The European Union and China on Tuesday moved closer to a political standoff over the COVID-19 crisis, with Beijing vehemently rejecting travel restrictions some EU nations have started to impose that could well be expanded in coming days. An EU offer of help, including vaccine donations, was also as good as slapped down, with Beijing insisting the situation was “under control” and medical provisions “in adequate supply,” government spokesperson Mao Ning said. And as the 27-nation bloc was moving closer to imposing some sort of restrictions on travelers from China, Beijing clearly laid out what to expect in return. “We are firmly opposed to attempts to manipulate the COVID measures for political purposes and will take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity,” Mao said. Still, the EU seemed bent on taking some sort of joint action to ensure incoming passengers from China would not transmit any potential new variants on to the continent. “Travelers from China need to be prepared for decisions being taken at short notice,” Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, warned in a statement. Several member nations announced individual efforts over the past week. At the same time, the EU’s European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control insisted that the situation in China didn’t pose an immediate overall health threat. “The variants circulating in China are already circulating in the EU, and as such are not challenging for the immune response” of EU citizens, it said in its latest impact study published Tuesday. Other scientists have also said limits on travel would have little impact on containing the disease, but they also insisted on the value of looking for potential variants not in Europe at the moment. Read more: Beijing threatens response to ‘unacceptable’ virus measures Yet fearful not to be caught unawares like at the outset of the global pandemic in early 2020, medical experts from EU member states were already preparing potential action to be taken up by an Integrated Political Crisis Response meeting on Wednesday, where measure like EU-wide entry requirements could be decided. Over the past week, EU nations reacted in a chaotic cascade of national measures to the crisis in China, disregarding an earlier commitment to act in unity before anything else. Italy was the first EU member in requiring coronavirus tests for airline passengers coming from China, but several others have said such measures might not be the best option to protect local populations since new variants now coming from China have already been around in Europe, often for many months. France, Spain and Italy have already announced independent measures to implement tougher COVID-19 rules for passengers arriving from China. France’s government is requiring negative tests, and is urging French citizens to avoid nonessential travel to China. France is also reintroducing mask requirements on flights from China to France. Spain’s government said it would require all air passengers coming from China to have negative tests or proof of vaccination. Read more: China to resume issuing passports, visas as virus curbs ease The United States announced new COVID-19 testing requirements Wednesday for all travelers from China, joining some Asian nations that had imposed restrictions because of a surge of infections.

The Covid pandemic will "go on for a year longer than it needs to" because poorer countries are not getting the vaccines they need, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. Dr Bruce Aylward, senior leader at the WHO, said it meant the Covid crisis could "easily drag on deep into 2022", reports BBC. Less than 5% of Africa's population have been vaccinated, compared to 40% on most other continents. The UK has delivered more than 10 million vaccines to countries in need. Read:Mosquirix: WHO Recommends World's First Malaria Vaccine RTS,S It has pledged a total of 100 million. Dr Aylward appealed to wealthy countries to give up their places in the queue for vaccines in order that pharmaceutical companies can prioritise the lowest-income countries instead. He said wealthy countries needed to "stocktake" where they were with their donation commitments made at summits such as the G7 meeting in St Ives this summer. "I can tell you we're not on track" he said. "We really need to speed it up or you know what? This pandemic is going to go on for a year longer than it needs to." The People's Vaccine - an alliance of charities - has released new figures suggesting just one in seven of the doses promised by pharmaceutical companies and wealthy countries are actually reaching their destinations in poorer countries. The vast majority of Covid vaccines have been given in high-income or upper middle-income countries. Africa accounts for just 2.6% of doses administered globally. Read:World misses most 2020 mental health targets: WHO The group of charities, which includes Oxfam and UNAids, also criticised Canada and the UK for procuring vaccines for their own populations via Covax, the UN-backed global programme to distribute vaccines fairly. Official figures show that earlier this year the UK received 539,370 Pfizer doses while Canada took just under a million AstraZeneca doses. The original idea behind Covax was that all countries would be able to acquire vaccines from its pool, including wealthy ones. But most G7 countries decided to hold back once they started making their own one-to-one deals with pharmaceutical companies. Oxfam's Global Health Adviser, Rohit Malpani, acknowledged that Canada and the UK were technically entitled to get vaccines via this route having paid into the Covax mechanism, but he said it was still "morally indefensible" given that they had both obtained millions of doses through their own bilateral agreements. Read: WHO okays vaccination of those below 18 in Bangladesh: Health Minister "They should not have been acquiring these doses from Covax," he said. "It's nothing better than double-dipping and means that poorer countries which are already at the back of the queue, will end up waiting longer." The UK government pointed out it was one of the countries which had "kick-started" Covax last year with a donation of £548m. The Canadian government was keen to stress that it had now ceased to use Covax vaccines. The country's International Development Minister, Karina Gould, said: "As soon as it became clear that the supply we had secured through our bilateral deals would be sufficient for the Canadian population, we pivoted the doses which we had procured from Covax back to Covax, so they could be redistributed to developing countries." Covax originally aimed to deliver two billion doses of vaccines by the end of this year, but so far it has shipped 371m doses.

