/2021

Covid Updates: South Africa Identifies New Variant - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/11/25/world/covid-vaccine-boosters-mandates

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/11/25/multimedia/25virus-briefing-botswana-promo/25virus-briefing-botswana-facebookJumbo.jpg

Covid Updates: South Africa Identifies New Variant
Britain, Israel and Singapore have restricted travel from the region. South African scientists will meet with W.H.O. experts on Friday.Scientists in South Africa on Thursday identified a concerning new coronavirus variant with mutations that one scientist said marked a “big jump in evolution,” prompting several countries to quickly limit travel from the region. Within hours, Britain, Israel and Singapore had restricted travel from South Africa and some neighboring countries, citing the threat of the new variant. By Friday, markets were down in Japan in response to the discovery, and officials in Australia and in New Zealand said that they were monitoring the new variant closely.The European Commission will also propose restricting air travel to the bloc from southern Africa based on concerns over the variant, Ursula von der Leyen, the commission’s president, said in a Twitter post on Friday. She referred to it by its scientific name, B.1.1.529. In the past two days, scientists detected the variant after observing an increase in infections in South Africa’s economic hub surrounding Johannesburg. So far, 22 positive cases have been identified in the country, according to South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. Two cases were detected in Hong Kong, both apparently linked to someone who had traveled from South Africa. No cases have been detected yet in Britain.
A number of variants have emerged since the onset of the pandemic. One underlying concern about them is whether they will stymie the fight against the virus or limit the effectiveness of vaccines. South African scientists will meet with the World Health Organization technical team on Friday to discuss the new variant, and the authorities will assign it a letter of the Greek alphabet.But governments are not waiting to impose restrictions. By Thursday evening, Britain had banned flights from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe, starting at noon local time on Friday. The six nations will be added to the country’s red list, which would require British travelers coming from those nations to quarantine on arrival.
“More data is needed but we’re taking precautions now,” Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said on Twitter.In a statement posted Friday on a government website, South Africa said it would urge Britain to reconsider the measure, saying: “The U.K.’s decision to temporarily ban South Africans from entering the U.K. seems to have been rushed, as even the World Health Organization is yet to advise on the next steps.”Within a few hours, officials from Israel and Singapore had announced that they, too, would add the same countries to their red lists, along with Mozambique. In December 2020, South Africa was the first nation to report the appearance of the Beta variant, which has now spread to nearly 70 countries. Scientists have been concerned that some clinical trials have shown that vaccines offer less protection against the Beta variant. Since then, the more virulent and aggressive Delta variant has spread all over the world and is believed to be fueling the latest surge in cases.The variant has also been identified in Botswana. The country’s health ministry confirmed in a statement that four cases of the new variant were detected in people who were all fully vaccinated. All four were tested before their planned travel.
With over 1,200 new infections, South Africa’s daily infection rate is much lower than in Germany, where new cases are driving a wave. However, the density of mutations on this new variant raises fears that it could be highly contagious, leading scientists to sound the alarm early.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#sante#variant#afriquedusud#lesotho#grandebretagne#israel#singapour#circulation#frontiere

Les #Etats-Unis enverront [de la matière première pour la fabrication de #vaccins contre le #Covid-19] en #Inde
▻https://www.zonebourse.com/actualite-bourse/Coronavirus-Les-Etats-Unis-enverront-du-materiel-medical-en-Inde--330629

25 avril (Reuters) - Les Etats-Unis fourniront immédiatement de la matière première pour la fabrication de vaccins contre le Covid-19, des équipements médicaux et du matériel de protection afin d’aider l’Inde à répondre à l’augmentation massive de cas de coronavirus, a annoncé dimanche la Maison Blanche.

U.S. to send vaccine materials and other supplies to hard-hit India, officials say.
▻https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/25/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases#us-vaccines-india-covid

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/04/25/world/25virus-briefing-india1/25virus-briefing-india1-facebookJumbo.jpg

Under pressure from vaccine makers in India who say they need supplies to combat a surge in coronavirus cases, the Biden administration said on Sunday that it had partially lifted a ban against the export of raw materials needed to make vaccines.

[...]

Asked on Thursday why America would not lift its ban on exporting raw materials, Ned Price, a State Department spokesman, told reporters that “the United States first and foremost is engaged in an ambitious and effective and, so far, successful effort to vaccinate the American people.”

The resistance was met with criticism from Indian politicians and health experts.

“By stockpiling vaccines & blocking the export of crucial raw materials needed for vaccine production, the United States is undermining the strategic Indo-US partnership,” Milind Deora, a politician from Mumbai, one of the hardest-hit cities, said on Twitter.

The statement on Sunday marked a change in approach: [...]

