Day: February 7, 2021

DRC Confirms Ebola Death

The Democratic Republic of Congo reported Sunday that a woman died of Ebola, three months after the country declared an end to a previous outbreak.
 
The woman’s husband had contracted the disease and survived in the previous 2020 outbreak. Samples from the hospital in Butembo, in the northeastern part of the country, were being sent to the capital, Kinshasa, to determine whether her illness is linked to the previous outbreak or constitutes a new one.
 
UNICEF identified the woman as a 42-year-old mother in a statement released Sunday, adding that its staff was on the ground in the state of North Kivu to assist local health care workers to “mobilize the community response.”
 
The U.N. organization for children also added that it would assist in transporting necessary medical supplies from the state of Equateur, where the previous outbreak of Ebola was declared finished in November after 55 people had died.
 
More than 2,200 people died of Ebola in the region between 2018 and 2020.
 
“It is not unusual for sporadic cases to occur following a major outbreak,” the World Health Organization said Sunday.The patient was the wife of an #Ebola survivor. Samples have been sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, #DRC for genome sequencing to determine link to the previous outbreak. It is not unusual for sporadic cases to occur following a major outbreak. pic.twitter.com/YVAMuOmvFn— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) February 7, 2021The news comes as the country, like much of the world, battles the coronavirus pandemic.
 
The Ebola virus, formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a rare but severe and often fatal illness that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, triggering severe vomiting and diarrhea.
 

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3 Spacecraft Arriving on Mars in Quick Succession

After hurtling hundreds of millions of kilometers through space since last summer, three robotic explorers are ready to hit the brakes at Mars.  The stakes — and anxiety — are sky high.  The United Arab Emirates’ orbiter reaches Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24 hours later by China’s orbiter-rover combo. NASA’s rover, the cosmic caboose, will arrive on the scene a week later, on February 18, to collect rocks for return to Earth — a key step in determining whether life ever existed at Mars.Both the UAE and China are newcomers at Mars, where more than half of Earth’s emissaries have failed. China’s first Mars mission, a joint effort with Russia in 2011, never made it past Earth’s orbit.”We are quite excited as engineers and scientists, at the same time quite stressed and happy, worried, scared,” said Omran Sharaf, project manager for the UAE.All three spacecraft rocketed away within days of one another last July, during an Earth-to-Mars launch window that occurs only every two years. That’s why their arrivals are also close together.Called Amal, or Hope in Arabic, the Gulf nation’s spacecraft is seeking an especially high orbit — 22,000 kilometers by 44,000 kilometers (13,500 by 27,000 miles) high — all the better to monitor the Martian weather.  China’s duo — called Tianwen-1, or “Quest for Heavenly Truth” — will remain paired in orbit until May, when the rover separates to descend to the dusty, ruddy surface. If all goes well, it will be only the second country to land successfully on the Red Planet.The U.S. rover Perseverance, by contrast, will dive in straight away for a harrowing sky-crane touchdown similar to the Curiosity rover’s grand Martian entrance in 2012. The odds are in NASA’s favor: It’s nailed eight of its nine attempted Mars landings.Despite their differences — the 1-ton Perseverance is larger and more elaborate than the Tianwen-1 rover — both will prowl for signs of ancient microscopic life.Perseverance’s $3 billion mission is the first leg in a U.S.-European effort to bring Mars samples to Earth in the next decade.”To say we’re pumped about it, well that would be a huge understatement,” said Lori Glaze, NASA’s planetary science director.Perseverance is aiming for an ancient river delta that seems a logical spot for once harboring life. This landing zone in Jezero Crater is so treacherous that NASA nixed it for Curiosity, but so tantalizing that scientists are keen to get hold of its rocks.”When the scientists take a look at a site like Jezero Crater, they see the promise, right?” said Al Chen, who’s in charge of the entry, descent and landing team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “When I look at Jezero, I see danger. There’s danger everywhere.”Steep cliffs, deep pits and fields of rocks could cripple or doom Perseverance, following its seven-minute atmospheric plunge. With an 11½-minute communication lag each way, the rover will be on its own, unable to rely on flight controllers. Amal and Tianwen-1 will also need to operate autonomously while maneuvering into orbit.Until Perseverance, NASA sought out flat, boring terrain on which to land — “one giant parking lot,” Chen said. That’s what China’s Tianwen-1 rover will be shooting for in Mars’ Utopia Planitia.NASA is upping its game thanks to new navigation technology designed to guide the rover to a safe spot. The spacecraft also has a slew of cameras and microphones to capture the sights and sounds of descent and landing, a Martian first.Faster than previous Mars vehicles but still moving at a glacial pace, the six-wheeled Perseverance will drive across Jezero, collecting core samples of the most enticing rocks and gravel. The rover will set the samples aside for retrieval by a fetch rover launching in 2026.  Under an elaborate plan still being worked out by NASA and the European Space Agency, the geologic treasure would arrive on Earth in the early 2030s. Scientists contend it’s the only way to ascertain whether life flourished on a wet, watery Mars 3 billion to 4 billion years ago.NASA’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, considers it “one of the hardest things ever done by humanity and certainly in space science.”The United States is still the only country to successfully land on Mars, beginning with the 1976 Vikings. Two spacecraft are still active on the surface: Curiosity and InSight.  Smashed Russian and European spacecraft litter the Martian landscape, meanwhile, along with NASA’s failed Mars Polar Lander from 1999.  Getting into orbit around Mars is less complicated, but still no easy matter, with about a dozen spacecraft falling short. Mars fly-bys were the rage in the 1960s and most failed; NASA’s Mariner 4 was the first to succeed in 1965.Six spacecraft currently are operating around Mars: three from the U.S., two from Europe and one from India. The UAE hopes to make it seven with its $200-plus million mission.The UAE is especially proud that Amal was designed and built by its own citizens, who partnered with the University of Colorado at Boulder and other U.S. institutions, not simply purchased from abroad. Its arrival at Mars coincides with this year’s 50th anniversary of the country’s founding.  China hasn’t divulged much in advance. Even the spacecraft’s exact arrival time on Wednesday has yet to be announced.The China Academy of Space Technology’s Ye Peijian noted that Tianwen-1 has three objectives: orbiting the planet, landing and releasing the rover. If successful, he said in a statement, “It will become the world’s first Mars expedition accomplishing all three goals with one probe.”The coronavirus pandemic has complicated each step of each spacecraft’s 480 million-kilometer (300-million-mile) journey to Mars. It even kept the European and Russian space agencies’ joint Mars mission grounded until the next launch window in 2022. 
 

