SEOUL: South Korea on Tuesday marked its deadliest day of the pandemic as an unrelenting, delta-driven spread stretched thin hospitals and left people dying while waiting for beds.
Health experts warn that the country’s medical system is quickly approaching its limits and that fatalities could worsen if the government continues to be slow and hesitant in tightening social distancing.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday that 94 virus patients died in the past 24 hours while a record 906 were in serious or critical condition.
The 5,567 new infections were the highest yet — daily tallies are usually smaller at the start of the week because of fewer tests on weekends – indicating the virus has continued to gain speed after the government moderately tightened social distancing last week.
Park Hyang, a senior Health Ministry official, said medical resources are quickly running out in densely populated capital Seoul and nearby metropolitan areas, where around 86 percent of intensive care units designated for COVID-19 treatment were already occupied and more than 800 patients were still waiting to be admitted. The KDCA said at least 17 patients died last week at home or at facilities while waiting for beds.
Officials have been squeezing hospitals to set aside more beds for COVID-19 patients and scrambling to speed up the administration of booster shots by shortening the interval between second and third shots from four or five months to three months starting this week. As of Tuesday, more than 81 percent in a population of more than 51 million were fully vaccinated, but only 13 percent were administered booster shots.
Officials may decide to further strengthen restrictions this week, depending on the numbers of infections and hospitalization, Park said during a briefing.
Experts say South Korea’s devastating surge underscores the risk of putting economic concerns before public health when the highly contagious delta variant has reduced the effectiveness of vaccines and most people are still waiting for their booster shots.
The country reported around 6,000 new cases a day last week, including three consecutive days of over 7,000. That was three times the level of 2,000 at the start of November, when the government significantly eased social distancing rules in what officials described as the first step toward restoring pre-pandemic normalcy.
In allowing larger gatherings, longer indoor dining hours and fully reopening schools, officials had predicted that improving vaccination rates will suppress hospitalizations and deaths even if the virus continues to spread. But there has been a surge in hospital admissions among people in their 60s or older, who weren’t fully vaccinated or whose immunities have waned after being inoculated in February.
Even as infections grew this month, the government has been hesitant in reimposing stronger restrictions, citing public fatigue, and even President Moon Jae-in had declared that the country will not “retreat to the past.”
Officials waited until last week to modestly sharpen social distancing, banning private gatherings of seven or more people in the greater capital region and requiring adults to verify their vaccination status to use restaurants and other indoor venues.
Health experts have called for stronger curbs, such as work from home and expanding the government’s financial support to small businesses to ensure compliance with social distancing.
“What we absolutely need now is an urgent standstill to allow our medical system to restore its ability to respond (to the virus),” a coalition of doctors’ groups, including the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases, said in a joint statement on Monday. “We express deep concern that there will be a high possibility of serious fatalities if (the government) fails to employ stronger measures to reverse the crisis before it’s too late.”
South Korea marks deadliest day of pandemic as hospitals buckle
https://arab.news/8wm5d
South Korea marks deadliest day of pandemic as hospitals buckle
- Officials may decide to further strengthen restrictions this week, depending on the numbers of infections and hospitalization
- The country reported around 6,000 new cases a day last week, including three consecutive days of over 7,000
Zelensky hails Ukraine-US mineral deal as ‘truly equal’
- The deal, which both parties signed on Wednesday, would see the US and Kyiv jointly develop Ukraine’s critical mineral resources
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday hailed a minerals deal that Kyiv had signed with Washington, saying the reworked agreement was “truly equal.”
The deal, which both parties signed on Wednesday, would see the United States and Kyiv jointly develop Ukraine’s critical mineral resources.
US President Donald Trump initially described the arrangement as “money back” for the wartime aid Ukraine received under his predecessor Joe Biden, but Kyiv says the new agreement is not linked to any past “debt.”
During the negotiations, “the agreement changed significantly,” Zelensky said in his daily address.
“Now it is a truly equal agreement that creates an opportunity for quite significant investment in Ukraine.”
“There is no debt in the deal, and a fund — a recovery fund — will be created that will invest in Ukraine and earn money here,” he added.
Kyiv and Washington planned to sign the agreement weeks ago, but a fiery clash between Trump and Zelensky in the White House temporarily derailed talks.
Ukraine had been pushing for long-term security guarantees as part of any deal.
The new agreement does not place any specific security commitments on the United States, but Washington argues boosting its business interests in Ukraine will help deter Russia, which invaded its neighbor in 2022.
