meeting. The 21-member APEC gathers economies all along the Pacific Rim, from tiny Brunei to the United States to Chile and New Zealand. One of its long-term aims is to promote a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific region.
The focus Saturday was on “the most pressing problem our region faces, getting people vaccinated against COVID-19 as quickly as possible,” O’Connor said, adding he would be asking his counterparts how they could speed up trade in vaccines and other needed goods.
“The successful distribution of vaccines across our region will be critical to our recovery,” he said.
Read:Amid brutal case surge, Afghanistan hit by a vaccine delay
APEC has long focused on dismantling trade barriers, and many of its members are still struggling to obtain and deploy enough COVID-19 vaccines to vanquish coronavirus flare-ups.
Nearly 5 billion doses are still needed for the region of almost 3 billion people, O’Connor noted.
In much of the Asia-Pacific region, the share of people vaccinated so far is in the low single digits. That includes places like Thailand and Taiwan that initially managed to avoid initial massive outbreaks but have seen cases rebound recently.
APEC members Japan, South Korea and New Zealand are ranked among the worst among all developed nations in vaccinating their people for COVID-19, below some developing countries such as Brazil and India. Australia is also performing comparatively poorly.
This week, President Joe Biden announced the U.S. will swiftly donate an initial allotment of 25 million doses of surplus vaccine overseas through the United Nations-backed COVAX program, promising infusions for Asia, South and Central America, Africa and others.
Read:Senators say US donating vaccines to Taiwan amid China row
That would be a substantial and immediate boost to the lagging COVAX effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries.
While some countries at times have limited exports of vaccines, chemicals needed to make them or of protective equipment such as surgical masks, it’s unclear whether tariffs and other trade barriers have been the main problem since countries like Japan and New Zealand imposed onerous approval requirements that have slowed inoculations.
The average tariff on vaccines is a low 0.8%, according to the APEC Secretariat. But duties on some other products such as freezing equipment, vials and alcohol solutions can be as high as 30% for some countries.
Control of patents for the vaccines is a contentious issue. The U.S. has urged countries and pharmaceutical companies to waive COVID-19 patents to help increase supplies, and officials said they expected to discuss that issue during their talks this weekend.
But some say such intellectual property rights are crucial for boosting vaccine production and should not be waived.
Read: Sinopharm vaccine: Efforts underway to normalise things after price disclosure
A broad waiver of such rights requires a consensus under World Trade Organization rules, O’Connor said.
“We’re very mindful that the development of the intellectual property is what’s enabled us to very quickly get vaccines developed, in a time we previously haven’t seen across the globe,” he said. “We have to respect that intellectual property.”
These are “extraordinary times,” O’Connor said. “We believe if there clearly are barriers to the rollout of vaccines caused by IP, then we should seek a waiver.”
“We’re actually really encouraged to see more WTO members come forth with proposals on what they can support at the WTO with respect to the intellectual property rules of the WTO and how they apply to the COVID vaccine,” said U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
She said the U.S. was carefully reviewing proposals on the issue and hoping to move toward “text-based negotiations.”
Read: Share vaccines to cope with new surges, variants: UN
At a vaccine summit last month, the head of the WTO said it was also crucial to diversify manufacturing and have more jabs produced in Africa and Latin America.
Much is at stake. Beyond potential lives saved or lost, trade in vaccines and related supplies and equipment was estimated at $418.5 billion in 2019, according to the latest available data, and likely surged in 2020.
The APEC meeting additionally focused on “building back better” by reallocating resources to improve health care, education and social safety nets.
Even with the region still staggering from the pandemic and tourism still paralyzed by quarantines and border restrictions, Pacific Rim economies are forecast to regain momentum this year, with growth rebounding to more than 6% from a 1.9% contraction in 2020.
Amid brutal case surge, Afghanistan hit by a vaccine delay
Afghanistan is battling a brutal surge in COVID-19 infections as health officials plead for vaccines, only to be told by the World Health Organization that the 3 million doses the country expected to receive by April won’t be delivered until August.