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Cameroon Says Female Circumcision Resurfacing Because of COVID-19, Other Crises

Rights groups in Cameroon marked the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation Saturday by protesting the resurgence of the practice, also known as FGM. The government says COVID-19, the country’s separatist crisis and Boko Haram terrorism have stopped campaigns on the dangers of the practice and made providers return to FGM, which was being abandoned.  Rights groups and FGM victims are pushing for an end to the practice. At least 100 women Saturday visited the Briqueterie and Tsinga neighborhoods in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, where they say female genital mutilation, or FGM, is resurging. The visit was part of activities marking the 14th International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation. The government said there is a resurgence of FGM in the neighborhood because some practitioners have relocated from Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria to Yaoundé. This year’s theme for the day in Cameroon was “No excuse for inaction even in a COVID-19 context, unite, fund and act to end FGM.” Among the women was Comfort Mvoto of the NGO Action Against FGM. Mvoto says people her association had convinced three years ago to stop FGM are again circumcising girls. She says her association is again telling women who stopped female circumcision and are now resuming the practice that it is illegal and unhealthy to cut a girl’s clitoris. She says her association wants all men and women who circumcise girls to know that the practice is dangerous. She says FGM promoters should be aware that many uncircumcised girls grow up, get married and live happily with their husbands. 
 
Mvoto said the practice was increasing in the Far North region on Cameroon’s border with Nigeria and the English-speaking Southwest region because campaigns to stop FGM have stalled due Boko Haram terrorism and separatist crisis. The Briqueterie and Tsinga neighborhoods have a high concentration of people from Kousseri on Cameroon’s northern border with Chad and Nigeria. They are some of Cameroon’s ethnic groups that believe in FGM as a way to keep women faithful to their husbands. Cameroon says about 20% of girls in some communities around Kousseri were circumcised in 2010. By 2015, the number of girls circumcised in Kousseri dropped to 2% but rebounded to 10% last year. Lumli Amdangtii, a 42-year-old woman says she stopped circumcising girls says in 2017 when the government and NGOs gave her $200 to start a business. She says the business has crumbled and she has gone back to FGM to earn a living from it.  She says in December she began circumcision as a sign of respect to her tradition that encourages FGM and to earn a living from the practice.  
 
