Search form

You are here

  • Home
  • Thailand suspends vaccine rollout as Biden eyes Independence Day


Thailand suspends vaccine rollout as Biden eyes Independence Day

A health worker receives the CoronaVac vaccine, developed by China’s Sinovac firm in Bangkok on February 28, 2021. (FIle/AFP)
Short Url

https://arab.news/8p6hh

Updated 12 March 2021
AFP
Follow

Thailand suspends vaccine rollout as Biden eyes Independence Day

  • The move came just hours after US President Joe Biden offered COVID-weary Americans hope of a return to some kind of normality by July 4
  • Australia, Mexico and the Philippines said they would continue their rollouts as they had found no reason to alter course
Updated 12 March 2021
AFP

BANGKOK: Thailand on Friday joined several European nations in suspending the AstraZeneca vaccine over blood clot fears, despite a range of health authorities around the world insisting it was safe.
The move came just hours after US President Joe Biden offered COVID-weary Americans hope of a return to some kind of normality by July 4, marking the national holiday as his target for "independence" from the virus.
After a shaky start, the US has ramped up its vaccination programme, following the advice of scientists who say jabs are the only way out of a pandemic that has killed 2.6 million people around the world.
But global hopes received a blow Thursday when Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Italy and Romania postponed or limited the rollout of their quota of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines after isolated reports of recipients developing blood clots.
Thailand followed suit on Friday.
Health regulators stressed there was no evidence of any link, but they were acting out of an abundance of caution.
Australia, Mexico and the Philippines said they would continue their rollouts as they had found no reason to alter course. Canada said there was no evidence the jab causes adverse reactions.
Thailand's decision led to the embarrassing spectacle of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha abruptly cancelling his own televised jab.
"Vaccine injection for Thais must be safe, we do not have to be in a hurry," said Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, an adviser for the country's Covid-19 vaccine committee.

In the US, Biden laid out the path for escape from the darkest days of the pandemic in the world's worst-hit country.
"This fight is far from over," Biden said in his first televised primetime address as president, delivering an emotional tribute to the more than 530,000 Americans who have died from Covid-19.
He said Americans could overcome the virus if they worked together and followed health experts' guidelines on wearing masks and getting vaccinated.
"Just as we are emerging from a dark winter into a hopeful spring and summer is not the time to not stick with the rules," he said.
If Americans stay the course, they may be able to mark their cherished July 4th national holiday in somewhat normal circumstances, with a backyard barbecue, he said.
"That will make this Independence Day something truly special where we not only mark our independence as a nation but we begin to mark our independence from this virus."

After falling behind in its immunisation effort, the EU is now fighting hard to accelerate its vaccine push.
It has targeted AstraZeneca, whose shares plunged more than 2.5 percent on the London Stock Exchange over the vaccine concerns, for censure over its failure to meet delivery promises.
The head of the EU's coronavirus vaccine supply task force said the pace of the company's production was "not good enough" to meet its obligations for the first quarter of the year, the latest in a bitter spat between the 27-nation bloc and the company.
"AstraZeneca vaccines delivery: I see efforts, but not 'best efforts'," Thierry Breton wrote on Twitter.
The EU approved the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Thursday, which is stored at higher temperatures than competitors and is easier to distribute.
Despite the sluggish bloc-wide rollout, Greece on Thursday said it is aiming to reopen for tourists by mid-May because of the acceleration of its own programme.
In another boost for vaccine hopes, a real-world study in Israel showed the Pfizer/BioNTech jabs to be 97 percent effective against symptomatic Covid cases, higher than originally thought.
Since first emerging in China at the end of 2019, the coronavirus has infected more than 118 million people, with few parts of the globe left untouched.
Countries have jostled for the most effective vaccines and enough doses to inoculate their populations, in some cases many times over.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday lashed out at what he called the "many examples of vaccine nationalism and hoarding" that will prevent some countries from getting the resources to bring their health crises to an end.
"Many low-income countries have not yet received a single dose," he said.
"The global vaccination campaign represents the greatest moral test of our times."

Topics: Coronarivus

Related

World
Thailand finds South African COVID-19 variant in quarantine
World
Thailand reports 819 new coronavirus cases, 1 additional death

Pope Francis calls for investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute ‘genocide’

Updated 4 sec ago
AP
Follow

Pope Francis calls for investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute ‘genocide’

