International News: 2020/09/18
ASIA
-Coronavirus
Total Cases: Cross 9 million
Total Deaths: At least 171K
-Indonesia: In June, authorities in Jakarta(Indonesia's capital) began to ease restrictions imposed in April, allowing many businesses, restaurants and offices to reopen. But three months later- as doctors warned the health care system was on the brink of collapse -Jakarta's governor said it was time to reintroduce the partial lockdown. "This is an emergency, more urgent than at the start of the pandemic", Anies Baswedan, Governor of Jakarta, said adding that the city's 10 million people must once again work, study and pray from home. The restrictions put into effect from Monday are similar to what was imposed earlier in the year: public transport is limited, restaurants can only serve takeaway, and many offices are shut or have capacity limits. "This is about saving the people of Jakarta. If we let this continue- the hospitals will not be able to contain the situation and the result will be a high death rate", he said.
As the numbers keep rising Pandok Ranggon, a cemetery in Indonesia's capital, is fast filling up and authorities expect it to reach full capacity by next month if the current trends continue. "We have buried so many people. We are tired" , Adang, a grave digger in Jakarta, said. Doctors in Jakarta have welcomed the move. "We feel the situation is becoming scary. The number of cases is increasing day by day and there's no trend to show a decline", said Dr. Erlina Burhan, from Pesabatan Hospital. And just like the grave diggers, medical workers in the capital say they are overworked and exhausted. "It's like a marathon from March- there's no break", said Burhan. "A lot of health personnel are already saying that they are tired, tired of doing this."
(Note: To date, Indonesia has registered 232,628 confirmed coronavirus cases. Indonesia is the worst-hit country in the Southeast Asia in terms of confirmed COVID-19 deaths having registered more than 9,200 fatalities so far.)
-China: China's imports of major commodities including crude oil, iron ore and soybean climbed in the first eight months of the year as the country's economic activity gradually recovered from the COVID-19 hit, according to Customs data. Imports of crude oil surged 12.1 percent to 368 million tonnes during the January-August period, while refined oil imports rose 1.3 percent to 20.77 million tonnes, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
NORTH AMERICA
-Coronavirus
Total Cases: Cross 8 million
Total Deaths: At least 295K
-USA: About half a million of people in the US state of Oregon have been told to evacuate their homes or prepare to, as dozens of extreme, wind-driven wildfires scorched West Coast states. The blazes raging across several US states have destroyed thousand of homes and killed at least 24 people, state and local authorities said. Blazes went from wildfires burning through shrubs and forest to sub-urban firestorms as flames jumped from house to house.
Oregon bore the brunt of nearly 500 major wildfires raging across Western States, with some 3,000 firefighters battling nearly 36 blazes. Dozens of homes were burned at the Bear Creek trailer park 15km south of Medford, where families returned to find ashes and torched cars. Search-and-rescue teams entered devastated communities in Central Oregon's Santiam Valley to look for missing people after a 12 year old boy was found with his dog in a burned-out car and his grandmother was also thought to have died.
Firefighters said unusually hot, dry winds out of the east created firestorms that spread embers from community to community, and then from house to house. Scientists say climate change has contributed to greater extremes in wet and dry seasons, causing vegetation to flourish then dry out, leaving more abundant, volatile fuel for fires.
SOUTH AMERICA
-Coronavirus
Total Cases: Cross 7.3 million
Total Deaths: At least 234K
-Brazil: Brazilians are facing a sky-rocketing rise in food prices caused by record exports to China and strong domestic demand. This rebound has led the president Jair Bolsonaro, to ask the owners of supermarkets to show 'patriotism' and "keep their profit margin as low as possible. Among the staples of the daily diet in Brazil, the price of rice has risen 19.3%, black beans 28.9%, corn flour 8.1% and soy bean oil 18.6%. Regarding animal proteins, beef increased by 38%, chicken and eggs by 7.5% and pork by 19.4% between September 2019 and August 2020.
The rise is manly explained by the growing appetite of foreign buyers, and in particular China. The trade war between Beijing and Washington leads the China to buy more from Brazil. "Strong external demands reduced the supply of these foods in the Brazilian market because farmers prefer to export them", Andre Braz, an economist at FGV(Getulio Vargas Foundation) told. Brazilian soybean exports to China increased 29.5% between January and August compared to the same period last year, according to data from the Ministry of Economy.
EUROPE
-Coronavirus
Total Cases: Cross 4.2 million
Total Deaths: At least 214K
-Russia: One in seven volunteers have complained of side effects including weakness and muscle pain after taking Russia's highly touted coronavirus vaccine. "Approximately 14% have small complaints of weakness, muscle pain for 24 hours and an occasional increase in body temperature", Health Minister Mikhail Murashko quoted. "The symptoms 'level off' by the next day. The complications are described in the instructions and are predictable", Murashko said.
According to health minister, more than 300 out of the announced 40,000 volunteers have been vaccinated so far. Volunteers are expected to receive a second shot of the vaccine within 21 days of the first. Russian government officials and party leaders have reported taking part in the trials.
(Note: In recent days, vaccine developers have begun distributing small batches of Sputnik V across Russian regions in parallel with the Phase 3 trials. The general population could get vaccinated in late November or early December, Murashko has said.)
AFRICA
-Coronavirus
Total Cases: Cross 1.3 million
Total Deaths: At least 33K
-Somalia: Somalia's education policymakers are under pressure to explain how secondary schools in the Magadishu (Somalia's capital) reported massive failure in the national examination, while those in regions bordering Kenya had high grades. Results released on Sunday for Grade 12 exams for the 2019/2020 school calendar showed that 33,727 students sat the national tests. Of these, 25,177 students representing about 75% passed the exams and qualified to join tertiary institutions. But of the 8,550 who failed most of them are from Benadir (the metropolitan region that includes Magadishu).
Questions over the massive failure in Magadishu, Education Minister Goddah Barre blamed students and teachers, claiming the learners spent too much time smoking tobacco and recording Tiktok videos, while tutors were of poor quality. For the good performance in Jubaland, Mr. Barre said they had better teachers from neighbouring Kenya.
(Note: Schools from four federal states Hirshabelle, South West, Jubaland, Galmdug as well as Benadir-Somalia's administrative region registered candidates for the national exam. Jubaland State, which borders Kenya, produced the best five students nationally and only 33 out of 987 candidates scored below average.)
OCEANIA
-Coronavirus
Total Cases: Cross 30K
Total Deaths: At least 865
-New Zealand: Health officials have asked all staff and students at an Auckland primary school to be tested for COVID-19 after an infectious student briefly attended on Monday. Chapel Downs Primary School was closed until next Monday, after the school was informed of the positive case. Health authorities on Thursday's morning confirmed that the girl, aged under 10 who was connected to Botany sub-cluster at Auckland, tested positive for the virus. She was not symptomatic while she was at school.
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