Tag Archives: caribbean

US Giving $310M Food, Humanitarian Aid to Central America

Reuters- U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in a virtual meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday, announced an additional $310 million in U.S. government support for humanitarian relief and to address food insecurity in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the White House said.

The two leaders also “agreed to open Migrant Resource Centers in Guatemala to provide services for people seeking lawful pathways of migration as well as those in need of protection, asylum referrals, and refugee resettlement,” the White House said.

President Joe Biden gave Harris the job of leading U.S. efforts with Mexico and Central America’s Northern Triangle countries – Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – to stop a growing number of migrants from crossing into the United States.

“We want to work with you … in a way that will bring hope to the people of Guatemala, that there will be an opportunity for them if they stay at home,” Harris said, adding she would visit the region in June.

In a statement, her office said the funds would come from USAID, along with the Departments of State, Defense and Agriculture.

For example, the humanitarian aid includes $125 million to deal with repeated droughts, food shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic, along with $104 million from the U.S. State Department to help with the safety and protection of refugees and asylum seekers.

The U.S. Defense Department will provide $26 million to increase partnership activities in the region aimed at health, education and disaster relief services, according to the vice president’s office.

Back-to-back hurricanes and the economic impact of the pandemic in 2020 have increased the number of people facing hunger this year in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to 7.8 million, according to the World Food Programme.

Following the Harris-Giammattei meeting, Guatemalan Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo told a news conference that Guatemala and the United States agreed “to establish a new joint border protection task force,” including a small number of officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

He said about 16 DHS officials would initially travel to Guatemala to train local officials in strengthening border infrastructure.

Under former U.S. President Donald Trump, a small group of DHS officials also operated in Guatemala for a time.

Brolo said Harris also spoke of helping build centers for deportees and beefing up security at Guatemala’s ports. Guatemala will send a team to the United States to help reunify unaccompanied Guatemalan minors with their parents, he said

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris takes notes as she speaks via videoconference with Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei to discuss solutions to an increase in migration as she looks for ways to defuse a migrant crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 26, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

In March, Mexico said more than unaccompanied 18,000 Central American children crossed its territory en route to the United States.

Brolo laid some of the blame for increased migration on Biden, saying people smugglers used expectations of “greater benefits” for migrants that emerged with the arrival of the new U.S. administration to persuade more people to travel.

‘VERY HARD ROAD’

Monday’s meeting was Harris’ second conversation with Guatemala’s leader in less than a month – a sign of the best opportunity she has to build a partnership in the region.

Harris has yet to speak with the leaders of Honduras and El Salvador.

Giammattei said Guatemala was looking forward to her visit but wants to reach an agreement on issues before she travels.

“I believe that we should build a road map between governments … so that we can reach an agreement… (and) can work on this very hard road that we have ahead of us,” he said.

Challenges surfaced during their first call, when Giammattei asked Harris about the possibility of purchasing COVID-19 vaccines, officials told Reuters. The question was not included in the U.S. readout of the call.

On April 5, Guatemala said it was purchasing 16 million Russian Sputnik V vaccines to inoculate about half its population.

Harris’ office did not comment on the issue, but an administration official said it was not politically tenable to assure vaccine supplies to other countries before inoculating every American.

Other problems have also emerged. Guatemalan lawmakers recently refused to swear in a corruption-fighting judge, Constitutional Court President Gloria Porras, whom U.S. officials had seen as key to the country’s fight against graft.

Hours before the call with Giammattei, the United States and the UK imposed sanctions on a member of Guatemala’s Congress over alleged corruption.

Harris will participate in a virtual roundtable with representatives from Guatemalan community based-organizations on Tuesday.

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St. Lucia’s Own Canista Lubrin Wins Caribbean Poetry Compeition

St. Lucia-born poet Canisia Lubrin is the 2021 winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Lubrin’s book-length poem The Dyzgraphxst earned her the US$10,000 prize, courtesy One Caribbean Media.

It is the second consecutive year that a poet has won the most prestigious international annual award for Caribbean writing, and the fourth work of poetry to win in the 11-year history of the prize.

Lubrin is the third St. Lucia-born writer to win the overall prize, all for poetry.