Covid-19: Australia and New Zealand will open a travel bubble starting April 19. - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/05/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases

Australia and New Zealand will open a travel bubble starting April 19.
The Australia-New Zealand travel bubble is expected to deliver a boost to tourism and to families that have been separated by strict border closures.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand announced on Tuesday that her nation would establish a travel bubble with Australia, allowing travelers to move between the countries without needing to quarantine for the first time since the pandemic began.The bubble, which will open just before midnight on April 19, is expected to deliver a boost to tourism and to families that have been separated since both countries enacted strict border closures and lockdown measures that have all but eliminated local transmission of the coronavirus.The announcement came after months of negotiations and setbacks, as Australia battled small outbreaks and officials in both countries weighed testing requirements and other safety protocols.
“The director general of health considers the risk of transmission of Covid-19 from Australia to New Zealand is low and that quarantine-free travel is safe to commence,” Ms. Ardern said at a news conference.
Since last year, Australia has permitted travelers from New Zealand to bypass its hotel quarantine requirements. New Zealand’s decision to reciprocate makes the two countries among the first places in the world to set up such a bubble, following a similar announcement last week by Taiwan and the Pacific island nation of Palau.Australians flying to New Zealand will be required to have spent the previous 14 days in Australia, to wear a mask on the plane and, if possible, to use New Zealand’s Covid-19 contact tracing app. In the event of an outbreak in Australia, New Zealand could impose additional restrictions, including shutting down travel to a particular Australian state or imposing quarantine requirements, Ms. Ardern said.
She warned that the new requirements would not necessarily free up many spaces in New Zealand’s overwhelmed hotel quarantine system, which has a weekslong backlog for New Zealanders wishing to book a space to return home. Of the roughly 1,000 slots that would now become available every two weeks, around half would be set aside as a contingency measure, while most of the others would not be appropriate for travelers from higher-risk countries, Ms. Ardern said.Before New Zealand closed its borders to international visitors in March 2020, its tourism industry employed nearly 230,000 people and contributed 41.9 billion New Zealand dollars ($30.2 billion) to economic output, according to the country’s tourism board. Most of the roughly 3.8 million foreign tourists who visited New Zealand over a 12-month period between 2018 and 2019 came from Australia.Ms. Ardern encouraged Australians to visit New Zealand’s ski areas, and said she would be conducting interviews with Australian media outlets this week to promote New Zealand as a tourism destination.The bubble would also make it easier for the more than 500,000 New Zealanders who live in Australia to visit their families. “It is ultimately a change of scene that so many have been looking for,” Ms. Ardern said, addressing Australians. “You may not have been in long periods of lockdown, but you haven’t had the option. Now you have the option, come and see us.”

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#australie#nouvellezelande#sante#bulledevoyage#tourisme#economie#retour

Novavax’s Vaccine Works Well Except on Variant First Found in South Africa - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/28/world/covid-19-coronavirus

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/01/27/world/28virus-briefing-eu-vaccine-lede/27virus-briefing-eu-rollout-facebookJumbo.jpg

China cancels Lunar New Year celebrations for millions of migrants.
Hankou Station in Wuhan, China, last week. A year ago, the station was among the first places to be closed after the coronavirus outbreak.
Hankou Station in Wuhan, China, last week. A year ago, the station was among the first places to be closed after the coronavirus Every winter, Pang Qingguo, a fruit seller in northern China, makes the 800-mile trip to his ancestral home to celebrate the Lunar New Year, the biggest holiday of the year in China, with his family.The coronavirus ruined the festivities last year, stranding Mr. Pang in the northern city of Tangshan as many Chinese cities imposed lockdowns. Now, as China confronts a resurgence of the virus, the pandemic is set to spoil the holiday again, with the authorities announcing onerous quarantine and testing rules to dissuade migrant workers like Mr. Pang from traveling for the new year, which begins this year on Feb. 12.
Mr. Pang, who describes his home in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang as the “happiest place,” is anguished by the rules. He has taken to social media in recent days to express frustration about his situation and post photographs of his 7-year-old daughter, whom he has not seen in more than a year. “Society is so cruel,” he wrote in one post.
Many of China’s roughly 300 million migrant workers face a similar reality as the government tries to avoid a surge in cases during what is typically the busiest travel season of the year. The authorities have demanded that people visiting rural areas during the holiday spend two weeks in quarantine and pay for their own coronavirus tests. Many migrants, who endure grueling jobs for meager wages in big cities, say those restrictions make it impossible to travel.The rollout of the rules has drawn widespread criticism in China, with many people calling the approach unfair to migrant workers, who have long been treated as second-class citizens under China’s strict household registration system. The workers have been among the most deeply affected by the pandemic, as the authorities have carried out scattered lockdowns to fight the virus and employers have reduced hours and pay.In a regular year, hundreds of millions of people travel by plane, train and car to be with their families for the Lunar New Year. The holiday, which typically includes big festive banquets and fireworks, is normally the only time that many workers can return to their hometowns to see loved ones. This year, many are making plans to spend the holiday alone.
China has added restrictions, offered incentives and appealed to a sense of filial and national responsibility to urge people not to travel.

