Day: July 18, 2021

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COVID-19 is taking a devastating toll on medical professionals in Indonesia, where 114 doctors have died so far this month, more than double the number of doctors who died in June, according to a physicians’ network known as the Mitigation Team of the Indonesian Medical Association, or IDI.   
 
The rising number of doctor deaths comes as the government notes that 95% of health workers have received COVID-19 vaccines.
 
On Sunday, the chief of the mitigation team, Mahesa Paranadipa Maikel, told the press in Jakarta that the doctor monthly death toll is the highest since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020. The record was last set in January 2021, when 65 doctors died.
 
A total of 545 doctors in Indonesia have died since the beginning of the pandemic. The highest death toll is in East Java with 110, followed by Jakarta with 83 and central Java with 81.Relatives attend funerals of family members who died from the coronavirus at a cemetery for COVID-19 victims in TPU Rorotan, north Jakarta, Indonesia, July 8, 2021. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)In all of June, 51 doctors died, but that toll has jumped 123% so far this month.  
 
“These numbers might be higher since there are hospitals or clinics that have not reported to us,” said Mahesa.  
 
Most of the doctors who died due to COVID-19 were general practitioners, obstetricians, internists and surgeons. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus.
 
The team also noted that hundreds of others health workers have died as a result of the pandemic, including 445 nurses, 42 pharmacists, 223 midwives and 25 laboratory workers.
 
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin says the government has started to use a batch of Moderna vaccines as booster shots to health workers who already received China’s Sinovac vaccine. Sinovac is one of seven coronavirus vaccines that have received emergency use approval by the World Health Organization. Studies on the vaccine’s efficacy rate are ongoing, but Sinovac appears to be less powerful against the coronavirus than other COVID-19 vaccines.Makeshift grave markers are seen at a cemetery for COVID-19 victims in TPU Rorotan, north Jakarta, Indonesia, July 8, 2021. The 8,000 square meter plot of land, which saw its first funerals in March, is now almost full. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)Meanwhile, in the past week the number of daily infections among Indonesians has increased to more than five thousand, with more than a thousand new deaths.   
 
Indonesia currently has more than 2.8 million confirmed cases and 72,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak. Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, with more than 275 million people.
 
Windhu Purnomo is an epidemiologist who serves on the faculty of public health at Airlangga University. He told VOA that the situation might worsen due to three factors: the slow pace of vaccinations, the failure to curb people’s mobility and the spread of the more virulent delta variant.
 
“We have just got many new vaccines like from the U.S., Japan, etc., so even if we increase the vaccinations program, it is still not optimal,” Purnomo said.COVID-19 patients line up for room placement to receive medical treatment, in front of RSUD Bekasi Hospital, in Bekasi City, West Java, Indonesia, June 30, 2021. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)The country can’t impose a lockdown as has happened in other nations, because it doesn’t have the money to pay people to stay home. And the delta variant, which is sweeping the world, is hitting Indonesia hard as well.  
 
“Our burden is too heavy,” he added.
 
The government imposed strict curbs on movements on July 3 to slow the spread of COVID-19. They include a work-from-home order for non-essential workers and the closure of shopping malls, markets, and all public facilities on the islands of Java, Bali, and 15 other cities across the archipelago.
 
Luhut Pandjaitan, senior minister who coordinates pandemic restrictions, told VOA on Friday that the government will decide within days whether to extend the timeline for lifting the restrictions, which are set to end on July 20.  
 
“It is not easy and there are several other options. But we will most likely extend it because it’s impossible to reduce or control the spread of the delta variant in two weeks, he said. “But we’ll see what happens first.”COVID-19 patients are seen in an emergency tent put up outside of RSUD Bekasi Hospital, in Bekasi City, West Java, June 30, 2021. The surge in new daily cases has overwhelmed the hospital itself. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)Health facilities may break down, the mitigation team warned, because there may be too many people needing care, limited medicine and medical equipment available and a lack of doctors, nurses and other medical staff available to provide care.  
 
“We are worried about the potential of a functional collapse. We must create a mapping to see the capabilities of each local health facility,” said Adib Khumaidi, another leader on the team.
 
The government says it plans to speed up the opening of a number of field hospitals, as well as mobilize 2,000 doctors and 20,000 nurses to cope with the surge in cases.  
 Sasmito Madrim in Jakarta contributed to this report.
 
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With COVID-19 cases rising in the United States, some cities and counties are telling residents to wear masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated, while the Biden administration points to the prevalence of misinformation about vaccinations, especially on social media, as one of the drivers keeping people from getting shots. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Marcus Harton
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Once part of a balanced ecosystem, the number of native sea urchins in Australia is multiplying. Scientists have offered a solution, but will people find it palatable? VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

Produced by: Arash Arabasadi
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Thai police used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets on Sunday as they tried to stop protesters from marching on the office of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha calling for him to resign.

