HONG KONG: Hong Kong will ban all passenger flights from the United Kingdom from Thursday (Jul 1) to curb the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, the government said on Monday.
Britain will be specified as extremely high-risk, and people who have stayed in the country for more than two hours will be unable to board passenger flights bound for Hong Kong, it said.
It is the second time Hong Kong has barred arrivals from Britain after a ban that was in force from December 2020 until May.
The government said the ban was due to "the recent rebound of the epidemic situation in the UK and the widespread Delta variant virus strain there, coupled with a number of cases with L452R mutant virus strains detected by tests from people arriving from the UK".
Parents in Hong Kong with children in Britain reacted with shock. They complained that they had paid large sums to comply with COVID-19 testing rules but their children would now be stranded.
Hong Kong already has bans in place on arrivals from Indonesia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines.
The Chinese special administrative region has recorded more than 11,900 cases and 211 deaths because of COVID-19. Most of the city's recent cases over the past month have been imported.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin unveiled a new economic stimulus package worth RM150 billion (US$36.2 billion) on Monday (Jun 28), in an attempt to mitigate the impacts of a continued total lockdown.
Speaking during a televised national address, Mr Muhyiddin said the package – named people protection and economic recovery package (Pemulih) – aims to allow people to cope with the financial difficulties arising from COVID-19.
"I hope this financial package is able to help you continue with your lives in the coming months. I am aware many of you are impacted badly, as a result of battling the COVID-19 pandemic for more than a year," he said.
"Even though millions of Malaysians have received financial help from the government since March 2020 ... I understand that help must be extended as long as the pandemic is ongoing."
He said that RM4.6 billion will be set aside under the special COVID-19 assistance scheme (BKC) to help 11 million people, mainly the elderly and those who have yet to get married.
This includes those in the B40 (bottom 40 per cent) and M40 (middle 40 per cent) categories, who are set to receive between RM250 and RM1,300.
Mr Muhyiddin added that another RM500 million would be set aside for those who have lost income as a result of the pandemic. Under this scheme, around 1 million residents are likely to receive RM500 each.
To help the public with their utilities expenses, the government will give electricity bill discounts of between 5 to 40 per cent to households for three months from July, with a maximum limit of 900 kilowatt hours a month.
For small and medium-sized businesses, Mr Muhyiddin said that the government has agreed to provide additional payments under the special prihatin grant (GKP), where companies which qualify will receive RM500 in September and another RM500 in November.
The Prime Minister said that this scheme could help improve the cash flow for around 1 million small and medium enterprises such as barbers, workshop owners, bakeries and health care centres.
LOAN MORATORIUMS FOR INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESS OWNERS
Mr Muhyiddin also announced that under the Pemulih package, individuals from the B40, M40 and T20 (top 20 per cent) groups, as well as business owners, will be able to receive an automatic six-month moratorium from banks.
Unlike in the previous scheme, applicants for the loan moratorium will no longer be held back by several conditions including requirements to show proof of loss of income or employment due to the pandemic.
"I hope this moratorium initiative will go someway in helping individual borrowers and SMEs in managing their cash flow problems during this challenging period. However, I would also advise the public to resort to this for emergency use only and not to make any additional financial commitments," he said.
A general view of Malaysia's Prime Minister's office, in Putrajaya, Malaysia October 26, 2020. REUTERS/Lim Huey Teng
Prior to Monday's announcement, Putrajaya had rolled out seven stimulus packages worth a total of RM380 billion.
The restrictions were set to end on Monday but Mr Muhyiddin said that they will not be eased until daily cases fell below 4,000.
He also told reporters that a more comprehensive financial assistance package will be extended to lower-income families as well as small and medium enterprises impacted by the pandemic.
"Everyone is waiting to see how the government is going to help those who are impacted. I would like to stress here that assistance will be given to the B40 and M40 groups, and loan moratorium for the T20 group, we will also consider their needs. It will be a comprehensive package," said Mr Muhyiddin at the weekend.
"What's important is for us to give support to all levels of society, and in the current climate, around 12 million individuals are affected. We may increase the level of assistance provided to them," he added.
In a statement on Sunday evening, Senior Minister for Defence Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that phase 1 of the movement control order (MCO) will be maintained until the three key threshold value indicators are achieved.
