Tighter border health checks in Malaysia not meant to discriminate against any country: PM Anwar - CNA

Amid concerns over the rise of COVID-19 cases in China, the Malaysian health ministry said on Dec 30 that all visitors entering Malaysia will have to undergo temperature screening checks for fever.

Those who are found to have a fever, are symptomatic or have self-declared their symptoms will then be sent to a quarantine centre or to the health authorities for further checks.

Additionally, those who have been to China within the last 14 days of their arrival in the country will need to undergo the RTK-Ag test (rapid antigen test).

These samples will then be sent for genome testing if they are found to be positive for COVID-19.

At the same time, those who have been in close contact with people who have travelled to China in the last 14 days, or exhibit influenza-like illnesses or severe acute respiratory infection will also need to be tested for COVID-19, said the health ministry.

On Monday, the health ministry added that it is prepared to tighten health checks as part of its pandemic border policies.

Last Thursday, Transport Minister Anthony Loke was quoted as saying by Bernama that Malaysia would see a surge in flight demand following the reopening of China’s borders.

In response, the Malaysia Tourism Agency Association (MATA) has urged the government to temporarily suspend the entry of tourists from China until the situation there improves.

On Wednesday, the Malaysian Medical Association issued a statement urging the government to test travellers from China for COVID-19 before they are allowed to enter the Southeast Asian nation.

In 2019, before the pandemic, Malaysia reportedly received 3 million Chinese tourists.

In the state of Sabah, which is highly dependent on Chinese visitors when it comes to tourism revenue, the state government is reportedly considering its own set of protocols for travellers from China.

The states of Sabah and Sarawak have autonomy on immigration issues.

Following the loosening of COVID-19 measures in China, several countries including the United States, Canada, Japan and France have required that all travellers from China provide negative COVID-19 tests before arrival.

Malaysia had previously scrapped mandatory testing on all incoming vaccinated travellers on May 1. In September, mask-wearing became optional in most indoor places in the country.

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2023-01-04 08:08:00Z
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Leading WHO advisers call for 'realistic' COVID-19 data from China at key meeting - CNA

LONDON: Leading scientists advising the World Health Organization (WHO) said they wanted a "more realistic picture" about the COVID-19 situation from China's top experts at a key meeting on Tuesday (Jan 3) as worries grow about the rapid spread of the virus.

The WHO has invited Chinese scientists to a virtual closed meeting with its technical advisory group on viral evolution on Tuesday, to present data on which variants are circulating in the country. It is not open to the public or media.

China lifted its "zero-COVID" measures in December 2022. COVID-19 cases are now surging, although official data is patchy.

"We want to see a more realistic picture of what is actually going on," said Professor Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who sits on the WHO committee. Speaking to Reuters ahead of the meeting, she said some of the data from China, such as hospitalisation numbers, is "not very credible".

"It is in the interests of China itself to come forward with more reliable information."

Professor Tulio de Oliveira, a South African scientist who also sits on the committee and whose team has detected a number of new variants, said "of course" it would be good to get more information from China, but this also applies globally.

So far, sequencing data from China provided to the online GISAID hub has shown the variants circulating there are offshoots of Omicron, in line with the dominant variants in the rest of the world.

Koopmans and colleagues expect to discuss similar information at the WHO meeting on Tuesday, with scientists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The group meeting is an international committee of experts which has gathered throughout the pandemic, and regularly receives briefings from countries experiencing large waves of infection or new variants.

Koopmans said they have only seen a "tiny fraction" of China's cases sequenced so far - around 700 - and called for the establishment of a global surveillance network to keep track of SARS-CoV-2.

"Right now, what we are getting is very patchy, but that has been the reality in other parts of the world as well," she said.

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2023-01-03 13:50:28Z
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Elderly patients fill hospitals in Shanghai COVID-19 surge - CNA

Beijing last month rapidly demolished key pillars of its zero-COVID policy, doing away with snap lockdowns, mass testing and state quarantines in a matter of days.

The reversal of three years of hardline curbs sparked relief nationwide, but has unleashed a torrent of infections on the country's patchy healthcare system and overloaded funeral homes and crematoriums.

Even in Shanghai, one of China's richest cities, the crisis is acute. Around 70 per cent of the megacity's population - equivalent to around 18 million people - may have caught COVID-19 since last month, according to state media reports.

SUFFERING IN PUBLIC

In a waiting area at Huashan Hospital - located a stone's throw from the site of anti-lockdown protests in November - a woman bent over a sickened man of around 80, a profusion of tubes springing from his emaciated hand.

Nearby, a young man stood sentry beside the bed of another elderly patient, shielding him from the crowds of people walking past.