Vahni Capildeo, also an outstanding poet from Trinidad and Tobago, winner of the Forward Poetry Prize, and chief judge of this year’s OCM Bocas Prize, made the announcement online via the Bocas Lit Fest website, Facebook, and YouTube in a virtual presentation on Saturday.

Joining her on the final judging panel for the prize were Jamaican poet and academic Opal Palmer Adisa, Trinidadian-American writer and scholar Rosamond S. King, and Malachi McIntosh, editor of the UK-based literary journal Wasafiri.

The Dyzgraphxst, published by Penguin Random House Canada, was chosen by the judges from a shortlist of the three books previously selected as category winners, which included Jamaica-born Maisy Card’s debut novel These Ghosts Are Family — the best book of fiction by a Caribbean writer in 2020 — and Trinidadian Andre Bagoo’s wide-ranging collection of essays The Undiscovered Country — the best non-fiction book of 2020 by a Caribbean author.

Card and Bagoo will receive awards of US$3,000 each.

In her judge’s remarks, Vahni Capildeo said The Dyzgraphxst “is exciting, experimental, and maintains integrity from beginning to end…. Aware of and alive with the impulses and innovations of Aimé Césaire, Dionne Brand, and so many more revolutionary thinkers with whom we have been blessed.”

“These poems take apart our individual personal pronoun, the ‘I’,” said Capildeo, “questioning and finding new ways to feel and think and know what we suppose to be our ‘self’. Some books use language to keep running smoothly. This book shifts what language can be and do. It is thrilling to read it and to relish giving up the illusion of mastery of meaning; to revel in not fully understanding, like swimming beyond the breakers in a sea full of flotsam and jetsam.”

Lubrin is a writer, editor, teacher and critic.

Frequently anthologised, her work has been translated into Spanish and Italian.

She is the author of the awards-nominated poetry collection Voodoo Hypothesis, and The Dyzgraphxst is her latest book. In addition to winning the OCM Bocas Prize, the book was recently shortlisted for Canada’s Griffin Poetry Prize, and in March 2021 Lubrin was also named a winner of a 2021 Windham Campbell Prize.

She teaches at the University of Toronto and is soon to become an editor at Penguin Random House.

 

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Caribbean Community and Diaspora Rush to Aid St. Vincent

CNW- As St. Vincent and the Grenadines continue to reel from the aftermath of the eruption caused by the La Soufriere Volcano last week, their Caribbean neighbors and Caribbean diaspora are stepping up to offer their assistance.

Among the groups conducting disaster relief efforts is the Caribbean Consular Corps in Miami, which recently sent a shipment of essential supplies of water and face masks, to victims of the disaster.

At an urgent meeting convened by the Caribbean Consular Corps on April 15, it was agreed they would join in solidarity to support the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

According to a joint statement from the group “We are standing with our brothers and sisters in this time of need. As Caribbean people, we believe it is important that we stand together in solidarity. At any time, any one of our countries could be affected by a natural disaster.”

It was further stated that the consuls general were pleased that the Caribbean diaspora has been responding favorably to the needs of the victims and that they will jointly give these initiatives their wholehearted support.

The initial reports highlighting the devastation included clouds of ash blanketing the island causing water and power outages. Thousands of residents were evacuated as it is expected that explosions could continue for days or weeks causing further damage. The residents, especially the frontline workers, will desperately need all their support at this time, the statement continued.

According to the team of consuls general, it was agreed that each consulate would contribute to the cause by donating basic medical supplies of masks and personal care packages, and also large volumes of water. The consuls general are working to boost the support of their respective governments.

The team included Consuls General Gilbert Boustany of Antigua and Barbuda, Dean of the Consular Corps in Miami; Linda Mackey of The Bahamas, Neval Greenidge of Barbados, Stéphane Gilles of Haiti, R. Oliver Mair of Jamaica, Tassa Jean of St. Lucia, Deputy Consul General Dianne Perrotte of Grenada, and Acting Consul General of Trinidad and Tobago Jean Andria Narinesingh.

 

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World View: Oscars, Pandemic-India, Italy, Biden’s 100 Days. More

April 23, 2021

Alternate text

In today’s Wire Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” has won best picture at the 93rd Academy Awards and China-born Zhao has become the first woman of color to win best director.