The indicators are that the number of daily COVID-19 cases drop to below 4,000, the rate of bed usage in intensive care units is at a moderate level and that 10 per cent of the population has received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"Based on the risk evaluation carried out by the Ministry of Health, the government will maintain the phase 1 period nationwide," said Mr Ismail Sabri in a statement.
"This takes into account the current situation, which has yet to successfully transition from phase 1 to phase 2, where the graph on daily COVID-19 positive cases shows a horizontal trend," he added.
On Monday, Malaysia recorded 5,218 new COVID-19 cases. There are now more than 735,000 cases nationwide. More than 4,900 people have died from COVID-19 in Malaysia.
SYDNEY: Australia's COVID-19 response committee is due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday (Jun 28) as outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant across the country prompted a lockdown in Sydney and renewed restrictions elsewhere.
Around 18 million Australians, or around 70 per cent of the population, are now under some form of lockdown or COVID-related restrictions as officials grapple with COVID-19 flare-ups in almost every state or territory.
"I think we are entering a new phase of this pandemic, with the more contagious Delta strain," federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Monday, adding Australia was facing a "critical time" in its fight against COVID-19.
The national security committee, chaired by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, will be briefed by the country's chief medical officer later on Monday, Frydenberg said.
Sydney, Australia's most populous city, was plunged into a two-week lockdown over the weekend, while the northern city of Darwin entered a two-day shutdown, as officials grapple to contain the outbreaks.
Australia's Queensland state on Monday reintroduced mandatory masks and limited home gatherings in several areas, including state capital Brisbane, following a similar move by Western Australia officials for state capital Perth. Restrictions remain in place in Victoria state capital Melbourne and national capital Canberra.
A health alert was issued over the weekend for hundreds of passengers after an infected Virgin Australia cabin crew member worked on five different flights covering Brisbane, Melbourne and Gold Coast.
In Sydney, New South Wales state capital, dozens of venues including cafes, shopping centres and public transport routes scattered across the city have been added as virus-exposed locations.
The Darwin lockdown was prompted by the detection of the Delta variant of the virus in a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) worker at a gold mine after he had left the facility.
Australia has so far fared much better than many other developed countries in tackling the spread of the coronavirus, with just over 30,450 cases and 910 deaths.
Lockdowns, tough social distancing rules and swift contact tracing have helped the country successfully suppress prior outbreaks but the fast-moving Delta variant has alarmed health authorities.
SURFSIDE, Florida: Rescuers digging through the rubble of a Florida beachfront condo sought to reassure families that they were doing as much as possible to find missing loved ones, but the crews said they needed to work carefully for the best chance of uncovering survivors.
As the death toll rose Sunday (Jun 27) to nine, relatives grew increasingly desperate for news and worried about the slow progress and dwindling hopes. No one has been pulled alive from the pile since Thursday, hours after the collapse. Some family members were taken by bus on Sunday to a location near the site after relatives frustrated with the pace of rescue efforts demanded to visit the scene.
“My daughter is 26 years old, in perfect health. She could make it out of there,” one mother told rescuers during a weekend meeting with family members. A video of the meeting was posted by Instagram user Abigail Pereira.
“It’s not enough,” continued the mother, who was among relatives who pushed authorities to bring in experts from other countries to help. “Imagine if your children were in there.”
More than 150 people are still unaccounted for in Surfside, and authorities and loved ones fear the toll will go much higher.
Scores of rescue workers remained on the massive pile of rubble, searching for survivors but so far finding only bodies and human remains.
In a meeting with families on Saturday evening, people moaned and wept as Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah explained why he could not answer their repeated questions about how many victims they had found.
“It’s not necessarily that we’re finding victims, OK? We’re finding human remains,” Jadallah said, according to the video posted on Instagram.
He noted the pancake collapse of the 12-story building, which had crumbled into a rubble pile that could be measured in feet. Those conditions have frustrated crews looking for survivors, he said.
Every time crews find remains, they clean the area and remove the remains. They work with a rabbi to ensure any religious rituals are done properly, Jadallah said.
“So the question is, is why is things taking so long?” he said, “What we’re doing is making sure that everything is followed to a ‘T'.”
If crews find any “artefacts", such as documents, pictures or money, they turn them over to police, officials said.
Authorities said their efforts are still a search-and-rescue operation. Alan Cominsky, chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, said they are holding out hope of finding someone alive, but they must be slow and methodical.
“The debris field is scattered throughout, and it’s compact, extremely compact,” he said.
