WASHINGTON, June 21 (Reuters) – Migrant children sent to emergency shelters within the United States described crowded living conditions, spoiled food, lack of clean clothes and struggles with depression, according to 17 testimonials filed in a court case on Monday.

The children, aged nine to 17 and largely from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, in some cases spoke of waiting for months inside emergency shelters overseen by the U.S. government while struggling with the conditions, including trouble sleeping under bright lights and infrequent phone calls to family members.

The testimonials offer a detailed look into the conditions within a network of emergency shelters hastily erected by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to deal with a sharp rise in the number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In recent months, the children have been moved more quickly out of crowded Border Patrol stations and into the emergency shelters as part of efforts to connect them with family members or other sponsors in the United States.

The children’s testimonials, recorded between March and early June, suggest the Biden administration, which has promised a more humane approach to immigration, in some cases struggled to provide optimal care for the children.

About 14,500 unaccompanied children are currently in the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), down from 22,000 in late April. HHS was not immediately available for comment.

In one testimonial, a 13-year-old girl from Honduras said she had been placed on a suicide watch list while at an emergency shelter at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

The girl, who had spent nearly two months at the facility as of June 4, said she was separated from her father when crossing a river into the United States.

“The food here is horrible,” she wrote. “Yesterday we were given hamburgers but I couldn’t eat it because there was a foul odor coming from the bread … I really only eat popsicles and juice because that is the only food that I can trust.”

A 14 year old Guatemalan girl who was detained at an emergency facility in Houston in April said it was very hot and that she was often thirsty. She said the girls had to drink expired milk when they ran out of water. She saw eight girls faint because of the heat and the lack of water, she said, and staff took them to a nearby hospital.

A 17-year-old girl from Guatemala detained at Fort Bliss described sleeping in a large white tent with about three hundred girls, on cots stacked on top of each other.

She said it was hard to sleep due to the rattling noise the tent’s metal beams made at night, according to a declaration dated April 28. She said it was cold and that dirt came into the tent.

The girl said she had not been able to get information on her case and that she had struggled to get an appointment with a counselor to talk about her depression.

“A lot of the girls here cry a lot,” she said. “A lot of them end up having to talk to someone because they have thoughts of cutting themselves.”

A 17-year-old teen from Honduras said they slept in a large area in the Dallas convention center, in which they had been told there were 2,600 kids.

“I feel asphyxiated having so many people around me,” the teen said in a declaration dated March 29.

“There is no one here I can talk to about my case. There’s also no one here I can talk to when I’m feeling sad. There’s no one here; I just talk to God. It helps me and I cry. It would help if I could have a Bible.”

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Stein hoped that a conference hosted by Canada last week would bring renewed attention “because we do not think that Latin American countries by themselves will be capable of dealing with this”.

Governments and agencies at the videoconference in Canada pledged $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in funding to respond to the crisis, including $954m in grants and $600m in loans. At least 30 countries were reported to have committed money.

Dany Bahar, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in Washington DC, told the Guardian there remained “a big gap” in help for Venezuelan refugees, compared with other modern crises, such as Syria.

He said the total funding per capita for Syrian refugees was more than 10 times that for Venezuelans – at $3,150 compared with $265, based on figures for 2020. Venezuela is second only in the world to Syria in terms of external displacement.

“Most of the host countries in the Venezuelan refugee crisis are in the region, and are developing countries,” Bahar said, “whereas Europe had much skin in the game in the case of the Syrians. Maybe that triggered much more generous funding.”

Last year’s UN response plan received less than half the $1.41bn requested.

The Red Cross has said it needs to raise $264m to support Venezuelans and 17 host countries over the next three years.

Border closures due to the pandemic stalled migration. But by the end of 2020, 3.9 million Venezuelans were designated as being displaced abroad without formal refugee status – but still judged in need of international protection – up from 3.6 million in 2019, according to the latest UN figures.

‘In the middle of a war zone’: thousands flee as Venezuela troops and Colombia rebels clash

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With Covid vaccination penetration in the US likely to fall short of Joe Biden’s 70% by Fourth of July target, pandemic analysts are warning that vaccine incentives are losing traction and that “two Americas” may emerge as the aggressive Delta variant becomes the dominant US strain.