We also review the Oscars show and take a look at its ending.

India continues to set records for new coronavirus infections. We have a photo gallery of mass funeral pyres that underscores the country’s COVID crisis.

And we reflect on President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office.

Also this morning:

  • Italy’s re-opening: Too cautious for some, too soon for others.
  • American businesses worry about finding summer workers.
  • Death toll in Baghdad coronavirus hospital climbs to at least 82.

MIKE CORDER

The Associated Press

The Hague, Netherlands

The Rundown

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Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” a wistful portrait of itinerant lives on open roads across the American West, won best picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the China-born Zhao became the first woman of color to win best director and a…Read More

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NEW DELHI (AP) — Delhi has been cremating so many bodies of COVID-19 victims that authorities are getting requests to start cutting down trees in city parks for kindling, as a record surge of illness is collapsing India’s tattered health ca…Read More

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WASHINGTON (AP) — As he rounds out his first 100 days in office, President Joe Biden’s focus on reigning in the coronavirus during the early months of his administration seems to have paid off: He can check off nearly all his campaign promi…Read More

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MILAN (AP) — Italy’s gradual reopening on Monday after six months of rotating virus lockdowns is satisfying no one: Too cautious for some, too hasty for others. Allowing outdoor dining comes too little, too late for Italy’s restaurant owne…Read More

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The 93rd Academy Awards wasn’t exactly a movie, but it was a show made for people who love learning about movies. And it stubbornly, defiantly wasn’t trying to be anything else. It wasn’t an advertisement for the nominated films that audi…Read More

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BOSTON (AP) — The owner of seafood restaurants on Cape Cod has eliminated lunch service and delayed the opening of some locations because his summertime influx of fo…Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — If the nation is in the midst of a historic reckoning on racism, most leaders of the Republican Party are not participating. On the same day last wee…Read More

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister fired key hospital officials Sunday hours after a fire broke out in an intensive care unit for coronavirus patients in Baghdad, …Read More

Wait. What? If that’s what you yelled at the TV during the final moments of Sunday’s Oscars, you weren’t alone. In what may have been the most abrupt ending since th…Read More

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Brazil: Bolsonaro Cuts Environment Budget a Day After Pledging to Increase It

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has approved a cut to the environment ministry budget a day after he vowed to boost spending to tackle deforestation.

At a US-led climate summit, he promised to double the money reserved for environmental enforcement and to end illegal deforestation by 2030.

But the budget signed off on Friday did not include his spending pledge, or additional proposals made by Congress.

His government has weakened protections and wants to develop protected areas.

Critics say the president’s promises on Thursday were linked to a controversial deal Brazil is negotiating with the US to receive financial aid in return for protecting the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, and other areas.

The 2021 federal budget includes 2.1bn reais (£280m; $380m) for the environment ministry and agencies it oversees. The ministry had a budget of about 3bn reais in 2020.

Late on Friday, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said he had requested the economy ministry to review the numbers and fulfil the pledge made by President Bolsonaro at the virtual climate summit hosted by US President Joe Biden.

A road runs through a tract of burnt Amazon jungle near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, 14 August 2020image copyrightReuters
image captionThe Bolsonaro government has called for protected areas in the Amazon to be developed

The environmental policies of President Bolsonaro, who is supported by powerful agribusiness leaders, have drawn widespread condemnation. The far-right leader has encouraged agriculture and mining in the Amazon, and rolled back environmental legislation.

Last year, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged to a 12-year high. Activists and indigenous groups say environmental enforcement remains underfunded, and denounce the impunity for illegal logging and mining in protected areas.

The president rejects the criticism, saying Brazil remains an example for conservation. But at Thursday’s summit he attempted to strike a more conciliatory tone, and also promised that Brazil would reach zero carbon emissions by 2050, 10 years earlier than previously agreed.

Charred trunks are seen on a tract of Amazon jungle, that was recently burned by loggers and farmers, in Porto Velho, Brazil, on 23 August 2019image copyrightReuters
image captionDeforestation in the Brazilian Amazon surged to a 12-year high in 2020

Brazilian and US officials have been discussing the possibility of collaborating to stop the destruction of the Amazon. Politicians and environmentalists have warned that the Bolsonaro government should show results first before any financial commitment is made.

