Category: Breaking News

There is new evidence to show that China locked down all domestic traffic internally by end January 2020 but pushed to open foreign travel till end March. Data from Tom Tom traffic index, a traffic location site that covers 416 cities across 57 countries show that as a result of this strategy, China, intentionally or otherwise, was able to lockdown its cities unknown to the world. While this reduced the spread of the Corona virus within China, China’s aggressive foreign travel policy lead to a virus explosion worldwide. Here is the chronological events of what happened with the requisite traffic data from 10 major cities globally and the statements from Chinese leaders that will help readers reach their own conclusions. The COVID- 19 virus first surfaced in Wuhan in the last week of December. On 31 December 2019 Chinese health officials first reported to WHO that 41 patients in Wuhan had contracted a mysterious pneumonia that was not responding to conventional treatment. As most patients were from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market it was closed on the 1st of January. On the 7th of January Chinese scientists identified the virus as a novel Coronavirus later termed as the COVID-19 virus. On the 11th of January the virus claimed its first life in Wuhan city. On 13th January Thailand reported the first case of Coronavirus outside China. On 20th of January Zong Nanshan the scientist named by China to lead the battle against the virus stated ” Now we can say that it is certain that it is a human to human transmission phenomenon”.

On January 22 at a meeting to decide the measures to be taken, WHO was not able warn the world of the severity of COVID-19 apparently because of resistance from Beijing. (WHO referred to it as “divergent views”)

On January 23 Wuhan city was placed under quarantine and two days later the entire Hubei province was locked down. The Chinese state machinery was harnessed to enforce an unprecedented quarantine on 50 million people across 15 cities. In the last week of January domestic flights from Hubei to other parts of China was stopped and restrictions on traffic movement in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai were initiated. This was the time of the Chinese New Year when offices and schools are normally closed and it is also the prime tourism season for the Chinese.

On the 31st January Italy fearing a major outbreak of Coronavirus from hundreds of tourists arriving from China closed all flights to and from China.

China’s vice-minister of foreign affairs Qin Gang met Italy’s ambassador to China Luca Ferrari in Beijing following the flight ban. “Italy’s decision to stop flights without contacting China in advance caused great inconvenience to citizens of both countries. Many Chinese are still stranded in Italy,” the foreign ministry said on its website the following day. The U.S. issued a travel advisory against China travel on the 2nd of February but did not ban all services.

While Chinese authorities limited domestic flights from Wuhan to other Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai in an effort to contain the outbreak in January, it urged international carriers to maintain their flying schedules. The Civil Aviation Administration of China stated “In order to meet the needs of passengers in and out of the country and the international transport of supplies during this special period … airlines [are required to] … continue transport to nations that have not imposed travel restrictions.”

China’s assertion that all was well for international travel was supported by the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the opening of the agency’s Executive Board meet on the 3rd February. He said ” There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade. We call on all countries to implement decisions that are evidence-based and consistent. WHO stands ready to provide advice to any country that is considering which measures to take,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying criticised the US advisories saying “The U.S. government hasn’t provided any substantial assistance to us, but it was the first to evacuate personnel from its consulate in Wuhan, the first to suggest partial withdrawal of its embassy staff, and the first to impose a comprehensive travel ban on Chinese travellers”

While China continued to protest against international travel bans it successfully quarantined Wuhan and other affected cities. The total domestic lockdown of Hubei province and the flight ban imposed inside China had immediate effect. As per data from Tom Tom traffic index Wuhan had a traffic density of 60% in January while Shanghai and Beijing had nearly 80% density. After the total lockdown the average traffic density fell to below 10% in Wuhan and Shanghai during February and below 5% in Beijing. While implementing a total domestic lockdown in February, China kept assuring the world that the situation was not serious and fully under control.

China kept on the facade of hiding the severity of the virus attack. It was not till mid March. On the 11th of March WHO belatedly declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. By that time the number of cases globally had grown thirteen fold.

As per WHO website more than 118,000 cases had been reported in 114 countries, and 4,291 people had lost their lives when the global pandemic was declared. That is when the rest of the world started preparing for a suitable response to the pandemic, nearly two months after China. It was only after a telephonic conversation with US President Donald Trump on March 27th that Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to curb international flights from China. China’s Civil Aviation Administration stated after the discussion “that 90% of international flights would be temporarily suspended. The number of incoming passengers would be cut to 5,000 a day, from 25,000. China has also ordered local airlines to maintain only one route per country, once a week, as of 29th March”. By the end of March COVID-19 had become a full blown global crisis with nearly 10,000 deaths in Italy, Spain and the US and over 5000 in Iran and the UK which was much more than those dead in China. As per data from Tom Tom traffic index the traffic density in Wuhan remained low at around 10% of the normal traffic in March while the major business centres like Beijing and Shanghai which had less than a few thousand cases of COVID-19 and half a dozen deaths showed partial recovery of traffic to around 40%. The rest of the world oblivious of the need for total lockdown took time to react. The traffic remained high at over 60% in major cities like Rome, Milan, Madrid, Paris, London, New York, New Delhi and Mumbai during March. The Tom Tom traffic data index shows that in all other global cities like Rome, Milan, Madrid, Paris, London, New York, New Delhi and Mumbai the traffic density dropped to 10% only in the month of April when most nations went under lockdown.