She says a girl who is circumcised does not have sexual desires and remains faithful when she gets married. She says women who are circumcised are hardworking, since they are not tempted into prostitution.  She says she decided to restart FGM to improve her living conditions with the money she makes and because there are many parents who want their daughters circumcised. Cameroon says the separatist crisis that has killed at least 3,000 people in its English-speaking western regions within the past four years makes it difficult to gather statistics. The government, however, says hundreds of girls and women seeking refuge in French-speaking towns within the past four years are circumcised. 
 
The Yaoundé protest was organized by rights groups, humanitarian NGOs and Cameroon’s government.FILE – Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa, Cameroon’s minister of women’s empowerment and the family, in Yaounde, Feb. 2019. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa, Cameroon’s minister of women’s empowerment and the family, says weekly education campaigns against FGM along Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria have been stopped because of Boko Haram terrorism. She says FGM providers who were given funds to start other businesses are becoming poorer because Boko Haram terrorism and crisis in the English-speaking western regions have destroyed their trade. 
 
Ondoa says COVID-19 that was first reported in Cameroon in March reduced government financial assistance to FGM providers, and they are returning to the practice. 
 
“It is an income-generating activity, that is what they tell us, and particularly at this moment, coronavirus has brought reduction of income for most people and some find it a way to get a bit of money. So, the practice is real, and we should all join our forces to see the elimination of that practice that is detrimental to the health of women,” she said.Ondoa promised what she said will be a renewed government-led campaign to stop FGM. 
 
  

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‘Drastic’ Declines in Cambodia’s Endangered Wildlife

Deep in the deciduous tropical forests on the Srepok River banks, Bun Tropin has a routine as he stations himself at the Mereuch Base for the armed forest rangers of Cambodia’s Ministry of the Environment.The base has a long history of combat dating to the pivotal A red muntjac. (World Wildlife Fund)But Bun Tropin, 27, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) biodiversity research assistant, knows his way around the restricted sanctuaries in Mondulkiri province because he manages more than 200 camera traps as part of the conservation group’s effort to capture evidence of the presence of wildlife. Bun Tropin asked that his real name not be used to protect his family from threats by poachers.Bun Tropin and his team guided the journalists through chest-high grasses to check the cameras installed through the areas.“When you trek like this, you hardly see any of those bantengs, elephants, tigers and others,” the soft-spoken Bun Tropin told VOA Khmer. “But each time I spot them on camera, I am always wowed. Each time, I just could not take my eyes off them.”Drastic declinesWWF Cambodia released a report on Jan. 15 saying the ungulate populations in two sanctuaries –- Srepok and the neighboring Phnom Prich –- had An Eld’s deer. (World Wildlife Fund)Between the late 1960s and the early 1990s, Cambodia’s total banteng population fell by 95%, according to the WWF.In the neighboring Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), another conservation group, also documented a dramatic drop in ungulate population over the past 10 years.”Five out of six monitored ungulate species either show significant population declines or have been assessed by experts as being in decline within [Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary],” the WCS said in the report released in September 2020.Seng Teak, director of WWF Cambodia, said the findings were “concerning,” citing the ongoing hazards of habitat losses, poaching and snares.“If the snares remain throughout in the forest, there’s a chance forests of the future won’t have any wildlife,” he told VOA Khmer.A regulatory overhaul introduced in 2016 was designed to distinguish between the overlapping authority of Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture’s Forestry Administration and the Ministry of Environment has been implemented.