Australia’s reopening plans in doubt after Omicron COVID-19 cases
SYDNEY: Australia will review its plans to reopen borders to skilled migrants and students from Dec 1, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday (Nov 29), after the country reported its first cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Two people who arrived in Sydney from southern Africa tested positive on Sunday for the newly identified variant as officials ordered 14-day quarantine for citizens returning from nine African countries.
Morrison said “it is a bit too early” to reinstate two-week mandatory hotel quarantine for foreign travellers, urging people to remain calm as data had not yet fully determined the severity, transmissibility and vaccine resistance of the Omicron strain.
“So we just take this one step at a time, get the best information, make calm, sensible decisions,” Morrison told Nine News.
Omicron, dubbed a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, is potentially more contagious than previous variants. But experts do not know yet if it will cause more or less severe COVID-19 compared to other strains.
Morrison said the national security committee will meet later on Monday to assess the border reopening relaxations due from Wednesday. A meeting of leaders of all states and territories will be held by Tuesday, he said.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said he had asked the country’s immunisation advisory group to review the time frame for COVID-19 booster shots. About 87 per cent of Australia’s population above 16 years of age have been fully vaccinated, above the rates seen in the United States, Britain and many countries in Western Europe.
Health officials in New South Wales said three people who arrived on Sunday from southern Africa had tested positive for COVID-19 and that genomic sequencing was underway to check if they were infected with the Omicron strain.
The new variant has emerged as Sydney and Melbourne, Australia’s largest cities, had begun to allow vaccinated citizens entry from overseas without quarantine from Nov 1, having shut their borders for more than 18 months.
Both cities have tightened their travel rules with all international travellers ordered to quarantine for 72 hours. Other states have not opened their borders to foreign travellers yet due to varying vaccination rates.
Australia has so far recorded about 209,000 coronavirus cases and 1,997 deaths since the pandemic began.
Vaccinated travel lanes for UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia deferred as precaution against Omicron COVID-19 variant
SINGAPORE: The launch of Singapore’s vaccinated travel lane (VTL) arrangements with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will be deferred as a “precautionary move” to reduce the risk of importation and spread of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant.
VTLs for these countries, originally scheduled to launch from Dec 6, will now be deferred “until further notice”, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Sunday (Nov 28).
“This is in view of their proximity as transport nodes to the affected countries of Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe,” it said in a news release.
“We will provide more details on the commencement of these VTLs at a later date.”
It was previously announced that VTL applications for short-term visitors and long-term pass holders will open on Monday.
The Omicron variant, first discovered in South Africa, was designated by the World Health Organization as a “variant of concern” on Friday.
No cases of this variant has been detected here so far, MOH said.
Source:CNA
Vietnam reports 12,936 new Covid-19 cases and now 1,210,340 in total on Sunday (Nov 28)
HANOI, Nov. 28 (Vietnam News/ANN): Vietnam reported 12,936 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, including 12,928 locally transmitted and eight imported, according to the Ministry of Health.
Most of the community cases were detected in southern localities, including 1,454 in Ho Chi Minh City, 966 in Can Tho province, and 705 in Binh Duong province.
The infections brought the country’s total tally to 1,210,340, with 24,882 deaths, said the ministry. Nationwide, as many as 958,636 Covid-19 patients have so far recovered, up 1,712 from Saturday.
Nearly 119 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, including more than 49 million second shots, have been administered, according to the ministry.
As of Sunday, the country has registered over 1.2 million locally transmitted Covid-19 cases since the start of the current wave in late April, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Health also reported on Sunday that 1,712 more patients had now fully recovered from Covid-19, bringing the total number of people given the all-clear to 958,636.
There are currently 6,096 patients in a serious condition in hospital; nine are on life support (ECMO).
Vietnam has so far administered more than 118.7 million doses of vaccines. More than 49 million citizens are now fully inoculated. –
Source: Vietnam News/ANN
Former Cambodian PM dies in France, says minister
PHNOM PENH, Nov 28 (AFP): Former Cambodian prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh died in France on Sunday, the country’s information minister announced on Facebook.