More than 1,000 protesters took part in the demonstration, which police had so far not dispersed.

Many demonstrators carried mock body-bags to represent coronavirus deaths, as they blame the prime minister and his government for mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The government has been poor at managing the situation and if we don’t do anything there will be no change,” one protester, Kanyaporn Veeratat, 34, told Reuters.

The use of force by the police came after some protesters tried to dismantle barbed wire and metal barricades set up by the authorities to block roads from Democracy Monument to Government House where the prime minister works. 

“Murderous government!,” Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul, a protest leader, tweeted after the use of force.

The protest marked one year since the first of a wave of large-scale street protests led by youth groups that attracted hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

The momentum of those protests stalled after authorities began cracking down on rallies and detaining protest leaders, and after new waves of COVID-19 infections broke out.

Most of the protest leaders who were detained have been released on bail and some took part in anti-government protests last month.

As part of curbs to stem the coronavirus spread, the government on Friday imposed a new nationwide ban on public gatherings of more than five people, which carries a maximum penalty of a two-year jail term or a fine of up to 40,000 baht ($1,220), or both.

Thailand reported 11,397 infections and 101 deaths on Sunday, bringing the cumulative total to 403,386 cases and 3,341 fatalities, the vast majority from an outbreak since early April that is being fueled by the highly transmissible Alpha and Delta COVID-19 variants.

Police urged people not to join Sunday’s protest, saying that to do so risked further spreading coronavirus, and warned that those who breached the law and cause unrest will face charges.

“There has been increasing in the number of newly infected cases on a daily basis,” said deputy police spokesman Kissana Phathanacharoen. “Joining such a rally would raise public concerns, public health concern and worsen the current situation,” he said.

Street protests against the prime minister have been held in recent weeks by several groups, including Prayuth’s former political allies, as frustrations grow over the mounting infections and the damage the pandemic has done to the economy.

Last year’s protests also broke traditional taboos by openly criticizing the king, an offence under the country’s strict lese majeste law that makes insulting or defaming the king, queen, heir and regent punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

 
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Britain’s National Health Service has contacted Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his finance minister, Rishi Sunak, to let them know that they have been close to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.Downing Street said Sunday in a statement the men will participate in a daily contact testing pilot that will allow them to continue to work from Downing Street but self-isolate when not in their offices.The announcement came after U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who leads the country’s coronavirus response said Saturday he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating.COVID-19 cases are rising in the U.S. and around the world, largely driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus. Regions are beginning to return to measures such as mask-wearing to reduce the number of victims.Los Angeles County, in the U.S. state of California, reimposed a mask-wearing mandate that went into effect Saturday, but a county sheriff said the Public Health Department’s move was “not backed by science” and his department will not enforce the measure.“Forcing the vaccinated and those who already contracted COVID-19 to wear masks indoors is not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva wrote in a statement on the department’s website.“The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) has authority to enforce the order, but the underfunded/defunded Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will not expend our limited resources and instead ask for voluntary compliance.  We encourage the DPH to work collaboratively with the Board of Supervisors and law enforcement to establish mandates that are both achievable and supported by science.”It was not immediately clear what, if any repercussions, the sheriff’s office will face for the statement and its refusal to enforce the mandate.Meanwhile, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an advocacy group based in Washington and London, has produced a report that identifies a dozen pandemic profiteers “who have enriched themselves by spreading misinformation” about the COVID vaccines.The group said the 12 entities operate “in plain sight, publicly undermining our collective confidence in doctors, governments and medical science. Their confidence in openly promoting lies and false cures comes from years of impunity in which they were hosted on popular social media platforms, driving traffic and advertising dollars to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, while benefiting from the enormous reach those platforms gladly afforded them.”Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy decried the COVID misinformation that has spread across social media.More stringent COVID-19 containment measures were imposed in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, as cases of infections continued to rise in the third week of a citywide lockdown.New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters Saturday the new restrictions would remain in effect until the end of July.Officials ordered the shutdown of building sites and nonessential retail businesses, restrictions that also apply to Sydney’s surrounding communities in New South Wales.Residents in the Sydney suburbs of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool are prohibited from traveling outside their communities unless they are health care workers or emergency responders.Vietnam also is reportedly imposing new restrictions as it grapples with its worst COVID-19 outbreak to date.The government announced Saturday that it would impose two-week travel restrictions in 16 southern provinces beginning Monday, according to Reuters.”The curbs are to protect people’s health,” the government reportedly said in a statement.In the United Kingdom, every adult has been offered a first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine ahead of the country’s reopening Monday. So far 87.8% of adults have received at least one shot.Johnson said the reopening will go forward even though new infections are at their highest level since January, driven by the delta variant.One U.K. COVID-19 restriction that will not be lifted Monday is on travelers from France, because of concerns about the beta variant first identified in South Africa.Travelers from France must isolate for up to 10 days on entering Britain, even if they are fully vaccinated. However, fully vaccinated travelers from most of the rest of Europe can forgo quarantining as of Monday as planned.In the United States, three Texas state lawmakers have tested positive for the coronavirus, even though they had been vaccinated, the Texas State House Democratic Caucus said on Saturday.The lawmakers left their state and flew to Washington to block passage of new, restrictive voting legislation in their state.Two of the lawmakers met Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris. In a statement Saturday, Harris spokesperson Symone Sanders said Harris and her staff are fully vaccinated and “were not at risk of exposure because they were not in close contact with those who tested positive.””We are taking these positive confirmations very seriously,” Texas state Representative Ron Reynolds, told MSNBC. “We’re following all CDC guidelines and … we are going to make sure that we don’t expose anyone.”Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Sunday that there have been more than 4 million global COVID-19 deaths and over 190 million infections have been confirmed.Some information for this report came from Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Major oil producers seeking to boost output will meet on Sunday, OPEC said, after negotiations earlier this month became deadlocked over plans to gradually ease production cuts.