“We are in the middle of a crisis,” Health Ministry spokesman Ghulam Dastigir Nazari said this week, expressing deep frustration at the global vaccine distribution that has left poor countries scrambling to find supplies for their people.
Nazari has knocked on the door of several embassies, and so far, “I’ve gotten diplomatic answers” but no vaccine doses, he said.
Over the past month, the escalating pace of new cases has threatened to overwhelm Afghanistan’s health system, already struggling under the weight of relentless conflict. In part, the increase has been blamed on uninterrupted travel with India, bringing the highly contagious Delta variant, first identified in India.
Also, most Afghans still question the reality of the virus or believe their faith will protect them and rarely wear masks or social distance, often mocking those who do. Until just a week ago, the government was allowing unrestricted mass gatherings.
Read:NATO chief says Afghan forces can cope alone
The Delta variant has helped send Afghanistan’s infection rate soaring, hitting 16 provinces and the capital Kabul the hardest. This week, the rate of registered new cases reached as high as 1,500 a day, compared to 178 a day on May 1.
Hospital beds are full, and it is feared rapidly dwindling oxygen supplies will run out. Afghan ambassadors have been ordered to seek out emergency oxygen supplies in nearby countries, Foreign Minister Haneef Atmar said in a tweet Friday.
By official figures, Afghanistan has seen a total 78,000 cases and 3,007 deaths from the pandemic. But those figures are likely a massive undercount, registering only deaths in hospitals, not the far greater numbers who die at home.
Testing is woefully inadequate. In only the past month, the percentage of positive COVID tests has jumped from about 8% to 60% in some parts of the country. By WHO recommendations, anything higher than 5% shows officials aren’t testing widely enough, allowing the virus to spread unchecked.
At most only 3,000 tests a day are carried out, as Afghans resist testing, even after the country dramatically ramped up its capabilities to 25,000 a day.
Only recently, the government tried to take steps to clamp down to contain the surge. It closed schools, universities and colleges for two weeks. It also shut down wedding halls, which had been operating unhindered throughout the pandemic.
But it is rare to see anyone wearing a mask in the streets, and even where masks are mandatory, like in government offices, it’s rarely enforced. As many as 10 flights arrive daily from India, packed with Afghans, particularly students and people who had gone to India for medical treatment.
Read: Afghans who helped the US now fear being left behind
Nazari said banning flights was not an option since many Afghans cannot afford to be stranded in India and the government cannot prevent citizens from re-entering their own country.
For vaccines, Afghanistan so far has relied on a donation of AstraZeneca doses from India and then purchases of Sinopharm from China. About 600,000 people have had at least one dose, about 1.6% of the population of 36 million. But the number who have gotten a second dose is minute — “so few I couldn’t even say any percentage,” Nazari said.
Last month, the ministry received a letter from WHO saying the expected shipment of 3 million vaccine doses will not arrive until August due to supply problems, Nazari said. With just 35,000 vaccine doses remaining in the country, the authorities were forced to stop giving first jabs to use remaining supplies to give second jabs, he said.
Poor countries around the world have been pleading for vaccines even as developed nations have been able to inoculate significant portions of their populations. COVAX, set up with U.N. help to try to prevent vaccine inequities, has struggled to fill the gap. It faced a major setback when its biggest supplier, the Serum Institute of India, announced last month that it would not export any vaccines until the end of the year because of the surge in that country.
“Honestly speaking, I lost my faith in COVAX,” Nazari said.
“Unfortunately, there are countries who vaccinated more than their 50% or 60% percent of the population ... and there are countries who did not receive vaccines to even vaccinate 1% of their population.”
At the Afghan-Japan Communicable Disease Hospital, Kabul’s only hospital dedicated solely to COVID treatment, all 174 beds are full. The Health Ministry opened roughly 350 more beds for coronavirus patients in another three hospitals, but they too quickly filled up. This week, people were being turned away.