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 3 MB480p | 4 MB540p | 6 MB720p | 15 MB1080p | 25 MBOriginal | 65 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe Forestry Administration oversees economic land concession planning. The Ministry of Environment protects vast biodiverse areas and wildlife sanctuaries with an embattled crew of armed and uniformed rangers; there are only 51 Environment Ministry rangers in the two preserves, and 1,200 rangers throughout Cambodia. Their numbers are unlikely to increase soon due to austerity measures imposed as combatting the coronavirus pandemic consumes the national budget.Yet the mountainous province is preparing to welcome a new airport, more tourists and more new residents to areas that need protection.Powerful business interestsThe London-based Environment Investigation Agency found rampant deforestation was masked by powerful business interests, according to a 2018 case study. It found timber logged in Cambodia’s northeast, the Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary, was illegally exported to Vietnam.“EIA investigations between September 2017 and March 2018 uncovered illegal logging operations on an unprecedented scale within the wildlife sanctuary, along with large-scale corruption implicating various elements of the Cambodian Government,” the report found.A wild pig. (World Wildlife Fund)Disgraced logging tycoon Soeng Sam Ol was arrested in 2019 with five senior environment, and forestry officials in the province were summoned for questioning by a national-level ad hoc investigatory team. Among them were Keo Sopheak, head of the provincial Department of Environment, and Paet Pheaktra, director of the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary.The five were later cleared of any wrongdoing.’Strict legal enforcement’Paet Pheaktra told VOA Khmer during the press tour that “strict legal enforcement” is the best way to protect endangered wildlife.“Implementing the law will be an effective method,” Paet Pheaktra said as he showed VOA reporters the snares used by the poachers. “People will respect if we use the laws accordingly.”He said “considerable” number of snares remain in the forests. He blamed both Vietnamese from the east of the sanctuaries and the local people who lived on the edge of the protected areas as key actors in harvesting the wildlife in the areas.“High-tech snares are mostly imported from the neighboring country [Vietnam],” said Paet Pheaktra, reflecting the traditional animosity between Vietnam and Cambodia.“If everyone is committed, I think it’s not too late to save the wildlife,” he said, adding that to save the forests, “it will be too late if you wait until the next 10 or 15 years.”WWF Cambodia is introducing a number of programs to assist the rangers and the nearby communities to find alternatives to logging and poaching as a bid to save the ungulates and other endangered species living in the two sanctuaries.That includes convincing the locals to stop poaching, a tall order given they consume most of the animals.Phan Phonna, 49, a mother of seven moved to the area in 1994 from her home province of Tboung Khmun. At the time, forests and wildlife were abundant, but that is no longer true.“We choose to raise pigs and poultry to make a living instead of consuming wild meats in fears of health dangers,” she said.“You cannot just go there as they monitor your activities all over the jungles,” Phonna added.‘Endless job’Seng Teak, who heads WWF Cambodia, remains hopeful, said the pace of loss among ungulates has slowed over the past three years. He credits conservation efforts, saying those coupled with combating of forestry and wildlife crimes will lead to revivals of currently endangered species.“Wildlife need a quiet habitat free of snares, guns, chainsaws and other types of intrusion,” he said. “They need a safe haven so that they can reproduce fast.”Back in Mereuch, Bun Tropin sees no end to his mission – documenting and preserving the ungulates in both north-eastern sanctuaries.“It is just an endless job,” Bun Tropin said. “It will keep going and new things will keep coming up – new species, new evolvement — and that requires more follow-up.”