An environment-friendly, climate-tolerant development plan is needed to tide over the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic the world over, Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has said. She was addressing the 'Green Approach to Covid-19 Recovery' session of the pre-COP 26 parliamentary meeting in Rome Friday. The session was organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Italian Parliament. Citing Bangladesh's example, the Speaker said that the country's government focused on poverty-free, climate-tolerant and sustainable development initiatives to overcome the Covid-19 crisis.  READ: Outgoing UNFPA country representative meets Speaker Dr Shirin "The recovery of the economy is not possible without inclusive and ambitious planning. Unplanned investments and measures in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic could degrade the environment and cause climate damage by hampering the ongoing development," she said. The Speaker said Bangladesh has given priority to inclusive green growth in the macroeconomic framework in the Eighth Five-Year Plan as a strategy to recover from Covid-19. "Bangladesh is committed to developing the economy through the use of sustainable and renewable energy, with an emphasis on low-carbon practices.  READ: Speaker Shirin Sharmin visits mazars in Sylhet "About 6.2 million solar home systems have already been installed in off-grid rural areas of Bangladesh, ensuring the use of electricity by the people in those areas. The government has emphasised the use of mini grid solar irrigation and rooftop solar systems," Dr Shirin said. The meeting was chaired by John Francis McPhail, Speaker of the House of Lords.

The government aims at vaccinating two crore people against Covid by next month, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Tuesday. The minister said this at a virtual programme on the occasion of the National Mourning Day, held at Manikganj Government Boys High School ground in Manikganj district. “We have tried our best to keep people well during the pandemic,” he said. READ: Vaccine sharing: Dhaka wants EU to be more generous

Bangladesh added 197 fatalities to its national tally on Friday as horrific Covid hospitalisations and deaths continue to soar. The country is averaging 200-plus single-day fatalities for the last three weeks. After weathering the first wave of the virus, Bangladesh is now yet to see any tangible signs that it is turning the corner. However, the country is now reporting 10,602 new cases on average each day – 73% of the peak. Bangladesh recorded 8,465 new cases Friday after testing 40,641 samples, down from 12,606 logged a week earlier on August 6. The country reported the highest daily Covid-19 fatality number – 264 – on August 5 and 10, and 16,230 infections on July 28. Read: Dhaka to receive 10 lakh Sinopharm vaccine doses shortly Bangladesh has been experiencing a surge of Covid-related caseloads and deaths since June 2021. 

As the ruthless Delta variant keeps spreading like wildfire, Bangladesh added 248 fatalities to its national tally Friday, up from 212 logged a week earlier. The country has been reporting over 200 single-day fatalities for the last two weeks as it races to head off a surge in Covid-19 cases driven by the unrelenting Delta variant. After weathering the first wave of the virus, Bangladesh's health services are now stretched dangerously thin. The Covid-19 infections are on the upswing, with 13,771 – 95% of the peak – new cases reported on average each day. Bangladesh recorded 12,606 new cases on Friday after testing 48,015 samples, down from 13,862 logged a week earlier on July 30. Read: Bangladesh ready to kick off massive vaccination drive Saturday: DGHS DG The country reported the highest daily Covid-19 fatality of 264 on August 5 and 16,230 infections on July 28.