This was two months after China went in for a domestic lock down and allowed the virus to proliferate to international destinations through human contact.

The traffic density in Beijing and Shanghai rose to over 60% in April showing that the Chinese cities and its economy was back to normal functioning. While China limited its losses to below 5000 by end April 2020, the US had lost 60,000 lives, Italy, Spain, France and UK above 20,000 each and the world saw over 200,000 deaths that was nearly doubling every fortnight.

So though the virus had originated from China which initially infected citizens from 27 nations, because of China’s diabolic international travel policy it spread rapidly to a totally unprepared Europe, mainly Italy and Spain and thereafter to the rest of the world becoming a global pandemic.

So weather the virus was produced in the Wuhan Virology Institute as an exercise of bio-terrorism Nick Bit: I have been told by people who know these kind of things the bat virus was weaponized at the Wuhan bio terror lab and was accidentally released prematurely by careless scientists who are no longer with us.) or simply arrived unintentionally due to bat and pangolin infected blood from its exotic animal markets in Wuhan, China is answerable for the way it allowed the virus to spread. Australia has called for an international investigation into the spread of COVID-19 and all nations of the world including India must back the move. Also it has been suggested that the leadership and the action of WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus needs to be probed. All nations including India need to support such an investigation for it is better to be safe than sorry.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized a third dose of COVID-19 for certain people with compromised immune systems, a narrow move into the realm of booster doses amid a growing debate over their use. The move will allow a third dose of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, and applies to certain immunocompromised people, including those with organ transplants and those “diagnosed with conditions that are considered to have an equivalent level of immunocompromise,” the FDA said. The agency emphasized that the general public does not need a third dose at the moment.Federal health officials officials emphasized the group is small. (Nick Bit: Break it to the masses slowly. The longer they wait to roll out the third booster shot to the masses the more people they kill. It’s OK, they are used to it already. I want to be on the record here… They will EVENTUALLY recommend a third vaccine booster shot for everyone) “The country has entered yet another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the FDA is especially cognizant that immunocompromised people are particularly at risk for severe disease,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock. “After a thorough review of the available data, the FDA determined that this small, vulnerable group may benefit from a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna Vaccines.” But health officials have left the door open to third doses, stating that they may be needed eventually. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, earlier Thursday said “inevitably” there will be a time when the wider public needs a booster, though now is not the time. “Inevitably, there will be a time when we’ll have to give boosts,” Fauci said on NBC. “What we’re doing, literally, on a weekly and monthly basis is following cohorts of patients to determine if, when and whom should get it.”A broader issuance of booster doses would be controversial given that many people around the world, including health care workers in some countries, are still waiting for their first dose. “Today’s action allows doctors to boost immunity in certain immunocompromised individuals who need extra protection from COVID-19,” Woodcock said. United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said late Thursday night that the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 infections stood at around 113,000 per day over the past week. According to Johns Hopkins University’s tally, the US registered 135,177 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours. The number of daily deaths from the disease stood at 342 during the same period. “As we’ve previously stated, other individuals who are fully vaccinated are adequately protected and do not need an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine at this time. The FDA is actively engaged in a science-based, rigorous process with our federal partners to consider whether an additional dose may be needed in the future.” Nick Note: Bullshit!! I want to be clear here. If your second booster shot is more then 6 months old you need a 3rd booster shot. I got mine you need to get yours… At least mask up, vitamin up, isolate the best you can AND test everyone Who comes into your airspace…

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China partly shut the world’s third-busiest container port after a ONE worker became infected with COVID-19, threatening more damage to already fragile supply chains and global trade as a key shopping season nears. All inbound and outbound container services at Meishan terminal (worlds third largest) in Ningbo-Zhoushan port were halted Wednesday until further notice due to a “system disruption,” according to a statement from the port. An employee tested positive for coronavirus, the eastern Chinese city’s government said. The closed terminal accounts for about 25% of container cargo through the port, calculates security consultant GardaWorld, which said “the suspension could severely impact cargo handling and shipping.” Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd AG said there will be a delay in sailings. This is the second recent shutdown of a Chinese port due to the coronavirus, after the closure of Yantian port in Shenzhen from late May for about a month. The action led goods to back up in factories and storage yards and also likely lifted soaring freight rates, which are at record levels and a source of inflation.

