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headline

Twenty-two dead after oxygen tank leaks at hospital in India

Twenty-two COVID-19 patients on ventilators died in a hospital in western India on Wednesday when their oxygen supply was interrupted by a leak in a supply line, officials said.

Suraj Mandhar, the district collector, said the supply of oxygen had since resumed to other patients.

Fire officer Sanjay Bairagi said the leak was halted by the fire service within 15 minutes, but there was supply disruption in the Zakir Hussain Hospital in Nashik, a city in Maharashtra state that is the worst hit by the latest surge in coronavirus cases in the country.

READ MORE: Patient left gasping for air for 10 hours as Indian hospitals buckle

Television images showed white fumes spreading in the hospital area, causing panic.

Surinder Sonone, a police officer, said the leak occurred in a pipe connecting the oxygen supply to the main tank in the hospital complex.

Five of the 140 COVID-19 patients were shifted to another hospital, he said.

The state government ordered an investigation of the leak, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.

India has reported a new record 295,041 coronavirus cases, as the daily death toll crossed 2000 for the first time.

Even with hospitals struggling, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday advised state governments against imposing a harsh lockdown in favour of micro-containment zones as he sought to avoid another economic slump.

The surge in India has exacerbated the slowdown in global vaccination campaigns.

India is a major vaccine producer but has been forced to delay deliveries of shots to focus on its domestic demand.

So far, India has administered over 130 million doses of vaccines in a nation of nearly 1.4 billion since mid-January.

Overall, India has reported more than 15.6 million confirmed cases, the second-highest behind the United States.

The number of deaths stood at 182,553 on Wednesday.

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"The volume is humongous," said Jalil Parkar, a senior pulmonary consultant at the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, which had to convert its lobby into an additional COVID ward.

"It's just like a tsunami."

"Things are out of control," said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in New Delhi.

READ MORE: The world's biggest vaccine producer is running out during a deadly second wave

"There's no oxygen. A hospital bed is hard to find. It's impossible to get a test. You have to wait over a week. And pretty much every system that could break down in the healthcare system has broken down," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on Tuesday, acknowledging the country's "very big battle" against COVID-19.

He appealed to states to "use a lockdown as their last option," even as the capital, New Delhi, entered its first full day of a week-long lockdown.

On Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal warned failing to halt movement in the city could lead to "tragedy."

"We don't want to take Delhi to a place where patients are lying in hospital corridors and people are dying on roads," Kejriwal said.

On Tuesday, he warned some Delhi hospitals were "left with just a few hours of oxygen," as authorities scrambled to convert sports complexes, banquet halls, hotels and schools into much-needed treatment centres, with the goal to add 6000 additional beds within days.

"Our healthcare system has reached its limit. It is now in a state of distress. It has not collapsed yet but it is in distress," Kejriwal said.

"Every healthcare system has its limits. No system can accommodate unlimited patients."

With shortages being reported across the country, local and state leaders appealed to the federal government for more oxygen and medicine.

Modi appeared to answer those calls on Tuesday, announcing plans for the delivery of 100,000 cylinders of oxygen nationwide, new oxygen production plants, and hospitals dedicated to COVID-19 patients.

But experts fear it's too little, too late, as positive patients compete for limited resources and mass gatherings threaten to spread the virus even further.

– Reported with CNN

headline

China hits back after Aussie deals dumped

The Australian government has shredded Victoria's controversial infrastructure agreement with China, earning the immediate ire of Beijing.

Two deals linked to China's Belt and Road Initiative were among four Victorian government agreements deemed to be "inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy or to our foreign relations", Foreign Minister Marise Payne said late on Wednesday.

The other two agreements ripped up in the first audit of major projects of its kind were with Iran and Syria, dating back as long as 22 years ago.

The move, amid already-heightened tensions with China, earned the immediate "strong displeasure and resolute opposition" of the Chinese embassy.

"This is another unreasonable and provocative move taken by the Australian side against China," a spokesperson said, in a statement.

"It further shows that the Australian government has no sincerity in improving China-Australia relations. 

"It is bound to bring further damage to bilateral relations, and will only end up hurting itself."

Victoria's involvement with the Belt and Road Initiative has come under increasing scrutiny given Australia's tensions with China in recent months.

Premier Daniel Andrews has defended his state's agreement with China to support the $1.5 trillion plan from 2018.

The veto scheme giving the Foreign Minister the power to audit deals with foreign nations was introduced in December.

https://twitter.com/MarisePayne/status/1384824961462726660

More than 1000 arrangements between states, territories, local governments and Australian public universities have already been submitted to the minister for consideration.

"The more than 1000 notified so far reflect the richness and breadth of Australia's international interests and demonstrate the important role played by Australia's states, territories, universities and local governments in advancing Australia's interests abroad," Ms Payne said.

Ms Payne said she would continue to consider submissions made under the scheme and "expect the overwhelming majority of them to remain unaffected".

As part of the first-ever audit, Ms Payne said she had approved a proposed memorandum of understanding on cooperation on human resources development in energy and mineral resources sector between the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation of the Government of Western Australia and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia.

The four arrangements are:

– Memorandum of understanding between the Department of Education and Training (Victoria) and the Technical and Vocational Training Organisation, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Islamic Republic of Iran, signed 25 November 2004.

– Protocol of scientific cooperation between the Ministry of Higher Education in the Syrian Arab Republic and the Ministry of Tertiary Education and Training of Victoria, signed 31 March 1999.