As health authorities scramble to prevent the spread of the Delta variant, Bangladesh added 218 fatalities to its national tally on Saturday. The country registered over 200 single-day fatalities for the last six days as it is fighting a horrific wave of the pandemic that overwhelmed its healthcare systems. The country recorded 9,369 new cases on Saturday after testing 30,980 samples, and reported the highest daily Covid-19 fatality number – 258 – on July 27 and 16,230 infections the next day, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). There have been 1,249,484 positive cases and 20,685 coronavirus-related deaths here since the pandemic began, the DGHS said. Meanwhile, the daily test positivity rate took a negligible fall to 30.24% from Friday’s 30.77 %, while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate. However, the recovery rate rose to 86.29% from the previous day’s 85.81 % and the case fatality rate to 1.66% from last day’s 1.65 %. Read: No decision yet on lockdown extension: Farhad As many as 14,017 patients recovered from the fatal disease in the 24-hour period. Among the latest deaths, the highest 67 deaths were recorded in Dhaka division followed by 55 in Chattogram, 27 in Khulna, 22 in Rajshahi, 16 in Rangpur, 12 in Mymensingh, 10 in Barishal, and nine in Sylhet divisions.   Of them, 134 were men and 84 women.  Among them, one was between 0-10 years of age, six between 21-30, 17 between 31-40, 37 between 41-50, 37 between 51-60, 66 between 61-70, 33 between 71-80, 15 between 81-90, four between 91-100 and two over 100 years old. Astrazeneca’s fresh rollout On a positive note, Bangladesh will resume vaccination with Astrazeneca shots within the next few days, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque. “We’ll resume vaccination with Astrazeneca jabs within the next 2-1 days. Those who failed to take the second dose after getting the first one will be able to get it now,” he said. He said the government has an overall stock of 2 crore 60 lakh vaccine doses now. Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday received the second consignment of AstraZeneca vaccine doses from Japan under the COVAX facility. Read: Vaccination with Astrazeneca jabs in Bangladesh to resume within days The second consignment contains 7,81,320 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine. A cargo flight of Cathay Pacific that carried the vaccine doses from Japan landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 3:15 pm. The third consignment that will contain 6,16,780 doses of the vaccine is scheduled to arrive here on August 3.

As Bangladesh races to head off a surge in Covid-19 cases driven by the Delta variant, the country added 212 fatalities to its national tally on Friday, up from 166 logged a week earlier. The country has been shattering the records of daily cases and deaths almost every other day, reporting over 200 single-day fatalities for the last six days as it tries to prevent the spread of the Delta variant.  The rapid rise in cases and fatalities in July is enough to set off alarm bells, showing the pandemic is far from slowing down in Bangladesh. The Covid-19 infections are at their peak now, with 12,293 new cases reported on average each day, plunging the country into uncertainty. As the worst days of the pandemic are not over, Bangladesh recorded 13,862 new cases on Friday after testing 45,044 samples, up from 6,364 logged a week earlier on 23 July.

Urging the government to gear up the mass vaccination drive to return to normalcy, Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader on Friday said lockdown is not a solution to the current Covid crisis in Bangladesh. “Lockdown and curfew are not a solution to the current (Covid) situation in our country. The mass vaccination drive needs to be strengthened further …. the public life will be normal only with that,” he said in a statement. The Jatiya Party chief called upon the government to set up field hospitals with the required number of doctors and health workers in the virus-hit areas to ensure proper treatment of people. “It’ll help protect people’s lives and ease their sufferings.” Also read: GM Quader demands probe into vaccine, Covid test costs He said a lockdown is in force now in the country, but it is not possible to keep people at home. "Lockdown won’t be successful in Bangladesh given our reality.” Quoting the findings of different studies, Quader said around 2.5 crore people of the country have come down below the poverty line afresh in the one year of corona pandemic alongside previous 3.5 poor people. “Most of the poor people don’t have food at home and money in their pockets to buy medicines and baby food.  So, it’s not possible to keep such people at home by enforcing a lockdown,” he observed. Also read: Much of health sector allocation being looted: GM Quader The Jatiya Party chairman said the assistance being provided by the government is too inadequate while a large part of it is not reaching the real poor. “So, in the current situation of our country, any lockdown and curfew can’t give any solution to the crisis.” Amid the lockdown, he said, around 15,000 people are being infected daily with the coronavirus and over 200 deaths are being reported. GM Quader said the infections and mortality are on the rise and there is no visible sign of decline in the virus infection. “So, the Covid situation is not improving with the lockdown, but it has increased the misery of the working people several times. Every day, the number of poor people is rising.”

As the highly transmissible Delta variant keeps sweeping through the country, Bangladesh logged off 237 Coronavirus-related deaths in 24 hours till Wednesday morning, taking the death toll to 20,016. The country has been seeing nearly 200 deaths a day for the past two weeks, and shattered the records of daily cases and deaths almost every other day. Besides, 16,230 more people came out Covid positive after the test of 53,877  samples, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). This is the highest-ever single-day transmission after the country saw the largest-ever 15,192 Covid cases on Monday. Also read: Covid claims 31 more lives in Khulna division