Sydney, Australia's largest city, in 2-week hard COVID-19 lockdown - CNA

MELBOURNE: Sydney and some surrounding areas will enter a hard two-week COVID-19 lockdown on Saturday (Jun 26) as authorities struggle to control a fast-spreading outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant that has grown to 80 cases.

Parts of Sydney, Australia's biggest city, were already under lockdown due to the outbreak, but health authorities said cases and exposure sites were increasing too rapidly.

"Even though we don't want to impose burdens unless we absolutely have to, unfortunately this is a situation where we have to," said New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

READ: Downtown Sydney, beachside suburbs locked down due to spike in Bondi Beach COVID-19 outbreak

Australia has been more successful in managing the pandemic than many other advanced economies through swift border closures, social distancing rules and high compliance, reporting just over 30,400 cases and 910 COVID-19 deaths.

A man walks along the main road in the central business district of Sydney on Jun 26, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Saeed Khan) 

But the country has confronted small outbreaks in recent months. These have been contained through speedy contact tracing, isolation of thousands of people at a time or snap hard lockdowns.

Rugby Australia was searching for alternatives sites for Australia's series-opening test against France, which was to have been played at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Jul 7.

Saturday's lockdown in New South Wales will also include the regions of Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong, which surround Sydney, a city of 5 million people.

Under the rules in place through Jul 9, people may leave home for essential work, medical care, education or shopping. The rest of the state will have limits on public gatherings and masks will be obligatory indoors.

A general view shows the usually-busy tourist area 'The Rocks' in Sydney on Jun 26, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Saeed Khan) 

"There was no point doing it for three days or five days because it wouldn't have done the job," Berejiklian told a news briefing.

New Zealand on Saturday halted quarantine-free travel from Australia for three days, saying there were too many cases and outbreaks. The two neighbours, which keep their borders closed to the rest of the world, began free travel in April.

READ: Singapore tightens COVID-19 restrictions for travellers from Australia's New South Wales

Berejiklian's conservative state government was reluctant to impose the lockdown, but a growing number of health experts called for it, as Australia struggled with its vaccination roll-out.

A closed restaurant in Sydney on Jun 26, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Saeed Khan) 

Michael Kidd, Australia's deputy chief medical officer, said 28 per cent of people aged 16 or older have received their first COVID-19 vaccine shot. Of the 7.2 million administered doses, 5.8 million were first doses.

Although free, vaccines are available for now only to people above 40 and those in risk groups either due to their health or work. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is administered to people aged 40 to 59 years old, and the AstraZeneca shot to those older.

On Saturday, the case of a worker at the Granites gold mine in the Tanami Desert of the Northern Territory prompted the territory's authorities to order the isolation of more than 1,600 people in three states who had had contact with the worker.

The mine, owned by Newmont, was put into lockdown. 

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2021-06-26 08:22:20Z
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18 killed, 16 injured in fire at China martial arts school - CNA

BEIJING: At least 18 people were killed and 16 injured when a fire broke out at a martial arts school in central China in the early hours of Friday (Jun 25), according to the local government.

Official state news agency Xinhua reported that all victims were boarding pupils, while local media said they were aged between seven and 16.

The fire had been extinguished and authorities were investigating the cause of the blaze, a statement from the Zhecheng county government in Henan province, said.

Four local officials including the county party secretary were fired over the incident, reported the Henan Daily, a local state-backed newspaper, on Saturday.

Two more suspects were arrested in addition to the school's manager Chen Lin, the Henan Daily said.

There were 34 boarding students on the premises when the fire broke out, according to government staff quoted by Beijing Toutiao News.

Those hurt - four of whom had severe injuries - were rushed to a local hospital, where an unnamed doctor told local media they were "doing everything they could" to save them.

The cause of the fire was still unclear.

An official confirmed to AFP that the school was the Zhenxing Martial Arts Centre.

Local media reports described it as a "comprehensive martial arts training institution" that aimed to "strengthen the body through morality and martial arts".

An online listing for the school advertised hour-long classes each day for a range of martial arts disciplines and said the school "recruits boarding students year-round", but offered no further details.

Provincial party chief Lou Yangsheng told local media that the blaze was a "profound lesson".

The school had not gone through the fire safety auditing process required for martial arts training institutions, as the building had originally been a privately built house intended for other purposes, Xinhua reported Friday.

