Hundreds of Philippine hospitals near full capacity as COVID-19 cases surge - CNA

Of the 1,291 hospitals in the Philippines, 236 have reached "critical levels" of more than 85 per cent occupancy because of the rise in cases, she said. Hospitals in the capital region, the epicentre of the current outbreak, were facing a similar situation with 25 of 159 facilities nearing full capacity, she added.

Last Friday, authorities placed the capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities home to more than 13 million people, under a two week lockdown as cases nationwide neared a four month high.

Footage recorded by drone on Monday showed noticeably fewer cars on Manila's streets following strict limitations on the movement of people outdoors.

The lockdown would help the government delay a further rise in cases and give it more time to reinforce healthcare systems, Vergeire said. City officials have said they would use the period to vaccinate four million people in the capital region.

The Philippines is aiming to inoculate up to 70 million people this year, and 11 million people have been fully vaccinated so far. The country has recorded 1.65 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, and 29,000 deaths.

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2021-08-09 07:24:35Z
CBMidmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vYXNpYS9waGlsaXBwaW5lcy1jb3ZpZC0xOS1ob3NwaXRhbHMtZnVsbC1jYXBhY2l0eS1sb2NrZG93bi1kZWx0YS12YXJpYW50LXN1cmdlLTIxMDE1MTbSAQA

Jakarta to ease curbs as Covid-19 cases, hospital admissions fall - The Straits Times

JAKARTA - Indonesia's capital Jakarta is set to ease Covid-19 curbs from Tuesday (Aug 10), allowing shopping malls and restaurants in the city to reopen with limited capacity as the numbers of confirmed cases and hospital admissions continue to fall.

Government sources told The Straits Times that improving indicators and ramped-up vaccinations means Jakarta is well placed to lower its control measures to the next level.

"Jakarta's indicators are improving. Active cases, positivity rate, bed occupancy ratio is all on the downtrend," a government official told ST.

The city of 11 million people has been on level four of containment measures since July 3. Malls and restaurants have been shut, with only takeaways allowed, while non-essential workers have been required to work from home.

Easing restrictions to level three will mean shopping malls and stand-alone restaurants can open at 25 per cent capacity, while 25 per cent of non-essential workers can return to work from the office.

Indonesia will extend level four mobility restrictions in several areas of Java and Bali until Aug 16, but will ease them in other places on those islands where Covid-19 cases have dropped, senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Monday evening. 

Java and Bali collectively make up 60 per cent of Indonesia's population of 271 million. 

Outside of Java and Bali, those restrictions – the strictest in the government’s scale – will be extended until Aug 23, coordinating minister of economic affairs Airlangga Hartarto said. 

As at Sunday, the occupancy rate of Covid-19 isolation wards in Jakarta's hospitals has fallen to 39 per cent, while the occupancy rate for intensive care units (ICUs) has fallen to 65 per cent. Occupancy levels reached above 90 per cent in July, at the peak of the capital's fight against the more transmissible Delta variant of the virus.

Meanwhile, the city's positivity rate, which measures the percentage of people who test positive for Covid-19, was recorded at 10.2 per cent last Saturday. The government had previously said a positivity rate of 10 per cent or lower was one of the requisite conditions for controls to be eased to level three.

About 42 per cent of Jakartans have been fully vaccinated and above 90 per cent of them have received their first vaccine shots.

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2021-08-09 13:44:27Z
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World leaders, scientists react to landmark UN climate science report - CNA

SCIENTISTS

Paulo Artaxo, an IPCC lead author and environmental physicist at the University of Sao Paulo:

"This is a strong message that we are changing the climate in an irreversible way. So basically, we are damaging the climate in such a way for the next generations that this will certainly make the socioeconomic difficulties in the future much, much worse than in our generation ...

"My personal opinion is that it will be impossible to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5 degrees."

Friederike Otto, an IPCC lead author and Associate Director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford:

"Already, there are a lot of impacts of anthropogenic climate change in every region around the world ... There are things that we can stop from getting worse by keeping to the targets, but there are a lot of changes which are already here."

Helene Hewitt, a coordinating IPCC lead author and Ocean Modelling group leader at the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre:

"Previous reports may have slightly underestimated the trend of Arctic sea ice (melting) in the past and now we are combining multiple lines of evidence which suggest that we might see a practically sea-ice-free Arctic for the first time by 2050 under all scenarios."