Earlier this week, a group of 35 US and Brazilian celebrities voiced their opposition to a deal with Brazil, saying it risked legitimising a government that was encouraging environmental destruction.

The document followed another letter in which more than 200 Brazilian groups told President Biden that the Bolsonaro government was an “enemy” of the Amazon and that it did not have legitimacy to represent Brazil.

Last week, the environment minister said the country would need $1bn in foreign aid to support efforts to reduce deforestation in the Amazon by 30% to 40% in a year.

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Oscars 2021: Nomadland, Frances McDormand, Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Kaluuya share glory

Chloé Zhao, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Kaluuya were amongst the winners of the 2021 Academy Awards

Film drama Nomadland has scooped three Oscars including best picture, while British stars Sir Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Kaluuya have won acting awards.

Nomadland’s Chloé Zhao made history as the first woman of color and second woman to win best director.

Sir Anthony, 83, is the oldest winner of best actor, while Kaluuya is the first black British actor to win an Oscar – in the supporting category.

“I did not expect to get this,” said Sir Anthony, who missed the ceremony.

British actress-turned-writer/director Emerald Fennell won a screenplay award.

The star, who plays Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown, won best original screenplay for Promising Young Woman, which she also directed.

Frances McDormand won best actress for her role in Nomadland, while veteran South Korean actress Yuh-Jung Youn won best supporting actress for Minari.

The trophies were handed out in one of the grand halls at Los Angeles’s stylish Union Station to allow for a Covid-safe ceremony, while many UK-based nominees were at a venue in London – although Sir Anthony was at neither.

2021 Academy Arawrd winners: Best film - Nomadland; Best actor- Sir Anthony Hopkins; Best Actress - Frances McDormand ; Best supporting Actor - Daniel Kaluuya; Best supporting Ctress - Yuh-Jung Youn; Best director - Chloé Zhao.
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Absent Sir Anthony beats Boseman

Olivia Colman and Sir Anthony Hopkins in The Fatherimage copyrightSEAN GLEASON
image captionOlivia Colman and Sir Anthony Hopkins star in The Father

Sir Anthony won best actor for his masterful performance as a man suffering with dementia in The Father, 29 years after he won his first Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs.

His victory was the biggest surprise of the night. The award had been tipped to go to the late Chadwick Boseman, who died aged 43 last August, for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Sir Anthony was neither in LA nor at the British Film Institute in London, the ceremony’s UK venue, so instead posted a message on Instagram on Monday morning.

“At 83 years of age I did not expect to get this award, I really didn’t,” he said in a video filmed in his “homeland” of Wales. “I’m very grateful to the Academy, and thank you.”

Sir Anthony went on to pay tribute to Boseman, whom he said had been “taken from us far too early”, and said he felt “very privileged and honoured”.

The Father, which will be released in the UK on 11 June, also won best adapted screenplay for Sir Christopher Hampton and director Florian Zeller, who called Sir Anthony “the greatest living actor”.

Big night for Nomadland

Nomadland producers Peter Spears, Frances McDormand, Chloe Zhao, Mollye Asher and Dan Janveyimage copyrightReuters

The slow-burning drama about a woman living in her van in the American West after the financial crash won the top prize for best film, plus best director and best actress.

McDormand, who now has three best actress Oscars, is one of the only professional performers in the film. Most of the rest of the cast is made up of real people playing fictionalised versions of themselves.

In her acceptance speech, Zhao thanked the real-life nomads “for teaching us the power of resilience and hope”.

Before Zhao, the only woman to have won the directing prize in the Oscars’ 92-year history was Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2010.

McDormand spoke of her hopes for the revival of big-screen cinema, asking viewers: “One day very, very soon, take everyone you know into a theatre, shoulder to shoulder in that dark space and watch every film that’s represented here tonight.”

She then said: “We give this one to our Wolf,” and howled like a wolf – a tribute to the film’s sound mixer Michael Wolf Snyder, who took his own life at the age of 35 last month.

Meanwhile, black-and-white film Mank, which led the nominations with 10, picked up two awards, as did Sound of Metal, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Soul.