Yet, US deaths from Covid-19 have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since March last year during the first wave of the pandemic.

Data from federal sources also showed the drive to put shots in arms at home approaching an encouraging milestone: 150 million Americans fully vaccinated.

Joe Biden was however expected to fall short of his commitment to shipping 80m Covid-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June, because of regulatory and other hurdles.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters getting the shots shipped was proving to be “a Herculean logistical challenge” – which the administration has been unable to meet.

The US death toll from Covid-19 stands at more than 601,000. The worldwide count is close to 3.9m. The real figures in both cases are believed to be markedly higher.

About 45% of the US population has been fully vaccinated, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 53% of Americans have received at least one dose, the CDC also said on Monday.

The coronavirus was the third-leading cause of death in the US in 2020, behind heart disease and cancer, according to the CDC. Now CDC data suggests more Americans are dying every day from accidents, chronic lower respiratory diseases, strokes or Alzheimer’s disease than from Covid-19.

Efforts to boost vaccination rates have come through a variety of incentives, from free hamburgers to free beer, college scholarships and even million-dollar lottery prizes. But of the efforts to entice people to get their shots some have lost their initial impact, or failed to land effectively at all.

“It’s just not working,” Irwin Redlener at the Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative at Columbia University, told Politico. “People aren’t buying it. The incentives don’t seem to be working – whether it’s a doughnut, a car or a million dollars.”

In Ohio, a program offering five adults the chance to win $1m boosted vaccination rates 40% for over a week. A month later, the rate had dropped to below what it had been before the incentive was introduced, Politico found.

Oregon followed Ohio’s cash-prize lead but saw a less dramatic uptick. Preliminary data from a similar lottery in North Carolina, launched last week, suggests the incentive is also not boosting vaccination rates there.

Public officials are sounding alarms that the window between improving vaccination penetration and the threat from the more severe Delta variant, which accounts for about 10% of US cases, is beginning to close. The Delta variant appears to be much more contagious than the original strain of Covid-19 and has wreaked havoc in countries like India and the United Kingdom.

“I certainly don’t see things getting any better if we don’t increase our vaccination rate,” Scott Allen of the county health unit in Webster, Missouri, told Politico. The state has seen daily infections and hospitalizations to nearly double over the last two weeks.

Overall, new US Covid cases have plateaued to a daily average of around 15,000 for after falling off as the nation’s vaccination program ramped up. But the number of first-dose vaccinations has dropped to 360,000 from 2m in mid-April. A quarter of those are newly eligible 12- to 15-year-olds.

Separately, pandemic researchers are warning that a picture of “two Americas” is emerging – the vaccinated and unvaccinated – that in many ways might reflect red state and blue state political divides.

Only 52% of Republicans said they were partially or fully vaccinated, and 29% said they have no intention of getting a vaccine, according to a CBS News/YouGov poll. 77% of Democrats said they were already vaccinated, with just 5% responding that were resisting the vaccine.

“I call it two Covid nations,” Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told BuzzFeed News.

Bette Korber, a computational biologist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, said she expected variant Delta to become the most common variant in the US within weeks. “It’s really moving quickly,” Korber told Buzzfeed.

On Friday, Joe Biden issued a plea to Americans who have not yet received a vaccine to do so as soon as possible.

“Even while we’re making incredible progress, it remains a serious and deadly threat,” Biden said in remarks from the White House, saying that the Delta variant leaves unvaccinated people “even more vulnerable than they were a month ago”.

“We’re heading into, God willing, the summer of joy, the summer of freedom,” Biden said. “On July 4, we are going to celebrate our independence from the virus as we celebrate our independence of our nation. We want everyone to be able to do that.”

============================================

Colombia’s COVID-19 deaths pass 100,000 in unrelenting third wave

Reuters

BOGOTA, June 21 (Reuters) – Reported deaths from COVID-19 in Colombia passed 100,000 on Monday, the country’s health ministry said, amid warnings of potential scarcity of treatment drugs and oxygen in hospitals during a long and brutal third peak of infections and deaths.

