International News: 12/08/2020
ASIA
-Coronavirus
New Cases:86,266
Total Cases:5,207,131
New Deaths:1,379
Total Deaths:112,572
-Japan: Online travel is experiencing a boom in Japan, offering virtual travel experiences and local specialties. Hankyu Travel International Co. introduces some tour products that allows participants to view countryside scenery and interact with local people. With some tour products, people can enjoy a panoramic view of the countryside and mountains. When an image of Kameiwa Cave in the city of Kimisitu is shown on screen, the voice of tour guide says: "The leaves on the trees are green and beautiful. There are Japanese rice fish in the stream. The scenery looks cool." The tour is gaining popularity with one participant saying "I felt as if I was actually in the place, so it was fun."
(Note: So far, Japan has registered more than 47,000 COVID-19 cases and over 1,000 people have died due to this infection.)
-Bhutan: Bhutan ordered its first national lockdown on Tuesday. The lockdown was ordered after a 27-year old Bhutanese woman, who returned from Kuwait and was from quarantine after testing negative, tested positive at a clinic on Monday.
(Note: Bhutan's government has registered a total of 113 coronavirus cases--the lowest in South Asia and has not recorded any deaths.)
NORTH AMERICA
-Coronavirus
New Cases: 64,941
Total Cases: 6,241,455
New Deaths: 2,293 (highest new deaths in the past 24 hours)
Total Deaths: 237,850
-Mexico: Mexico aims to conduct late-stage clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines, build out by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and two Chinese companies, between September and January depending on approval from Mexico's food and drug agency, the foreign minister has said. Mexico has signed memorandums of understanding with J&J and two Chinese companies, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebard said at news conference.
(Note: Mexico reported 5,558 new coronavirus cases bringing the country's total tally of infections to 485,836. Similarly, 705 new deaths is reported from coronavirus within 24 hours raising its total COVID-19 related fatalities to 53.003- the third highest COVID-19 deaths in the world.)
SOUTH AMERICA
-Coronavirus
New Cases: 86,997 (highest new infections within 24 hours)
Total Cases: 4,885,627
New Deaths: 2,180
Total Deaths: 163,391
-Argentina: According to country's health ministry, another 240 COVID-19 fatalities were reported on Tuesday-the highest number of deaths reported in the country within 24 hours, bringing the nation-wide death toll to 5,004 since the pandemic began. Similarly, more than 7,000 new cases were reported in Tuesday bringing a total of 260,911 coronavirus infections in the country.
EUROPE
-Coronavirus
New Cases: 19,605
Total Cases: 3,084,005
New Deaths: 422
Total Deaths: 206,819
-UK: UK schools start to reopen. Scottish children went back to school for the first time in five months as leaders across the United Kingdom try to pressurize a return to education despite a resurgence in the number of coronavirus cases. Scotland's government has ordered pupils to return gradually this week, with all classes set to have resumed fully by next Tuesday.
(Note: UK has reported the highest death toll in Europe from COVID-19 with more than 46,000 fatalities)
-Russia: President Vladmir Putin says Russia has become the first country to approve a vaccine offering "sustainable immunity" against the coronavirus. "This morning for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the new coronavirus was registered", Putin said during a televised video conference call with government ministers. "I know that it is quite effective that it gives sustainable immunity", he said. The Russian leader also said one of his daughter had been inoculated with vaccine. He said that his daughter had a temperature of 38 degree Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) on the day of first vaccine injection, and then it dropped to just over 37 degree Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) on the following day. After the second shot she again had a slight increase in temperature, but then it was all over. "She's feeling well and has high number of antibodies", Putin added.
The announcement of the Russian coronavirus vaccine has been met with worldwide skepticism. The World Health Organization said about the Russian vaccine that "accelerating vaccine research should be done following established guidelines and go "through all the stages" to ensure that any vaccine that eventually go into production are both safe and effective. Experts have warned that vaccines that are not properly tested can cause harm in many ways- creating a false sense of security and undermining trust in vaccinations.
(Note: Russian vaccine was developed by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow. Gamaleya's vaccine is viral vector vaccine, meaning it employs another virus to carry the DNA enconding the needed immune response into cells. Gamaleya's vaccine is based on the adenovirus, a similar technology to the coronavirus vaccine prototype developed by China's Cansino, currently in the advanced stages of clinical trials.)
AFRICA
-Coronavirus
New Cases: 7,995
Total Cases: 1,069,093
New Deaths: 269
Total Deaths: 23,912
-Mauritius: Mauritians are making floating booms of human hairs and leaves to mop up oil spilling from a grounded Japanese ship. Romania Tello, 30 year old founder of ecotourism
agency Mauritius Conscious, spent the weekend helping the volunteers to clean black
sludge made by oil leaking. “Hair absorbs oil but not water”, Tello explained.
There’s been a big campaign around the island to get the hair. Videos online
shoes volunteers sewing leaves and hairs into nets to float on the surface and
corral the oil until it can be sucked by hoses.
(Note: The MV Wakashio ship owned by Japanese company
began oozing fuel into sea waters last week after hitting a reef off the
island. Mauritius has declared a state of emergency. Environmental group Greenpeace
said it could be a major economical crisis.)
OCEANIA
-Coronavirus
New Cases:317
Total Cases: 23,659
New Deaths: 18
Total Deaths: 357
Papua New Guinea: Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape is pressing ahead with plans to lift lockdown measures this week. Marape said two-week lockdown in the capital of Port Morseby would be lifted from Wednesday. (Note: PNG had a total of 214 cases and 3 deaths as of Tuesday. WHO said the real infections might be much higher as the rates of testing is very low in the country.)
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