The prince was elected prime minister in 1993 after years of civil war only to be ousted in a bloody coup in 1997 led by forces loyal to current strongman ruler Hun Sen.
Ranariddh, who was 77, died on Sunday morning following an illness, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith wrote on Facebook, citing a palace official.
In a condolence letter sent to Ranariddh’s wife, Hun Sen said his death meant “the loss of an outstanding royal dignitary who loved the nation, religion and king.”
The half-brother of current King Norodom Sihamoni, Ranariddh was the most politically ambitious of Cambodia’s royals but he endured something of a rollercoaster career.
He won Cambodia’s UN-sponsored election in 1993 at the head of the royalist Funcinpec party but was forced to accept Hun Sen as co-prime minister.
Hun Sen deposed him in a coup four years later and Ranariddh’s reputation suffered further blows over corruption allegations.
He was pardoned in 2008 over a conviction for fraud which saw him ejected from the Funcinpec party, and made two more abortive political comebacks.
In 2015, he made an unexpected alliance with the man who toppled him, returning to Funcinpec in order to work with Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party.
Personal tragedy followed three years later when his second wife Ouk Phalla, 39, was killed in a head-on car crash while on the election campaign trail with him.
Source: TheStar – AFP
Chinese police capture North Korean convict on the run for over 40 days
This photo taken on August 6, 2019 shows Chinese paramilitary police officers taking part in a drill in Shenzhen in China’s southern Guangdong province, across the border from Hong Kong. – Another video has emerged of anti-riot drills in the Chinese mainland, raising questions of a possible intervention in the ongoing civil unrest in Hong Kong. (Photo by STR/ AFP)/ China OUT
BEIJING, Nov 28, 2021 (AFP): Chinese police have captured a North Korean prisoner who staged a daring escape from jail in October and had been on the run for more than 40 days, authorities said Sunday.
Officials in northeast China were offering a $23,000 bounty for the recapture of the escapee, in a manhunt that has sparked massive interest on social media.
The 39-year-old prisoner, identified by the Chinese name Zhu Xianjian, was jailed in China after fleeing reclusive North Korea.
He escaped the facility in Jilin city by scaling a shed and vaulting the outer wall on October 18, and managed to stay at large before being captured Sunday.
A one-line statement from Jilin police said he had been reprimanded at about 10:00 am Sunday morning, without giving more details.
Videos shared by state-run Beijing News showed an emaciated-looking man being carried by several officers, with a photograph of him then lying on the ground with his hands behind his back.
Zhu was convicted of illegal entry into China, larceny and robbery, and was due for release and deportation back to the North in 2023, prompting online speculation that he broke out to avoid being sent back.
He illegally crossed a river separating North Korea from China in 2013. He then raided several houses in a nearby village, stealing money, mobile phones and clothes, court records show.
He also stabbed an elderly woman who discovered him and tried to flee in a taxi before being arrested by police.
Human Rights Watch said in a July report that at least 1,100 North Koreans are detained in China, Pyongyang’s main ally and economic benefactor.
Many face deportation back to their home country upon release, where they may suffer torture and other rights violations, according to the NGO.
Source: TheStar – AFP
Urgent work needs to be done to understand new Covid-19 variant Omicron, says Singapore
SINGAPORE, Nov 28 (The Straits Times/ANN): A lot of urgent work needs to be done to further understand the new coronavirus variant Omicron, said the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) on Sunday (Nov 28).
It added that although Omicron emerged recently, the variant should still be detected on a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
In response to queries from The Straits Times, an NCID spokesman said: “There remains a lot of urgent work to be done to further understand this variant.
“This includes transmissibility, diagnostics, clinical manifestations, disease severity, acquired immunity from vaccine or natural infection and others.”
