Indonesia’s total Covid-19 cases near 2 million with hospitals starting to fill up as the country grapples with the highly transmissible delta variant of the virus.
The government confirmed 13,737 new cases on Sunday to bring the total to 1.99 million. Deaths have begun to pick up as the Covid-19 hospitalization rates exceed 70 percent in 87 cities across the country, with 371 people dying from the disease on Sunday. That’s the worst since April, according to government data.
“Because this is concentrated in certain regencies and cities, we can still mobilize resources from other areas,” said Harif Fadhillah, chairman of the national association of nurses. “If we let this continue, the situation can become urgent and critical.”
Indonesia is relying heavily on vaccines to stem the pandemic, with a pledge to administer 1 million doses a day in July, as well as movement limits. All non-essential businesses must stop operating at 8 p.m., while religious and social gatherings are banned in areas most at-risk, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said on Monday. The police and army have been deployed to ensure compliance, and the measures are effective through July 5, he added.
The delta variant, which was first detected in India and has since spread globally, was a dominant strain in Kudus and Bengkalan towns in Java, which have became virus hot spots along with Jakarta.
The hospitalization rate in Jakarta has exceeded 90 percent even if the government can add more as there are 34,000 beds in total with 17,300 currently allocated for Covid-19 patients, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said at the same briefing. The capital is in need of 1,179 more healthcare workers, while neighboring West Java province needs 400, Fadhillah said.
“The government isn’t choosing between health and the economy,” Sadikin said. “The president has ordered for the health issue to be resolved first because the economy won’t move if the health issue isn’t resolved.”
The recent surge in infections had been predicted by the government, which forecast in May that cases could rise by 40 percent to 60 percent in four to five weeks after Eid holidays. A persistent increase in cases could threaten recovery in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, which last year saw its first contraction in two decades.
Key developments: Bangkok eases restrictions
With new cases under control and vaccination rates rising, Bangkok relaxed some Covid restrictions on restaurants, convenience stores and sports venues. Air-conditioned restaurants in Bangkok can operate at 50 percent capacity and remain open until 11 p.m., authorities said, and convenience stores can remain open 24 hours. Swimming pools and some sports venues are also allowed to reopen under some restrictions, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
Shenzhen tightens virus controls
China’s southern technology hub is adding restrictions for travelers and tightening enforcement of existing virus controls, after 38 passengers aboard an inbound Air China flight from Johannesburg tested positive for Covid-19.
Local authorities said this weekend that they will target 100 percent compliance with existing protocols on public transit, including monitoring of temperatures and health codes, as well as ensuring that all passengers wear masks. Also, passengers departing Shenzhen by air now need to show proof of a negative test result done within 48 hours.
As of now, roughly 62 percent of the city’s residents have been fully vaccinated, and officials said they would redouble efforts to reach people 60 and older. The flareup and response suggest that China could continue to follow a rigid virus-containment strategy and keep borders shut, despite the mass domestic vaccination drive that has given over 1 billion doses.
Toyota, Softbank, Nomura offer shots for employees
Some of Japan’s biggest private employers will offer on-site vaccinations for employees starting Monday. The move is designed as a boost for the country’s slow vaccine rollout and to leverage strong workplace culture in companies where some may spend their entire working lives. Workers’ families are also eligible, as are contractors.
Using Moderna Inc.’s messenger RNA shot, the effort is currently expected to cover about one-tenth of the country’s 126 million residents and hopefully accelerate what is still among the slowest inoculation programs in developed countries, though its pace has picked up markedly since May.
Universities will also be able to administer on-site vaccinations for students, faculty and staff. As of Friday, the government had received 3,479 applications for the program, with doses set to cover 13.7 million people.
Canada not vaccinated enough to reopen to US: Chief
The US border is unlikely to be completely reopened until 75 percent of Canadians are fully vaccinated, Canada’s border chief said on Sunday in comments likely to fuel mounting impatience in both countries at the restrictions.
“We haven’t reached the finish line, and the finish line is when a significant majority of Canadians, approximately 75 percent, are fully vaccinated,” Public Safety Minister Bill Blair told national broadcaster CBC on Sunday. At present, less than a fifth of Canadians have received two shots, according to data compiled by CTV News.
First cruise sets sail from US port
Guests lined up to board Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s Freedom of the Seas on Sunday, marking the first cruise from a US port since the pandemic suspended operations 15 months ago.
Passengers filed into PortMiami with suitcases in tow, a sight last seen in the world’s largest cruise port in March 2020. Freedom of the Seas can carry around 4,500 guests, and it’s expected to take about 650 on this first two-night loop, all of them Royal Caribbean employees who volunteered and were allowed to bring an 18-and-over guest.
The trip is being dubbed a “simulated voyage,” a concept designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to essentially prove the ships are safe to sail with Covid-19 still circulating around the globe.
Biden to pitch vaccines on North Carolina trip
President Joe Biden is traveling to North Carolina on Thursday to encourage more Americans to get vaccinated.
The president’s trip to Raleigh comes 10 days before July 4, Biden’s stated target date to see at least 70 percent of adult Americans at least partially vaccinated—a goal that risks slipping out of reach. So far, slightly more than 65 percent of adults in the US have had at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, despite a vaccine supply that has become plentiful across the nation.
North Carolina is lagging many other states and the US average. In North Carolina, 44.6 percent of the whole population has been inoculated, compared with 53.2 percent in the US as a whole, according to CDC data. So far, 23 states and other jurisdictions have vaccinated at least 50 percent of their populations, the data show.
Delta strain driving spike in Lisbon
Preliminary results from June indicate the delta variant has a prevalence of more than 60 percent in the Lisbon region, Portugal’s National Institute of Health said on Sunday.
The government on Thursday announced it would restrict travel to and from the greater Lisbon area during the weekend as it tries to contain the spread of new infections. The restrictions on movement were applied from 3 p.m. on Friday, with exceptions including international travel.
US unvaccinated areas vulnerable to variant: Gottlieb
The highly transmissible delta variant first found in India is driving infections in parts of the US with low vaccination rates while having little effect in vaccinated areas, said Scott Gottlieb, former head of the US Food and Drug Administration.
“Connecticut, for example, where I am, shows no upsurge of infection, but Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri show very substantial upsurges of infections,” Gottlieb, who’s on the board of Pfizer Inc., said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “That’s based entirely on how much population wide immunity you have based on vaccination.”
The variant, which is delaying the final reopening in England, now makes up 10 percent of US cases. The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week it’s expected to become the dominant strain.
Biden aide warns over Covid origin study
China will risk international isolation if it fails to allow a “real” investigation on its territory into the origins of the virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.
Sullivan’s comments follow last week’s call by Group of Seven leaders including US President Joe Biden for another probe into how the virus originated. Biden last month ordered the US intelligence community to “redouble” its efforts to determine where the coronavirus came from and to report back in 90 days.
China has rejected the theory that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the first cases were reported.
Dubai airport hopes to near normal by fall
Dubai Airport, the world’s largest by international passenger numbers, expects to recover as much as 90 percent of its pre-pandemic capacity by autumn and will reopen a terminal as demand picks up.
Air travel will get a boost as countries start to remove restrictions, while an upcoming holiday in the Middle East and Expo 2020 Dubai, which begins in October, will also help shore up demand, Dubai Airports Chief Executive Officer Paul Griffiths said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Sunday.
The airport plans to reopen a terminal and concourse that were shut in March 2020, and will add 3,500 jobs to meet growing demand.