New Zealand’s response to the virus has been among the most successful in the world, together with actions taken by China, Taiwan and Thailand early on in the pandemic.
The country of 5 million has counted just 25 deaths and managed to stamp out the spread of Covid-19, allowing people to return to workplaces, schools and packed sports stadiums without restrictions.
AP has spoken to New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
When the virus began hitting Europe early in the year, Ardern said, the only two options countries were considering were herd immunity or flattening the curve. She opted for the latter.
“Originally, that’s where we started, because there just simply wasn’t really much of a view that elimination was possibleâ€.
But her thinking quickly changed.
“I remember my chief science adviser bringing me a graph that showed me what flattening the curve would look like for New Zealand. And where our hospital and health capacity was. And the curve wasn’t sitting under that line. So we knew that flattening the curve wasn’t sufficient for us.â€
New Zealand this year pulled off a moonshot that remains the envy of almost every other nation: It eliminated the coronavirus. But the goal was driven as much by fear as it was ambition, Prime Minister Ardern revealed Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press. She said the target grew from an early realisation the nation’s health system simply couldn’t cope with a big outbreak. Photograph: Sam James/AP
A strong response to the coronavirus pandemic, surging exports and healthy public spending have helped Vietnam buck a global recession in 2020 and fast-track its recovery, with analysts predicting it will likely enjoy one of the highest growth rates in the world, AFP reports.
But the pain is not over for some sectors with containment measures and border disruptions hammering the country’s tourism industry, and leaving the once-booming aviation sector limping.
While many countries have suffered from high infection and mortality rates, Vietnam has recorded fewer than 1,500 coronavirus cases and 35 deaths thanks to mass quarantines, expansive contact-tracing and strict controls on movement, allowing factories to largely stay open and people to swiftly get back to work.
A strong response to the coronavirus pandemic, a surge in exports and healthy public spending has helped Vietnam buck a global downward economic trend in 2020 and fast track its recovery. Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
While many Western countries were imploring citizens to stay home mid-year, Vietnamese people were able to flock to scenic beaches as the government tried to give the domestic tourism industry a much-needed shot in the arm.
There were grave fears for Vietnam’s export-reliant economy as demand for clothing, footwear and smartphones slumped in some of its biggest markets including the European Union, Japan and South Korea.
Shipments to China grew more than 15% on-year in the first nine months, according to the Vietnam General Customs Administration.
Demand for many of the items made in Vietnam – such as home electronics, office furniture, computers and televisions – soared during the pandemic as people were forced to stay home during lockdowns.
That has meant that while it will fall short of its target of 6.8 percent growth this year, the economy is expected to expand 2.4%, which the International Monetary Fund said would be among the best in the world.
The Fund has forecast a global contraction of 4.4%.
A World Health Organization research mission to China is expected to arrive in Wuhan next month to investigate how the novel coronavirus jumped from animals to humans, and whether it emerged earlier or in a different place than originally thought.
Fabian Leendertz, a biologist at Germany’s Robert Koch Institute and a member of the WHO’s 10-person mission team, told the Associated Press they will be working with Chinese scientists for four to five weeks.
Most scientists think the virus Sars-Cov-2 began in animals in China, most likely bats, before jumping to humans. Cases were first discovered in the city of Wuhan in late December 2019, linked to a seafood market. More than 73.4 million people have since been diagnosed with the virus, and 1.63 million have died:
For many Spaniards looking to make a similar move to the countryside during the pandemic, a lack of good internet access often stands in the way, AFP reports.
Just over one in four Spaniards – some 13 million people – do not have decent internet access, according to Spanish trade union UGT.
This digital divide is the legacy of years of a lack of investment in Spain’s depopulated interior, which has been emptied out by the flight of young people to cities since the 1950s in search of better job opportunities. Some parts of Spain have just two people per square kilometre – the same density as in Siberia.
The problem is not unique to Spain.
Two thirds of school-age children worldwide have no internet at home, according to a UN report published earlier this month, even as pandemic-induced school closures have made online access vital to getting educated.
The Spanish government has promised an ambitious European Union-funded programme to provide “adequate†internet connectivity to 100 percent of Spain’s population by 2025 as part of its efforts to revive the countryside.
Spain, one of the main beneficiaries of the EU’s 750-billion-euro ($912-billion) coronavirus recovery package, has a “historic opportunity†to “re-populate interior regions†which have long been neglected, said Gema Roman of consultancy firm Atrevia.
To attract more people to the countryside, the government must build more schools and hospitals in rural areas and encourage companies to use a mix of telework and working from the office, she added.
India recorded 26,355 new coronavirus cases, data from the health ministry showed on Wednesday, making it the third straight day that daily infections in the country have stayed below 30,000.
India has recorded 9.93 million infections so far, the second highest in the world after the United States, but daily numbers have dipped steadily since hitting a peak of around 97,000 in mid-September.
Indian office workers queue at a bus stop in Mumbai. Photograph: Divyakant Solanki/EPA
The average number of Covid-19 deaths reported each day in India has been decreasing for 10 days straight, according to a Reuters tally. On Wednesday, the health ministry said deaths rose by 360, with the total fatalities now at 144,069.
Queues of ambulances have formed outside several hospitals in Northern Ireland as pressure continued to mount on the region’s health service.
The scenes unfolded as first minister, Arlene Foster, participated in a call with other UK political leaders to review the planned relaxation of restrictions on household gatherings over Christmas.
No decisions were taken, with Stormont ministers set to convene to discuss the situation on Thursday amid intensifying calls from medics to rethink the relaxations and introduce fresh measures to curb the spread of the virus:
Ask not for whom the bell tolls…
With overall costs for vaccinating the UK population at £12bn, the public accounts committee has flagged ‘highly unusual’ arrangements.
