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Senin, 21 Desember 2020

First shipment of Covid-19 vaccine arrives in S'pore on SIA flight from Brussels - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - The first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine has landed in Singapore, a crucial first step to vaccinate the population.

The vaccine - the first such shipment to arrive in Asia - was carried by a Singapore Airlines (SIA) Boeing 747-400 freighter, SQ7979.

The flight had departed from Brussels, Belgium, on Sunday (Dec 20) and landed at Changi Airport at about 7.30pm on Monday (Dec 21).

The shipment was prioritised for loading into the aircraft in Brussels, as well as during unloading in Singapore, SIA said.

Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung, Mr Kevin Shum, the director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the chief executives of Changi Airport Group and SIA were among those who turned up at the airport to witness the arrival of the vaccine.

Ground handler Sats moved the vaccines to its cold chain facility Sats Coolport before they were loaded onto a refrigerated truck that will send them to an external storage facility.

Speaking to reporters at the facility, Mr Ong said: "We are ready to do this and a lot of preparation work has gone into making this as smooth as possible."

SIA had conducted a successful trial to test its vaccine handling capability along the same freighter flight route on Dec 19, the airline said.

It carried out the trial with cool boxes used to pack the actual vaccine, and had tracked the internal temperature within these boxes throughout the flight. It also monitored the rate at which dry ice within the box turned into carbon dioxide.

SIA senior vice-president for cargo Chin Yau Seng said the airline was honoured to be able to play its part in an important milestone in the fight against Covid-19.

"It also served to demonstrate SIA's and the Singapore air hub's readiness for the very important job of transporting and distributing Covid-19 vaccines internationally," he said.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the first Covid-19 vaccine approved by the Health Sciences Authority in Singapore. There are no details yet on how it will be rolled out.

The vaccine is already being administered in countries such as Britain, Canada and the United States.

Singapore is one of the first countries to obtain the vaccine, and other vaccines are expected to arrive in the coming months, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced last week.

The vaccines will be offered on a free and voluntary basis to all Singaporeans and long-term residents who are currently here.

(From right) Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung, SIA chief executive Goh Choon Phong, Changi Airport Group CEO Lee Seow Hiang take a wefie at Changi Airport where the first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine has landed on Dec 21, 2020. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Priority will be given to healthcare and front-line workers, as well as elderly and vulnerable patients.

If all goes according to plan, there will be enough vaccines for everyone in Singapore by the third quarter of 2021.

The Republic has also beefed up its capacity to store and transport Covid-19 vaccines, and is positioning itself to be a hub for the movement of Covid-19 vaccines to the region.

The Republic has also beefed up its capacity to store and transport Covid-19 vaccines. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Shipments from Europe are expected to go through Singapore to South-east Asia and South-west Pacific when broader regulatory approval is secured.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and Changi Airport Group have set up a task force to work on the vaccine shipment process. The task force comprises 18 members in the air cargo sector, including SIA and ground handlers Sats and dnata.

Logistic firm DHL Global Forwarding, a division of German logistics giant DHL, said it had arranged for the collection of the vaccines from the manufacturing site in Puurs in Belgium. The vaccine cargo was accompanied by security escorts on the road to the airport in Brussels.

DHL will also handle the final delivery of the vaccine to the designated location in Singapore, it said.

Australia confirms two cases of new coronavirus strain - Yahoo Singapore News

South China Morning Post

Under Joe Biden, tapping US capital markets will get even tougher for corporate China

