https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-01-01/New-Year-s-Eve-fireworks-from-around-the-world–WHbtJw1lDy/index.html

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CHARLESTOWN, Nevis — The following is a New Year’s Day Message from Hon. Mark Brantley, Premier of Nevis.

“Fellow citizens, residents and visitors,

“As we lower the curtains on 2020, I bring warmest greetings and good wishes for 2021. 2020 is behind us with all of its memories and challenges its successes and failures,” said Hon. Mark Brantley, Premier of Nevis.

“At this time of the year, many of us adopt New Year resolutions in anticipation of the challenges that lie ahead. Equally, the genesis of the year affords us the opportunity to recalibrate and recommit ourselves to working for a brighter and better future for ourselves, our families, our community and our nation.

“The year gone by can be summed up in one expression – COVID-19,” he said. “It can be defined as challenging, unpredictable and unique. Indeed, it was the winter of our discontent. The virus proved to be, not only a pandemic and public health crisis, but also an economic crisis on a global scale. Due to the restrictions imposed in March of 2020, when the virus began to spread around the world, international travel came to a screeching halt. This resulted in massive hotel booking cancellations and temporary closure of hotels and restaurants. We were not spared the resulting horrors. Economies such ours, with tourism as their mainstay, were ravaged. No country was spared the onslaught of COVID-19; regardless of its size and might, it was brought to its knees by the coronavirus.

“Throughout 2020, the virus challenged families, communities, health care systems and governments in an extraordinary way. Our vulnerabilities as a nation were exposed when the planes stopped landing, supply chains slowed down and the possibility of an outbreak loomed at our shores. Equally troubling was the anxiety about unemployment and the ability of our health care system to respond to an outbreak. Our people were faced with the harsh realities of unemployment and overdue mortgage, rent and vehicle payments.

“Your government did not sit idly by but, with a sense of urgency and swiftness, responded meaningfully, in that:
• Through Social Security, we offered a stimulus package of $1,000.00 per month for those hardest hit with unemployment;
• The Nevis Island Administration offered a stimulus package of $1,000.00 to all students studying abroad and unable to return home;
• An amnesty on all work permits and residencies was offered to ease the burden experienced by employers and non-nationals;
• The unincorporated business tax was reduced;
• Payments of electricity and water bills were waived;
• A waiver of fees on alien holding licences was offered;
• Unprecedented assistance was given to our farmers and fishers; and
• We provided masks to every household, church and school on Nevis.

“Fellow citizens, the virus is still with us. I therefore urge all of our citizens to have faith in God, who has proven His faithfulness time and again. I call our nation to an unprecedented period of prayer to match this unprecedented state of affairs. Let us pray that the Spirit of Almighty God will continue to saturate every rank of Government and all of those in authority so that the rein of wisdom will bridle every compulsion to abandon integrity in the face of adversity, and that a steadfast spirit will harness every action towards greater good.

“I can assure you, on this first day of the new year, that your government will leave no stones unturned or any chapters unread in our efforts to assist our citizens through this daunting period.

“We must applaud and commend our people for the way in which they responded to the COVID crisis. When called upon, they acted with courage, discipline, poise and understanding. Responding to adversities is one of our strongest virtues – our national character. We have weathered many storms in the past and have always displayed extraordinary resilience and the ability to rebound.

“We may have been knocked down and bruised on many occasions, but we have never tasted defeat and have always emerged victorious.

“In spite of the seismic economic shock we experienced in 2020, we saw numerous gains on many fronts, as we continue to work together for the consolidation of a united, peaceful and prosperous Nevis.

“In 2020 much to our delight, our island experienced a 37 percent decrease in our overall crime rate. We acquired two new ambulances at the same time at the Alexandra Hospital – a first in our island’s history.

“We witnessed the completion of the Brown Hill and Craddock roads, along with other secondary roads throughout the island. We saw the commissioning of the water treatment and filtration plant at Hamilton, which now provides us with an additional 300,000 gallons of water per day.
“We saw the commencement of the Technical and Vocational, Education and Training (TVET) building at the Gingerland Secondary School.

