Advertisement
Advertisement
Coronavirus pandemic
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
A woman receives her first dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in Manila, Philippines. Photo: Reuters

Coronavirus: Asian nations seek vaccine supplies after India suspends exports; Vietnam sentences man for spreading virus

  • After India put a temporary hold on shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine to meet rising domestic demand, China and Russia are poised to step into the breach
  • Both the Philippines and Indonesia are currently relying heavily on vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech to run their inoculation drives
Agencies
Several Asian countries scrambled to find alternative sources for Covid-19 inoculations on Tuesday after export restrictions by manufacturer India left a World Health Organization-backed global vaccine sharing programme short of supplies.

South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines are among countries to be hit by shipment delays to vaccines they have been promised under the Covax programme, which was created mainly to ensure supplies for poorer countries.

“Our planned increase in daily vaccinations will be affected,” Carlito Galvez, Philippines’ vaccination chief, told reporters.

Will India’s vaccine diplomacy be hit by surge in Covid-19 cases?

India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, put a temporary hold on exports of AstraZeneca’s vaccine being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), as officials focus on meeting rising domestic demand.

The Serum Insitute was due to deliver 90 million vaccine doses to Covax over March and April and, while it was not immediately clear how many would be diverted for domestic use, programme facilitators warned that shipment delays were inevitable.

South Korea confirmed it would only receive 432,000 doses of the 690,000 it had been promised and delivery of those would be delayed until around the third week of April.

“There’s uncertainty over global vaccine supplies but we’re working on a plan to ensure no disruptions in the second quarter and making efforts to secure more vaccines,” Kim Ki-nam, head of South Korea’s Covid-19 vaccination task force team. Officials said they were in talks with AstraZeneca to accelerate shipments procured through a separate deal.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte loosened government restrictions on private sector imports of vaccines, pleading with companies to obtain supplies no matter the cost, as his country battles a resurgence of the pandemic.

In Vietnam, officials have similarly asked the private sector to step in after their Covax supplies were slashed by 40 per cent to 811,200 doses and shipments were pushed back by weeks.

In Indonesia, health ministry official Siti Nadia Tarmizi said that 10.3 million doses from Covax were likely delayed until May.

India has not provided details on the length of its export curb but Unicef, a distributing partner of Covax, said at the weekend that deliveries are expected to resume by May.

India’s decision is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Covax Facility, relied on by 64 poorer countries, after production glitches and a lack of funding contribution from wealthy nations. China and Russia are primed to step into the breach.

“We have good diplomatic relations with China and Russia and we are asking if we can have access to their vaccines in April,” the Philippines’ Galvez said.

01:14

India grapples with second wave of Covid-19 infections and deaths

India grapples with second wave of Covid-19 infections and deaths
Both the Philippines and Indonesia are currently relying heavily on vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech to run their inoculation drives. The Philippines and Vietnam have both approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, along with more than 50 other countries, mainly developing nations. The Philippines expects to receive its first batch of Sputnik V in April.

Chinese vaccine maker Sinopharm, meanwhile, plans to produce its Covid-19 vaccine at a new plant in the United Arab Emirates.

The spate of export curbs is also being felt by wealthier countries that are reliant on foreign manufacturing, including Japan, where the national vaccine roll-out has been slow due to the limited number of Pfizer vaccines shipped from Europe.

“Some people are using vaccines for diplomacy, some people are trying to prioritise. Some people are buying like three to five times as many vaccines compared to their population. That’s unnecessary,” Japan’s vaccine minister, Taro Kono, told Reuters on Monday in an interview.

“We really need to have the global leaders sit down and think this is a global issue, not the domestic issue, and try to solve this together.”

02:08

Manila goes into Easter lockdown as Philippines records more than 10,000 new daily cases

Manila goes into Easter lockdown as Philippines records more than 10,000 new daily cases

Vietnam sentences flight attendant for spreading virus

A court in Vietnam handed a two-year suspended jail term to a Vietnam Airlines flight attendant on Tuesday after finding him guilty of breaking Covid-19 quarantine rules and spreading the virus to others, police said.

Duong Tan Hau, 29, was convicted of “spreading dangerous infectious diseases” at the one-day trial at the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

Vietnam has been praised for its efforts to contain the virus through mass testing and tracing and strict centralised quarantining. It has recorded fewer than 2,600 Covid-19 infections and only 35 deaths due to the disease.

Hau breached the country’s 14-day quarantine regulations and met 46 other people following his flight from Japan in November, according to the indictment posted on a police ministry website.