– Memorandum of understanding between the government of Victoria and the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China on cooperation within the framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, signed 8 October 2018.

– Framework agreement between the government of Victoria and the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China on jointly promoting the framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, signed on 23 October 2019.

headline

SKN Turns to Asia for Medical Aid as U.S. Fails to Step Up: PM Harris

By

Bloomberg
  • St. Kitts PM says U.S. playing undersized role in Covid fight
  • PM Harris calls for more equitable vaccine distribution

As the pandemic hit the Caribbean, shattering tourism-dependent economies, the region received high-profile help from India, Cuba and Taiwan. Less visible has been the hemisphere’s only superpower.

The U.S. government has largely failed to step up and play its customary leadership role, according to one Caribbean leader.

“That is the perception,” St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Timothy Harris said in a phone interview. “We have not felt the full weight of the most powerful country in this fight against the pandemic.”

The U.S. has loomed large in the Caribbean for two centuries, and it’s often the first to provide assistance when natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes hit.

This time, the first vaccines to arrive in the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, were donated by India. Taiwan provided masks and face-shields early on in the outbreak, while Cuba has sent its controversial medical brigades to St. Kitts and some surrounding nations.

Harris acknowledged that the U.S. is helping by providing $2 billion to the Covax Facility to supply vaccines to poor nations, but he said the Caribbean has not seen any high-profile gestures from Washington.

“There has been no specific outreach at the bilateral level to member states within the CARICOM region,” he said.

The U.S. State Department didn’t reply to an email seeking comment, but the U.S. Agency for International Development says it “has provided billions to fight Covid-19 in more than 120 countries.”

While the U.S. now has enough vaccines to inoculate every one of its citizens, the Caribbean — like many other parts of the world — is still struggling to cover even its most vulnerable populations.

Harris said it’s in Washington’s interest to aid its neighbors. By making vaccines available in the region, the U.S. could help revive economies, cut poverty and thereby curb migration, he said.

“In a trans-boundary world no one is safe from Covid-19 until all are basically safe from Covid-19,” he said.

St. Kitts and Nevis — a dual-island nation of 53,000 people in the Eastern Caribbean — has done better than many of its neighbors. By shutting down tourism from March 2020 through October, it kept a lid on cases. It’s one of the few countries in the hemisphere to report no deaths due to Covid-19. And it has inoculated about 25% of its population, more than most of its peers.

Harris is hoping the nation’s safety protocols and track record help it woo back the tourists that underpin its economy. But first, vaccines need to be shared more equitably, he says.

“We believe that is a duty for mankind,” Harris said, “and we hope that more countries will live up to that.”

The post SKN Turns to Asia for Medical Aid as U.S. Fails to Step Up: PM Harris appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

headline

Major probe of Minneapolis police after Floyd verdict

The Justice Department is opening a sweeping investigation into policing practices in Minneapolis after a former officer was convicted in the killing of George Floyd there, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday.

The announcement comes a day after former officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death last May, setting off a wave of relief but also sadness across the country. The Black man's death prompted months of mass protests against policing in the US.

The Justice Department is already investigating whether Chauvin and the other officers involved in Floyd's death violated his civil rights.

READ MORE: Biden to Floyd family after verdict: 'We're all so relieved'

"Yesterday's verdict in the state criminal trial does not address potentially systemic policing issues in Minneapolis," Garland said.

The investigation announced Wednesday is known as a "pattern or practice" — examining whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing — and will be a more sweeping probe of the entire police department and may result in major changes to policing there

It will examine practices used by police, including use of force and force used during protests, and whether the department engages in discriminatory practices. It will also look into the department's handling of misconduct allegations and its treatment of people with behavioral health issues and will assess the department's current systems of accountability, Garland said.

It's unclear whether the years under investigation will begin when Floyd died or before.

READ MORE: The 12 jurors who found Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd

Floyd, 46, was arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes at a corner market. He panicked, pleaded that he was claustrophobic and struggled with police when they tried to put him in a squad car. They put him on the ground instead.

The centrepiece of the case was bystander video of Floyd, handcuffed behind his back, gasping repeatedly, "I can't breathe," and onlookers yelling at Chauvin to stop as the officer pressed his knee on or close to Floyd's neck for what authorities say was about 9 1/2 minutes, including several minutes after Floyd's breathing had stopped and he had no pulse.

Floyd's death May 25 became a flashpoint in the national conversation about the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement and sparked worldwide protests.

At trial, Chauvin's defence attorney persistently suggested Chauvin's knee wasn't on Floyd's neck for as long as prosecutors argued, suggesting instead it was across Floyd's back, shoulder blades and arm.

The decision to announce a sweeping Justice Department investigation comes as President Joe Biden has promised his administration would not rest following the jury's verdict in the case. In a Tuesday evening speech, he said much more needed to be done.

"'I can't breathe.' Those were George Floyd's last words," Biden said. "We can't let those words die with him. We have to keep hearing those words. We must not turn away. We can't turn away."

READ MORE: Family can 'breathe again' as Derek Chauvin found guilty

The Justice Department had previously considered opening a pattern or practice investigation into the police department soon after Floyd's death, but then-Attorney General Bill Barr was hesitant to do so at the time, fearing that it could cause further divisions in law enforcement amid widespread protests and civil unrest, three people familiar with the matter told the AP.