As the Biden administration takes the reins in Washington, the stakes have never been higher for the US relationship with China and the rest of Asia. In the latest in a post-election series, Jodi Xu Klein explores the challenges facing US-listed Chinese companies.When large indices provider MSCI increased China shares a year ago to the highest single country weight in its emerging market benchmark, the Trump administration lent support for legislation to cut off corporate China from American investors. That financial decoupling from China is still deepening.In November, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring Americans from investing in 31 Chinese companies deemed to have military ties. That number has since risen to 35.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.“Those companies raise capital by selling securities to United States investors that trade on public exchanges both here and abroad, lobbying United States index providers and funds to include these securities in market offerings,” Trump said in an executive order signed on November 12. “People’s Republic of China is increasingly exploiting United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernisation of its military, intelligence and other security apparatuses,” he said.At the heart of the decoupling is the fear in Washington about military-civil fusion, a Chinese strategy designed to develop a world-class military by 2049, partly by tapping its private companies’ tech capabilities to accelerate the growth of its defence industry. Under the incoming Biden administration, that focus to contain China’s military rise and its potential threat to American national security will hardly let up.“The main concern is about not allowing US money to finance military developments that will be bad for the United States,” said Anna Ashton, senior director of government affairs at the Washington-based US-China Business Council. “I don’t think with President-elect Joe Biden, it’s going to be a return to the previous status quo before the Trump administration. Restricting US investment in companies that have clear ties to China’s defence industry is the issue that matters most to most people on the Hill.”In the last few months, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued the China Task Force Report, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduced the Strategic Act and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations released the Leads Act, all of which addressed this issue of US capital funding Chinese military-civil fusion goals.The inclusion of Chinese stocks and bonds by global investment indices – MSCI, FTSE Russell, Bloomberg Barclays and JPMorgan – means hundreds of billions of additional US capital was added to finance Chinese companies because fund managers mirroring these indices as a strategy are obligated to increase their holdings as the weight increases.In Washington’s view, the murky nature of the businesses behind these investments poses more danger than ever, at a time when tensions between the countries has risen over flash points including trade, technology, the military and human rights. US securities regulator pushes plan that could delist Chinese firmsMSCI reversed course on Tuesday, announcing the removal of 10 Chinese securities from its benchmarks after more than 100 market participants they surveyed said Trump’s executive order “may have a significant impact” as it “would effectively challenge the investability of the impacted securities”.The London Stock Exchange said earlier this month that it was dropping eight Chinese companies’ stocks – including Hangzhou Hikvision, China Communications Construction and China National Chemical Engineering – from two of its major indexes starting December 21.In the following days, the S&P; Dow Jones indices and Nasdaq announced the removal of some Chinese firms.To further restrict Chinese firms from accessing US capital by selling shares on American exchanges, Congress approved listing rules as part of the must-pass national defence bill in early December.A separate bipartisan bill – the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act – has also cleared Congress and Trump has signed it into law on Friday. The law compels Chinese companies either to provide audits to be reviewed by US regulators, disclose ties with the Chinese government or stop trading their shares in the US in three years.“The law is not going to get repealed under the Biden administration,” said Jesse Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School who focuses on corporate governance.The passage of the legislation, said Fried, wasn’t “just because of Trump” – “it was because there was an underlying problem. We’ve had a lot of China-based companies in the United States defrauding investors.” US bill to delist Chinese stocks could backfire on American firmsThe US securities regulators have battled with China for decades for not handing over its companies’ audits, rules followed by all foreign and domestic firms with stocks trading on US exchanges.Luckin Coffee, a Starbucks rival in China, agreed on Wednesday to pay US$180 million to settle SEC charges of accounting fraud to make its revenue appear better than it was.Under Biden, financial market policies are likely to be as tough or even tougher for China, Fried said.“The new administration is not going to make things easier for Chinese companies; if anything, it will make it harder,” he said. “The Biden administration will be less connected to Wall Street. The securities regulator appointed by the new president is going to be more interested in protecting investors and less interested in protecting Wall Street.”Biden, however, will need to grapple with the robust investment interests Americans have in China and their national security implications.Since last year, China has been opening up its financial services industry to allow foreign firms to have majority control of their businesses there. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley received approval from Chinese regulators in March to take 51 per cent stakes in their mainland businesses. On December 8, Goldman said it planned to acquire 100 per cent of its Chinese joint venture.“One hundred per cent ownership of our franchise on the mainland represents a significant commitment to and investment in China,” David Solomon, Goldman’s CEO; John Waldron, its chief operating officer; and Stephen Scherr, its chief financial officer, said in an internal memorandum seen by the Post. “This focuses on growing and strengthening our existing China businesses, expanding our addressable market and investing in talent and technology.”Others like BlackRock echoed that perspective. “There is a clear case for greater portfolio allocations to China exposed assets for returns and diversification, in our view,” vice-chairman Phillipe Hildebrand said in a report this month about the 2021 investment outlook. US lawmakers urged to put ‘reciprocity’ at heart of China relationship“Risks to China-exposed assets include China’s high debt levels, yuan depreciation and US-China conflicts. But we believe investors are well compensated for these,” he said.A leading congressional panel has heeded caution however. In its annual report to Congress released in December, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission warned that China’s effort at financial opening was part of a “calculated strategy” to secure foreign capital to shore up the domestic economy.“Rising exposure to China’s financial system presents unique and significant risks to US investors, savers and retirees,” the report said. “Of particular concern is the rising inclusion of Chinese securities in global investment indices. These inclusions are funnelling hundreds of billions of US investment dollars toward a financial system that lacks transparency, adequate pricing of risks and regulatory oversight.”“China is an adversary presenting unique and immediate threats to our economic and security interests,” Robin Cleveland, the commission’s leader, said in the opening statement. She said the report reflected “an understanding that the challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party are not partisan – they are American concerns”.Lawmakers’ unanimous support of the delisting bill was evidence of strong bipartisan support on China issues in a Congress that has disagreed on most other issues.“Everyone in Congress is more hawkish about China than they were four years ago or eight years ago. It’s one of the only things that Democrats and Republicans agree on,” said the US-China Business Council’s Ashton.Under Biden, the matter is likely to be handled more thoughtfully, but still, Ashton said, “decoupling is going to continue to be a theme.”More from South China Morning Post: * Trump administration cracks down on US investments in Chinese firms * Has China gone into stealth mode with its military-civil fusion plans? * Katherine Tai: Joe Biden’s US trade chief pick ‘unmatched’ on China issues, would not be soft on BeijingThis article Under Joe Biden, tapping US capital markets will get even tougher for corporate China first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020.