The big winners

  • Nomadland – 3
  • The Father – 2
  • Judas and the Black Messiah – 2
  • Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – 2
  • Mank – 2
  • Soul – 2
  • Sound of Metal – 2
  • The winners and nominations in full

Victorious Kaluuya ‘happy to be alive’

Daniel Kaluuyaimage copyrightAMPAS/Reuters

The 32-year-old Londoner won best supporting actor for his incendiary performance as Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.

“What a man. How blessed we are that we live in a lifetime where he existed,” the actor said. “I am humbled to be nominated for portraying a man whose principles I deeply respect and for guiding me to walk in his footsteps.”

Kaluuya also paid tribute to his mother, who was watching at the BFI, who he said “gave me my factory settings so I can stand at my fullest height”.

But she could be seen asking “What is he talking about?” when her excited son told the global audience of millions: “My mum met my dad, they had sex, it’s amazing. I’m here. I’m so happy to be alive so I’m going to celebrate that tonight.”

Yuh-Jung Youn with her Oscarimage copyrightReuters
image captionYuh-Jung Youn with her Oscar

Yuh-Jung Youn became the first South Korean actress to win an Oscar, for her role as the grandmother in Korean-American family drama Minari.

She beat Olivia Colman, Amanda Seyfried, Maria Bakalova and Glenn Close to the prize for best supporting actress. It was Close’s eighth nomination without a win. Youn told the crowd she “doesn’t believe in competition” and paid tribute to her fellow nominee, asking: “How can I win over Glenn Close?”

From Call the Midwife to the Oscars

Emerald Fennell at the Oscarsimage copyrightAMPAS/Reuters

The night’s other British winners included Emerald Fennell for her first film as writer and director.

Until now, Fennell has been best-known for appearing in front of the camera, playing Patsy in BBC drama Call the Midwife and Camilla Parker-Bowles in Netflix’s The Crown.

Her satirical thriller stars Carey Mulligan as a woman avenging the rape of her best friend. In her speech, Fennell recalled how they shot it in 23 days while she was heavily pregnant.

She thanked her family, including her young son, “who did not arrive until a couple of weeks after shooting, thank God, because I was crossing my legs the whole way through”.

She is the first British woman to win the best original screenplay award since it was established in its current form in 1958.

The other UK winners included Sir Christopher Hampton, who shared the best adapted screenplay award with Florian Zeller for The Father; and Atticus Ross, who shared the best score prize with Trent Reznor and Jon Batiste for Soul.

Fellow Brits Andrew Jackson and Andrew Lockley won best visual effects for Tenet; James Reed won best documentary feature for My Octopus Teacher; and Martin Desmond Roe won best live action short for Two Distant Strangers, which addresses the police killings of black people in the US.

More history-makers

Left-right: Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson and Sergio Lopez-Riveraimage copyrightReuters
image captionLeft-right: Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson and Sergio Lopez-Rivera won best make-up and hairstyling

Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson became the first black winners of the best make-up and hairstyling award, triumphing for their work on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. They shared the award with Spaniard Sergio Lopez-Rivera.

In an impassioned acceptance speech, Neal said: “Jamika and I break this glass ceiling with so much excitement for the future because I can picture black trans women standing up here and Asian sisters and Latinx sisters, and one day it won’t be unusual and groundbreaking, it will just be normal.”

The film also won best costume design for 89-year-old Ann Roth, making her the oldest woman to win an Oscar.

A very different Oscars

The red carpet was set up outside LA's Union Stationimage copyrightEPA
image captionThe red carpet was set up outside LA’s Union Station

The ceremony was delayed by two months and was inevitably different this year. At Union Station, nominees walked an unusually sparse red carpet before sitting, spaced out but mostly maskless, in one of the station’s converted halls.

Like last year, there was no single host, so the show was introduced by director and Oscar-winning actress Regina King, who began on a political note.

Referring to the conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin of the murder of George Floyd, she said: “If things had gone any different in Minneapolis I might have traded in my heels for marching boots.”

Most nominees and winners were there in person, but some were in London, while others appeared by satellite from locations including Paris, Prague and Sydney.