“We witnessed the opening of the brand new state of the art $5.5 million Newcastle Police Station and Fire Unit.

“We saw the construction of 20 new affordable homes, including at the University Heights project. We experienced the unparalleled increase in farm and livestock produce by the Department of Agriculture.

“We witnessed the opening of the Yes to Success (YTS) Success Skills Training and Diversion Centre at Pinney’s; and we saw the commencement of work at the $5.5 million Pinney’s Park Project.

“Fellow citizens, when faced with the grim reality of the pandemic, your government remained steadfast and undaunted by the challenges imposed. Had it not been for our fiscal prudence and sensible common-sense approach to our economic affairs, we would have fared far worse. It was only through the strategic implementation of our sound economic policies that we were able to weather this terrible storm.

“Equally, our achievements in 2020, in spite of our battered and ravaged economy, must also be attributed to the discipline, commitment and diligence of our people. I wish to congratulate all on your selfless efforts and sacrifices, both individually and collectively. The spirit of solidarity and self-sacrifice shown, when tested, was commendable and heartening.

“On this New Year’s Day, I would like to thank everyone in our country – those in the villages and communities, government and civil society – for the work done in the past year, in ensuring that our country remained the success that it is. Special mention must be made of our front line workers, who provided hope in our moment of despair and, in our darkest hour, lit a candle. Our Covid-19 Task Force on Nevis led by Dr. Judy Nisbett will long be remembered for their sacrifice on behalf of us all.

“Today, I also think of Nevisians who live abroad and of the many in the Diaspora who have their roots in Nevis. I am deeply moved by their loyalty and love of country. The Nevisian spirit is alive in them and continues to be part of their everyday life.

“Last year, we would have learnt many lessons, chief among which was that our health is only as good as that of the person next to us. We were reminded of our shared efforts, our common humanity and our interdependence. Therefore, in the year ahead, let there be a renewed confidence in our collectiveness. Let the spirit of solidarity and self-sacrifice reign supreme. Let our “they” become “we” and our “them” become “us”. Let us continue to stand guard over the values which are dear to us and which remain the foundation of our society – values such as respect, compassion, kindness and love, which define us as Nevisians.

“May 2021 is a transformative year for all of us. May it be a year in which we fan the flames of love, peace and harmony and put aside all animosity and acrimony. May we elevate our political discourse and interaction, and cast aside all political discord and gamesmanship. May we, in all of our doings, strive for common ground, mutual understanding and the narrowing of our differences.

“In the new year and beyond, may we continue to be our brother’s keeper and our sister’s helper.

“I wish you a healthy and happy New Year and God’s continued grace, mercy and protection.

“Thank you.”

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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts — Following the official opening of their headquarters in Phillip’s Village, the Explorer’s Youth Clubs now have a permanent place to call home.

The new 10,420 square foot building was opened by Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Dr. The Honourable Timothy Harris, at a December 31 ceremony. It features a number of amenities for the members of the 12 Explorers Clubs across St. Kitts. Each club is expected to have weekly sessions there when the threat of COVID-19 ends.

Project Engineer, George Gilbert of the Public Works Department, congratulated Myron Percival and his company, M&D Construction for the excellent work in building the $2.47 million facility. Gilbert said that the sleeping rooms with accompanying bathrooms for males, females, and staff will allow camping events. Also featured are a recreation room, offices, a common dining room and kitchen, and a laundry area. There are three 500 gallon water storage tanks on the roof.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Harris referred to the incredible growth of the Explorers Movement, which started in July 2017 with the launch of the Mol-Phil group. Since then, other communities have joined including Tabernacle, Shadwell, Cayon, Newtown, Lodge, Old Road, Dieppe Bay, St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s, Trinity, and Newton Ground.

Dr. Harris said that there are over 1,200 Explorers. He expects the numbers to continue growing as other communities have signalled an eagerness to establish clubs.

“This is a legacy development in the context of law and order in our country,” said the Prime Minister. “This is a legacy initiative that generations after us will speak to as being an important stabilizer of our society and contributing to the advancement of St. Kitts and Nevis.”