The fear is that this new disruption will further strain shipping and supplies of goods, dampening growth and driving up prices. An extended shuttering at Ningbo could be especially painful for the world economy because seaborne trade usually rises toward the end of the year as companies ship Christmas and holiday products.

“There may be far-reaching downstream consequences going into Black Friday and holiday shopping seasons” and the next 24 hours will determine whether there is a large outbreak or not, said Josh Brazil, vice president of marketing at project44, a supply-chain intelligence firm. “One of the few givens in 2021 is endemic delays, and the fact that conditions can change almost overnight.” In addition to the closed terminal, containers for shipment through the other terminals in the port will likely slow. The port will now only accept containers within two days of a ship’s estimated arrival time, according to a statement from shipping and logistics firm CMA CGM SA. The biggest exports through Ningbo in the first half of this year were electronic goods, textiles and low and high-end manufactured goods, according to the city’s Customs Bureau. Top imports included crude oil, electronics, raw chemicals and agricultural products.

China on Friday rejected the World Health Organization’s calls for a renewed probe into the origins of Covid-19, saying it supported “scientific” over “political” efforts to find out how the virus started. Pressure is once more mounting on Beijing to consider a fresh probe into the origins of a pandemic which has killed more than four million people and paralysed economies worldwide since it first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. A delayed and heavily politicised visit by a WHO team of international experts went to Wuhan in January 2021 to produce a first phase report, which was written in conjunction with their Chinese counterparts. It failed to conclude how the virus began. On Thursday the WHO urged China to share raw data from the earliest Covid-19 cases to revive its probe into the origins of the disease. China hit back, Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu saying it has never rejected cooperation on tracing the origins of Covid-19, but rejects the politicisation of such a search, state media reported. “We oppose political tracing … and abandoning the joint report” issued after the WHO team’s Wuhan visit, Ma told reporters. “We support scientific tracing.” The joint report said the virus jumping from bats to humans via an intermediate animal was the most probable scenario, while a leak from Wuhan’s virology labs was “extremely unlikely”. Ma rejected suggestions of new lines of investigation. “The conclusions and recommendations of WHO and China joint report were recognised by the international community and the scientific community,” he said. “Future global traceability work should and can only be further carried out on the basis of this report, rather than starting a new one.” China is continuing to conduct “follow-up and supplementary” research into the origins of the novel coronavirus as specified in the joint report, Ma said. The WHO on Thursday called for all governments to cooperate to accelerate studies into the origins of the pandemic and “to depoliticise the situation”. In the face of China’s reluctance to open up to outside investigators, experts are increasingly open to considering the theory that the virus might have leaked from a lab, once dismissed as a conspiracy propagated by the US far right. Even WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that the initial probe into Wuhan’s virology labs had not gone far enough, while US President Joe Biden in May ordered a separate investigation into the virus origins from the US intelligence community. A WHO call last month for the investigation’s second stage to include audits of the Wuhan labs infuriated Beijing, with Vice Health Minister Zeng Yixin saying the plan showed “disrespect for common sense and arrogance towards science”. Meanwhile, Danish scientist Peter Ben Embarek, who led the international mission to Wuhan, said a lab employee infected while taking samples in the field falls under one of the likely hypotheses as to how the virus passed from bats to humans.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba is bringing back hundreds of doctors working abroad and converting hotels into isolation centers and hospitals in order to battle a COVID-19 crisis that is overwhelming healthcare and mortuary services in parts of the Caribbean island. The country, which managed to contain infections for most of last year, is now facing one of the worst outbreaks worldwide, fueled by the spread of the more-infectious Delta variant, even as it races to vaccinate its population. Cuba’s rolling seven-day average of confirmed COVID-19 cases has surged eightfold within two months to 5,639 per million inhabitants, ten times the world average. One in five tests are positive, four times the benchmark 5% positivity rate cited by the World Health Organization. The seven-day average for confirmed COVID-19 deaths is around 52 per million inhabitants, six times the world average, although the real number could be much higher accounting for potentially undiagnosed cases. The COVID-19 surge has come amid Cuba’s worst economic crisis in decades that had already resulted in medicine shortages and long queues for scarce goods that made implementing lockdowns tricky. The predicament has come as a shock to some in the Communist-run country where the right to public healthcare is considered sacrosanct. “I witnessed queues of more than 20 hours, people dying in the corridors (of the polyclinic),” wrote Ana Iris Diaz, a professor at the university of the central Cuban city of Santa Clara and self-professed “revolutionary”, in a Facebook post that went viral this week. “I saw an elderly woman die after several hours of waiting and four days without an antigen test or PCR. Simply put, I saw what I would have hoped to never see: the collapse of our health system.” Cuba’s Communist government did not reply to a request for comment. It has denounced the United States for tightening sanctions, saying this has also slowed down its vaccine rollout due to the difficulty of acquiring inputs. Critics blame more Cuba’s inefficient state-run economy. Deaths in Cuba since the start of the pandemic are still only a half of the global average, according to official data. The death toll is rising fast though. In the eastern province of Guantanamo, artist Daniel Ross said a 30-year-old friend of his who caught COVID-19 had recently died due to a lack of medicines and oxygen. “Here, we fight COVID-19 with Azitromicina, which costs 16 pesos usually in the pharmacy, but they haven’t had any for months now,” he said, adding that the cost had surged to 3600 pesos, equivalent to $150 on the black market. Also infected and struggling to breathe, he said he was doing inhalations with yagruma leaves but sometimes could not even heat water because of the power outages that have become more frequent lately. Ihosvany Fernandez, director of communal services in the province of Guantanamo, said on local television that total deaths there, from any cause, had surged at the start of the month to more than 60 per day from around 12 on average usually. Official data show no more than 10 COVID-19 death daily in Guantanamo for those days suggesting underreporting in deaths from the respiratory disease. One of the province’s incinerators had broken down due to overuse, said Fernandez, so they were installing another and using a variety of state vehicles to transport the corpses given insufficient hearses. So far, a quarter of Cuba’s 11.2 million inhabitants have been innoculated with its two most advanced vaccines that officials say have proven more than 90 % effective in phase three trials. In one bright spot, the case-fatality rate in Havana, where nearly two thirds of the population has now been fully innocculated, was just 0.69 % compared to 0.93% for the rest of the country in the first week of August, according to official data, suggesting the shots are working.