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Mexican Minister In Talks to Manufacture Russian COVID Vaccine

Reuters

Mexico’s top diplomat traveled to Moscow on Sunday for a visit with Russian officials, his office said, amid talks to hammer out plans for Mexico to bottle Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine domestically after delays in shipments.

The government is aiming to quicken its pace of vaccinations, with just more than 4% of its population of 126 million people fully inoculated.

Mexico has registered 214,947 deaths, the fourth most worldwide, and 2,328,391 infections from the pandemic. The government has said the real number of cases is likely significantly higher.

Mexico’s state-run vaccine manufacturer, Birmex, is working with Russia on a plan to bottle Sputnik V in Mexico, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said last week, just as Argentina produced test batches of the two-shot vaccine. read more

“Birmex is working jointly with Russian institutions so that Mexico can bottle the vaccine,” Ebrard told Russian media outlets on Friday. “There is already significant progress.”

Health ministry official Ruy Lopez told reporters on Sunday that the government’s aim is to ramp up distribution of Sputnik V not only in Mexico, but also other parts of Latin America.

Russia has shipped 1.1 million Sputnik V doses to Mexico to date, far fewer doses than those originally slated to have arrived by now.

Mexico’s Health Ministry said in late February it expected to receive 7.4 million doses of Sputnik V by April and an additional 16.6 million shots in May. Mexico has signed an agreement to acquire a total of 24 million doses.

Mexico is increasingly aiming to bottle vaccines domestically following delays from providers, and has already bottled 2.6 million shots of China’s CanSino vaccine.

It also plans to bottle AstraZeneca (AZN.L) shots using vaccine material produced in Argentina. But the first doses are not expected until May due to delays at the Mexican production laboratory.

Ebrard’s visit to Moscow will last through Wednesday and include a meeting with his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

The minister will also visit China, India and the United States as part of his government’s efforts to make sure that its supply agreements for vaccines against COVID-19 are honored.

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Costa Rica with Record High Corona Cases

Costa Rica on Saturday registered 1,830 new COVID-19 infections, its highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic, with space for the most critical patients at public hospitals nearly full, health authorities said.

There have been 238,760 cases and 3,143 deaths from COVID-19 in the Central American country of 5 million people, whose tourism-driven economy has been hit by the pandemic’s toll on global travel. read more

“We are living through the darkest health moment of Costa Rica in modern times,” Health Minister Daniel Salas said in a televised address to the nation.

He added that the 125 beds in intensive care units allocated for severe COVID-19 cases are 94% full, and said the remaining space could be filled in the coming days.

Salas said cars could no longer be on the road from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. as a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but authorities would not impose a stricter lockdown to avoid hurting the economy.

“We have to take into account that people need to work,” Salas said, noting that government resources to disburse financial aid were depleted last year.

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UWI Report: St. Vincent Volcano Remains Active

The UWI St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago. Friday, April 23, 2021. Experts at The UWI Seismic Research Centre (UWI-SRC) advise that La Soufrière volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines remains dangerous despite pauses in explosive activity. 

file:///C:/Users/user/Desktop/’Apocalyptic’%20landscape%20in%20aftermath%20of%20volcanic%20eruptions%20on%20St%20Vincent.%20-%20BBC%20News.html

During a virtual press conference hosted on Wednesday, April 21, Rod Stewart, Volcano-Seismologist from the UWI-SRC/Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) emphasized, “…although it is easy to identify the start of eruptions, conclusively saying when eruptions are over, often proves more difficult.” 

The UWI-SRC and Vincentian authorities continue to monitor developments at the volcano, as they have been since the onset of heightened activity in December 2020, which entered an explosive phase on April 9, 2021.  Advice provided by the UWI–SRC enabled the successful evacuation of 13,000 residents from the designated ‘RED ZONE’ 24 hours prior to the first explosion of the volcano. Thirty-two discrete explosions have been observed since the onset of explosive activity. To date, there has been no loss of life. Ash from these explosions has been the primary hazard. Buildings and infrastructure have suffered damage in Saint Vincent and nearby Barbados was also severely impacted for several days. Explosive events have become less frequent over time, with the period between explosions increasing as the eruption progresses.

Professor Richard Robertson, UWI-SRC, Scientific Team Lead estimates that the explosivity seen during this current eruption, is greater than in 1979, and more comparable to the 1902 eruption.  