The country of 50 million people has reported more than 3.9 million cases of coronavirus infections, as well as 100,582 deaths.

Colombia has seen record numbers of coronavirus infections and deaths in recent weeks, with some medical officials warning certain medical supplies are running low.

Intensive care units (ICUs) in major cities are operating at near full capacity, according to information published by local health authorities in capital Bogota, as well as in Medellin and Cali, Colombia’s second-largest and third-largest cities respectively.

“We’re starting to see scarcity of certain resources everywhere,” Cesar Enciso, medical coordinator for intensive care at the University Children’s Hospital of San Jose in Bogota, told Reuters, citing a lack of sedatives and oxygen supplies.

“If the situation continues with this number of cases every day, resources are going to run out,” he added.

The government has blamed weeks of anti-government protests for extending the third peak, which began after Easter. The country hit a record of 30,000 daily reported cases earlier this month, while Monday saw a new high of 648 daily deaths.

“Crowds are the main breeding ground for this disease to spread exponentially,” President Ivan Duque said in a ceremony to mark Colombia’s COVID-19 deaths.

Despite the peak, the South American country has lifted many of the restrictions it imposed in March last year to control coronavirus, in a bid to bolster the economy and amid widespread frustration with social distancing measures.

Colombia has administered over 14.9 million vaccine doses, of which more than 4.7 million are second doses. The country hopes to vaccinate some 35 million people – 70% of its population – this year.

Reporting by Camilo Cohecha Additional reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Aurora Ellis

===============================================

Venezuela Asks Banks to Foot Cost of Vaccines

CARACAS, June 21 (Reuters) – With its access to the global financial system restricted by U.S. sanctions, Venezuela managed to make some payments for the country’s coronavirus vaccines by asking a handful of private local banks to pay on the government’s behalf, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The banks have used foreign currency obtained through transactions with international credit and debit cards within Venezuela to pay COVAX, an initiative that provides vaccines to poor countries, said the people, who spoke on the conditions of anonymity and that the participating banks not be named.

It was not clear how or if the banks were compensated, nor what portion of the payments to COVAX have been made by the banks. So far, Venezuela has paid about $109 million to COVAX, about $10 million shy of what it owes, Venezuelan officials said earlier this month.

The tactic is the latest sign of how President Nicolas Maduro often finds ways around the obstacles created by the U.S. sanctions, aimed at ousting him over accusations of vote-rigging and rights violations.

That does not mean it has been easy. Government officials have said for months that the sanctions were impeding its ability to make the international bank transfers necessary to pay for the COVAX doses.

Venezuelan officials have said they expect to receive some 5 million vaccine doses through COVAX. But so far the country has received none, although most regional neighbors from Nicaragua to Colombia having already received hundreds of thousands of doses under the program.

Venezuela, with a population of some 30 million, has received vaccines only from allies Russia and China and its rollout of those 3.5 million doses has been slow and plagued by confusion.

Years of economic crisis and a collapse in oil production – by far the OPEC nation’s biggest export – has left the country perilously short of foreign currency reserves. But in April, officials said they had made the payments for the COVAX vaccines, without explaining how the transactions took place.

Some of the payments were made by local banks at the central bank’s request, the people said. Transactions with international cards have ballooned in inflation-stricken Venezuela since the government loosened exchange controls in 2019, leaving the banks that process the payments with a store of foreign currency.

Neither Venezuela’s central bank nor the information ministry, which handles media inquiries on the government’s behalf, responded to requests for comment.

The strategy has not been seamless. While the U.S. sanctions apply only to government institutions, including the central bank, some companies are wary of dealing with even non-sanctioned private Venezuelan institutions for fear of punishment by Washington – a trend known as “overcompliance.”

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza earlier this month posted on Twitter a letter from COVAX indicating that four of the 16 transactions made in Venezuela’s name, totaling some $4.6 million, had been “blocked.”

“Since there are various transfers from different banks, the operations are reviewed more closely,” one of the people familiar with the operations said.

