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HEALTH-VIRUS, NEWSERIES
UK tightens virus controls as New Zealand hunts source of outbreak
LONDON, Feb 15, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Britain on Monday began mandatory hotel
quarantine for arrivals from high-risk countries as New Zealand identified
its first cases of the UK strain from the outbreak that forced its largest
city into lockdown.
Peru’s foreign minister meanwhile became the latest senior figure to
resign in a growing scandal over top officials jumping the queue for
vaccinations.
And Zimbabwe got its first batch of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, the first
country in southern Africa to receive it.
British officials introduced mandatory hotel quarantine rules for arrivals
from dozens of countries deemed “high risk” for coronavirus variants, in a
bid to stop new strains spreading.
All UK citizens and permanent residents entering England from 33 countries
on a wider travel ban list must self-isolate at their own expense in approved
hotels for 10 days and take several Covid-19 tests.
Arriving travellers caught lying about being in one of those countries 10
days before their journey could receive up to 10 years in prison — a penalty
already criticised as excessive.
“It can’t be easy for them to be in a bedroom for 10 days,” Charlie Islam-
Harry, manager of the St Giles Heathrow hotel, told AFP. Her staff will carry
out regular welfare checks on guests during their enforced stays, she
promised.
– ‘Stamp out further transmission’ –
Two coronavirus infections that prompted a snap lockdown of Auckland in
New Zealand’s were caused by the more contagious variant first detected in
the UK, the country’s health ministry said Monday.
They had no link to any other positive cases detected so far in New
Zealand.
“This result reinforces the decision to take swift and robust action
around the latest cases to detect and stamp out the possibility of any
further transmission,” the ministry said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered the three-day lockdown for almost
two million
Auckland residents from Monday, closing schools and non-essential
businesses.
While health officials have detected no new cases beyond the initial
cluster of three in one family, they are still trying to determine how the
virus entered the largely Covid-free country.
Ardern has been widely praised for her management of the pandemic, with
New Zealand recording fewer than 2,000 infections.
– ‘Serious mistake’ –
In Peru’s vaccination scandal, Foreign Minister Elizabeth Astete resigned
Sunday, acknowledging in a statement that getting vaccinated last month had
been a “serious mistake”.
She became the second ministerial casualty after health minister Pilar
Mazzetti stepped down last week following a newspaper report that former
president Martin Vizcarra had received a shot of the Chinese Sinopharm
vaccine in October.
Peruvian media said that Attorney General Zoraida Avalos had opened a
“preliminary investigation” against ex-president Martin Vizcarra and others
responsible for the early vaccination of senior officials.
“It is not possible that in the midst of a crisis public office is used
for personal gain,” Peruvian Congress speaker Mirtha Vasquez told America TV.
Public resentment is growing over officials getting the jabs when there is
no date for a wider immunisation drive.
The South American nation has been badly hit by the pandemic, with its
hospitals overwhelmed and a targeted vaccination program for health workers
kicking off only a week ago.
Peru has received 300,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.
– Vietnam sets curbs in north –
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 2,400,543 people since the
outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from
official sources compiled by AFP as of 1200 GMT on Monday.
Nearly 172 million vaccine doses have been given in at least 96 countries
or territories, according to an AFP tally drawn from official sources.
But most of those doses have gone to the richer countries.
A shipment of 200,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine arrived Monday in
Zimbabwe — a donation from the Beijing government.
“It has not been lost on us that in times of need, China’s response has
been swift,” said Vice President Constantino Chiwenga at Robert Mugabe
International Airport.
Vietnam meanwhile announced 15 days of restrictions in the north of the
country, the epicentre of a growing outbreak, from Tuesday, affecting two
million people.
Residents of Hai Duong province have been ordered to stay at home, state
media reported.
Gatherings of more than two people will be banned, while schools, bars,
restaurants and karaoke parlours that were shut early ahead of the Lunar New
Year holiday will stay closed.
Vietnam has been widely praised for its handling of the pandemic so far.
Italy’s government meanwhile banned ski resorts from opening, citing
coronavirus concerns — just a day before skiing was to have been allowed for
the first time this winter.
In Geneva, World Health Organization experts are meeting Monday to
evaluate granting emergency approval to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine so it
can be shipped to poorer nations.
BSS/AFP/IJ/1950 hrs