At Tongren Hospital in the west of the city, a middle-aged woman in a facial mask gently lifted a flask to the parched lips of a man hooked up to an oxygen cylinder.

Nearby, a medical worker wearing blue scrubs and a face visor attended to a grey-haired woman in a red jumper as she shivered under a thick blanket.

Doctors and nurses at hospitals in multiple cities have told AFP they have continued to treat patients despite testing positive for the virus themselves.

In Shanghai, many also soldiered on, letting out the occasional dry cough as they flitted from patient to patient.

China's National Health Commission last month announced that it would no longer publish daily case figures, and a separate tally kept by the country's disease control body is widely considered inaccurate now that testing mandates have been scrapped.

The country has also narrowed the definition of what counts as a COVID-19 death in a move that some experts say will underestimate the true number of fatalities due to the disease.

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2023-01-03 11:13:35Z
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Up to 70% of Shanghai population infected with COVID-19: Top doctor - CNA

SHANGHAI: A senior doctor at one of Shanghai's top hospitals has said 70 per cent of the megacity's population may have been infected with COVID-19 during China's huge surge in cases, state media reported Tuesday (Jan 3).

The steep rise in infections came after years of hardline restrictions were abruptly loosened last month with little warning or preparation, and quickly overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums.

Chen Erzhen, vice president at Ruijin Hospital and a member of Shanghai's COVID-19 expert advisory panel, estimated that the majority of the city's 25 million people may have been infected.

"Now the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai is very wide, and it may have reached 70 per cent of the population, which is 20 to 30 times more than (in April and May)," he told Dajiangdong Studio, owned by the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

Shanghai suffered a gruelling two-month lockdown from April, during which over 600,000 residents were infected and many were hauled to mass quarantine centres.

But now, the Omicron variant is spreading rampantly across the city and experts predict infections there will peak in early 2023.

In other major cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing and Guangzhou, Chinese health officials have suggested that the wave has already peaked.

In neighbouring Zhejiang province, disease control authorities said Tuesday that there had been one million new infections in recent days and that the province was entering a peak plateau for COVID-19.

Chen added that his Shanghai hospital was seeing 1,600 emergency admissions daily - double the number prior to restrictions being lifted - with 80 per cent of them COVID-19 patients.

"More than 100 ambulances arrive at the hospital every day," he was quoted as saying, adding that around half of emergency admissions were vulnerable people aged over 65.

At Tongren Hospital in downtown Shanghai, AFP reporters saw patients receiving emergency medical attention outside the entrance of the overcrowded facility on Tuesday.

The corridors overflowed with dozens of elderly patients lying on beds crammed together, hooked up to IV drips. Some patients wore oxygen masks attached to bedside canisters.

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2023-01-03 07:26:00Z
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Challenges ahead for India as it is set to overtake China as world's most populous country - CNA

Meanwhile, some states in India have been trying to disincentivise people from having more than two children.

In Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state, population control measures have been proposed, including cutting off people from certain government benefits if they have more than two children.

Population growth has already started slowing in India, as people are having fewer children.

But it will be several decades before the numbers actually start to decline, experts pointed out. 

Before then, there are projections that India will overtake Germany and Japan to become the world's third-largest economy, possibly by 2030.

The looming question for India is what lies ahead for its 1.4 billion people and if it can leverage its immense workforce so there will be better days for them, said observers.

CONTROLLING THE POPULATION

Dr Kalpana Apte, director-general of non-governmental organisation Family Planning Association of India, said: “The reason that you see the numbers is because earlier, a lot of people, the biggest cohort of young people in India, were in their reproductive years, and they had children.

“And that's why we are in a progressive movement known as population momentum.”

Her association, which was set up in 1949 to focus on birth control for the population, provides free vasectomies and the state government gives patients a US$13 incentive for the procedure. It also offers sterilisation for women and abortion services at its clinics.

Programmes are held in slum areas to raise awareness of the family planning options available.

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2023-01-03 05:25:09Z
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Rescuers race to save Vietnamese boy trapped in concrete pit for three days - The Straits Times

HANOI - Local authorities were still racing against time on Tuesday to rescue a 10-year-old boy trapped in a 35m-deep concrete pipe pit in the southern province of Dong Thap since Saturday afternoon.

Thai Ly Hao Nam and three other children went to the Roc Sen bridge construction site to collect scrap metal on Saturday, but fell into the concrete pillar with an opening of just 25cm in diameter. Local authorities said the prognosis of the boy’s health is poor.

Rescue work started at noon the same day. Hundreds of people including firefighters and police officers along with rescue equipment like excavators, cranes, and augers were mobilised.