Read: Death toll soars to 50 in school bombing in Afghan capital
Each day three or four people die of COVID at the Afghan-Japan Hospital, said hospital administrator Dr. Zalmai Rishteen.
Doctors struggle with the public’s refusal to take precautions and follow safety protocols. “Our people believe it is fake, especially in the countryside,” Rishteen said. “Or they are religious and believe God will save them.”
In the hospital’s intensive care unit, Dr. Rahman Mohtazir said that only makes it more dangerous for him as he does his job. “I am afraid I will catch it, but I am here to help,” he said. “I listen to people and they say it’s fake. Then they come here.”
The Health Ministry has recruited clerics, prominent religious figures and local elders to encourage vaccination and anti-coronavirus precautions.
The worsening COVID situation prompted the U.S. Embassy on Thursday to issue a health alert warning of shortages of supplies, oxygen and beds at hospitals and urging American citizens to “to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible.”
UN: Famine is imminent in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region
Famine is imminent in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region and in the country’s north, the U.N. humanitarian chief said, warning there’s a risk that hundreds of thousands of people or more will die.
Mark Lowcock said the economy has been destroyed along with businesses, crops and farms and there are no banking or telecommunications services.
“We are hearing of starvation-related deaths already,” he said in a statement Friday.
“People need to wake up,” Lowcock said. “The international community needs to really step up, including through the provision of money.”
Read: 'People are starving': New exodus in Ethiopia's Tigray area
No one knows how many thousands of civilians or combatants have been killed since months of political tensions between Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray leaders who once dominated Ethiopia’s government exploded into war last November.
Eritrea, a longtime Tigray enemy, teamed up with neighboring Ethiopia in the conflict.
In late May, Lowcock painted a grim picture of Tigray since the war began, with an estimated 2 million people displaced, civilians killed and injured, rapes and other forms of “abhorrent sexual violence” widespread and systematic, and public and private infrastructure essential for civilians destroyed, including hospitals and agricultural land.
“There are now hundreds of thousands of people in northern Ethiopia in famine conditions,” Lowcock said. “That’s the worse famine problem the world has seen for a decade, since a quarter of a million Somalis lost their lives in the famine there in 2011. This now has horrible echoes of the colossal tragedy in Ethiopia in 1984.”
In the disastrous famine of 1984-85, about 2 million Africans died of starvation or famine-related ailments, about half of them in Ethiopia.
“There is now a risk of a loss of life running into the hundreds of thousands or worse,” Lowcock said.
Read: Amnesty report describes Axum massacre in Ethiopia’s Tigray
He said getting food and other humanitarian aid to all those in need is proving very difficult for aid agencies.
The United Nations and the Ethiopian government have helped about 2 million people in recent months in northern Ethiopia, mainly in government-controlled areas, he said.
But Lowcock said there are more than 1 million people in places controlled by Tigrayan opposition forces and “there have been deliberate, repeated, sustained attempts to prevent them getting food.”
In addition, there are places controlled by the Eritreans and other places controlled by militia groups where it is extremely difficult to deliver aid, he said.
“The access for aid workers is not there because of what men with guns and bombs are doing and what their political masters are telling them to do,” the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.
Read: 'Extreme urgent need': Starvation haunts Ethiopia's Tigray
Lowcock said all the blockages need to be rolled back and the Eritreans, “who are responsible for a lot of this need to withdraw,” so aid can get through to those facing famine.
“Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed needs to do what he said he was going to do and force the Eritreans to leave Ethiopia,” he said.
Lowcock said leaders of the seven major industrialized nations -- the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Italy and Canada -- need to put the humanitarian crisis and threat of widespread famine in northern Ethiopia on the agenda of their summit from June 11-13 in Cornwall, England.
“Everyone needs to understand that were there to be a colossal tragedy of the sort that happened in 1984 the consequences would reach far and last long,” he said.