CRADLE OF GONGFU

Henan is the birthplace of traditional Chinese martial arts and is home to many gongfu academies.

Among the largest is the famous Shaolin Martial Arts School, which has hundreds of teachers and tens of thousands of students, according to its website.

The location of the martial arts school where at least 18 people were killed in a fire on Jun 25, 2021. (Photo: AFP)

Social media users started to call for better fire safety standards online as a hashtag for the fire quickly garnered more than 1.5 million views.

Fatal fires are common in China, with safety regulations often flouted and patchy enforcement.

More than two dozen people were killed in two blazes in Beijing's migrant neighbourhoods in 2017.

The first, which killed 19 people in November that year, prompted authorities to begin tearing down unsafe buildings in the capital, driving hundreds of thousands of residents out in the middle of winter.

A huge blaze that swept a 28-storey Shanghai residential block in 2010 killed 58 people.

Friday's blaze comes at a sensitive time for China's ruling Communist Party as it ramps up security preparations before its 100th anniversary celebrations on Jul 1.

Following a spate of deadly mine accidents in the past few weeks, local authorities this month suspended operations at coal mines in Henan, Jiangxi and Hubei provinces in the run-up to the anniversary.

In one week in June alone, more than 30 workers were killed in two separate gas explosions at mines in Henan and Hubei.

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2021-06-26 07:19:05Z
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US ex-police officer Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years for George Floyd murder - CNA

MINNEAPOLIS: Former policeman Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in jail Friday (Jun 25) for murdering African American George Floyd, a killing that sparked America's biggest demonstrations for racial justice in decades.

"The sentence is not based on emotion or sympathy," said Judge Peter Cahill, handing down the term at a Minneapolis court after prosecutors sought a 30-year sentence.

Cahill said it was important to recognise the pain of the Floyd family and acknowledged the global notoriety of the case only to say it would not sway him.

"I'm not basing my sentence on public opinion," Cahill said, explaining his reasoning would be laid out in a 22-page memorandum. "I'm not basing it on the attempt to send any messages. The job of a trial court judge is to apply the law to specific facts and to deal with individual cases."

A jury found Chauvin, 45, guilty on Apr 20 of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after a trial that was widely seen as a landmark in the history of US policing.

His sentence was one of the longest ever received by a former police officer for using unlawful deadly force in the United States, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted the case, told reporters.

"Today's sentencing is not justice but it is another moment of real accountability on the road to justice," Ellison said.

Before the sentence was handed down, Floyd's brothers told the court of their anguish, Chauvin's mother insisted on her son's innocence, and Chauvin himself briefly offered condolences to the Floyd family.

The lawyer for George Floyd's family hailed a "historic" step towards racial reconciliation.

"This historic sentence brings the Floyd family and our nation one step closer to healing by delivering closure and accountability," lawyer Ben Crump tweeted.

READ: Tears of joy, relief after conviction in George Floyd murder case

READ: Commentary: George Floyd’s verdict must lead to changes in policing and justice

AGGRAVATING FACTORS

In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors from the Minnesota attorney general's office wrote that Chauvin's crime "shocked the conscience of the Nation."

In a six-page ruling last month, Cahill found that prosecutors had shown there were four aggravating factors that would allow him to hand down a longer prison term than sentencing guidelines would dictate.

The judge agreed that Chauvin abused his position of trust and authority; that he treated Floyd with particular cruelty; that he committed the crime as part of a group with three other officers; and that he committed the murder in front of children.

Through his attorney Eric Nelson, Chauvin had asked in court filings that the judge to sentence him to probation, writing that the murder of Floyd was "best described as an error made in good faith."

Chauvin was helping arrest Floyd on suspicion of using a fake US$20 bill.

He has been held at the state's maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights since his conviction.

Chauvin could leave prison after about 15 years. In Minnesota, convicted people with good behavior spend two-thirds of their sentence in prison and the final third on supervised release.

The three other police officers involved in Floyd's arrest were, like Chauvin, fired the day after. The three are due to face trial next year on charges of aiding and abetting Floyd's murder.