The OPEC+ grouping, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, will meet via videoconference at 1000 GMT on Sunday, the Vienna-based OPEC Secretariat said in a statement.

The group’s 23 members canceled a meeting on July 5 that was supposed to overcome an impasse over crude output levels.

Since May, the group has raised oil output bit by bit, after slashing it more than a year ago when the coronavirus pandemic crushed demand.

At stake is a proposal that would see the world’s leading oil producers raise output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) each month from August to December.

That would add 2 million bpd to markets by the end of the year, helping to fuel a global economic recovery as the coronavirus pandemic eases.

A further proposal seeks to extend a deadline on capping output from April 2022 to the end of 2022.

But holding out against the new deal was the United Arab Emirates, which criticized the terms of the extension as unjust.

Oil prices, which had already been sliding owing to concerns about the global economy, plummeted in April 2020 as coronavirus spread around the world and battered global consumption, transport and supply chains.

OPEC+ decided to withdraw 9.7 million bpd from the market and to gradually restore supplies by the end of April 2022. Benchmark oil prices rebounded as a result. 
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The death toll in a landslide that hit the Japanese resort town of Atami has risen to 15, a local official said Sunday, as hundreds of rescuers continued the search for more than a dozen missing residents.

“Two more people were confirmed dead during the weekend, with the number of victims now totaling 15,” disaster-management spokesperson Yuta Hara told AFP.

Fourteen people remain unaccounted for, the official said.

Dozens of homes were swept away when a landslide descended on the resort town in several violent waves on July 3.

It came after days of intense downpours in and around Atami, which lies about 90 kilometers southwest of Tokyo.

Japan was in its rainy season when the floods struck, with many parts of the country vulnerable to landslides because homes are built on slopes where ground can loosen and collapse suddenly after heavy downpours.

Scientists say climate change is also intensifying the country’s rainy seasons because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.

Rescue and recovery efforts involving about 1,300 police officers, firefighters, soldiers and coast guard members were continuing, the spokesperson said. 

  
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Two athletes have become the first to test positive for the coronavirus in the Tokyo Olympic Village, officials said on Sunday, just days before the pandemic-delayed Games open.The cases will heighten concerns over the Olympics, which are facing opposition in Japan over fears they will bring new cases to a country already battling a surge in infections.A daily tally of new cases revealed two athletes tested positive in the Village and one elsewhere. They come a day after an unidentified person, who was not a competitor, became the first case in the Village.The Olympic Village, a complex of apartments and dining areas, will house 6,700 athletes and officials at its peak when the 2020 Games, delayed last year over the pandemic, finally get under way.The Tokyo Olympics, which will be held largely behind closed doors to prevent infections, are unpopular in Japan where opinion polls have consistently demonstrated a lack of support.On Saturday, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach appealed for Japanese fans to get behind the Games, saying he was “very well aware of the skepticism” surrounding the event. 
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Professor William LeoGrande, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs in the Department of Government at the American University, and Professor of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, Eduardo Gamarra, analyze with host Carol Castiel the roots and ramifications of twin crises in the Caribbean: the assassination of Haiti’s President, Jovenal Moïse, and ensuing power struggle and the largest and most widespread protests in Cuba in decades. How does the turmoil affect US policy toward the region? Given the large Cuban and Haitian Diaspora communities in the United States, how does the Biden Administration deal with both domestic and international dimension of policy? 
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