Debris must be stabilised and shored up as they go.
Crews work in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo on Jun 27, 2021, in Surfside, Fllorida. (Photo: AP/Gerald Herbert)
“If there is a void space, we want to make sure we’re given every possibility of a survivor. That’s why we can’t just go in and move things erratically, because that’s going to have the worst outcome possible,” he said.
In meetings with authorities, family members repeatedly pushed rescuers to do more. One asked why they could not surgically remove the largest pieces of cement with cranes, to try to uncover bigger voids where survivors might be found.
“There’s not giant pieces that we can easily surgically remove," replied Maggie Castro, of the fire rescue agency, who described herself as “one of the people out there attempting to find your family members.”
“They’re not big pieces. Pieces are crumbled, and they’re being held together by the rebar that’s part of the construction. So if we try to lift that piece, even as carefully, those pieces that are crumbling can fall off the sides and disturb the pile,” Castro said.
She said they try to cut rebar in strategic places and remove large pieces, but that they have to remove them in a way that nothing will fall onto the pile.
“We are doing layer by layer," Castro said. “It doesn’t stop. It’s all day. All night.”
Rescuers were also using a microwave radar device developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the Department of Homeland Security that “sees” through up to eight inches of solid concrete, according to Adrian Garulay, CEO of Spec Ops Group, which sells them. The suitcase-sized device can detect human respiration and heartbeats and was being deployed Sunday by a seven-member search-and-rescue team from Mexico’s Jewish community.
But as the work dragged on, family members grew desperate. Some asked to visit the site so they could shout messages to their loved ones, “so they can hear our voices". On Sunday afternoon, relatives were driven to a location next to the site as crews continued their work.
TV cameras showed two buses pull up and groups of relatives step off. They walked to an area near the scene, where officials said they could observe and have a moment of reflection.
A fire in the rubble pile slowed rescue efforts earlier in the weekend, but Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said it was suppressed on Saturday.
Women pray on Jun 26, 2021, during a prayer vigil for the victims and families of the Champlain Towers collapsed building in Surfside, Florida, at the nearby St Joseph Catholic Church in Miami Beach. (Photo: AP/Wilfredo Lee)
She said six to eight teams are actively searching the pile at any given time, with hundreds of team members on standby ready to rotate in. She said teams have worked around the clock since Thursday, and there was no lack of personnel.
Teams are also working with engineers and sonar to make sure the rescuers are safe.
“We need to be sure that the pile does not fall on them. It does not fall on any possible survivors and we are diligently pursuing that as we do our work,” she said.
Crews spent the night digging a trench that stretches 125 feet, 20 feet across and 40 feet deep, which, she said, allowed them to find more bodies and human remains.
Earl Tilton, who runs a search-and-rescue consulting firm in North Carolina, said the rescuers in Miami-Dade County were doing an “outstanding job.” Rushing into the rubble without careful planning and execution would injure or kill rescuers and the people they are trying to save, said Tilton, who runs Lodestar Professional Services in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
“I understand the families’ concerns on this. If it was my family member, I would want everyone in there pulling rubble away as fast as humanly possible,” Tilton said. “But moving the wrong piece of debris at the wrong time could cause it to fall on them and crush them.”
During past urban rescues, rescuers have found survivors as long as a week past the initial catastrophe, Tilton said.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis praised the search teams as being “some of the best in the business".
“I’d hope that none of these things would ever happen anywhere, but if something like this happens, the people you would want are Miami-Dade search and rescue," DeSantis said during a Sunday news conference. "These teams have gone all over the world. These are the people that you want. And they’ve been there within minutes, and it’s been nonstop.”
Authorities also sought to assure family members directly that the rescuers were well qualified, telling them during a Saturday meeting that some rescuers had worked on search-and-rescue operations after the Oklahoma City bombing, at the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks and following the Haiti earthquake.
After remains are found, they are sent to the medical examiner. Authorities are gathering DNA samples from family members to aid in identification. Late Saturday, four of the victims were identified as Stacie Dawn Fang, 54; Antonio Lozano, 83; Gladys Lozano, 79; and Manuel LaFont, 54.
JAKARTA - Thirty doctors have died of Covid-19 so far this month in Indonesia, as the country battles a second wave of infections driven by the Delta variant, triggering renewed calls to impose a nationwide lockdown or risk a dire situation such as that in India.