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2021-06-25 20:43:32Z
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China deploys stealth fighter jets to units monitoring Taiwan Strait - South China Morning Post

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1. China deploys stealth fighter jets to units monitoring Taiwan Strait  South China Morning Post
2. Taiwan security directly connected to Japan: Japan defence minister  CNA
3. Japan sees China-Taiwan friction as threat to its security  The Straits Times
4. China warns US to ‘sever all military ties’ with Taiwan or face 'war’ amid tensions  Daily Express
5. Japan see China-Taiwan friction as a threat to its security  The Star Online
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2021-06-26 00:00:16Z
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Delta COVID-19 variant threatens new pandemic challenge - CNA

PARIS: The highly-contagious Delta variant is causing a surge in new COVID-19 cases even in countries with high vaccination rates and experts warn that inoculation campaigns are in a race against time to contain it.

For the moment the pandemic is still slowing down with the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting the lowest number of new cases worldwide since February and decreasing deaths attributed to the coronavirus.

But concerns are growing about the fast-spreading variant, prompting new restrictions in countries that had previously managed to control their epidemics.

Cases are on the rise in Russia, Australia, Israel and across parts of Africa, in part due to Delta.

Other countries fear they could be next.

READ: Prevent transmission to prevent COVID-19 variants, WHO says

READ: Delta, Kappa COVID-19 variants surge in Italy to nearly 17% of cases, health institute says

MORE CONTAGIOUS

The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in India where it began circulating around April.

It is now present to varying degrees in at least 85 countries according to the WHO.

In Europe, Delta initially gained a foothold in the United Kingdom, where it quickly outpaced the previous variant of concern Alpha, and now comprises 95 per cent of all sequenced cases in England.

Delta is thought to be some 40 to 60 per cent more contagious than Alpha, which itself is more contagious than the strain responsible for the first wave of COVID-19.

The pattern has repeated elsewhere.

In the United States last week 35 per cent of positive tests that were sequenced were identified as the Delta variant, up from about 10 per cent on Jun 5 - numbers similar to what is being observed in Israel.

The European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) has estimated Delta could account for 70 per cent of new infections in the EU by the beginning of August and 90 per cent by the end of that month.

Researchers looking at data from the greater Paris region estimate in a soon-to-be-published report that Delta could be as much as 50 to 80 per cent more contagious than other strains.

READ: Israel requires masks indoors again as Delta variant drives up COVID-19 cases

VACCINATION KEY

Top US infectious disease scientist Anthony Fauci called the variant the "greatest threat" to efforts to control the virus and called for an acceleration in vaccinations, American media reported on Tuesday.

While several studies have shown that vaccines are slightly less effective against Delta, they are still highly effective.

But only after the second dose.

Recent data from the UK government shows that full immunisation can offer about 96 percent protection against hospitalisation and 79 per cent protection against symptomatic infection by the Delta variant.

Protection after only one dose, however, is much weaker - 35 per cent, according to the same data.

"One dose is not enough," says a public health notice from the ECDC, "full vaccination is needed to protect the most vulnerable."

READ: Delta variant to account for 90% of new COVID-19 cases in EU: Agency

RETURN TO RESTRICTIONS

Delta is so contagious that experts say you would need to inoculate more than 80 per cent of a population in order to contain it - a target that would be challenging even for nations with significant vaccination programmes.

In Africa, the WHO estimates that only one percent of the population is fully vaccinated - the lowest ratio globally.

The Delta variant has been reported in 14 African countries, accounting for most new cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, the WHO has said, calling for a vaccine "sprint" across the continent.

A further complication is that Delta seems to largely bypass immunity that might be conferred by a previous infection, said Samuel Alizon, a biologist specialised in infectious disease modelling.

"We can't really rely on natural immunity anymore," he told AFP.

With large numbers of younger people remaining unvaccinated, tough measures may have to be reintroduced to stop the spread, even in nations where large-scale vaccine rollouts had held out the promise of reopening.

In Europe, the ECDC warned that any further relaxation of containment measures would risk a surge in new cases across age groups.

This could lead to a rise in "hospitalisations, and deaths, potentially reaching the same levels of the autumn of 2020 if no additional measure are taken," it added.

Some countries, like Israel and Australia, have already announced a return to certain restrictions.

"Our goal is to end it," said Israel's prime minister Naftali Bennett, "to take a bucket of water and pour it on the fire when the fire is still small."

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2021-06-25 15:34:07Z
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Race to find survivors as death toll in Miami condominium collapse rises, 159 missing - CNA

SURFSIDE, Florida: Rescue workers frantically scoured the rubble of a collapsed apartment block in a Miami suburb for signs of life on Friday (Jun 25), after the oceanfront condominium dramatically crumpled in a matter of seconds, leaving four people dead and 159 unaccounted for.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said that the number of people missing had risen from the initial 99, and that three more bodies were pulled from the wreckage overnight. Another person was reported to have died on Thursday.