  • First time that Francis has openly urged for an investigation of genocide allegations over Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip
  • Last year, Francis met separately with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians living through the war
Updated 4 sec ago
AP
ROME: Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide, according to excerpts released Sunday from an upcoming new book ahead of the pontiff’s jubilee year.
It’s the first time that Francis has openly urged for an investigation of genocide allegations over Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. In September, he said Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon have been “immoral” and disproportionate, and that its military has gone beyond the rules of war.
The book, by Hernan Reyes Alcaide and based on interviews with the Pope, is entitled “Hope never disappoints. Pilgrims toward a better world.” It will be released on Tuesday ahead of the pope’s 2025 jubilee. Francis’ yearlong jubilee is expected to bring more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome to celebrate the Holy Year.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope said in excerpts published Sunday by the Italian daily La Stampa.
“We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” he added.
Last year, Francis met separately with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians living through the war and set off a firestorm by using words that Vatican diplomats usually avoid: “terrorism” and, according to the Palestinians, “genocide.”
Francis spoke at the time about the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians after his meetings, which were arranged before the Israeli-Hamas hostage deal and a temporary halt in fighting was announced.
The pontiff, who last week also met with a delegation of Israeli hostages who were released and their families pressing the campaign to bring the remaining captives home had editorial control over the upcoming book.
The war started when the militant Hamas group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 as hostages and taking them back to Gaza, where dozens still remain.
Israel’s subsequent yearlong military campaign has killed more than 43,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, whose count doesn’t distinguish between civilians and fighters, though they say more than half of the dead are women and children.
The Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza has triggered several legal cases at international courts in The Hague involving requests for arrest warrants as well as accusations and denials of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
In the new book, Francis also speaks about migration and the problem of integrating migrants in their host countries.
“Faced with this challenge, no country can be left alone and no one can think of addressing the issue in isolation through more restrictive and repressive laws, sometimes approved under the pressure of fear or in search of electoral advantages,” Francis said.
“On the contrary, just as we see that there is a globalization of indifference, we must respond with the globalization of charity and cooperation,” he added. Francis also mentioned the “still open wound of the war in Ukraine has led thousands of people to abandon their homes, especially during the first months of the conflict.”

Survivors still trapped after deadly Tanzania building collapse

Updated 12 min 34 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Survivors still trapped after deadly Tanzania building collapse

  • The four-story block came down at around 9:00 a.m. on Saturday in the east African country’s busy Kariakoo market
  • Dar es Salaam has been the scene of a frenetic property boom with buildings shooting up at speed, often with scant regard for regulations
Updated 12 min 34 sec ago
AFP

DAR ES SALAAM: Tanzanian rescue workers dug through the ruins of a collapsed building for a second day on Sunday, hoping to pull survivors from beneath the rubble.
The four-story block came down at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) on Saturday in the east African country’s busy Kariakoo market, in the center of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Five people have been confirmed dead from the disaster, the fire brigade said. At least 70 people had been retrieved alive from the site.
Dar es Salaam regional commissioner Albert Chalamila on Sunday said there were more people still trapped in the basement floor of the shattered building, without specifying how many.
“We are communicating... and already we have supplied them with oxygen and water,” he said.
“They are stable and we believe they will be rescued alive and safe.”
The fire brigade chief John Masunga said the search and rescue had been hampered by the many walls making up the structure of the building.
In the aftermath of the building’s floors rapidly buckling beneath each other until they formed a mountain of debris, hundreds of first responders used sledgehammers and their bare hands to pull away masonry for hours.
Cranes and other heavy lifting equipment were then brought in to help.
It is not clear why the commercial building collapsed but witnesses told local media that construction to expand its underground business space began on Friday.
The incident has renewed criticism over unregulated construction in the Indian Ocean city of more than five million people.
One of the world’s fastest growing cities, Dar es Salaam has been the scene of a frenetic property boom with buildings shooting up at speed, often with scant regard for regulations.
In 2013, a 16-story building collapsed in Dar es Salaam, killing 34 people.

Topics: Tanzania

Related

Saudi Arabia
Saudi officials attend meeting of auditors in Tanzania
Saudi Arabia
KSrelief medical volunteers help amputees, cardiac patients in Ukraine, Tanzania

Indian police battle Maoist rebels, five killed

Updated 19 min 29 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Indian police battle Maoist rebels, five killed

  • More than 10,000 people have died in the insurgency against the Maoists
  • The clash took place in regions bordering Kanker and Narayanpur
Updated 19 min 29 sec ago
AFP

RAIPUR, India: Indian security forces have killed five Maoist rebels in jungle clashes, an officer said Sunday, as security forces seek to quash the decades-long insurgency in the resource-rich central regions.
Gun battles took place in the Abujhmad forests of Chhattisgarh state on Saturday, taking the toll of the conflict in 2024 to around 200, one of the highest in years.
More than 10,000 people have died in the insurgency against the Maoists — known as the Naxalite movement, who say they are fighting for the rights of marginalized indigenous people.
“In the gunbattle five Maoists have been killed,” senior police officer P. Sunderraj said, adding that two of the rebels were women.
The clash took place in regions bordering Kanker and Narayanpur, with police seizing rifles and ammunition from the corpses.
Two officers were wounded in the clash.
India’s government has warned the insurgents to surrender, with Amit Shah, the interior minister, saying in September that he expected the rebellion to be defeated by early 2026.
The Naxalites, named for the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
They demanded land, jobs and a share of the region’s immense natural resources for the local people, and made inroads in a number of remote communities.
India claimed to have confined the insurgency to about 45 districts in 2023, down from 96 in 2010.
Authorities have pumped in millions of dollars for new investments in local infrastructure projects and social spending.