Washington on Thursday issued an exemption to its sanctions on Venezuela, as well as on Syria and Iran, clarifying that financial transactions related to COVID-19 treatment and testing were permitted. U.S. officials have long argued that the sanctions do not prohibit humanitarian relief efforts.

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GENEVA (ILO News) – The first international treaty on violence and harassment in the world of work comes into force on June 25th 2021 – two years after it was adopted by the ILO’s International Labour Conference (ILC).

To date, six countries have ratified the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190)  – Argentina, Ecuador, Fiji, Namibia, Somalia and Uruguay. Ratifying countries are legally bound by the provisions of the Convention a year after ratification.

Together with Recommendation No. 206 , Convention No. 190 recognizes the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment and provides a common framework for action.

It provides the first international definition of violence and harassment in the world of work, including gender-based violence and harassment.

Violence and harassment at work takes a range of forms and leads to physical, psychological, sexual and economic harm. Since the adoption of the Convention, the COVID-19 pandemic  has further highlighted the issue, with many forms of work-related violence and harassment being reported across countries since the outbreak began, particularly against women and vulnerable groups.

To mark its entering into force the ILO will launch a global campaign to promote its ratification and implementation. The campaign aims to explain in simple terms what the Convention is, the issues it covers and how it seeks to address violence and harassment in the world of work.

“A better future of work is free of violence and harassment. […] I urge countries to ratify the Convention and help build, together with employers and workers and their organizations, a dignified, safe and healthy working life for all.”

Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General

“A better future of work is free of violence and harassment,” said Guy Ryder, the ILO Director-General in his message to launch the global campaign.

“Convention 190 calls on all ILO Member States to eradicate violence and harassment in all its forms from the world of work. I urge countries to ratify the Convention and help build, together with employers and workers and their organizations, a dignified, safe and healthy working life for all.”

The global campaign will be launched during the ILO Action Week on Convention No. 190 , which takes place 21-25 June 2021.

The Action Week calls for renewed commitment from countries to ratify and implement the Convention.

The Action Week begins on 21 June with a virtual high-level dialogue . The speakers will include the ILO Director-General, Ministers of Labour from Argentina and Madagascar, and representatives of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the European Commission and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Following the Action Week, the ILO will launch a guide aimed at helping constituents and other stakeholders promote and implement the Convention and Recommendation. The guide covers core principles and measures that countries can take to prevent, address and eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work, including examples of national laws, regulations and policies.

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Less than a week after St. Kitts and Nevis recorded its first COVID-19 death, a second person has now been confirmed a victim of the deadly virus.

This was disclosed by Chief Medical Officer Dr Hazel Laws who said there are now two COVID-19 related deaths.

“The first was last Thursday, June 17 the second occurred within the last 24 hours.”

Dr Laws also indicated that over the past month, the Federation had recorded 305 COVID cases and during the same period there have been 30 recoveries.

She said at present there are 273 active cases who are being monitored by case managers and physicians and 21 admissions to the COVID ward 10 who have been discharged. Nine remain hospitalised

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By *****@*******ce.com” href=”http://www.silive.com/staff/KristinDalton/posts.html”> Kristin F. Dalton | kd*****@*******ce.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Experts says this year’s hurricane season won’t be as bad as it was in 2020, but there’s a 60% chance the 2021 season, which started June 1, will be above normal.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there’s a 30% chance of a near-normal season and a 10% chance of a below-normal season.

The NOAA is expecting three to five major hurricanes, classified as category 3, 4, or 5, with winds of 111 miles per hour or above. It says it predicts these storms with 70% c

The Atlantic hurricane season is also expected to bring 13 to 20 named storms – storms with winds of 39 miles per hour or higher. Of those, six to 10 could become hurricanes with winds of 74 miles per hour or above.

The average Atlantic hurricane season has 14 named storms, of which seven become hurricanes, and three hurricanes that are classified category 3, 4, or 5.

Atlantic tropical storms are named ahead of time, are alphabetical, and alternate between traditionally female and male names. Some of the names for the 2021 season are: Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Elsa, Fred and Grace.