He said the government remains committed to the empowerment of young people as well as the rule of law within society. This is reflected in the record amounts allocated to related ministries for the 2021 fiscal year.

The Ministry of National Security was allocated more than $86.1 million. The Ministry of Education received over $103 million, while the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture was allotted over $10 million.

Prime Minister Harris appealed to parents, businesses, and other stakeholders to join with the government in building a stronger and safer future for all.

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GENEVA -– The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed the Comirnaty COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for emergency use, making the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine the first to receive emergency validation from WHO since the outbreak began a year ago.

The WHO’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL) opens the door for countries to expedite their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine. It also enables UNICEF and the Pan-American Health Organization to procure the vaccine for distribution to countries in need.

“This is a very positive step towards ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines. But I want to emphasize the need for an even greater global effort to achieve enough vaccine supply to meet the needs of priority populations everywhere,” said Dr. Mariângela Simão, WHO Assistant-Director General for Access to Medicines and Health Products. “WHO and our partners are working night and day to evaluate other vaccines that have reached safety and efficacy standards. We encourage even more developers to come forward for review and assessment. It’s vitally important that we secure the critical supply needed to serve all countries around the world and stem the pandemic.”

Regulatory experts convened by WHO from around the world and WHO’s own teams reviewed the data on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine’s safety, efficacy and quality as part of a risk-versus-benefit analysis. The review found that the vaccine met the must-have criteria for safety and efficacy set out by WHO, and that the benefits of using the vaccine to address COVID-19 offset potential risks.

The vaccine is also under policy review WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) will convene on January 5, 2021, to formulate vaccine specific policies and recommendations for this product’s use in populations, drawing from the SAGE population prioritization recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines in general, issued in September 2020.

The Comirnaty vaccine requires storage using an ultra-cold chain; it needs to be stored at -60°C to -90°C degrees. This requirement makes the vaccine more challenging to deploy in settings where ultra-cold chain equipment may not be available or reliably accessible. For that reason, WHO is working to support countries in assessing their delivery plans and preparing for use where possible.

How the emergency use listing works

The emergency use listing procedure assesses the suitability of novel health products during public health emergencies. The objective is to make medicines, vaccines and diagnostics available as rapidly as possible to address the emergency while adhering to stringent criteria of safety, efficacy and quality. The assessment weighs the threat posed by the emergency as well as the benefit that would accrue from the use of the product against any potential risks.

The EUL pathway involves a rigorous assessment of late phase II and phase III clinical trial data as well as substantial additional data on safety, efficacy, quality and a risk management plan. These data are reviewed by independent experts and WHO teams who consider the current body of evidence on the vaccine under consideration, the plans for monitoring its use, and plans for further studies.
Experts from individual national authorities are invited to participate in the EUL review. Once a vaccine has been listed for WHO emergency use, WHO engages its regional regulatory networks and partners to inform national health authorities on the vaccine and its anticipated benefits based on data from clinical studies to date.

In addition to the global, regional, and country regulatory procedures for emergency use, each country undertakes a policy process to decide whether and in whom to use the vaccine, with prioritization specified for the earliest use. Countries also undertake a vaccine readiness assessment which informs the vaccine deployment and introduction plan for the implementation of the vaccine under the EUL.

As part of the EUL process, the company producing the vaccine must commit to continue to generate data to enable full licensure and WHO prequalification of the vaccine. The WHO prequalification process will assess additional clinical data generated from vaccine trials and deployment on a rolling basis to ensure the vaccine meets the necessary standards of quality, safety and efficacy for broader availability.

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ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands — The Caribbean Perspectives – A Leadership Research Publication of the Eastern Caribbean Centre, University of the Virgin Islands, features Kittitian Luminaries’ work.

Featured in the recently published issue of Caribbean Perspectives under the theme, “Female Leadership in the 20th and 21st Century Caribbean,” are Kittitians; Advisor with responsibility for OAS National Offices in the Americas at the Organization of American States Her Excellency Jacinth Henry-Martin, International Relations and National Security Specialist Dr. Mutryce A. Williams and Attorney Talibah V. O. Byron.