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2020-12-21 10:52:30Z
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Hong Kong, India join European countries in banning flights from UK over new COVID-19 strain - CNA

HONG KONG: Hong Kong and India will ban all flights arriving from the United Kingdom, following the discovery of a new and highly infectious strain of the coronavirus in the UK.

Many European countries, including France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, have also banned flights from the UK. Outside of Europe, several countries such as Canada, Iran and Saudi Arabia have also closed their doors to travellers from the UK.

The new strain could be up to 70 per cent more infectious, the United Kingdom has said.

Much is unknown about the strain, but experts said current vaccines should still be effective against it. The new strain has not been reported in Asia.

READ: Britain to hold crisis meeting over COVID-19 travel ban

READ: Britain says new COVID-19 strain 'out of control'

With authorities in the densely packed financial hub seeking to curb rising case numbers, Health Secretary Sophia Chan said on Monday there was a need to launch more vigorous and targeted measures to prevent further spreading of COVID-19 in Hong Kong.

"We are now at a very critical stage," Chan said at a news briefing. "During the fourth wave, we have seen that the virus is highly transmissible and patients' conditions are more severe than previously."

Hong Kong will ban all flights arriving from the UK from midnight on Monday.

People arriving into Hong Kong from the UK prior to Dec 22 must quarantine for a total of 21 days, versus the previously mandated 14 days of quarantine. Chan said the government was monitoring whether to extend the quarantine duration for all arrivals.

Hong Kong saw a spike in the number of cases at the end of November which prompted authorities to once again shut down dining in restaurants after 6pm and close gyms and beauty salons. The measures will be in place until at least Jan 6, Chan said.

India also said on Monday that it will temporarily suspend all flights from the UK until the end of the year.

The ban will come into effect on Wednesday and all passengers arriving from Britain before then will be tested on arrival at airports, India's federal aviation ministry said in a series of tweets.

Britain is one of the 23 countries that India shares an "air bubble" with, as part of temporary bilateral arrangements after regular international flights were suspended after the pandemic hit.

Hours before the aviation ministry's announcement, India's health minister said that authorities remained vigilant and prepared to deal with the new virus strain, adding that there was no need to panic.

India has recorded the world's second highest number of infections and breached the 10 million case milestone over the weekend. More than 145,000 people have died from COVID-19.

READ: Hong Kong bans dining in restaurants, announces new restrictions to curb 'severe' COVID-19 wave

READ: Singapore, Hong Kong to defer air travel bubble launch

OTHER COUNTRIES MONITORING NEW STRAIN

South Korea, which imposes a 14-day quarantine for everyone entering the country, said on Monday it was reviewing new measures for flights from the UK, and would test those coming in from Britain twice before they were released from quarantine.