The UWI-SRC Field Scientists based at the Belmont Observatory in Saint Vincent are part of larger team of seismic and engineering technicians, ground deformation specialists and communication experts based at the MVO and in St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. Several international agencies and academic colleagues have also made valuable contributions to the current understanding of the eruption. The UWI-SRC remains ready to serve the region despite a perennial challenge to secure resources. 

Dr. Erouscilla Joseph, Director of the UWI-SRC, invited donor agencies willing to partner with the UWI-SRC to “come on-board.”  She noted, “reducing the regions vulnerability to natural hazards will require many hands. Our University of the West Indies continues to demonstrate the value of regional integration and its capacity to supply leaders to meet any circumstance.”  

The UWI-SRC reaffirms its commitment to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which will no doubt require substantial support to recover from this act of nature.

 

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US and UK Aiding India Fight Corona Devastation, World Stats

Washington reverses vaccine export ban while Downing Street dispatches ventilators and oxygen

People queue to get tested for Covid-19 in Hyderabad, India,
People queue to get tested for Covid-19 in Hyderabad, India, on Sunday. The spread of the virus has overwhelmed hospitals in major cities. Photograph: Mahesh Kumar A/AP
and agencies

 

International efforts to help India fight its devastating coronavirus crisis have stepped up as the White House said the US would immediately provide raw materials for vaccine manufacture and the UK announced it had dispatched ventilators and oxygen to Delhi.

France and Germany are also set to send much-needed oxygen to India in the coming days as it battles the world’s worst outbreak. Pakistan, a traditional foe, offered medical equipment and supplies after the prime minister, Imran Khan, tweeted prayers for a “speedy recovery”.

India reported 349,691 new cases on Sunday, a record increase for the fourth consecutive day, and 2,767 people dead. Hospitals are running short of life-saving oxygen and patients are dying while they wait to see doctors.

It is feared that the official statistics and a death toll of 192,311 are underestimating the scale of the crisis as experts believe many people are not going to get tested, or lack access to healthcare.

Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, said the country was facing a “storm” of infections. “Our spirits were high after successfully dealing with the first wave,” he said in a radio address on Sunday. “But this storm has shaken the nation.”

The US had been facing increasing pressure to lift export controls on raw materials intended to boost its own domestic vaccine supply, which Indian vaccine manufacturers said was slowing down their ability to produce jabs.

The National Security Council spokeswoman, Emily Horne, said in a statement that the US would send raw materials required for India to manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine, as well as therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators and protective equipment for frontline workers. “The United States is working around the clock to deploy available resources and supplies,” she said.

The UK package includes 495 oxygen concentrators, which can extract oxygen from the air when hospital systems have run out, 120 non-invasive ventilators and 20 manual ventilators. It is expected to arrive in Delhi on Tuesday with further shipments later in the week.

Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, said Britain stood “side by side with India as a friend and partner […] I’m determined to make sure that the UK does everything it can to support the international community in the global fight against pandemic.”

The US president, Joe Biden, has previously said the US will not supply vaccines to other countries until it has enough supplies at home but the US’s top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday the US would review how to help increase India’s vaccine supply or helping them “to essentially make vaccines themselves”. India is one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers.

Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island, urged the Biden administration to go further and share excess vaccines with India and other countries in crisis, pointing out that the US had an estimated 30m unused doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that has not been authorised by US regulators. The calls were echoed by the author Salman Rushdie, who said: “The US has something like a vaccine glut. India is in dire straits.”

The unprecedented spread of the virus has overwhelmed hospitals in major cities, which continue to face severe shortages of beds and oxygen.

Burial grounds in Delhi are running out of space with funeral pyres lighting up the night sky in other badly hit cities. In the central city of Bhopal, some crematoriums have increased their capacity from dozens of pyres to more than 50.

Crematorium

 

Crematoriums have had to increase capacity in response to the crisis. Photograph: Amarjeet Kumar Singh/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Workers at the city’s Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat crematorium said they cremated more than 110 people on Saturday, even as government figures in the entire city of 1.8 million put the total number of virus deaths at just 10. “The virus is swallowing our city’s people like a monster,” said Mamtesh Sharma, an official at the site told the Associated Press.