“Although NOAA scientists don’t expect this season to be as busy as last year, it only takes one storm to devastate a community,” said Ben Friedman, acting NOAA administrator.

“The forecasters at the National Hurricane Center are well-prepared with significant upgrades to our computer models, emerging observation techniques, and the expertise to deliver the life-saving forecasts that we all depend on during this, and every, hurricane season.”

The city Office of Emergency Management (OEM) revised its hurricane evacuation zones just as the Atlantic storm season begins.

On Staten Island, much of the East Shore and West Shore are covered by the first and second evacuation zones, which represent the most at-risk parts of the city, and much of the Island is covered in the less severe evacuation zones.

City officials may order evacuations in these zones depending on a hurricane’s forecast strength, track and storm surge, and the map is intended to help New Yorkers better prepare for that possibility, according to OEM.

The maps also feature evacuation centers around the city, like the Michael J. Petrides school complex, and Curtis High School

OEM recommends that all New York City residents make an emergency plan ahead of any storms and prepare for flooding and power outages. The city offers many preparation examples that families can build upon for their own homes.

“Now is the time for communities along the coastline as well as inland to get prepared for the dangers that hurricanes can bring, said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “The experts at NOAA are poised to deliver life-saving early warnings and forecasts to communities, which will also help minimize the economic impacts of storms,” Raimodo said

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The first stage of the research will be carried out at the Juan Manuel Márquez Pediatric Hospital and later the trial will be extended to the health areas of the municipalities of Playa, Marianao and La Lisa, said Rodríguez GonzáleA.

CMC

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Claudette regaining strength after 13 killed in Alabama

ATLANTA (AP) — Claudette was regaining strength early Monday and expected to return to tropical storm status as it neared the coast of the Carolinas just days after 13 people died — including eight children in a multi-vehicle crash — due to the…Read More

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Biden and Congress face a summer grind to create legislation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Until recently, the act of governing seemed to happen at the speed of presidential tweets. But now President Joe Biden is settling in for what appears will be a long, summer slog of legislating. …Read More

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Vaccine hesitancy puts India’s gains against virus at risk

JAMSOTI, India (AP) — In Jamsoti, a village tucked deep inside India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities. The deadly infection, they believe, does not exi…Read More

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Ethiopia votes in greatest electoral test yet for Abiy

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia was voting on Monday in the greatest electoral test yet for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as insecurity and logistical issues meant ballots wouldn’t be cast in more than 100 constituencies of the 547 across the…Read More

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WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) – U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least July 21, the U.S. Homeland Security Department said on Sunday.

The 30-day extension came after Canada announced its own extension on Friday of the requirements that were set to expire on Monday and have been in place since March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. government held working-group meetings with Canada and Mexico on the travel restrictions last week and plans to hold meetings about every two weeks, U.S. officials told Reuters.

Homeland Security said in a statement it noted “positive developments in recent weeks and is participating with other U.S. agencies in the White House’s expert working groups with Canada and Mexico to identify the conditions under which restrictions may be eased safely and sustainably.”

Some U.S. lawmakers and border communities that have been hit hard by the restrictions have pushed to relax them ahead of the busy summer travel season.

Canada is also under pressure from companies and the tourism industry to ease the ban, which was imposed to help contain the spread of the coronavirus and has been renewed on a monthly basis since March 2020.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood firm, saying last week the border would stay largely shut until 75% of Canadians had received the first of a two-dose coronavirus vaccine and 20% had been given both shots.

In talks between the United States and Canada last week, the U.S. government did not endorse setting a specific threshold to trigger lifting the restrictions, a person briefed on the talks said.

“The inability of the U.S. and Canadian governments to reach an agreement on alleviating border restrictions … is simply unacceptable,” Democratic Representative Brian Higgins and Republican Representative Bill Huizenga, co-chairs of the Canada-U.S. Interparliamentary Group said on Friday.

The United States is also holding working-group meetings on relaxing travel restrictions with the UK and the European Union, but U.S. and airline officials said previously they did not expect the Biden administration to lift the restrictions until around July 4 at the earliest.

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