South Korea on Wednesday confirmed more new cases of COVID-19 in a single day than it has seen so far during this pandemic. Making matters even more concerning, experts say the coming weeks could be even worse. This is the first time that the country has logged more than 2-thousand Covid-19 infections in a single 24-hour period.
South Korea on Wednesday reported 2,223 new Covid-19 infections. The greater Seoul area saw the highest number of local infections yet, with the local caseload at 1,405.Health authorities say the Delta variant is driving up cases, with clusters erupting in workplaces, indoor sports facilities, churches, and at care hospitals.
But the worst is yet to come.

Experts last month have already projected that at the virus’ current reproductive rate,.. the nation will see 2,5-hundred to 3-thousand new cases a day by late August.

Experts are also worried about the enormous strain this will put on healthcare services, saying a sudden rise could overwhelm medical staff and supplies. In that case, what can be done – that hasn’t already been attempted – to try and curb the spread. Health authorities say that in order to protect our lives and the economy, we first need to decrease the risk of infection by cutting down on travel and social gatherings. But we can’t only rely on social distancing to fix the problem. Vaccinations are of the utmost importance as well. “We need to do our best to protect the most vulnerable people and facilities by curbing the infection spread through prevention methods, and also by raising the vaccination rates.” There will be a boost in the supply of Pfizer’s vaccines today, with six million additional doses arriving.

OKYO -Japan’s top health adviser said on Thursday he would request stricter emergency measures for about two weeks to tackle a spike in COVID-19 cases in Tokyo and other areas.

Shigeru Omi told reporters the contagion should treated as a natural disaster and he called on the government to increase testing to find and contain the spread.

A few days after the end of the Tokyo Olympics, the capital reported 4,989 new daily cases on Thursday, down slightly from record 5,042 last week. The new number of patients with serious symptoms increased to an all-time daily high of 218. There has been no evidence that the Olympics https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2021-08-07/olympics-tokyo-feared-games-would-spread-covid-numbers-suggest-that-didnt-happen directly increased case numbers in Japan, but health experts have warned that holding the Games could have encouraged people to relax infection controls. Japan is vaccinating more than 1 million people a day, but it still lags many major economies in inoculating its population. Tokyo is already under a state of emergency, the fourth so far in the pandemic, though some experts have said it should be expanded to cover the whole country. The western prefecture of Osaka reported a record 1,654 new cases on Thursday. Hospital beds are filling up rapidly, mainly with patients in their 40s and 50s, Omi said. To try to break the chain of infection, he said, authorities should try to reduce human mobility to about 50% of the average in July. His comments echoed those of a separate panel of experts who said on Thursday contagion in Tokyo had become uncontrollable.

“The number of new positive cases is rapidly increasing, making it impossible to control the situation,” Norio Ohmagari, a health adviser to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, told a panel chaired by Governor Yuriko Koike.

Koike urged residents to avoid travel and stay home to slow the transmission of COVID-19, which is causing hospitals to have to forego some standard medical care.