Cylinders of oxygen have been brought to the scene to help the boy breathe. Water was also given to the boy but since Sunday morning, there was no sign of him using the water, according to Phu Loi Commune’s People’s Committee.

The rescue team had decided on Monday to save the boy by pulling up the pillar, which has a closed end at the bottom, by first softening the ground around it through drilling and pumping water.

Rescuers have drilled more than 30m down the soil next to the pillar, and was expected to complete the remaining 5m on Monday night.

Early on Tuesday, rescuers were planning to use cranes and specialised equipment to pull up the pillar, before cutting it to bring the boy out.

Mr Le Hoang Bao, director of Dong Thap’s Transport Department, said the team was determined to pull the pillar up by Tuesday morning.

A firefighting officer from Ho Chi Minh City, who has experience rescuing people from hundreds of metres underground, said the boy’s case is “very complicated” as he is stuck in a pillar that is too narrow for any rescuer to climb into.

“The only solution is to pull the pillar up,” he told VnExpress online newspaper.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Monday issued an official dispatch requesting involvement and cooperation among ministries to speed up the rescue.

He ordered Dong Thap’s people’s committee to work with the various agencies to mobilise all resources and equipment needed for the rescue work to ensure progress, speed and effectiveness of the rescue work.

He also ordered ministers of national defence, public security, transport, and construction to mobilise experts immediately and assign competent forces with experience to support the rescue work.

Mr Chinh gave orders to the relevant authorities to inspect the safety measures for the Roc Sen project and have strict punishment if there are violations.

The prime minister asked the construction ministry, transport ministry, and chairman of provinces and cities’ People’s Committees to strengthen inspection to ensure safety in construction projects to avoid similar incidents.

The Roc Sen bridge project was launched six months ago with concrete piles being planted into the ground but not covered. VIET NAM NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

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2023-01-03 02:17:22Z
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Russia says scores of soldiers killed in Ukrainian strike - CNA

KYIV: Russia on Monday (Jan 2) said more than 60 soldiers were killed in a Ukrainian strike on Russian-controlled territory in a New Year assault, the biggest loss of life reported by Moscow so far.

Kyiv took responsibility for the strike which it said took place in the occupied city of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine on New Year's Eve.

In an extremely rare announcement following criticism by Russian military correspondents, the defence ministry in Moscow said 63 Russian servicemen were killed "as a result of a strike by four missiles" in Makiivka.

It was the biggest loss of life reported by the Russian defence ministry so far in a conflict that has dragged on since President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade on Feb 24 last year.

The Russian ministry said US-supplied HIMARS rocket systems had been used and the target was a temporary deployment point.

Late on Monday, the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said in a statement that its forces were behind the strikes on Makiivka.

"Up to 10 units of enemy military equipment of various types were destroyed and damaged," the general staff said.

Earlier in the day the strategic communications department of Ukraine's armed forces said nearly 400 Russian troops were killed in Makiivka.

The general staff, which usually communicates on such incidents, did not confirm the figure and said the human "losses" were still being established.

Russian war correspondents, who have gained influence in recent months, said hundreds could have been killed in the strike on a vocational school in Makiivka and accused Russia's top commanders of not learning from past mistakes.

Former Russian separatist leader Igor Strelkov said the troops, largely consisting of mobilised Russians, were stationed in an unprotected building that was "almost completely" destroyed because ammunition stored on the premises detonated in the strike.

He said "hundreds" have been killed and wounded.

"Ten months into the war it is dangerous and criminal to consider the enemy a fool who does not see anything," said Andrei Medvedev, deputy speaker of the Moscow city legislature.

The Samara governor, Dmitry Azarov, said that among the victims were residents of his region, adding that a hotline was set up for their relatives.

On social media, some accused the Russian authorities of downplaying the death toll.

"Dear God, who will believe in the figure of 63? The building has been completely destroyed," one Russian, Nina Vernykh, wrote on the country's largest social network, VKontakte.

An announcement on the social network urged Russians to collect clothes, medicines and equipment for those who survived the strike.

"Everything that the mobilised had on them remains under the rubble," said the announcement.

Another announcement said that residents in four of the region's cities - Samara, Tolyatti, Syzran and Novokuibyshevsk - will gather on Tuesday to mourn the troops.

EXPLOSION IN KYIV

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country's forces shot down more than 80 drones since the start of 2023.

"In the near future, this number may increase," he said.

He also said it was paramount to increase "the cost of a new mobilisation and the war on the whole for the terrorist state".

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2023-01-02 21:00:00Z
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