Topics: India

Related

World
Indian troops kill five Maoist rebels
World
At least 37 Maoists killed in jungle raids in India

India’s successful test of hypersonic missile puts it among elite group

Updated 17 November 2024
Reuters
Follow

India’s successful test of hypersonic missile puts it among elite group

  • Missile is designed to carry payloads for ranges exceeding 1,500 km for armed forces
  • India is striving to develop long-range missiles along with China, Russia and United States
Updated 17 November 2024
Reuters

NEW DELHI: India has successfully tested a domestically developed long-range hypersonic missile, it said on Sunday, attaining a key milestone in military development that puts it in a small group of nations possessing the advanced technology.
The global push for hypersonic weapons figures in the efforts of some countries, such as India, which is striving to develop advanced long-range missiles, along with China, Russia and the United States.
The Indian missile, developed by the state-run Defense Research and Development Organization and industry partners, is designed to carry payloads for ranges exceeding 1,500 km (930 miles) for the armed forces, the government said in a statement.
“The flight data ... confirmed the successful terminal maneuvers and impact with high degree of accuracy,” it added.
The test-firing took place from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam island off the eastern coast of Odisha state on Saturday, it said.
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh called the test a “historic achievement” in a post on X, adding that it placed India among a select group of nations possessing such critical and advanced technologies.

Russia targets Ukraine’s power grid in ‘massive’ missile strike, officials say

Updated 17 November 2024
Reuters
Follow

Russia targets Ukraine’s power grid in ‘massive’ missile strike, officials say

  • Ukrainians have been bracing for a major attack on the hobbled power system for weeks
  • A crippling damage to the grid that would cause long blackouts and build psychological pressure
Updated 17 November 2024
Reuters

KYIV: Blasts rang out across Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and other cities early on Sunday, as Russia staged its biggest missile attack since August and targeted power facilities with the winter setting in, officials said.
Ukrainians have been bracing for a major attack on the hobbled power system for weeks, fearing crippling damage to the grid that would cause long blackouts and build psychological pressure at a critical moment in the war Russia launched in February 2022.
“Another massive attack on the power system is under way. The enemy is attacking electricity generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.
Air defenses could be heard engaging drones over the capital in the night, and a series of powerful blasts rang out across the city center as the missile attack was under way in the morning.
The scale of the damage was not immediately clear. Officials cut power supply to numerous city districts, including in Kyiv, the surrounding region and Dnipropetrovsk region, in what they said was a precaution to prevent a surge in case of damage.
Authorities in the Volyn region in northwestern Ukraine said energy infrastructure had sustained damage but did not elaborate. Officials often withhold information on the state of the power system because of the war.
In Mykolaiv in the south, two people were killed in the overnight drone attack, the regional governor said. Blasts shook the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and the Black Sea port of Odesa, Reuters witnesses said. More blasts were reported in the regions of Kryvyi Rih in the south and Rivne in the west.
“Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure,” said Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
He described the strike as Moscow’s “true response” to leaders who had interacted with President Vladimir Putin, an apparent swipe at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who placed a phone call to the Russian leader on Friday for the first time since late 2022.
NATO member Poland, which borders Ukraine to the west, said it had scrambled its air force within its airspace as a security precaution due to the Russian attack, which it said used cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones.
Poland “activated all available forces and resources at his disposal, the on-duty fighter pairs were scrambled, and the ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems reached the highest state of readiness,” the operational command of its armed forces posted on X.
Ukraine’s air force urged residents to take cover, providing regular updates on the progress of Russian cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles it said were hurtling through Ukrainian air space.
In Kyiv, the roof of a residential building caught fire due to falling debris and at least two people were hurt, city officials said on the Telegram messaging app.
“Emergency services were dispatched to the scene,” Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Russia last conducted a major missile strike on Kyiv on Aug. 26, when officials said it fired a salvo of more than 200 drones and missiles across the country in an attack that attack killed seven people.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Russia Ukraine

Related

World
Russia captures two villages in eastern Ukraine, defense ministry says, according to agencies
World
Investigation reveals a Russian factory’s plan to mix decoys with a new deadly weapon in Ukraine

Latest updates

Pope Francis calls for investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute ‘genocide’
Survivors still trapped after deadly Tanzania building collapse
Indian police battle Maoist rebels, five killed
Direct Pakistan-Bangladesh shipping route marks rebuilding ties
Egypt’s middle class cuts costs as IMF-backed reforms take hold

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.