The highest antibody response was seen in people receiving two doses of Pfizer vaccine, with both mixed schedules producing better responses than two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.

READ: Thailand to narrow gap for AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots in bid to curb Delta variant

READ: Vietnam to receive 1 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine weekly from July

An AstraZeneca shot followed by Pfizer produced the best T-cell responses, and also a higher antibody response than Pfizer followed by AstraZeneca.

The results were for combinations of vaccines given at four week intervals to 830 participants.

Com-COV is also looking at mixed schedules over a 12-week interval, and Snape noted that AstraZeneca’s shot was known to produce a better immune response with a longer interval between doses.

In Britain, officials have suggested an 8-week gap between vaccine doses for over-40s and a 12-week gap for other adults.

“Given the UK’s stable supply position there is no reason to change vaccine schedules at this moment in time,” England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam said, adding that the data on a 12-week interval would influence future decisions on the rollout programme.

Over 80 per cent of adults in Britain have now received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 60 per cent have had two shots.

The minister also said that restaurants could operate from 6am to 10pm starting Monday. Currently restaurants are only allowed to operate from 8am to 8pm.

He said the decision was made after taking into account the appeals from and the views of food outlet operators.

Malaysia reported 5,803 cases on Saturday.

In May, a nationwide movement control order (MCO) was re-imposed in Malaysia amid a third wave of COVID-19 cases.

Known as MCO 3.0, all economic sectors were allowed to operate during the period but cross-district and interstate travel as well as social, sports and educational activities were prohibited.

Stricter restrictions on the economic and social sectors were later announced on May 21 as community cases continued to rise.

On Jun 11, Ismail Sabri announced in a statement that the MCO, which was then due to end on Jun 14, would be extended to Jun 28.

TEL AVIV: Israel told its citizens on Friday (Jun 25) they must again wear masks indoors, 10 days after being allowed to ditch them, amid a sustained surge in COVID-19 infections attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant.

The mask requirement had been one of only a few social curbs remaining as Israel’s rapid vaccination drive kept cases down.

But infections more than quadrupled this week to 138 after outbreaks attributed to the Delta variant at two schools, prompting officials to tighten some restrictions again and urge parents to have children between 12 and 15 vaccinated.

The health ministry reimposed the mask requirement for all indoor settings except the home, and said it was also recommending masks be worn at large outdoor gatherings, specifically mentioning gay pride events taking place around Israel this weekend.

READ: Vaccinated Israelis may need to quarantine because of Delta COVID-19 variant

READ: Israel urges adolescents to get vaccinated, citing Delta COVID-19 variant

Around 55 per cent of Israel’s 9.3 million population have received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Eligibility was extended to 12- to 15-year-olds last month, but take-up in that age group has been low.

In April, Israel’s pandemic response coordinator, Nachman Ash, said Israel could achieve “herd immunity” when 75 per cent of its population were either vaccinated or naturally immune after having contracted COVID-19.

But on Thursday, allowing for the higher contagiousness of the Delta variant, he put that figure at “at least 80 per cent”.

Currently around 65 per cent of Israel’s population have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19, the health ministry says.

SYDNEY: Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), reported a double-digit rise in new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 for the third straight day as officials fight to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant.

“Since the pandemic has started, this is perhaps the scariest period that New South Wales is going through,” state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.

NSW has imposed tough restrictions in Sydney, Australia’s largest city and home to a fifth of the country’s 25 million population, with health officials saying transmission could be happening even through minimal contact with infected persons.

READ: Sydney residents banned from leaving city as COVID-19 cluster grows

NSW officials have so far resisted calls for a hard lockdown although Australia has a good record of successfully suppressing past outbreaks through snap lockdowns, tough social distancing rules and swift contact tracing.

Australia has reported just under 30,400 cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic began.

Berejiklian said despite the virus variant being very infectious, her government was “at this stage comfortable” with the current level of restrictions.

Western Australia state premier Mark McGowan has urged NSW authorities to place the state in a lockdown to “crush and kill” the virus, warning “light touch” curbs could trigger a spike in infections. Western Australia has closed its border to NSW.

NSW authorities have imposed mandatory masks in all indoor locations in Sydney, including offices, restricted residents in seven council areas in Sydney’s east and inner west from leaving the city, and limited home gatherings to five to contain the state’s first outbreak in more than a month.

The state has been effectively isolated from the rest of the country after some states, like Western Australia, slammed their borders shut while others introduced tough border rules.

Eleven new local cases were reported on Thursday (Jun 24), taking the total infections in the latest outbreak to more than 40. Thursday’s data includes six cases detected after the 8pm cut-off deadline, which will be included in Friday’s tally.

READ: Mandatory mask rules extended in Sydney as COVID-19 cluster grows

NSW state parliament on Thursday released a restricted list of politicians allowed into the chamber after state Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall tested positive for COVID-19 and Health Minister Brad Hazzard in isolation after he was deemed to be a possible close contact of a positive case.