The spokesman added that any positive cases should be detected by tests that are now being used.
He added that NCID will continue to monitor and collaborate internationally to further its understanding of this new variant of concern.
Omicron, or the B.1.1.529 strain of the coronavirus, was marked a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday.
Seen as likely more contagious, the latest Covid-19 strain was first detected in South Africa on Nov 11, and has also been found in Botswana and Hong Kong.
Singapore and other countries in recent days have restricted travel from southern Africa amid the emergence of the Omicron strain. – The Straits Times
Source: TheStar /ANN
Malaysia PM Ismail Sabri to make first official visit to Singapore on Monday, witness land VTL launch
SINGAPORE: Malaysia Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob will make his first official visit to Singapore on Monday (Nov 29) and jointly witness the launch of the land vaccinated travel lane (VTL) at the Causeway that links both countries.
It will be the first official visit by a Malaysia prime minister to Singapore in more than three years, since former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad visited in November 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global travel.
Mr Ismail Sabri will witness the VTL launch with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Sunday, calling the launch a “significant step towards the restoration of bilateral and regional connectivity”.
Singapore will also start an air VTL with Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Monday, with six airlines providing designated VTL flights.
Following the launch, Mr Ismail Sabri will attend a welcome ceremony at the Istana, call on President Halimah Yacob and meet Mr Lee.
Mr Lee will host an official lunch in honour of Mr Ismail Sabri, MFA said, adding that the Malaysia prime minister will have a new orchid hybrid named after him during a ceremony at the Istana.
Mr Ismail Sabri will be accompanied by Senior Minister of International Trade and Industry Mohamed Azmin Ali, Minister of Foreign Affairs Saifuddin Abdullah, Minister of Transport Wee Ka Siong, Johor Chief Minister Hasni Mohammad, and senior officials.
Travellers on the land VTL must use designated bus services and have to be citizens, permanent residents or long-term pass holders of the country they are entering.
The requirement gives priority to those working in either country and hoping to reunite with their families back home after months of separation.
Some experienced long waits and ticketing issues when bus bookings opened at 8am on Thursday, although the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said on Thursday night that tickets were still available for the first 30 days of travel.
On Sunday, MTI announced that travellers entering Singapore from Malaysia through the land VTL must take an additional on-arrival antigen rapid test (ART) to reduce the risk of spreading the new B.1.1.529 coronavirus variant to Singapore.
Previously, these travellers only needed to produce a negative ART or polymerase chain reaction test within two days before departure for Singapore.
Countries have raced to contain the new variant, named Omicron, amid reports it is potentially more dangerous than the current dominant Delta variant that has fuelled relentless waves of infection worldwide.
Mr Lee said at the People’s Action Party convention on Sunday that Singapore is tracking the Omicron variant very closely and could be forced to “take a few steps back again” in the fight against COVID-19.
Covid-19 deaths (Nov 16): 53 reported fatalities, uptick in active cases
COVID-19 | The Health Ministry’s Github data repository reported 53 Covid-19 new deaths yesterday (Nov 15), bringing death toll to 29,729.
Malaysia has the highest number of deaths per capita in the Asean and East Asian regions, with 901 deaths per one million population.
One in five of the new deaths involved people who died before they sought medical help.
Sarawak reported the most deaths (12) followed by Terengganu (9), Sabah (8), Johor (5), Selangor (5), Kelantan (4), Kedah (3), Pahang (3), Negeri Sembilan (2), Perak (1) and Perlis (1).
No new deaths were reported in Malacca, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya.
According to the CovidNow website, Sarawak saw the highest deaths per million people over the past two weeks followed by Terengganu and Kelantan.
Only one of the 53 deaths reported yesterday happened more than a week ago, which is usually due to delays in data reporting.
An average of 62 Covid-19 deaths were reported daily in the last 30 days compared to the seven-day average of 54, indicating a downtrend.
To date, 914 Covid-19 deaths have been reported this month.