In a statement on Sunday (June 27), the Indonesian medical doctors' association (IDI) appealed to the government to impose a hard lockdown of at least two weeks, especially in Java, adding that maximum enforcement is required.
Java is the most populous island where the capital Jakarta is located.
Dr Adib Khumaidi, head of IDI's mitigation team, flagged some grim statistics in several epicentres in Java at an online briefing.
He said Kudus, the smallest regency, has recorded 231 doctors currently hospitalised or serving self-quarantine at home. Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Jakarta are also among the regions that have seen high casualty numbers among doctors.
The 30 doctors who died this month included four on Sunday, bringing the total death toll for doctors since the pandemic started to 405, according to IDI.
The country's total number of Covid-19 cases is now 2.12 million, and the total death toll is 57,138.
Dr Adib warned of the possibility of a dire outbreak in Indonesia, such as that in India, citing as reasons the country's overloaded hospitals and a testing rate lower than India's.
"Merely adding (hospital) beds isn't enough. (Adequate) medical human resources is key. The current situation is that a lot of our fellow medical workers are infected, doing self-isolation, hospitalised," Dr Adib said.
He added that a number of hospitals could be considered as having collapsed, warning that if no drastic step is taken, the whole healthcare system could also collapse.
India had its first surge last September when its total number of active cases soared above one million, before going down to around 137,000 in mid-February. The cases then spiked again and reached the peak of around 3.7 million in May as pandemic fatigue set in and people flouted restriction rules.
On Friday, Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin announced that the government will convert more hospital beds to treat Covid-19 patients, and at least two major, newly built government-subsidised housing towers in the capital will be turned into facilities to treat patients with mild symptoms.
On Sunday, calls to impose a large-scale lockdown - rather than the current localised lockdowns - also came from the legislative branch, with Parliament's health committee deputy chairman Charles Honoris issuing a statement telling the government to at least impose a hard lockdown in Java.
Indonesia's epidemiological curve is described as "nearly being a vertical line, resembling that of India's in April", Mr Charles said in a text message to The Straits Times last evening.
Meanwhile, Indonesia on Sunday issued an emergency use approval for the Sinovac vaccine to be administered to people aged between 12 and 18.
SYDNEY: Millions of Sydney residents began the first full day of a two-week coronavirus lockdown on Sunday (Jun 27), as Australia imposed new restrictions to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Restaurants, bars and cafes were shuttered after stay-at-home orders for central neighbourhoods were extended Saturday evening across the sprawling city and to the coastal and mountainous regions surrounding it.
While the city centre was virtually deserted, large numbers of surfers and swimmers hit the water at Sydney's Bondi Beach, with outdoor exercise still allowed.
Australia's northern city of Darwin also entered a separate snap 48-hour lockdown on Sunday after a handful of cases were linked to a coronavirus outbreak on a remote gold mine.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner said officials were concerned about being unable to reach close contacts of infected people in the region, home to a large Indigenous population feared to be more vulnerable to COVID-19.
"We are taking extreme action right now to stop or slow any spread before the coronavirus is let loose in the Territory, and that means we need a lockdown," he said.
Health experts had advised that a shorter snap lockdown of Sydney - which has proved effective in other Australian cities in recent months - would not be enough to contain the growing cluster, New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
More than 110 COVID-19 cases have been reported since a driver for an international flight crew tested positive in mid-June to the highly contagious Delta variant, which first emerged in India.
"Given how contagious this strain of the virus is, we do anticipate that in the next few days case numbers are likely to increase even beyond what we have seen today," Berejiklian told reporters Sunday.
TESTING TIME
The flare-up has been a shock for a city that had returned to relative normality after months with few local cases.
Matt Daly, 37, who lives south of Sydney, said he supported the measures but anticipated a "testing" period of working from home and entertaining his two young children who are on school holidays.
"A lot of juggling over the next two weeks. Really hope it doesn't extend further," he told AFP.
Sydney's restrictions require people to stay home until at least Jul 9, only venturing out to purchase essential goods, obtain medical care, exercise, go to school or if they are unable to work from home.
Professional musician Blain Cunneen, 27, said his work - performing gigs, studio sessions and teaching students - had gone "up in smoke" overnight.
"All that was starting to operate again almost as normal... very suddenly overnight I got a bunch of emails and texts about everything being cancelled," he told AFP.