Dr. Williams’ submission is titled “Inspiring a New Generation of Female Political Leadership across the Caribbean.” Attorney Byron’s work is titled “The Case for More Leaders in the Caribbean.”

Common threads woven throughout the three submissions are the need for Caribbean women to ‘stop leading from behind, stop sacrificing their expertise, skills set and often their truth in campaigning, coordinating, and negotiating to win elections often for a full slate of men.’ The authors also highlighted the need to ‘question and challenge the structural, societal, political, economic, and cultural constraints that have and continues to prevent women from aspiring not only to political office but to the highest office in their respective countries.’

Editor of the publication Dr. Frank L. Mills, in his editorial noted, “This issue of Caribbean Perspectives shares the views of five prominent Caribbean females, all leaders in their own rights, and who are proponents of the views of charismatic Caribbean leaders who articulate their vision with clarity, decisiveness, courage, passion, and humility.”

Also featured in this issue of UVI’s Caribbean Perspective Leadership Research Publication is Nandi Sekou Esq. who is of Kittitian descent, and Dr. Valerie Knowles Combie. Attorney Sekou’s submission is titled, “Caribbean Women of Consequence: New Leadership for the 21st Century. Dr. Knowles Combie’s work is titled “Biblical Female Leaders: Trailblazers for 21st Century Women.”

Caribbean Perspectives is a product of the Eastern Caribbean Centre (ECC). The ECC is a resource organization that conducts research and associated training, technology transfer, and information dissemination, responsive to development of issues in an evolving U.S. Virgin Islands and applicable to small island communities. It conducts and sponsors research in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the rest of the Eastern Caribbean and disseminates information to enhance the contributions of scientific inquiry to human well-being in the Caribbean region.

Founded in 1962, UVI is a public, co-ed, land-grant HBCU (Historically Black College and University) in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). Approximately 2,500 students are enrolled on the two campuses: the Albert A. Sheen Campus on St. Croix and the St. Thomas campus. The institution offers 47 undergraduate and graduate degree programs across its five colleges and schools.
UVI boasts more than 7,000 alumni who excel as physicians, attorneys, judges, politicians, university administrators, teachers, nurses, and many other professionals. Among the many accomplished former UVI students are two Rhodes Scholars and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

Dr. Mutryce A. Williams

Attorney Talibah V.O. Byron

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The general public is asked to note that Synergy Engineering Limited out of Jamaica, along with several local partners, commenced work on phase two of the Traffic Lights Project on Monday, December 28, 2020. Traffic lights will be installed at the following junctions/areas:

– Wellington Road and Leonard Dickson Street;

– Bird Rock Road and the Bay Road;

– Sandown Road and the Bay Road;

– The Bay Road and the roundabout in the vicinity of The Sands Complex;

– The Bay Road in the vicinity of the roundabout on Port Zante (west);

– College Street Ghaut and the Bay Road;

– Upper College Street Ghaut and Cayon Street.

As a result of the work being done, there will be some obstructions to the flow of traffic and some parking spaces will be occupied. Motorists and pedestrians are asked to proceed with caution in these areas. The project is expected to be completed in April 2021.

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DECEMBER 31st, 2020–(Daily Mail)–Are the United States falling at the final hurdle? The “Warp Speed” chief has admitted that just 2.6m Americans have been vaccinated instead of 20m target – despite 12m doses sitting in freezers across the states

The US has only administered about 10 percent – less than 2.6million – of the 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccine it promised to give to Americans by the end of 2020, despite having distributed more than 12million doses to states and territories.

CDC data reveal that as of 9am ET on Wednesday, fewer than 2.6million people had received their first doses of Moderna or Pfizer’s vaccines – both of which are difficult to ship and handle because they need to be stored at freezing temperatures.

The bottleneck is caused by officials on state and federal level who have failed to create plans to get those shots into the arms of Americans according to a former FDA official who told DailyMail.com that the failure is akin to dropping the baton on the last leg of the vaccine race.

The hold-ups came as the US set yet another grim record for the deadliest day yet with 3,903 deaths recorded in a single day on Wednesday – and a new mutant ‘super strain’ of the virus was detected in southern California and Colorado.