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AstraZeneca Vaccine Less Effective Versus South African Variant

With the world in a race between the spread of coronavirus variants and vaccinating millions, AstraZeneca announced Saturday that early data shows its vaccine provides limited protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant of the virus.The test group was small, about 2,000 people, and young, with a median age of 31. But none of the study’s participants were hospitalized or died, according to The Financial Times of London, the first to report the results.“We do believe our vaccine could protect against severe disease,” an AstraZeneca spokesperson said. He added that the company has not been able “to properly ascertain its effect against severe disease and hospitalization given that subjects were predominantly young healthy adults.”The pharmaceutical company will publish its study results Monday.AstraZeneca has begun adapting its vaccine against the South African variant, the spokesperson said.China approves second vaccineChina has conditionally approved the use by the general public of a second COVID-19 vaccine.The National Medical Products Administration said in a statement Saturday that regulators approved the use Friday of CoronaVac, developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd.It’s the second vaccine approved for public use in the southeast Asian country. The first, a vaccine developed by a Chinese institute affiliated with the state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), was approved two months ago.The Sinovac vaccine, which is being administered in at least five other countries, was given emergency approval last July for high-risk people, such as health care workers and employees of state-owned companies.Conditional approval of the vaccine allows its use for the general public, while research continues. The company must submit current data and reports of any adverse effects after the vaccine is sold on the market.A third candidate vaccine from Sinopharm has been administered to high-risk groups in China, while a fourth candidate from CanSino Biologics is being administered to military personnel.Developing countries buy vaccineSome poorer countries, alarmed at watching rich countries receiving millions of COVID-19 vaccines, are deciding not to wait for vaccines from the World Health Organization and other groups, and have, instead, started striking their own vaccine deals.Juan Carlos Sikaffy, president of the Honduran Private Business Council, told the Associated Press that Honduras “cannot wait on bureaucratic processes or misguided decisions” to give citizens “the peace of mind” offered by the COVID-19 vaccine.The Honduran Private Business Council participated in a vaccine-buying deal for the Central American country by providing a bank guarantee.Serbia has also gone to the vaccine market even though it has paid 4 million euros to WHO’s COVAX program, created to distribute the COVID-19 vaccines fairly.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he could not wait for COVAX after watching rich countries buy up so many of the precious shots.“It’s as if they intend to vaccinate all their cats and dogs,” he said.The head of the World Health Organization called Friday for pharmaceutical companies to share manufacturing facilities to increase the production of COVID-19 vaccines.Speaking at an online news briefing from Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said what is needed is “a massive scale-up in production.”He noted that France’s pharmaceutical company Sanofi announced it would make its manufacturing infrastructure available to support production of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and called on other companies to do the same.He also repeated his call for rich nations to share doses with poorer countries once they have vaccinated health workers and older people.Curfews and lockdownsGreece has announced stricter lockdown restrictions in the capital, Athens, as well as other parts of the country to stop the spread of the pandemic. The restrictions include a curfew that will start at 6 p.m. Saturday.Also Saturday, South Korea begins easing its restrictions on businesses outside of the capital, allowing them to stay open an additional hour to 10 p.m. Small-business owners and self-employed people have been calling for an easing of restrictions imposed as the country seeks to control the coronavirus outbreak. However, businesses in Seoul, the capital, will still close at 9 p.m.Cuba imposed a strict nightly curfew Friday in the capital of Havana, as the country struggles to contain a resurgence of the spread of the coronavirus. The Havana Province Defense Council said people and vehicles would be restricted from moving about between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Cuba reopened its airports three months ago and eased lockdown measures after apparently bringing the outbreak under control. But the relaxed measures triggered a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases last month.There are more than 105 million global COVID-19 cases and 2.3 million deaths from the coronavirus, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.The United States remains at the top of the list as the location with the most infections, with nearly 27 million cases, followed by India with 10.8 million and Brazil with 9.4 million.

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China Conditionally OKs Public Use of 2nd COVID-19 Vaccine