Kristina Dahl, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists:

"While this report underscores the urgent need for climate action, prior IPCC reports and countless other studies, as well as our lived experience, have already given us more than enough evidence to know that we’re in the midst of a crisis brought to us largely by the fossil fuel industry and their political allies."

CAMPAIGN GROUPS

Helen Mountford, Vice President of Climate and Economics, World Resources Institute:

"If this IPCC report doesn’t shock you into action, it should. The report paints a very sobering picture of the unforgiving, unimaginable world we have in store if our addiction to burning fossil fuels and destroying forests continues."

Kaisa Kosonen, Senior Political Advisor on Climate and Energy, Greenpeace:

"We’re not going to let this report be shelved by further inaction. Instead, we’ll be taking it with us to the courts. By strengthening the scientific evidence between human emissions and extreme weather, the IPCC has provided new, powerful means for everyone everywhere to hold the fossil fuel industry and governments directly responsible for the climate emergency."

Nafkote Dabi, Climate Policy Lead at Oxfam:

“Amid a world in parts burning, in parts drowning and in parts starving, the IPCC today tables the most compelling wake-up call yet for global industry to switch from oil, gas and coal to renewables. Governments must use law to compel this urgent change. Citizens must use their own political power and behaviors to push big polluting corporations and governments in the right direction. There is no Plan B."

Teresa Anderson, climate policy coordinator at ActionAid International:

"The IPCC tells us that limiting average global warming to 1.5C is going to be difficult – but not impossible. This new report drills home the message that radical and transformative action is urgently needed to bring emissions down to real zero. Unfortunately, too many ‘net zero’ climate plans are being used to greenwash pollution and business-as-usual, jeopardising the goals of the Paris Agreement."

COMPANIES AND INDUSTRIES

Wai-Shin Chan, Global Head of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Research at HSBC:

"The science is crystal clear but the response is not. Investors must use their influence to push decision makers to make the bold emission reductions required to limit the most severe consequences of climate change."

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2021-08-09 09:22:48Z
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'My bosses are taking COVID-19 lightly': Some Jakarta employees told to work in office despite COVID-19 curbs - CNA

The Jakarta Manpower Agency said that they have taken action against more than 1,000 companies for violating the PPKM regulation since the policy was enacted last month.

Several workers interviewed by CNA said their offices have been running at full capacity during the PPKM, adding that the various checkpoints and restrictions in place only meant that they had to travel via back roads and alleyways to get to work.

Experts have expressed concern over this phenomenon and have urged stricter enforcement of the PPKM regulation.

“The pandemic will never be over if people’s mobility and interaction in workplaces remains high,” epidemiologist Windhu Purnomo told CNA.

“MY BOSSES ARE TAKING COVID-19 LIGHTLY”

Aldi works in a technology company, which falls under the essential sector. At the beginning, his employer agreed to follow the PPKM rule by having half of its workforce work from home.

“As a marketing executive, I don’t really need to come to the office. I feel that our productivity remained the same whether we are working from the office or from home. But one advantage to working from home is that we feel a lot safer and we don’t have to worry about the chance of contracting (COVID-19) at work or on our way to work,” he said.

Subsequently, the company reversed its decision and said all employees must return to work in the office starting Jul 26.

“I feel that my bosses are taking COVID-19 lightly. One of our bosses contracted COVID-19 last year but he recovered quickly. Since then, the company has been using his experience as an example. They told us: ‘see, COVID-19 is not all that bad. Stop worrying about returning to the office’,” he said.

He claimed that there are virtually no health protocols and safe distancing measures being implemented.

“Whenever an employee tested positive, all they did was spray some disinfectant fluid at our desks for a few minutes and tell everyone to get back to work once they are done,” he said.

“The company doesn’t even make the effort to perform contact tracing. If we worry about getting infected, we had to get ourselves tested out of our own pocket and the company wouldn’t reimburse us."

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2021-08-08 22:28:17Z
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Drunk driver who ploughed into mother and daughter gives middle finger after walking free from court - Yahoo Singapore News

Scott Roe, 39, stuck his middle finger up after walking free from court for drink driving. (SWNS)

This was the reaction of a drunk driver who walked free from court despite leaving a mother and daughter with devastating injuries after hitting them head-on in a horror crash. 

Scott Roe, 39, ploughed into another car in his Mercedes CLA220 after he "got bored" of following a car that was sticking to the 30mph speed limit in July last year. 

He walked away unhurt from the crash but left 39-year-old Kelly Merridew her daughter Chelsea Sidwell, 19, seriously injured.

The mother and daughter were trapped in the wreckage of the crash in Bedworth, Warwickshire, for two hours while emergency crews tried to free them. 

Roe, 39, ploughed his £25,000 Mercedes CLA220 head-on into an Audi after he "got bored" of travelling behind another car travelling at the 30mph speed limit. (SWNS)

Sidwell suffered a smashed left knee, ankle and toes, as well as ligament damage and was left in a wheelchair for seven weeks following the crash.

Her mum suffered a shattered pelvis, a dislocated right knee and a badly bruised shoulder.

Read more: Three teenage girls arrested after man in his 50s found battered and unconscious

Tattooist Roe, who had two previous convictions for drink driving, was also taken to hospital where a blood test showed he was over the legal alcohol limit.

The 39-year-old admitted two charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and drink driving at Warwick Crown Court but walked free from court after being handed a 16-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months.

He was also ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work, to pay £535 costs and was banned from driving for four years.

Roe pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court, where he was handed a suspended sentence. (Getty)

Sentencing him, Recorder Francesca Levett said: "This was a seriously dangerous manoeuvre executed in the briefest of moments, and no doubt your judgement was clouded by the amount of alcohol you had consumed.

"Your speed was excessive, estimated to have been twice the speed limit in that area.

"What followed was the consequence of your decision to overtake when it was clearly dangerous to do so, and the injuries caused to Miss Sidwell and her mother were extremely serious."

The court heard that the crash happened at dusk when it was raining. Roe was following a car travelling at the 30mph limit when he overtook, ploughing into the mother and daughter at an estimated 60mph. 

The Audi the pair was in was hit head on, spinning round and left with its bonnet crushed, trapping them inside.

Prosecutor Sally Cairns said: "The emergency services attended and found Miss Sidwell and Mrs Merridew trapped and in considerable pain, and Miss Sidwell was stuck for two hours before being released and taken to hospital."

The court heard that Sidwell had been forced to give up her job working with children as a result of her injuries.

Roe told police he had been driving behind a car which was doing 20mph and was "bored of waiting" so overtook but lost control.

Andrew Wilkins, defending, said Roe was "horrified at the consequences of his actions".

He said: "It’s a case in which it is a cascade of things that go wrong.

"It all starts to go wrong when he makes the decision to drive after drinking."

Watch: The biggest drug cheats in Olympics history

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2021-08-08 17:03:50Z
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Tokyo Olympics end with official hand-off to Paris for 2024 Games - Yahoo Singapore News

The closing ceremony for any Olympics is always a more muted affair than the opening ceremony — since the Olympics are over, of course — but Japan put on an optimistic, jaunty show. It began with a show of worldwide unity, with the flag bearers from every country coming together and forming a circle.

Then the athletes came into the stadium, and even the grass they were standing on was symbolic of Japan's hospitality. 

There were also street performers, including jugglers, dancers, and, skateboarders, and an extended performance by the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. 

Unfortunately there's no video of the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra's performance on social media quite yet, so if you didn't catch the ceremony live you'll have to wait until Sunday night to see the white-jacketed ska horn players constantly dancing around on stage. But these pictures should tide you over until then, and give you the general idea of the positively ska-riffic tone. 

One of the highlights was a gorgeous light display, during which thousands of small lights swirled over the athletes' heads and formed into the five Olympic rings. 

The final medals of the Olympics were given out to the winners of the last events of the Olympics, the men's marathon, and for the first time, to the women's marathon as well.

Handing over the Games to Paris

After a performance of traditional Japanese song and dance, the ceremony began looking forward. The next Olympic Games will take place in just three years in Paris. The Olympic flag was officially handed over to the mayor of Paris, and the national anthem of France was played to make the transition official. 

The anthem even ended with a French astronaut who is currently orbiting the Earth playing his saxophone, which was an amazing detail no one could have expected. 

There was even a video of a live Olympic celebration in Paris, the first time that's been included in a closing ceremony. It ended with a flyover of jets spraying the colors of the French flag behind them, and a closeup of the enormous Paris 2024 flag that's flying from the actual Eiffel Tower. If that's any indication, the Paris games will be a banger. 

Then the cauldron, which was lit by Naomi Osaka over two weeks ago, was finally extinguished, and the Games came to an end. 

If you're already going through Olympics withdrawal, you won't be for long. The 2022 Winter Games in Beijing aren't that far away. They kick off on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in just 180 days.

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2021-08-08 13:33:39Z
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Malaysia relaxes Covid-19 restrictions for fully vaccinated people in some places - The Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia will give greater leeway for travel, dining out and engagement in outdoor sports to those who have completed Covid-19 vaccination in places that have moved out of the most serious phase of a nationwide lockdown.

Fully vaccinated Malaysian residents returning to the country will also be allowed to undergo quarantine at home.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced on Sunday (Aug 8) that local tourism within states or federal territories, non-contact outdoor sports and exercise, as well as dining at eateries will be allowed from Tuesday in places that have progressed to at least phase two of the National Recovery Plan.

Currently, these are Perlis, Sarawak and the federal territory of Labuan which are in phase three, as well as Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak, Penang and Sabah which are in phase two.

"I understand many are faced with pandemic fatigue. Taking into account feedback from the Health Ministry, the government is prepared to allow conveniences to those who have completed their vaccination," Tan Sri Muhyiddin said.

People will be able to enjoy the easing of restrictions 14 days after their second vaccine dose, or 28 days in the case of single-dose vaccines.

The vaccines mentioned by the Premier are those manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Johnson & Johnson and CanSino, which have been approved by Malaysia. It was not immediately clear if other vaccines would be accepted.

Exceptions will be made nationwide for fully vaccinated spouses, as well as parents and their children younger than 18, to meet after months of being divided by district or state lines.

The Prime Minister cautioned that dining in was riskier than other social activities as it involved removing face masks.

“I would like to advise the public to dine in only when necessary and not spend too long. Pick a location which has good ventilation,” he said, adding that restaurateurs should prepare more open-air seats to reduce the risk of infection. 

Fully vaccinated parents are allowed to take their children to eateries. 

People who have completed their jabs will also be allowed to return to places of worship, subject to strict guidelines. 

Mr Muhyiddin warned that the "government will not hesitate to revoke these conveniences if there are breaches of guidelines".

He also said relaxations for the economic sector are still being discussed and will be announced soon.

Over eight million people in Malaysia, or about 36 per cent of its adult population, have been fully inoculated against the coronavirus, with the government projecting 50 per cent coverage by the end of August.

At that point, the barometer for phases will shift from average daily cases and intensive care utilisation in hospitals to symptomatic hospital admissions, given that the vaccines have been proven to greatly reduce the risk of critical cases.

Under Malaysia’s National Recovery Plan, phase one is a full lockdown of activities except those deemed essential, while phase two allows for slight easing of restrictions, especially in workplace operations.

The third phase sees most sectors of the economy operating while some curbs on social sectors remain, and phase four is nearly a full reopening.

About half of the country's daily infections - which breached 20,000 twice in the past week - have come from the Klang Valley, which comprises Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. The economic hub of the country remains in phase one.

A record 360 people succumbed to Covid-19 on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 10,749. Some 18,688 new patients were recorded, raising the total to 1,262,540 since the pandemic began.

---

The relaxed rules

Under the new rules, returning citizens and residents who are fully vaccinated can serve their quarantine at home from tomorrow. Currently, they must undergo quarantine at designated hotels.

For the first time in three months, interstate travels are allowed but only for fully vaccinated long-distance couples and parents visiting children under the age of 18.

Fully vaccinated residents may also enter houses of worship for prayers from tomorrow.

The government also eased certain restrictions in states and federal territories under the second and third phase of the National Recovery Plan. They are Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak, Penang, Sabah, Perlis, Labuan and Sarawak.

In these places, dine-ins are allowed with a seating capacity of 50 per cent per table. Cross-district travel and intrastate tourism involving homestays or hotels would also be allowed.

Residents there can practise sports without physical contact such as jogging, cycling, taiji, fishing, hiking, golf and skateboarding from 6am to 10pm.

Contact sports and group exercises remain prohibited, along with changing and showers at clubhouse premises.

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2021-08-08 09:36:13Z
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