Victoria state, which shares its border with NSW, on Thursday reported its first case likely linked to the NSW outbreak after a man in his 60s tested positive after returning home from Sydney.

It reported another case earlier in the day linked to an existing cluster.

Queensland state reported three new local cases but officials said the infections pose low risk to the community as they were in isolation when they contracted the virus.

Neighbouring New Zealand reported no new local cases on Thursday, a day after it raised the alert level in the capital Wellington over exposure concerns after an Australian tourist tested positive for COVID-19 upon returning to Sydney after a weekend visit.

Wellington moved to a ‘level 2’ alert, or one short of a lockdown, until Sunday midnight as a precaution against any potential outbreak.

Source: Reuters

JAKARTA: Generous Indonesians donating their spare change to the poor and needy are unwittingly helping finance deadly terror attacks and militant training camps in a scam that has netted big money for extremist groups.

Former radical Khairul Ghazali once spent his days visiting restaurants, convenience stores and supermarkets to drop off charity boxes, wearing an official-looking uniform to avoid suspicion.

Passers-by would slot in coins and crumpled banknotes in the belief that they were helping the impoverished, orphaned children or maybe a Palestinian aid organisation.

But Ghazali’s boxes secretly belonged to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) – the notorious network behind Indonesia’s deadliest terror attack, the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings.

“People can’t tell the difference between these and other charity boxes,” said Ghazali, 56, who now runs an Islamic boarding school and tries to deradicalise former extremists.

“The money collected is usually used to pay for terrorism.”

With little outside funding, hardline Islamist groups depend on the charity box scam to pay for operations across Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation, which has suffered a series of hotel bombings and other attacks over the years.

North Sumatra police said in March they had seized more than 500 boxes suspected to be funding pipelines for the Islamic State group and radicals linked to Al Qaeda.

The seizure, weeks before an IS-inspired married couple blew themselves up at a church on Good Friday, was the tip of the iceberg.

A JI militant arrested last year admitted that one foundation linked to the notorious terror group was running more than 20,000 boxes nationwide, police said at the time.

READ: Indonesian police say new Jemaah Islamiyah cell was recruiting, training

“MASSIVE SCALE”

There are no official figures on the number of illicit charity boxes around Indonesia, but experts believe they are in every city and region across the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago.

“This is not new but the scale of it, which is now massive, is something new,” said Jakarta-based security analyst Sidney Jones.

Most Indonesian terror groups now rely “overwhelmingly” on domestic funding to pay for day-to-day operations, she said.

Terror groups have also raised cash from member and sympathiser donations, online fundraising and laundering money through legitimate businesses, such as Indonesia’s many palm oil plantations.

“But the attacks that have happened after the Bali Bombing have been mainly funded through charity box funds,” Ghazali said.

Funds from the scam have been traced to militant training camps in ultra-conservative Aceh province and the East Indonesia Mujahideen, a radical group blamed for beheading four Christian farmers on the island of Sulawesi last month.

They are also used to help families of radicals jailed or killed by Indonesia’s counter-terror squad, and police suspect they have been used to pay for militants’ trips to Syria.

It has proved a dependable way for extremists to raise funds under the radar with one box raising about US$350 every six months or so, Ghazali said.

“It is more convenient and risk-free,” he added.

“There’s no chance of bloodshed like in a robbery.”

Ghazali spent five years in prison for masterminding a 2010 bank heist – once a staple funding source for extremist groups – that left a security guard dead.

It was around this time that terror groups began turning their back on robbery and other risky crimes in favour of more covert fundraising methods.

READ: IN FOCUS: How Indonesian prisons are battlegrounds for deradicalisation

“DANGEROUS HABIT”

Illicit boxes are usually linked to foundations backed by extremist groups or their sympathisers – and registered with authorities to appear legitimate.

They are required to report income and some revenue usually does go to charitable causes.

But that is after money is siphoned off to fund extremist operations.

“So, there are actually orphans or poor people being taken care of through these boxes, but it’s a cover up,” University of Indonesia terrorism expert Ridlwan Habib told AFP.

The cash nature of donations makes it tough for authorities to root out shady organisations.

“That’s how they can survive for years by raising money this way without being noticed,” Ghazali said.

And the scheme’s success means that extremists are likely to keep manipulating the goodwill of Indonesians, who are among the world’s most generous in terms of charitable giving.

“Indonesians like to donate money and they’ll give away 2,000 or 5,000 rupiah (15 to 35 cents) without thinking twice,” said Sofyan Tsauri, a former militant familiar with the scheme.

“But it can be a dangerous habit because you don’t know how the money is being used.”

Some in North Sumatra were shocked when police revealed the scam had been operating in the province this year.

“My intention is only to help others when I donate money,” said Medan resident Sri Mulyani.

“I never thought it would be used for terrorism.”