Vaccinating the population against Covid-19 will cost up to £12bn, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has disclosed, amid details of tensions between health bodies over the rollout.
The National Audit Office said the government would spend up to £11.7bn on purchasing and manufacturing Covid-19 jabs for the UK before deploying them in England.
A little more on the new community transmission case in Sydney. The positive case was detected in van driver transporting international airline crew to and from Sydney airport. Matilda Boseley and Melissa Davey report.
It’s been described as “very un-Australian†– one of the fiercest, but most flexible, criticisms you can make in this part of the world.
Australian department of foreign affairs and trade officials are being allowed to skip government-mandated hotel quarantine when returning from abroad, instead spending two weeks at home.
Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 11,228 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 801 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,267,202 cases and 115,099 deaths.
Paramedics arrive with a Covid-19 patient at a hospital in Mexico City. Photograph: Jose Pazos/EPA
The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Hospitals across Mexico are approaching capacity across the country, but the shortage of Covid-19 beds is particularly acute in Mexico City.
South Korea’s highest priority is securing more hospital beds to handle a record surge in coronavirus cases and blunt a corresponding spike in deaths, the country’s prime minister said on Wednesday.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 1,078 new coronavirus cases as of midnight Tuesday, the highest since the start of the pandemic.
The latest number came three days after the daily tally topped 1,000 for the first time since South Korea confirmed its first coronavirus infection in January.
The KDCA also reported 12 more deaths, the second day of double-digit deaths after a record 13 the day before in a country that had kept overall cases and deaths relatively low through aggressive tracing and testing.
The number of severe cases has more than doubled over the past two weeks to hit a record high of 226 on Wednesday.
There were only three critical care beds left in the greater Seoul area with a nearly 26 million population, officials said.
Health workers wearing protective suits move a Covid-19 patient in an isolation stretcher from an ambulance to a hospital in Seoul. Photograph: Kim Chul-Soo/EPA
“The top priority is securing more hospital beds,†Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting, according to a transcript.
“Full administrative power should be mobilised so that no patient would wait for more than a day before being assigned to her bed.â€
He said the government is making all-out efforts to implement current social distancing rules in an effort to avoid having to impose the highest level of restrictions, which would effectively be the country’s first lockdown.
Kamala Harris(@SenKamalaHarris)
COVID-19 is still with us during the holidays and we can’t let up on doing everything we can to prevent it from spreading. Protect yourself and those around you—keep wearing masks and continue practicing social distancing.
Workers at the busiest US seaport are plucking containers of toys off ships and out of massive stacks of cargo swamping docks at the Southern California trade gateway to get holiday gifts under trees in time for Christmas, Reuters reports.
“We’ve never had this much cargo,†Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said on Tuesday, when the port announced that imports spiked 25% during the month of November.
With so much cargo flooding in ahead of Christmas, “we’re essentially in a triage situation,†said Seroka, who worked with a handful of toy makers to expedite toy shipments.
Containers are seen on a shipping dock in the Port of Los Angeles, California. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Imports to the Port of Los Angeles have been booming for more than five months as US businesses rebuild depleted inventories of everything from appliances to bicycles; stockpile personal protective equipment and other sought-after goods in a worsening pandemic; and prepare for the winter holiday selling season.
The surge in volume has created congestion that makes it harder for trucks and trains to quickly whisk containers away from the busiest gateway by volume for US trade with China. That then slows down inbound ships.
Greek lawmakers on Tuesday approved a 2021 budget built around weaker forecasts for a rebound from the coronavirus pandemic, which also includes cash for buying new fighter jets from France.
Latest projections see the Greek economy slumping 10.5% this year, worse than the 8.2 percent predicted in October.
Meanwhile the 2021 rebound should see 4.8% expansion, down from a previous forecast of 7.5%.
After weathering the first wave of the pandemic better than most European countries, Greece in early November resorted to a nationwide lockdown that has weighed on activity and is now expected to last until 7 January.
People walk at central Syntagma square that is decorated for Christmas in Athens, Greece, 15 December 2020. Photograph: Orestis Panagiotou/EPA
The economy had returned to growth in the third quarter, following a 14% quarter-on-quarter slump in April-June that was the worst in at least 25 years.
Greece faces “unprecedented circumstances, with uncertain facts and the end of the crisis unknown,†Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told lawmakers before the vote.
But as inoculations get under way around the world, with the European Union expected to soon follow suit, he added that “the vaccine is the boundary between the end of the pandemic and the preface of the post-covid era, and the budget is adapted to these conditionsâ€.
In the UK, vaccinating the population against Covid-19 will cost up to £12bn, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has disclosed, amid details of tensions between health bodies over the rollout.
The National Audit Office said the government would spend up to £11.7bn on purchasing and manufacturing Covid-19 jabs for the UK before deploying them in England.
A report released on Wednesday reveals officials from Public Health England complained that they had been cut out of key decisions despite having previous experience of vaccine delivery programmes:
A rapid, over-the-counter Covid-19 test developed by Australian firm Ellume has been given emergency approval in the United States.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Brisbane-based company’s 20-minute Covid-19 Home Test on Tuesday as the US battles the virus that has infected 16.5 million people and killed more than 300,000 people in the country.
The agency approved a prescription coronavirus test last month, but an over-the-counter product will make it easier to ramp up testing.
The Ellume Covid-19 Home Test uses a special nasal swab connected to a smartphone app, which sends the results back to users via bluetooth in as little at 15-20 minutes.
To use the app users must enter a postcode and their date of birth, which can be shared with health authorities to monitor outbreaks and conduct contact tracing.
The FDA says Ellume’s test correctly identified 96% of positive samples and 100% of negative samples in patients with symptoms.
In asymptomatic patients, the test identified 91% of positive samples and 96% of negative samples:
