Valentine's Day tragedy: Thai toddler drowns in pool as mum poses for OnlyFans photoshoot - AsiaOne

This is no time to be judgmental, reach for the tissues.

This is really about a mother’s grief. That she may also carry a huge burden of guilt only makes it sadder.

Thai model Wiyada Pontawee, who posts racy photos online, was partying at a villa in Pattaya on Valentine’s Day when her two-year-old son drowned in the pool there.

She was at the party with her husband and two children as well as other adult models.

Her husband is also her photographer and the event was supposed to be a photo shoot too, international media reports said.

She posts photos on the OnlyFans platform where paying subscribers can view them.

There was even a shot of the voluptuous 26-year-old in front of the pool in a barely-there bikini.

The boy, who was called Vio, was playing in the water with his younger brother and another child.

Then his father noticed that Vio seemed to be struggling, and rushed to save him.

Emergency services were called at 10pm on Monday (Feb 14).

"He was choking, so I jumped in to help him but it was too late," the father was quoted as saying.

The Sun reported that a rescue service spokesman said: "The father and mother carried the body of a two-year-old boy and asked for help at the entrance of the villa. Rescue workers tried to help and pumped the heart to try and save his life."

The parents were weeping as the officers rushed the boy to the hospital.

"The medical team provided the best assistance but were unable to save the child's life," the spokesman said.

Around 3am on Tuesday, the mother put up a post on her Facebook page: “I can’t take it anymore. I don’t want to live in this world.”

The boy's funeral was held on Wednesday. In front of his photo was a birthday cake.

The child would have turned three that day, Feb 16.

The mother wrote: “Attending Vio’s birthday for the last time.”

ALSO READ: Death of girl, 5, who drowned at condo pool after mum left her alone for 20 minutes ruled a tragic misadventure

This article was first published in The New Paper. Permission required for reproduction.

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2022-02-17 07:10:34Z
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Singapore resumes border reopening after pause due to Omicron outbreak - Reuters

SINGAPORE, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Singapore will expand quarantine-free travel to Hong Kong, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates this month, its health ministry said on Wednesday, resuming border reopening after a pause due to an outbreak of the coronavirus.

The city-state will also restore and increase quotas under its vaccinated travel programme, which had been reduced in December to deal with the Omicron variant. read more

Singapore will streamline border measures for all travellers, and remove an entry approval requirement for eligible residents who are long-term pass holders, the ministry said, making it easier for expatriates to travel.

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However, some overseas workers with different permits typically employed in sectors such as construction and manufacturing will still need an entry approval.

The country intends to eventually scrap vaccinated travel lanes for visitors from designated countries to allow entry to all vaccinated visitors without quarantine, authorities said.

About two dozen countries are in the vaccinated travel lane programme including Australia, India, Malaysia, Britain and the United States. The new lane with Hong Kong is unilateral.

Singapore reported a record 19,179 local coronavirus infections on Tuesday, but a majority of the cases had mild or no symptoms. The government said the caseload was within expectations and that the overall situation in the healthcare system remained stable.

Singapore could see 15,000 to 20,000 COVID-19 daily cases until the current Omicron wave falls in a few weeks, Gan Kim Yong, minister of trade and industry, said in a briefing.

The government announced a raft of changes to local COVID-19 measures, including easing rules for close contacts of confirmed cases, removing routine testing for workers in several sectors and allowing more interactions at residences and workplaces.

Singapore will ease social and travel restrictions when the Omicron wave subsides, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said, adding that the new local rules on testing and isolation placed more weight on personal responsibility rather than legal requirements.

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Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore Editing by Ed Davies

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2022-02-16 14:51:00Z
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Prince Andrew settles with sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre - CNA

NEW YORK: Britain's Prince Andrew has settled a lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre accusing the Duke of York of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager and also being abused by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, a US federal court filing showed on Tuesday (Feb 15).

The settlement, including an undisclosed payment, was revealed in the joint filing in Manhattan federal court, where Giuffre had sued Queen Elizabeth's second son last August.

It spares Andrew from a potentially embarrassing series of disclosures and accusations in the months leading up to and during a trial, which was slated to begin late this year.

Andrew, 61, has denied Giuffre's accusations that he forced her to have sex more than two decades ago at a London home of former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and abused her at two Epstein properties. Giuffre, 38, has been one of Epstein's and Maxwell's most prominent accusers.

Lawyers for Giuffre and Andrew said the prince intends to make a substantial donation to Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights.

The prince "never intended to malign Ms Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks," the filing said.

"Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others," the filing added. "He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims."

The statement is a marked departure from an interview that Andrew gave the BBC in 2019 in which he failed to appear sympathetic toward Epstein's abuse victims, and refused to apologize for his friendship with Epstein.

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2022-02-15 16:44:00Z
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Three-year-old dies as Hong Kong's worst Covid-19 outbreak grows - The Straits Times

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - A three-year-old girl is the latest fatality in Hong Kong's worsening coronavirus wave that has seen case numbers balloon and overwhelm the health system.

She died on Tuesday evening (Feb 15), the government said in a statement without disclosing if she had any pre-existing illnesses. A 100-year-old woman with chronic illness also died. They are the youngest and oldest residents to die in the current outbreak.

The toddler's death comes amid a global surge of young Covid-19 patients and raises concerns about the risk of severe illness, though such cases remain rare.

While the outbreak in Hong Kong is small by global standards, the elderly vaccination rate is low and officials only recently permitted inoculation for kids younger than 12.

Children as young as three were able to get the Sinovac Biotech vaccine from Tuesday, after the government lowered the age limit. Children between five and 11 can get the BioNTech shot from Wednesday.

The young girl tested positive and was transferred to an intensive care unit in critical condition on Sunday.

The fatality follows the recent death of a four-year-old boy who tested preliminary positive and whose case has been referred to the coroner.

Hong Kong is particularly vulnerable to Omicron due to its high density.

The variant is better at evading immunity acquired from vaccines and natural infection than earlier strains, allowing it to spread rapidly in communities, especially among susceptible individuals across all age groups.

There is no evidence that Omicron is targeting children more than other age groups as vaccination rates are higher in adults.

Children are less likely to develop serious symptoms because their immune system can respond to pathogens more swiftly.

That typically enables kids to successfully counter the infection before it has had a chance to spread to the lungs to cause pneumonia and the inflammatory cascade that can be life-threatening in seniors.

Hong Kong is set to announce at least 4,200 new infections on Wednesday, as well as more than 3,000 preliminary positive cases, local media reported, citing people they did not identify.

The city's testing capacity is strained and the total number of preliminary Covid-19 cases and patients waiting to be hospitalised reached about 12,000, local media reported on Wednesday, citing people they did not identify.

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2022-02-16 03:16:29Z
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Live news: Financial stocks lead Asia lower as Ukraine fears weigh on investors - Financial Times

UK pay picked up less than prices at the end of last year while job vacancies rose to a record and the unemployment rate hit a pandemic low.

Average weekly earnings, excluding bonuses, grew at an annual pace of 3.7 per cent in the final quarter of 2021, data published by the Office for National Statistics showed on Tuesday. However, prices were rising faster than pay, which meant that wages fell 0.8 per cent in real terms.

This is despite a tight labour market. The number of job vacancies in the three months to January rose to a record 1,298,400, an increase of 513,700 from its pre-coronavirus January to March 2020 level.

The number of employees based on HMRC real time data also increased by 108,000 between December and January to a record 29.5mn.

Sam Beckett, ONS head of economic statistics, said that the number of employees on payrolls rose in January 2022 and is well above pre-pandemic levels. However, he noted that the number of people in employment overall is below where it was before Covid-19 hit. “This is because there are now far fewer self-employed people,” he said.

The unemployment rate decreased 0.2 percentage points in the quarter to 4.1 per cent.

The number of people in employment also fell 38,000 in the three months to December compared with the previous quarter, the first contraction since the start of last year. This was a smaller contraction than the 65,000 forecast by economists polled by Reuters.

Unemployment and employment both fell because many people left the labour force during the pandemic.

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2022-02-15 08:14:46Z
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FAQ: What you need to know about Novavax's non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccine - CNA

SINGAPORE: Singapore is expected to receive its first batch of Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine in the coming months after authorities announced on Monday (Feb 14) that it has been approved for use here.

The non-mRNA vaccine can be given as a booster shot, said the Ministry of Health.

It is the fourth vaccine available under the Pandemic Special Access Route (PSAR), after the ones by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Sinovac.

Here’s what you need to know about Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured under the name Nuvaxovid: 

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM MRNA VACCINES? 

Nuvaxovid uses a protein-based technology that has been around for decades to create vaccines against illnesses such as shingles, whooping cough and hepatitis. 

The proteins in the Novavax vaccine mimic COVID-19’s spike protein. They were created in moth cells, then converted into nanoparticles that are harvested to make the vaccine.

This non-infectious spike protein is then inserted into the body to induce an immune response.

The main difference between Novavax and mRNA vaccines is that it is made with lab-grown copies of the COVID-19 spike protein, whereas mRNA vaccines include genetic instructions for the body to make its own spike protein.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE VACCINE?

Trials have shown that Nuvaxovid is about 90 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100 per cent effective in preventing severe infection. 

These findings were from its Phase III clinical study involving people aged 18 or older. 

Novavax is trialling the vaccine in people aged 12 to 17. It said last week that Nuvaxovid was 80 per cent effective against COVID-19 in a late-stage trial in that age group. 

DOES IT WORK AGAINST OMICRON? 

There is no data on whether Nuvaxovid is effective against the Omicron or Delta variants, said Singapore's expert committee on COVID-19 vaccination.

"These variants were not prevalent at the time Novavax conducted the clinical trials," the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) added.

The vaccine, however, has shown "consistent efficacy" against the Alpha variant. 

WHO CAN TAKE THE VACCINE?

HSA has approved the vaccine for people aged 18 and above. 

It is also safe for breastfeeding women, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

As Nuvaxovid is not a live virus vaccine, “it is biologically and clinically unlikely to pose a risk to the breastfeeding child”, WHO said, adding that it does not recommend discontinuing breastfeeding because of vaccination. 

The vaccine should be administered in two doses of 5 micrograms, three weeks apart. 

WHO SHOULDN'T TAKE THE VACCINE?

Severely immunocompromised people and those under 18 years old should not take the vaccine until safety and efficacy data for these groups is available, HSA said. 

Those who develop a severe allergic reaction after the first dose should not be given the second one, it added. 

Those with a history of anaphylaxis - a rapid onset of severe allergic reactions - should also not receive the vaccine, according to WHO.

People with a temperature of above 38.5 degrees Celsius or who have been diagnosed with acute COVID-19 should postpone vaccination until they no longer have a fever or after recovering from acute illness and do not need to be isolated, WHO added. 

WHAT ARE THE SIDE EFFECTS?

There have been “no significant safety concerns”, said Singapore's expert committee on COVID-19 vaccination.

Common side effects include injection site pain and/or tenderness, fatigue, headache and muscle aches. They usually resolve on their own within a few days.

"These symptoms are reactions generally associated with vaccinations and expected as part of the body’s natural response to build immunity against COVID-19," HSA said.

WHAT DOES THE EXPERT COMMITTEE RECOMMEND?

Singapore's expert committee said that while Nuvaxovid is an "acceptable alternative" to the mRNA vaccines for those aged 18 and above, "mRNA vaccines still remain the preferred vaccines due to their higher efficacy and the stronger immune response they generate". 

Nuvaxovid is, however, recommended over the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine, which is less effective. 

"Nuvaxovid is preferred to Sinovac-Coronavac for persons medically ineligible to receive the mRNA vaccines," the committee said. 

"Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine should only be used by persons who are medically ineligible for the mRNA vaccines and Nuvaxovid."

CAN NUVAXOVID BE USED AS A BOOSTER?

Yes, but only for those aged 18 and above, although it is less effective than boosting with an mRNA vaccine. 

A trial in the UK with more than 2,800 participants showed that when used as a booster, Nuvaxovid produced "a substantial rise in antibody level and cellular response, said the expert committee. 

However, "this was to a lower extent when compared to boosting with mRNA vaccines", the committee noted. 

As a booster, one dose of the Nuvaxovid vaccine is recommended about five months after the last dose of the primary series vaccination. 

WHICH COUNTRIES HAVE APPROVED THE VACCINE?

Novavax’s vaccine has been approved in several countries, including Australia, Britain, Germany, New Zealand and South Korea. It has also applied for authorisation in the US. 

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2022-02-14 08:02:29Z
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Vietnam to end COVID-19 curbs on international flights from Feb 15 - CNA

HANOI: Vietnam will remove its COVID-19 restrictions on international passenger flights with all markets starting Feb 15, with no limitation on the number of flights, the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper reported on Sunday (Feb 13).

The Southeast Asian country imposed tight border controls at the start of the pandemic to keep out COVID-19, with some initial success, but that dealt a blow to its burgeoning tourism sector which accounted for about 10 per cent of gross domestic product.

"Vietnam will lift restrictions on international flights starting Feb 15. The frequency of flights will be restored to pre-pandemic level," Tuoi Tre said, citing Dinh Viet Son, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam.

Vietnam has already informed its partners about that new policy and only China has not yet agreed to resume commercial flights with Vietnam, Son was quoted as saying.

Vietnam had already begun gradually resuming international flights with 15 markets from the beginning of this year while easing quarantine requirements, with vaccinated passengers now needing only three days of self-isolation.

The Southeast Asian country has recorded nearly 2.5 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, and around 39,000 deaths. Nearly 98 per cent of its 98 million people have received at least two vaccine doses, official data showed.

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2022-02-13 08:43:56Z
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