US President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration in the state of Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.

"The President's action authorises the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts," the White House said on Friday.

On Thursday, search teams detected sounds of banging and other noises but no voices coming from the mounds of debris.

Early that morning, a large section of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, a barrier island town across Biscayne Bay from the city of Miami, crumbled to the ground, authorities said.

Footage captured by a security camera nearby showed an entire side of the building suddenly folding in two sections, one after the other, at about 1.30am local time (1.30pm, Singapore time), throwing up clouds of dust.

What caused the 40-year-old high-rise to cave in was not immediately known, although local officials said the 12-storey tower was undergoing roof construction and other repairs.

This aerial photo shows part of the 12-storey oceanfront Champlain Towers South Condo that collapsed early on Jun 24, 2021 in Surfside, Florida. (Photo: Amy Beth Bennett /South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Rubble hangs from a partially collapsed building in Surfside north of Miami Beach. (Photo: AFP/Eva Marie UZCATEGUI)

Cava told reporters on Thursday that 99 people remained unaccounted for, although some may not have been in the building at the time of the disaster.

Another 110 individuals whose whereabouts were initially unknown have since been located and "declared safe", she said.

A fire official said earlier that 35 people were evacuated from the portion of the high-rise left standing, and response teams using trained dogs and drones in the search pulled two individuals from the rubble. One of them was dead.

Officials said the complex, built in 1981, was going through a re-certification process requiring repairs, with another building under construction on an adjacent site.

The Champlain Towers South had more than 130 units, about 80 of which were occupied. It had been subject to various inspections recently due to the re-certification process and the adjacent building construction, Surfside Commissioner Charles Kesl told Local 10.

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2021-06-25 12:52:30Z
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More hospitals prepared, oxygen supply sufficient: Indonesian health minister as COVID-19 cases surge - CNA

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Friday (Jun 25) that more hospitals and beds have been prepared in Jakarta to cope with another surge of COVID-19 cases, while assuring the public that there is sufficient oxygen supply on Java island. 

This came after a record-breaking 20,574 new COVID-19 cases the day before, with Jakarta logging a record of 7,505 infections.

Speaking during a press conference, the minister said that Persahabatan hospital, Sulianti Saroso hospital and Fatmawati hospital, all in the capital city, will be converted into full COVID-19 hospitals.

The government is also readying new makeshift COVID-19 hospitals in Jakarta. They will be located within the government subsidised housing complexes of Nagrak and Pasar Rumput. These makeshift facilities will treat asymptomatic patients and those with mild symptoms.

Meanwhile, Jakarta’s 2018 Asian Games Athlete's Village, which since last year has been turned into an emergency COVID-19 makeshift hospital, will treat patients with severe symptoms. 

“Thus, we will have hundreds of new beds with full equipment (as well as) experienced doctors and nurses to treat COVID-19 patients in Jakarta.

“And we hope, this week the conversion will be finished so it can add the number of beds to treat Jakartans," Mr Sadikin said.

He added that emergency rooms in Jakarta's hospitals will also be converted into COVID-19 isolation rooms, while tents outside the hospitals will be set up to serve as emergency rooms.

Mr Sadikin stated that the country has 85,000 hospital beds, excluding the new COVID-19 hospitals and isolation rooms in Jakarta. He said that 60,000 beds are currently occupied.

Healthcare workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) get ready to treat patients at the emergency hospital for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Jakarta, Indonesia, June 17, 2021. REUTERS/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana

READ: Jokowi aims to vaccinate 7.5 million Jakartans by end August, but experts say herd immunity is not a given

The minister also commented on local media reports that some hospitals in Java are about to run out of oxygen. 

He said that of Indonesia’s total oxygen production capacity, 25 per cent is used for medical purposes and the rest is for industries. He added that producers are willing to support the health sector if needed. 

Indonesia is battling an influx of COVID-19 cases following last month’s Idul Fitri holiday where people returned to their hometowns and throngs of people crowded tourist spots.

As of Friday, it has reported 2,072,867 COVID-19 cases and 56,371 deaths.

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2021-06-25 08:01:25Z
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