Anyone outside of the lockdown zone who had visited Sydney since Monday was also instructed to self-isolate for 14 days, while several other states have banned travel to and from the city.
It is the latest in a string of "circuit-breaker" lockdowns across major Australian metropolises, with most cases linked to quarantining returning travellers.
More than 150,000 people in Darwin and surrounding areas are under stay-at-home orders for at least 48 hours to give health officials time to trace contacts, for the first time since a nationwide shutdown in the early stages of the pandemic.
"The Northern Territory is now facing its biggest threat since the COVID-19 crisis began," Gunner said.
Cases of COVID-19 were also detected in the major cities of Perth and Brisbane on Sunday, prompting local authorities to tighten restrictions.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said he was confident Australia would manage.
"It's a difficult day but we've done this before, we know how to do it. And we will get through it," he said.
Australia has been among the world's most successful countries in containing COVID-19, with just over 30,000 cases and 910 deaths in a population of about 25 million. However, the government has faced criticism for a sluggish vaccine rollout.
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia will extend its full lockdown until daily new Covid-19 cases drop below 4,000, and its targets on vaccination and intensive care unit (ICU) bed usage are met, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Sunday (June 27).
The lockdown was originally due to end on Monday, but Malaysia is still averaging above 5,000 cases a day nearly four weeks into the lockdown.
The country also spent much of May under a more relaxed nationwide lockdown after a drastic spike in cases beginning April this year.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin did not specify the duration of the extension, but indicated that it would continue until daily new cases drop below 4,000, according to national news agency Bernama.
“This (aid package) will be more comprehensive than what we already have,” he told the media after visiting a mega vaccination centre in Selangor, Malaysia’s worst-hit state.
The new aid measures are expected to be announced on Monday or Tuesday, Mr Muhyiddin said.
The Prime Minister earlier this month introduced a four-phase exit plan out of the pandemic, with each transition guided by three indicators. The current lockdown is the first phase, while a more relaxed second phase will retain much of the curbs while allowing more economic sectors to operate.
Aside from the daily case figures, the other two indicators are the vaccination rate and the level of utilisation of ICU beds for Covid-19 in Malaysian hospitals.
The country needs to achieve full vaccination for 10 per cent of its population in order to move into phase two, but only 6.2 per cent had been fully inoculated as at Saturday (June 26). Coordinating minister for immunisation Khairy Jamaluddin previously said that the 10 per cent target will likely be achieved only by mid-July.
While there was no specific target numbers set for ICU bed usage, the latest figures showed that the utilisation rate remained above 90 per cent nationwide.
Under the exit plan, Malaysia projects a partial reopening of the economy by the end of August - once daily cases dip below 2,000 a day - while a full reopening, including the lifting of travel bans, is expected to take place in November this year.
News of the extension made the rounds in Malaysia on Sunday, with the hashtag “Kerajaan Zalim” (cruel government) trending on Twitter in the country, with Malaysians venting their frustration with the prolonged effect of the lockdown on livelihoods, and expressing scepticism of its effectiveness.
“28 days of MCO appears to have gone to waste. What is the fate of Malaysians?” Twitter user Hamidah Hamzah asked, referring to the movement control order as the lockdown is called.
“The rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer,” another user, Auji Zaharudin, wrote.
Many Malaysians are frustrated with the persistence of workplace clusters contributed by factories, many of which are allowed to operate under the lockdown regulations in order to minimise the impact on Malaysia’s economy.
The nearly full lockdown implemented last year saw the country losing RM2.4 billion a day, while the current lockdown is costing RM1 billion a day, Mr Muhyiddin revealed previously.
The possibility of a new aid package was indicated by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz in a Facebook post earlier on Sunday.
“With the National Recovery Plan, this is the right time to reintroduce measures such as (loan moratoriums and provident fund withdrawals) to help the people and businesses,” Tengku Zafrul said.
Last year, Mr Muhyiddin’s administration introduced a blanket six-month loan moratorium to contain the economic impact of a full lockdown that lasted nearly three months. Many businesses and trade groups had called for such measures again to help communities and businesses cushion the impact of the current lockdown.
The secretary-general of opposition Democratic Action Party, Mr Lim Guan Eng, urged the government not to announce a “cosmetic” relief package for the lockdown extension.
Only RM5 billion out of the RM40 billion aid package announced last month was in the form of direct fiscal injection.