Karaoke or torture? In Vietnam, loud singing is public enemy No 1

Hau had mingled with other people during a stint in state quarantine and according to the indictment visited cafes, restaurants and attended English classes while he was supposed to be self-isolating. He tested positive for Covid-19 on November 28.

Hau’s violations resulted in the quarantine and testing of around 2,000 other people in the city at a cost of 4.48 billion dong (US$194,192), the indictment said.

State media said he had infected at least three other people. “Hau’s violation was serious, put society in danger and endangered the safety of the community,” the statement said.

In December, Vietnam sentenced the head of the Hanoi Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of wrongdoing linked to the procurement of equipment intended to help tackle the virus outbreak.

Australia’s Queensland warns of more cases

Australia reported eight new locally acquired Covid-19 cases in Queensland on Tuesday and authorities warned more could emerge as the state scrambles to quash an outbreak linked to the highly contagious UK variant of the coronavirus.

The new cases took the total in the latest outbreak to 15 so far, a day after the state announced a snap three-day lockdown in Brisbane, Australia’s third most-populous city. All of the cases were linked to two distinct virus clusters, one related to a doctor and the second to a nurse, authorities said.

Asia once led the coronavirus battle. Why is it behind on vaccines?

“The fact that we have these cases that are linked is good news,” Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters. “Do we expect to see more cases? Probably. Probably, we will see more.”

About 2 million people in Brisbane are required to stay home until Thursday afternoon except for essential work, health care, grocery shopping or exercise while masks are mandatory when stepping outside homes.

The snap lockdown has thrown the travel plans of thousands into disarray as the lockdown is scheduled to end just a day before the Easter long weekend and the school term break in Australia, a popular time for holidays.

03:44

‘Virus hunters’ in the Philippines study bats to prevent future pandemics

‘Virus hunters’ in the Philippines study bats to prevent future pandemics

Neighbouring New South Wales (NSW) state is also on alert after two of the Queensland cases, a nurse and her sister, travelled while infectious to Byron Bay, a tourist town just south of the Queensland border and home to Hollywood A-listers such as Chris Hemsworth.

Health alerts have been issued for some pubs, cafes and restaurants exposed to the virus as officials urged patrons to test and isolate.

“I hope that we do not have any cases emerge in New South Wales, but I won’t be surprised if we did. So, we need to brace ourselves,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

India records 56,211 new infections

India recorded 56,211 new cases of coronavirus, a slight dip from the country’s record-breaking tallies over the last three days, data from the health ministry showed on Tuesday.

The country’s tally dipped below the 60,000 mark after three days, a Reuters tally showed, with its richest state, Maharashtra, accounting for more than 31,000 of the 56,211 cases reported in the last 24 hours. Deaths in the last 24 hours stood at 271, and 162,114 have died so far in the pandemic, the health ministry said.

Authorities in Maharashtra were considering whether to impose stricter curbs starting Thursday to contain the rapid spread of the virus, but opposition parties and industrialists have opposed a lockdown.

“The people a lockdown hurts most are the poor, migrant workers & small businesses. The original lockdowns were essentially to buy time to build up hospital/health infrastructure. Let’s focus on resurrecting that & on avoiding mortality,” industrialist Anand Mahindra said on Twitter on Monday.

Pakistan president tests positive for Covid-19

Pakistan President Arif Alvi tested positive for Covid-19, the latest top leader to contract the coronavirus in the South Asian country that is facing a new wave of infections.

“I have tested positive for Covid-19,” the president said in a Twitter post. Alvi said he had the first dose of the vaccine and the second was due in a week. The defence minister Pervez Khattak has also tested positive for the virus, Imran Ismail, a senior leader of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, said.

Pakistan’s government has tightened curbs, closed schools and some businesses in the past week after the nation’s coronavirus positivity rate has increased to 11 per cent, the most since the start of the virus a year ago. Prime Minister Imran Khan tested positive for Covid-19 on March 20.

03:27

Hong Kong suspends BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines ‘as precaution’ over defective packaging

Hong Kong suspends BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines ‘as precaution’ over defective packaging

Japan minister apologises for staff breaking virus rules

Japan’s health minister apologised on Tuesday after media reported ministry employees had gathered at a restaurant late at night in Tokyo in violation of the government’s Covid-19 contagion protocols.

Norihisa Tamura confirmed that 23 ministry employees ate dinner together on March 24 and that he would investigate the matter quickly, Kyodo reported.

Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures emerged from a state of emergency over Covid-19 infections on March 21, but the government has continued to ask restaurants to close early at 9pm and for the public to limit gatherings.

According to a separate report in the Yomiuri newspaper, the health ministry staffers gathered for a farewell party at a pub in the Ginza district of Tokyo, with some staying until midnight.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse

Post