Brazilian nun who was the world’s oldest person has died at 116
- Canabarro died at home of natural causes, said her Teresian nun congregation, the Company of Saint Teresa of Jesus
- She was confirmed in January as the world’s oldest person by LongeviQuest
SAO PAULO: Sister Inah Canabarro, a Brazilian nun and teacher who was the world’s oldest person, died on Wednesday just weeks short of turning 117, her religious congregation said.
Canabarro died at home of natural causes, said her Teresian nun congregation, the Company of Saint Teresa of Jesus. She was confirmed in January as the world’s oldest person by LongeviQuest, an organization that tracks supercentenarians around the globe.
She would have turned 117 on May 27. According to LongeviQuest, the world’s oldest person is now Ethel Caterham, a 115-year-old British woman.
Canabarro said her Catholic faith was the key to her longevity, in a video taken by LongeviQuest in February 2024. The smiling Canabarro can be seen cracking jokes, sharing miniature paintings she used to make of wild flowers and reciting the Hail Mary prayer.
“I’m young, pretty and friendly — all very good, positive qualities that you have too,” the Teresian nun told the visitors to her retirement home in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.
As a child, Sister Inah Canabarro was so skinny that many people didn’t think she would survive into adulthood, Cleber Canabarro, her 84-year-old nephew, told The Associated Press in January,
Her great-grandfather was a famed Brazilian general who took up arms during the turbulent period following Brazil’s independence from Portugal in the 19th century.
She took up religious work while she was a teenager and spent two years in Montevideo, Uruguay, before moving to Rio de Janeiro and eventually settling in her home state of Rio Grande do Sul. A lifelong teacher, among her former students was Gen. Joao Figueiredo, the last of the military dictators who governed Brazil between 1964 and 1985. She was also the beloved creator of two marching bands at schools in sister cities straddling the border between Uruguay and Brazil.
For her 110th birthday, she was honored by Pope Francis. She was the second oldest nun ever documented, after Lucile Randon, who was the world’s oldest person until her death in 2023 at the age of 118.
Canabarro took the title of the oldest living person following the death of Japan’s Tomiko Itooka in December, according to LongeviQuest. She ranked as the 20th oldest documented person to have ever lived, a list topped by Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, according to LongeviQuest.
“Her long and meaningful life touched many, and her legacy as a devoted educator, religious sister, and a supercentenarian will be remembered with great admiration,” LongeviQuest said in a statement.
The wake for Canabarro will take place on Thursday in Porto Alegre, the capital of southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, her order said.
Trump’s national security adviser Waltz leaving post: US media
- Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong were both set to leave, CBS News reported, while Fox News said Trump was expected to comment on the matter soon
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is to leave his post following a scandal in which a journalist was accidentally included on a chat between officials about air strikes on Yemen, US media reported.
Waltz and his deputy Alex Wong were both set to leave, CBS News reported, while Fox News said Trump was expected to comment on the matter soon.
The former US congressman is the first major official to leave the administration in Trump’s second term, which has so far been more stable in terms of personnel than his first.
A White House official did not confirm the reports, saying they “do not want to get ahead of any announcement.”
Waltz had been under pressure since the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic Magazine revealed in March that Waltz had mistakenly added him to a chat on the commercial messaging app Signal about attacks on Houthis.
Officials on the chat laid out the attack plan including the timings that US warplanes would take off to bomb targets in Yemen, with the first texts barely half an hour before they launched.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also faced pressure over the scandal.
“1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package),” Hegseth wrote in one text, referring to F/A-18 US Navy jets, before adding that “Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME.”
“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets).”
A short time later, Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack, writing that US forces had identified the target “walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”
‘Not a commodity’: UN staff rally over deep cuts
- Carrying signs reading “We stand for humanity” and “Protect the protectors,” protesters poured into the square in front of the UN European headquarters
- “We’re supposed to stand for workers’ rights, so this is really tough,” Lena, an ILO staff member said
GENEVA: Hundreds of UN staff rallied in Geneva Thursday over deep funding cuts, especially from key donor the United States, which have led to mass-layoffs and threatened life-saving services around the world.
The demonstration, called by UN staff unions and associations, brought together workers from a wide range of Geneva-based agencies, along with their families and supporters under a blazing sun.
Carrying signs reading “UN staff are not a commodity,” “We stand for humanity,” “Stop firing UN staff now” and “Protect the protectors,” protesters poured into the square in front of the United Nations European headquarters.
“We’re supposed to stand for workers’ rights, so this is really tough,” Lena, a staff member at the International Labour Organization, told AFP, refusing to give her last name.
“You just feel helpless,” she said, standing next to her daughter sound asleep in a baby carriage with a sign reading “We stand for better jobs in the world” propped on top.
Humanitarian organizations worldwide have been reeling since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January, pushing an anti-refugee and anti-migrant agenda and immediately freezing most US foreign aid funding.