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#sante#religion#deplacement#quarantaine#test#travailleurmigrant

Covid-19: Over Two Million Around the World Have Died From the Virus - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/15/world/covid19-coronavirus

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/01/15/world/15virus-briefing-2-million-deaths-worldwide2/merlin_182211213_df7ba52b-25f1-47fd-9cfd-e0458aea31d4-facebookJumbo.jpg

As India prepares to begin an ambitious coronavirus vaccination program this weekend, more than 700,000 Hindu pilgrims gathered to take a dip in the Ganges River on Thursday, the start of the Kumbh Mela, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world.The faithful who traveled to Haridwar, the holy town at the foothills of the Himalayas that is the site of this year’s pilgrimage, said a dip in the freezing waters will cleanse them of their sins and provide blessings that extend through several generations.
The authorities said that about 1,000 people had been fined for not wearing masks or maintaining social distance, but Sanjay Gunjyal, a police official monitoring the crowd, acknowledged the difficulty of trying to enforce the rules. “In a limited space, crowd management and maintaining social distancing is extremely difficult,” he said.India has recorded at least 10.5 million coronavirus cases — the world’s second-highest total after that of the United States — although the South Asian nation’s outbreak is widely believed to be worse than the official figures suggest.At least 2,500 security personnel were stationed along the river, where Covid-19 testing centers were set up and attendees’ fevers were being checked.“Their belief system was paramount and not the fear to catch Covid,” said Manoj Singh Negi, a spokesman for the police department monitoring the event. “That they got to touch the holy waters was the overriding sentiment.”

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#inde#sante#religion#pelerinage#migrationinterne

The facial-recognition app Clearview sees a spike in use after Capitol attack.
▻https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/09/us/trump-biden#facial-recognition-clearview-capitol

After the Capitol riot, Clearview AI, a facial-recognition app used by law enforcement, has seen a spike in use, said the company’s chief executive, Hoan Ton-That.

“There was a 26 percent increase of searches over our usual weekday search volume,” Mr. Ton-That said.

There are ample online photos and videos of rioters, many unmasked, breaching the Capitol. The F.B.I. has posted the faces of dozens of them and has requested assistance identifying them. Local police departments around the country are answering their call.

“We are poring over whatever images or videos are available from whatever sites we can get our hands on,” said Armando Aguilar, assistant chief at the Miami Police Department, who oversees investigations.

Two detectives in the department’s Real Time Crime Center are using Clearview to try to identify rioters and are sending the potential matches to the F.B.I.’s Joint Terrorism Task Force office in Miami. They made one potential match within their first hour of searching.

“This is the greatest threat we’ve faced in my lifetime,” Mr. Aguilar said. “The peaceful transition of power is foundational to our republic.”

Traditional facial recognition tools used by law enforcement depend on databases containing government-provided photos, such as driver’s license photos and mug shots. But Clearview, which is used by over 2,400 law enforcement agencies, according to the company, relies instead on a database of more than 3 billion photos collected from social media networks and other public websites. When an officer runs a search, the app provides links to sites on the web where the person’s face has appeared.

In part because of its effectiveness, Clearview has become controversial. After The New York Times revealed its existence and widespread use last year, lawmakers and social media companies tried to curtail its operations, fearing that its facial-recognition capabilities could pave the way for a dystopian future.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the Oxford Police Department in Alabama is also using Clearview to identify Capitol riot suspects and is sending information to the F.B.I. Neither the Oxford Police Department nor the F.B.I. has responded to requests for comment.

Facial recognition is not a perfect tool. Law enforcement says that it uses facial recognition only as a clue in an investigation and would not charge someone based on that alone, though that has happened in the past.

When asked if Clearview had performed any searches itself, Mr. Ton-That demurred.

“Some people think we should be, but that’s really not our job. We’re a technology company and provider,” he said. “We’re not vigilantes.”

— Kashmir Hill

#Clearview #FBI #algorithme #CCTV #biométrie #élections #facial #reconnaissance #délation (...)

##extrême-droite

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/01/09/us/09transition-briefing-clearview/09transition-briefing-TK2-facebookJumbo.jpg

32 More Countries Have Found the New Covid-19 Variant First Seen in Britain - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/01/world/covid-19-coronavirus-updates

Turkey slammed its doors to travelers from Britain on Friday, saying that it had found 15 infections with the new, more transmissible variant of the virus that first emerged in England. All were among recent arrivals from the United Kingdom. Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, issued a statement saying that the 15 people infected with the variant were in isolation and that their contacts were being traced and placed under quarantine. In countrywide checks, the statement said, the virus had not been detected in anyone other than travelers who arrived from Britain.
The finding brings the number of countries that have detected the variant to at least 33 since Britain announced finding it on Dec. 8, and the number of countries barring travelers arriving from Britain to more than 40. Some countries are also imposing restrictions on travelers, including U.S. citizens, who in recent weeks visited the countries where the variant has been detected.The Philippines expanded restrictions on travelers from Britain and 18 other countries, adding the United States after a third state, Florida, reported an infection involving the variant. Many countries have already restricted travel from the United States because of its staggering number of infections — the most in the world. California and Colorado have also found cases involving the variant. None of those infected in the United States had traveled recently, so the new strain is clearly circulating, though at unknown levels

#Covid-19#migrant#migration#grandebretagne#turquie#philippines#etatsunis#virusmutant#sante#circulation#contamination