While Americans continue to wait to be vaccinated, the UK on Wednesday authorized a vaccine by AstraZeneca that will almost certainly accelerate vaccine distribution there because it is cheaper, far easier to ship, handle and store than the Pfizer and Moderna alternatives.

Yet US regulators have no intention of approving the more efficient shot until April – two months after AstraZeneca’s US trial will have enough data to prove to the FDA that it works. Other trials have already shown that AstraZeneca’s $4 vaccine is safe and about 70 percent effective – well above the efficacy the FDA said it will require to approve a vaccine.

But in the US, federal government has punted distribution plans almost entirely to states, where health departments are already stretched thin by surging COVID-19 cases. The result is a helter-skelter patchwork of last-minute plans that look vastly different from state to state, bumping drug addicts and prisoners to the front of the line in some places, while in others, like Florida, elderly Americans are camping out in lawn chairs overnight in a bid to get vaccinated.

Others say essential workers and the aged are being told to ‘call around’ to see if they can get a vaccine.

As anger mounted that only about 230,000 Americans are getting vaccinated a day, President Trump tweeted on Wednesday that states had the doses and needed to ‘get moving!’. Even Operation Warp Speed’s chief scientist Dr Moncef Slaoui admitted. that the US vaccine roll-out ‘should be better’.

There were more than 3,903 deaths in 24 hours on Wednesday – the highest since the start of the pandemic. It is the ninth time this month that single-day fatalities have exceeded 3,000 – numbers never seen in the U.S. before December. Hospitalizations soared to a new high too, with 125,220 Americans with coronavirus in inpatient treatment.

In the past 48 hours, 461,982 vaccines have been given – about 230,000 a day.

‘We agreed that the number is lower than what we hoped for,’ said co-chief of Operation Warp Speed Dr Moncef Slaoui during a Wednesday briefing.

‘We know that it should be better and we are working hard to make it better,’ he added, of the distribution process.

At least 11.45 million doses have been distributed and the federal government has allocated just shy of 20 million doses to be distributed by the end of next week.

But that has not translated to shots in arms.

The vaccine roll-out in the US lags behind other wealthy nations. In the 16 days since the U.S. began vaccinating people, 2,589,125 Americans have gotten their first dose.

That means an average of about 40 out of every 100,000 people in the US are getting vaccinated a day, compared to 60 per capita in the UK, which approved the Oxford University-developed vaccine made by AstraZeneca on Wednesday.

Dr Slaoui said that vaccine – which is more easily distributed because it can be shipped and stored at refrigerator temperatures – likely won’t be authorized until April.

US regulators have faced broad criticism – including from President Trump – for dragging their feet on vaccine approvals while thousands of Americans die of COVID-19 each day.

It seems that the harsh words have done little to hurry the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) up.

AstraZeneca expects to have results from its ongoing US vaccine trial by February – yet Operation Warp Speed says it doesn’t expect the shot to get authorized for another two months thereafter.

It remains unclear why. The vaccine was at least 70 percent effective in trials. Data published in the Lancet gave rise to no major concerns over side effects or safety (despite trials being paused in September after two participants developed neurological issues, both of which were ultimately deemed unrelated to the jab).

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BEIJING, China–December 30th, 2020–China on Thursday announced that it has granted market approval attached with conditions for its first homemade COVID-19 vaccine, which was developed by Sinopharm, marking a monumental step in the battle against the pandemic that has killed 1.79 million globally.

The inactivated vaccine developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute under Sinopharm’s subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), got official authorization from China’s National Medical Products Administration on Wednesday, Chen Shifei, deputy head of the National Medical Products Administration, said at Thursday’s press conference.

The move came one day after the institute announced that the vaccine showed 79.34 percent efficacy and a 99.52 percent antibody positive conversion rate, according to interim results of the Phase III clinical trials.

The results are better than the 50 percent standard of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese authorities, according to the institute. The vaccine also showed a good safety level, its producers noted.