Modi’s government has faced mounting questions since the resurgence of the pandemic over its lax safety measures and failure to prepare for a rise in cases. It emerged on Sunday that Indian officials were attempting to censor such criticism, after Twitter confirmed it had blocked dozens of critical tweets following a legal demand from New Delhi.

A woman mourning the loss of her younger brother, age 50, after he was turned away by two hospitals and died waiting to be seen at a third blamed Modi for the crisis in a video shot by India’s weekly magazine The Caravan. “He has lit funeral pyres in every house,” she said.

The government has in response deployed special trains to move tanks of oxygen from steel plants to hospitals across the country in an effort to allow greater access to medical care. More than 500 oxygen-generation plants were also to be set up in government hospitals, the health ministry said on Sunday.

It said last week it planned to make vaccines available to all adults aged over 18 from 1 May, but the Serum Institute of India (SII), which manufactures the AstraZeneca vaccine, has warned it will not be able to meet its projected targets.

The SII also manufactures vaccines for the international Covax programme intended to help the developing world, which is set to deliver only one in five of the doses it had estimated it would supply by May.

Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive, appealed to Biden earlier this month to lift restrictions on supplies needed for production. “I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the US so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details,” he said on Twitter.

India, which has embarked on the world’s largest vaccination drive, has administered more than 140m doses of vaccine. So far, 8.47% of people have received one dose, and 1.55% are fully vaccinated.

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US Authorities Give Green Light for Johnson and Johnson Vaccine

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which had jointly recommended a nationwide pause 10 days ago, accepted the recommendation from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Vaccination sites across should be able start administering the shots as early as Saturday morning.

There are about 9.5 million doses of the vaccine sitting on shelves across the country that could be deployed immediately, and states were already reacting in the hours after the panel’s vote.

Pharmacies and hospitals were also preparing to resume giving the J&J shot. CVS said it would make appointments available at its pharmacies next week. A spokesman said “all warnings and precautions will be communicated throughout the vaccination process.”

“This is not a decision the agencies reached lightly. Medical and scientific teams of both the FDA and CDC reviewed several sources of information and data related to the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine to reach today’s assessment,” acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said during a press briefing.

The FDA will update fact sheets given to patients at the vaccination site, as well as instructions for vaccine providers and health providers that include warnings of the risk of a rare complication involving blood clots in women under the age of 50.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the agency has been focusing most of its outreach in the past week on providers, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who would be treating younger women.

Johnson & Johnson has also already negotiated language with the FDA, a company official told the CDC panel on Friday.

The FDA and CDC told states to temporarily stop using the vaccine last week out of an abundance of caution amid concerns over six cases of the clotting condition.

On Friday, officials said they were aware of 15 cases of the unusual clots amid nearly 8 million shots administered. All were women, most of them under 50. Three died, and seven remain hospitalized.

“Above all else, your health and safety come first. The American public should feel reassured about the safety systems and protocols that we have in place around the COVID-19 vaccines,” Walensky said.

The Biden administration has ordered enough vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to cover all American adults without the help of J&J, but public health experts have grown increasingly concerned about the impact of the pause, especially on vaccine hesitancy.

Even with the pause lifted, Johnson & Johnson is still facing major supply issues. Distribution of the vaccine to states has been extremely uneven, and it’s not clear how quickly the company can ramp up production.

Johnson & Johnson’s goal of delivering 100 million doses by the end of May could be in jeopardy as a result of a government investigation into Emergent BioSolutions, which contracts with J&J to manufacture vaccines in Baltimore.

Emergent produced tens of millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, but the FDA launched an investigation that has unveiled serious safety and cleanliness issues. The agency has ordered a pause on manufacturing at the plant while the problems are addressed. No vaccines can be distributed until the FDA certifies the plant.

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WORLD STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

147,822,552

Deaths:

3,123,586

Recovered:

125,402,507
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

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Latest News

April 26 (GMT)

Updates

  • 8,803 new cases and 356 new deaths in Russia [source]
  • 6,863 new cases and 7 new deaths in India [source]

The post US and UK Aiding India Fight Corona Devastation, World Stats appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.