The United States has traditionally been by far the top donor to a number of agencies, which have been left scrambling to fill sudden and gaping budget gaps.
A number of agencies have already signalled the dire consequences as austerity measures take hold across the UN system.
According to UN staff unions, the UN refugee agency is preparing to cut up to 30 percent of its staff worldwide, while the International Organization for Migration has said it will need to lay off more than 6,000 staff members, or over a third of its workforce.
The World Food Programme is meanwhile preparing to cut between 25 and 30 percent of its global workforce.
Thousands of jobs are also being cut at the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, with many more hanging in the balance, the staff unions said.
They also noted that nearly one in 10 jobs were being eliminated at the ILO, while the UN children’s agency UNICEF is facing a projected 20-percent budget cut.
“So many people are afraid of losing their jobs,” said Elodie Saban, who works at the main UN Geneva office.
“People who work for the UN are often asked to make extreme sacrifices. It is outrageous to see how they are being treated.”
Ian Richards, head of the UN office in Geneva staff union, stressed in a statement that “our colleagues have worked in some of the most dangerous, difficult and isolated locations in the world.”
“They couldn’t choose when or where they moved. They have sacrificed their personal and family lives, and in some cases paid the ultimate price, to help those in need,” he said, decrying that now “many are being let go without any social or financial support from their employers.”
Lena agreed, pointing out that some workers “are here for 20 years, and then it is basically: ‘goodbye’, you’re gone in two months.”
She highlighted that international UN staff are not granted unemployment benefits in the countries they work in, and their residence permits expire within a month of losing their employment.
Even worse, perhaps, would be the impact on operations in the field where the UN’s humanitarian agencies provide life-saving aid to millions of people, while an agency like the ILO battles against things like child labor, Lena said.
“Now, we just have to tell people we have worked with for years, ‘sorry’.”
Bangladesh holds mass political rallies in anticipation of first vote since Hasina ouster
- Thousands of people gathered for a May Day rally organized by Bangladesh Nationalist Party
- Chief of Bangladesh’s interim administration earlier said election could take place end of 2025
DHAKA: Three days of mass rallies began in Bangladesh on Thursday as political parties seek to drum up support ahead of the anticipated first vote since the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last year.
The country’s interim government, headed by Nobel prize winner Prof. Muhammad Yunus, has been implementing a series of reforms. And preparing for elections since taking charge in August, after Hasina fled Dhaka amid student-led protests that called for her resignation.
Yunus has said that Bangladesh could hold elections by the end of 2025 or in the first half of 2026, provided that electoral reforms take place first.
As thousands of people gathered in Dhaka for a May Day rally organized by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday, its leaders seek to highlight the rights of Bangladeshis to a free and fair election.
The BNP’s Vice Chairman Shamsuzzaman Dudu told Arab News: “People were deprived of their voting rights in the last three general elections due to a fraudulent environment.
“Considering the present context, people are optimistic that they would get the chance to exercise voting rights and eventually hand over power to their trusted political party.
“In this way, a democratic government will be reinstated in the country.”
He added: “These expectations and dreams of the countrymen will be represented through our mass demonstration today.”
“We want to see a Bangladesh, which is run through a democratic system, where people would be able to exercise and enjoy all of their due rights.”
The country’s largest Islamic political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, also held a rally on Thursday.
They will be followed on Friday by a mass demonstration organized by the National Citizens Party, which was formed by the students who spearheaded the youth-led protests that overthrew Hasina.
On Saturday, Hefazat-e-Islam, a powerful Islamic organization in the country, is also expected to hold a “grand rally.”
The series of political rallies are taking place a little over a year since Bangladesh’s last elections in January 2024, when Hasina won a fourth term in polls that were boycotted by the main opposition parties.
Following 15 years of uninterrupted rule, Hasina and her Awami League party had allegedly politicized key government institutions, including the Election Commission.
Bangladesh is going through a “transitional moment,” said NCP Joint Member Secretary Saleh Uddin Sifat, highlighting that the interim government’s ongoing work is crucial to secure a better future for the country.
“If we can’t reform or overhaul the other machineries of the state, like (the) judiciary, police, constitution etc., before the election, then the next government might also be an authoritarian one because of the existence of the authoritarian elements within the state machineries,” Sifat told Arab News.
Sifat is expecting a good turnout at the NCP rally on Friday, which will urge for reforms in various state institutions and demand justice for alleged crimes committed by members of the Awami League.
“We believe our next general election will not simply serve as a medium of transferring power,” he said. “Rather, it will pave the way for a permanent and effective reformation of the structural issues of the country.”