Taiwan, which also has a 14-day quarantine, said on Sunday there were no plans at present to stop flights from Britain.

Japan, where entry from Britain is already banned in principle, said it would keep in close touch with other countries as well as the World Health Organization to see how the new type of virus was spreading.

CNA has contacted Singapore authorities on whether there are plans to review existing guidelines for flights from Britain.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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Hong Kong joins European countries in banning flights from UK over new COVID-19 strain - CNA

HONG KONG: Hong Kong will ban all flights arriving from the United Kingdom from midnight on Monday (Dec 21), following the discovery of a new and highly infectious strain of the coronavirus in Britain.

The city joins many European countries that have banned flights from Britain, including France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Outside of Europe, several countries such as Canada, Iran and Saudi Arabia have also closed their doors to travellers from the UK.

The new strain could be up to 70 per cent more infectious, the United Kingdom has said.

Much is unknown about the strain, but experts said current vaccines should still be effective against it. The new strain has not been reported in Asia.

READ: Britain to hold crisis meeting over COVID-19 travel ban

READ: Britain says new COVID-19 strain 'out of control'

People arriving into Hong Kong from the United Kingdom prior to Dec 22 must quarantine for a total of 21 days, versus the previously mandated 14 days of quarantine. Chan said the government was monitoring whether to extend the quarantine duration for all arrivals.

READ: Hong Kong bans dining in restaurants, announces new restrictions to curb 'severe' COVID-19 wave

READ: Singapore, Hong Kong to defer air travel bubble launch

OTHER COUNTRIES MONITORING NEW STRAIN

Taiwan, which also has a 14-day quarantine, said on Sunday there were no plans at present to stop flights from Britain.

An Indian government committee tasked with monitoring the pandemic met on Monday to discuss the new strain, but it was unclear whether flights to the UK would be halted. The UK is one of 23 countries that India shares an "air bubble" with.

CNA has contacted Singapore authorities on whether there are plans to review existing guidelines for flights from Britain.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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2020-12-21 08:26:15Z
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Hong Kong joins European countries in banning flights from UK over new COVID-19 strain - CNA

The new strain could be up to 70 per cent more infectious, the United Kingdom has said.

Much is unknown about the strain, but experts said current vaccines should still be effective against it. The new strain has not been reported in Asia.

READ: Britain to hold crisis meeting over COVID-19 travel ban

READ: Britain says new COVID-19 strain 'out of control'

READ: Hong Kong bans dining in restaurants, announces new restrictions to curb 'severe' COVID-19 wave

READ: Singapore, Hong Kong to defer air travel bubble launch

OTHER COUNTRIES MONITORING NEW STRAIN

Taiwan, which also has a 14-day quarantine, said on Sunday there were no plans at present to stop flights from Britain.

CNA has contacted Singapore authorities on whether there are plans to review existing guidelines for flights from Britain.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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Britain to hold crisis meeting over COVID-19 travel ban - CNA

LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair a crisis meeting on Monday (Dec 21), as a growing number of countries from France to Argentina blocked flights to Britain over a new highly infectious coronavirus strain the UK said was "out of control".

Johnson called the meeting to "discuss the situation regarding international travel, in particular the steady flow of freight into and out of the UK", a spokesman said.

More countries banned travel from the UK over the weekend and the World Health Organization (WHO) called for stronger containment measures as the British government warned that a highly infectious new strain of the virus was "out of control".

As the WHO urged its European members to beef up measures against a new variant of COVID-19 circulating in Britain, France blocked people and goods crossing the Channel while Germany, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Romania, The Netherlands and Belgium said they were moving to block air travel.

A German government source said the restriction could be adopted by the entire 27-member European Union and that countries were also discussing a joint response over sea, road and rail links with Britain.

READ: Britain says new COVID-19 strain 'out of control'

Despite growing concerns about the new strain, European Union experts believe it will not impact the effectiveness of existing vaccines, Germany's health minister said.

"According to everything we know so far" the new strain "has no impact on the vaccines", which remain "just as effective", Jens Spahn told public broadcaster ZDF, citing "talks between experts at European authorities".