A vaccine has to undergo strict review by each country’s national drug administration before being authorized for public use. All data and processes are reviewed by professional third-party committees, CNBG’s chairman Yang Xiaoming told the Global Times in a recent exclusive interview.

Yang was inoculated with a CNBG vaccine in March with hundreds of his colleagues. He said they had tested the level of antibodies six months after vaccination and the results were good.

Yang noted that data on safety and efficacy collected so far in the Phase III clinical trials is better than expected

Reported side effects of the vaccines are also milder than expected, Yang said. The side effects of CNBG’s inactivated vaccines include aches or redness at the injection site, fever, muscular soreness, sickness and headache.

A representative of Sinopharm told the Global Times on Wednesday that the interim results are mainly based on data from trials conducted in the United Arab Emirates, the vaccine’s largest test base. The Chinese regulator uses a very rigorous standard – stronger even than the international criteria – in reviewing the number of confirmed infected cases in the double-blind placebo-controlled trials for understanding the efficacy of the vaccine.

The Beijing institute’s vaccine was approved in the UAE and Bahrain earlier this month.

Sinopharm’s two inactivated vaccines have been administered to nearly 1 million people for emergency use and no serious adverse reactions have been reported. About 70,000 volunteers have participated in the phase-III clinical trials in more than 10 countries.

Tao Lina, a vaccine expert in Shanghai, said that the approval demonstrated that China has created a “miracle” by creating a vaccine within one year.

Pfizer and Moderna have announced 95 percent efficacy for their mRNA vaccines, which was beyond predictions and drove up the public’s expectation for Chinese inactivated vaccines.

Tao noted that despite the high efficacy, the US mRNA vaccines have shown more side effects as well as acute allergy occurrences. The mRNA vaccines also have more strict requirements for transportation.

Tao suggested that the inactivated and mRNA vaccines can both help human beings to resist the novel coronavirus. But both are early-stage products and more improved ones are expected, which will offer more balance between efficacy, safety and transportation requirements.

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AUCKLAND, New Zealand–January 1st, 2021–Happy muted New Year! New Zealand and the Pacific Islands are first to ring in 2021 as countries around the world prepare to send off a year blighted by the global pandemic with pared-down celebrations

With virtual parties, socially-distanced firework displays and the hope of better days to come, the world has begun bidding good riddance to the year of the pandemic today and greeting the dawn of 2021.

Unmourned but never to be forgotten, 2020 started passing into history in Kiribati and Samoa at 10am GMT and New Zealand at 11am – with the last Pacific islands set to cross the invisible threshold 25 hours later.

In New Zealand and Australia, two of the first countries to reach midnight and also two of the most successful in fending off the worst of Covid-19, life was normal enough for some crowds of revellers to gather on waterfronts in Auckland and Sydney to mark the new year.

But for most of the world’s seven billion people, a grinding year is ending with typically scaled-back festivities, with fireworks, pyre burnings and live performances set to be watched from home or cancelled altogether.

From France to Latvia to Brazil, police and military personnel are being deployed to enforce night-time curfews and bans on large gatherings are enforced, with much of the world still in lockdown and the vaccine race only just beginning.

Although the Pacific islands were spared the worst ravages of the pandemic, border restrictions, curfews and lockdowns meant this New Year’s Eve was still a little different.

At the palm-fringed Taumeasina resort in Samoa, manager Tuiataga Nathan Bucknall was pleased to be open without a limit on guest numbers, but thanks to a state of emergency stopped serving alcohol at 11 pm.

In harder-hit countries such as Italy – where shocking images of makeshift morgues and exhausted medics first awoke the world to the horror of the pandemic last spring – curfews and lockdowns are still in force.

In London, American singer-songwriter Patti Smith will ring in the New Year with a tribute to NHS workers who have died from Covid-19, projected on the screen at Piccadilly Circus and streamed on YouTube.

And in New York, the famous ball-drop in Times Square will unfold this year without the usual throngs of cheering revelers. Police will block off the area so that spectators cannot even get a glimpse.

Since it surfaced in China in late 2019, the coronavirus has infected more than 80million people and led to nearly 1.8million deaths, the majority of them in Europe and the Americas.