China has conditionally approved a second COVID-19 vaccine for public use.The National Medical Products Administration said in a statement Saturday that regulators approved the use of Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s CoronaVac the day before.A vaccine developed by a Chinese institute affiliated with the state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) was approved for public use two months ago.The Sinovac vaccine, which is being administered in at least five other countries, was given emergency approval last July for people at high risk for infection, such as health care workers and employees of state-owned companies.Conditional approval of the vaccine allows its use for the general public while research continues. The company must submit current data and reports of any adverse effects after the vaccine is sold on the market.A third candidate vaccine from Sinopharm has already been administered to high-risk groups in China, while a fourth candidate from CanSino Biologics is being administered to military personnel.FILE – A security guard takes a woman’s temperature as a precaution against the new coronavirus, as she lines up to enter a bank in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, June 18, 2020.Developing countries buy vaccineSome poorer countries, alarmed at watching rich countries receive millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses, are deciding not to wait for vaccines from the World Health Organization and other groups, and have instead started striking their own vaccine deals.Juan Carlos Sikaffy, president of the Honduran Private Business Council, told The Associated Press that Honduras “cannot wait on bureaucratic processes or misguided decisions” to give citizens “the peace of mind” offered by COVID-19 vaccines.The Honduran Private Business Council participated in a vaccine-buying deal for the Central American country by providing a bank guarantee.Serbia has also gone to the vaccine market, even though it has already paid 4 million euros to WHO’s COVAX program, created to distribute the COVID vaccines fairly.FILE – Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic talks to reporters in Belgrade, June 21, 2020.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he could not wait for COVAX after watching rich countries buy up so many of the precious shots.“It’s as if they intend to vaccinate all their cats and dogs,” he said.The head of the World Health Organization called Friday for pharmaceutical companies to share manufacturing facilities to increase the production of COVID-19 vaccines.Speaking at an online news briefing from Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “a massive scale-up in production” was needed.He noted that France’s pharmaceutical company Sanofi announced it would make its manufacturing infrastructure available to support production of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and called on other companies to do the same.“We encourage all manufacturers to share their data and technology to ensure global, equitable access to vaccines,” Tedros said.He also repeated his call for rich nations to share doses with poorer countries once they have vaccinated health workers and older people.Tedros said 75% of all COVID-19 vaccinations worldwide have been given in just 10 countries, while nearly 130 nations have not given a single vaccination.“The longer it takes to vaccinate those most at risk everywhere, the more opportunity we give the virus to mutate and evade vaccines,” Tedros said, adding that unless the virus is suppressed everywhere, it could resurge globally.A health care worker prepares a dose of China’s Sinovac Biotech COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in the Sambadrome, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Feb. 6, 2021.China’s Sinovac said Friday that late-stage trial data of its COVID-19 vaccine from Brazil and Turkey showed the vaccine prevented hospitalization and death in COVID-19 patients in 100% of participants. But the company said the vaccine was only 50.65% effective at keeping people from getting infected.The trial of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine involved nearly 12,400 people and also found the vaccine was 83.7% effective in preventing COVID-19 cases that required any medical treatment.Biden sends in troopsIn the United States, President Joe Biden’s administration announced Friday that the Pentagon had approved the deployment of 1,100 active-duty troops to assist with COVID-19 vaccination efforts. It said that number would likely rise soon.The U.S. Supreme Court told the western state of California on Friday that it could not prohibit indoor worship services because of the pandemic, but that it could temporarily maintain a ban on singing and chanting indoors. The court’s orders came after two churches sued over the state’s lockdown measures. The court ruled that California could limit indoor services to 25% of a building’s capacity.FILE – People line up at a COVID-19 vaccination site at Yankee Stadium, Feb. 5, 2021, in the Bronx borough of New York.New York’s Yankee Stadium was transformed Friday into a COVID-19 vaccination hub.  The iconic stadium is located in the Bronx, a mostly Black and Hispanic borough that has experienced high infection and death rates from the coronavirus.Currently, only Bronx residents are eligible to receive the COVID shots at the stadium, where members of the National Guard have been deployed to assist in the vaccine campaign.Jacqueline Soto, 55, a school secretary from the Bronx, told Reuters on Friday “I was on a wait list for three weeks, desperate to get a vaccine. … I was unsuccessful. But today I’m here. I just went on the link yesterday and already I got the appointment today, and I’m happy to be here.”The U.S. supermarket chain Kroger said Friday that it would give $100 to workers who get a COVID-19 vaccination, joining a growing number of companies who are incentivizing employees to get vaccinated.Coronavirus cases in the United States have been decreasing in recent weeks. However, medical officials are urging U.S. residents to not turn Sunday’s Super Bowl, a yearly football game, into a superspreader event.  Fans usually gather at large home parties or in bars and restaurants to watch the game on television.  Medical authorities this year, however, are urging football fans to watch the game “with the people you live with.”Hundreds of people protested Saturday in the streets of Tunisia, which has yet to receive any vaccines. Frustrated Tunisians decried the lack of jobs, poor living conditions and the economic crisis worsened by the pandemic. They also demanded the release of those arrested during protests earlier this year. Demonstrators attend a protest to mark the anniversary of a prominent activist’s death and against allegations of police abuse, in Tunis, Tunisia, Feb. 6, 2021.Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi announced a government reorganization and promised that the new team would focus on deep reforms to improve conditions in the North African country.Greece announced stricter lockdown restrictions in the capital, Athens, as well as in other parts of the country to stop the spread of the pandemic. The restrictions included a curfew that began at 6 p.m. Saturday.FILE – A medical worker in a booth sprays disinfectant as she waits for people to come for tests at a coronavirus testing site in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 5, 2021.Also Saturday, South Korea began easing its restrictions on businesses outside the capital, allowing them to stay open an additional hour, to 10 p.m.  Small-business owners and self-employed people have been calling for an easing of restrictions imposed as the country seeks to control the coronavirus outbreak. However, businesses in Seoul, the capital, will still close at 9 p.m.Cuba imposed a strict nightly curfew Friday in the capital, Havana, as the country struggles to contain a resurgence of the spread of the coronavirus. The Havana Province Defense Council said people and vehicles would be restricted from moving about between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Cuba reopened its airports three months ago and eased lockdown measures after apparently bringing the outbreak under control. But the relaxed measures triggered a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases last month.As of Saturday afternoon EST, there were more than 105.6 million global GOVID-19 cases and 2.3 million deaths from the coronavirus, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.The United States remained at the top of the list as the location with the most infections, with more than 26.8 million cases, followed by India with 10.8 million and Brazil with 9.4 million.   

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