A total of 2,704 Covid-19 deaths were reported in October, 9,680 in September, 7,642 in August and 3,858 in July.
As of yesterday, there were 65,956 active Covid-19 cases. This is an increase of 6.8 percent from the 61,760 active infections a week ago.
Compared to 30 days ago, the number of active cases has fallen by 31.8 percent from 96,663.
Covid-19 (Nov 15): 5,143 cases, Klang Valley hospitalisation up
COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported 5,143 new Covid-19 cases today, while the hospitalisation of Covid-19 patients is creeping up.
Daily hospital admission for Covid-19 patients rose by 9.5 percent over the last seven days compared to the preceding week.
Hospitalisation in the Klang Valley is up 20 percent. Other regions which saw rising hospitalisation rates are Malacca, Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Perak and Johor.
Covid-19 hospital beds utilisation is above 80 percent in Terengganu and Kelantan. However, utilisation rates are dynamic as more parts of a hospital can be repurposed for Covid-19 patients when necessary.
The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care is 1.5 lower over the past week compared to the previous week. There are currently 526 patients in Covid-19 ICU of which 250 are intubated.
The number of new cases for each state will only be published after midnight. The following is the breakdown for yesterday (Nov 14), which saw 5,162 new cases reported:
Selangor (1,266)
Kelantan (499)
Sabah (442)
Johor (432)
Kedah (366)
Penang (325)
Pahang (313)
Sarawak (299)
Kuala Lumpur (278)
Perak (258)
Malacca (216)
Terengganu (200)
Negeri Sembilan (174)
Putrajaya (66)
Labuan (17)
Perlis (11)
Clusters
The Health Ministry is currently monitoring 250 active Covid-19 clusters, down 20.4 percent from a week ago.
Active Covid-19 clusters have been dropping rapidly since October.
The Health Ministry did not report any new clusters today.
Source:Malaysiakini
Covid-19 deaths (Nov 15): 45 reported fatalities, total at 29,676
COVID-19 | The Health Ministry’s Github data repository reported a total of 45 Covid-19 fatalities yesterday (Nov 14), bringing the cumulative death toll to 29,676.
Malaysia has the highest number of deaths per capita in the Asean and East Asian regions, with 901 deaths per one million population.
From the newly reported deaths yesterday, 26.7 percent or 12 died before they could receive treatment at a hospital.
Kedah recorded the highest number of new deaths at eight, making up 17.8 percent of the newly reported fatalities.
The remaining deaths were in Penang (7), Selangor (7), Perak (4), Sarawak (4), Kelantan (3), Sabah (3), Terengganu (3), Malacca (2), Kuala Lumpur (2), Johor (1) and Negeri Sembilan (1).
No new deaths were reported in Pahang, Perlis, Labuan and Putrajaya.
A total of 43 out of the 45 reported deaths or 95.6 percent occurred in the last seven days.
The remaining deaths occurred more than a week ago, but were only recorded yesterday due to delays in data reporting.
An average of 64 Covid-19 deaths was reported daily in the last 30 days, compared to the seven-day average of 55, which indicates a downtrend.
To date, 861 Covid-19 deaths have been reported this month.
As of yesterday, there were 65,417 active Covid-19 cases. This is an increase of 1.2 percent from the 64,623 active infections a week ago.
Compared to 30 days ago, the number of active cases has fallen by 33.8 percent from 98,773.
Cluster-linked infections
The Health Ministry’s post-midnight update also provided further insights into the new Covid-19 infections yesterday.
From the 5,162 new cases yesterday, a total of 106 of them could be traced to ongoing Covid-19 clusters.
From the cluster-linked cases, 70 (66 percent) were from workplaces while 28 (26.4 percent) were from high-risk groups such as old folks homes.
Another five (4.7 percent) were from clusters linked to education institutions.
The remaining cases were traced to clusters related to and community transmissions (three – 2.8 percent).
Source:Malaysiakini
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