France's ban on all but unaccompanied freight arriving from Britain is especially painful, as companies are scrambling to shift merchandise with days to go until Britain finally quits EU trade structures in the wake of Brexit.

But "flows of people or goods towards the UK will not be affected", Paris said in a statement.

Rome and Berlin said on Sunday they would both be suspending flights to and from Britain from midnight. Dublin said it would suspend air links with Britain for "at least" 48 hours.

The Netherlands imposed a ban on UK flights from 6am (0500 GMT) on Sunday and Belgium said it would follow suit from midnight with a ban on planes and trains from the UK.

Other countries that have halted flights to the UK include Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

READ: WHO says in close contact with UK officials on new COVID-19 virus variant

Alarm bells were ringing across Europe – which last week became the first region in the world to pass 500,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic broke out a year ago – after it appeared that a new, even more infectious strain of the virus was raging in parts of Britain.

Austria's health ministry told the APA news agency that it would also impose a flight ban, the details of which were still being worked out.

A spokeswoman for WHO Europe told AFP that "across Europe, where transmission is intense and widespread, countries need to redouble their control and prevention approaches".

Romania also said it had banned all flights to and from the UK for two weeks starting Monday afternoon.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel held a conference call on Sunday about the matter, Macron's office said.

UK U-TURN

Johnson said the infectiousness of the new strain had forced his hand into imposing a lockdown across much of England over the Christmas period.

"Unfortunately the new strain was out of control. We have got to get it under control," UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News after Johnson U-turned on his previously stated policy of easing containment measures over the festive season.

Scientists first discovered the new variant – which they believe is 70 per cent more transmissible – in a patient in September. Public Health England notified the government on Friday when modelling revealed the full seriousness of the new strain.

But Britain's chief medical officer Chris Whitty pointed out that while the new strain was greatly more infectious, "there is no current evidence to suggest (it) causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is under way to confirm this".

READ: Italy braces for Christmas lockdown as Europe battles COVID-19 surge

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1,685,785 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT on Sunday.

And with the onset of colder winter weather in the northern hemisphere where respiratory diseases flourish, countries are bracing for new waves of COVID-19 with tighter restrictions, despite the economic damage such lockdowns wrought earlier this year.

The Netherlands is under a five-week lockdown until mid-January with schools and all non-essential shops closed to slow a surge in the virus.

Italy also announced a new regime of restrictions until Jan 6 that included limits on people leaving their homes more than once a day, closing non-essential shops, bars and restaurants and curbs on regional travel.

In Russia, health authorities said that the number of people who have died from the coronavirus has surpassed the 50,000 mark and now stands at 50,858.

VACCINATION ROLLOUT

The rapid rollout of vaccinations is now seen as the only effective way to end the crisis and the economically devastating shutdowns used to halt its spread.

Europe is expected to start a massive vaccination campaign after Christmas following the United States and Britain, which have begun giving jabs with an approved Pfizer-BioNTech shot, one of several leading candidates.

Russia and China have also started giving out jabs with their own domestically produced vaccines.

The United States on Friday authorised Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, the first nation to authorise the two-dose regimen from Moderna – now the second vaccine to be deployed in a Western country after the one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

The Wall Street Journal reported that US lawmakers had agreed on pandemic spending powers for the Federal Reserve late on Saturday, clearing the way for a vote on a roughly US$900 billion COVID-19 relief package for millions of Americans.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

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2020-12-21 07:52:30Z
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Minggu, 20 Desember 2020

Australia's most populous state says COVID-19 cases at 3-day low - Yahoo Singapore News

Associated Press

Biden's team vows action against hack as US threats persist

Once in office, President-elect Joe Biden will punish Russia for its suspected cyberespionage operation against the United States with financial sanctions and measures to hobble the Kremlin's ability to launch future hacks, his chief of staff said Sunday, as a GOP senator criticized President Donald Trump for having a “blind spot” when it comes to Moscow. “Those who are responsible are going to face consequences for it,” said Biden chief of staff Ron Klain. “These attacks will continue to escalate, and get worse if we do nothing,” said CEO Kevin Mandia.

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Senin, 21 Desember 2020

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