Although mass vaccination efforts have begun in many countries in recent weeks, offering hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight, it is likely to be months before normal life can return in most of the world.

In China, where the Lunar New Year generally takes precedence over January 1, a countdown ceremony will take place in Beijing with just a few invited guests while other planned events have been cancelled.

Hong Kong, with its British colonial history and large expatriate population, has usually seen raucous celebrations along the waterfront and in bar districts.

For the second year running, however, New Year’s Eve fireworks have been cancelled, this time over coronavirus rather than public security concerns.

In Japan, some people skipped what is customarily a chance to return to ancestral homes for the holidays, hoping to lessen health risks for extended families.

Rural restaurants saw business drop, while home deliveries of traditional New Year’s ‘good luck’ food called ‘osechi’ boomed.

Emperor Naruhito is delivering a video message instead of waving from a window with the imperial family as cheering crowds visit the palace.

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Washington, D.C., December 30, 2020 (PAHO)—The COVID-19 pandemic swept through every country in the Americas in 2020, infecting more than 35 million people and causing some 850,000 deaths.

Globally, COVID-19 affected 216 countries and territories, causing more than 80 million cases and 1.7 million deaths worldwide. The Americas was the most affected continent in a context of large inequities.

Pan American Health Organization Director Carissa F. Etienne called it “the most extraordinary public health event of our lifetimes,” and said the work to control the pandemic in 2021 “won’t be easy or quick.”

In a year-end message, Etienne said, “As we approach the end of 2020, I would like to recognize your dedication in meeting the unparalleled challenges of this year. My thanks to all staff, national governments, international organizations, and citizens who have helped confront COVID-19 while continuing to advance the health and well-being of people in the Region of the Americas.”

PAHO focused on helping countries rapidly detect cases, protect their health workers, reduce transmission, and save lives, providing training, logistical support, vital equipment and supplies, and emergency planning.

To complement PAHO resources in 27 country offices, personnel and supplies were mobilized to train national health authorities, support national emergency plans, and assess reorganization of health services. PAHO also disseminated technical specifications for personal protective equipment (PPE) and biomedical equipment and supported the analysis of needs to meet the requirements for PPE, supplies, and reagents and advanced purchasing processes to generate a strategic national reserve through donations to the PAHO Strategic Fund, a regional technical cooperation mechanism for pooled procurement of essential medicines and strategic health supplies. Additionally, over 200 virtual training sessions were held, with some 30,000 participants from 33 countries.

Contact tracing is critical for health authorities to keep the spread of the virus under control. In collaboration with the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network–GOARN, PAHO trained health workers in 31 countries and territories in the Go.Data app. The app supports investigation and management of suspected COVID-19 cases, display of transmission chains, and contact tracing.

The global scientific community raced to identify and assess the efficacy of potential therapeutics for caring for persons sickened by COVID-19. To help countries navigate the deluge of information, PAHO reviewed findings from over 1,700 clinical trials and 58 therapeutic options to enable health authorities to take evidence-backed decisions for patient care. In addition, 111 technical guidelines and recommendations were developed or tailored to the Americas from WHO documents.

PAHO also supported strengthening or installation of SARS-CoV-2 virus reference laboratory diagnostic capacity in 35 countries and territories and established a regional genomics surveillance network to monitor for variants of the virus.

“While we hope 2021 will usher a new chapter in our fight against this virus, protecting the millions of people in our region with COVID-19 vaccines will be a huge undertaking,” Etienne said in a recent briefing. “So, we must be patient and remain realistic that COVID-19 will be among us for some time – so our work to control it cannot and must not stop.” Vulnerable people in the Americas “are already receiving COVID-19 vaccines, with millions more doses expected early next year. This timeline is astonishing and a testament to the unprecedented collaboration among scientists, researchers and experts alike.”

Global partnerships like the COVAX Facility are also pooling resources, expertise and efforts to ensure that countries have equal access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines under the same timelines Etienne added. PAHO’s Revolving Fund, through which 41 countries and territories pool their resources to procure high-quality vaccines, syringes and related supplies for their populations at the lowest price, will also play a significant role.

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