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Source: UN Country Team in Malawi
Queen Elizabeth II will make two appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony on Thursday, kicking off four days of public events to mark her historic Platinum Jubilee.
The extent of the 96-year-old monarch’s involvement in the celebrations for her record-breaking 70 years on the throne has been a source of speculation for months.
She has cut back drastically on her public appearances since last year because of difficulties standing and walking — and a bout of COVID-19.
But royal officials confirmed that she would take the salute of mounted troops from the balcony after a military parade called Trooping the Colour.
The centuries-old ceremony to officially mark the sovereign’s birthday has previously seen the queen take the salute on horseback herself.
Her 73-year-old son and heir, Prince Charles, will step in this year, supported by his sister, Princess Anne, 71, and his eldest son, Prince William, 39.
Joining senior royals watching the display of military precision will be Charles’ younger son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, on a rare visit from California, Buckingham Palace confirmed.
But the queen’s disgraced second son, Prince Andrew, 62, is not expected to join them.
She will return to the balcony later to watch a flyby of military aircraft, including iconic models from World War II, the palace said.
At nightfall, the queen will be at Windsor Castle, west of London, to take part in a ceremony to light more than 3,000 beacons across the country and the Commonwealth of 54 nations that she heads.
Parties, parades, concerts
Elizabeth was a 25-year-old princess when she succeeded her father, King George VI in 1952, bringing a rare touch of glamour to a battered nation still enduring food rations after World War II.
Seventy years on, she is now the only monarch most Britons have ever known, becoming an enduring figurehead through often troubled times.
Britain’s first and very likely only Platinum Jubilee will see street parties, pop concerts and parades until Sunday in potentially the last major public celebration of the queen’s long reign.
It has not yet been confirmed if she will attend a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, while her planned attendance at horse racing showcase The Derby on Saturday is off.
She could yet put in a final appearance — again from the palace balcony — on Sunday, at the climax of a huge public pageant involving 6,000 performers.
In a message, the queen thanked everyone involved in organizing the community events in Britain and around the world.
“I know that many happy memories will be created at these festive occasions,” she said.
“I continue to be inspired by the goodwill shown to me, and hope that the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm.”
Attention turning to succession
The jubilee, held against a backdrop of rising inflation that has left many Britons struggling, is being seen not just as respite for the public after two years scarred by the pandemic but also for the royals.
Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, caused shockwaves in early 2020 by moving to North America, from where they have publicly criticized royal life.
In April last year, she lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, and was forced to sit alone at his funeral because of coronavirus restrictions.
Since then, she has struggled with her health and also the fallout from Andrew’s links to the convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Andrew, who in February settled a U.S. civil claim for sexual assault, has effectively been fired from his royal duties.
Attention is increasingly turning to the succession, and the monarchy’s future at home and in the 14 other Commonwealth countries where the queen is also head of state.
Her approval rating among Britons remains high at 75%, according to a poll by YouGov published Wednesday, but Charles is only at 50%.
A total of 62% still want a monarchy, although younger people are split, with 33% in favor, and 31% wanting a republic.
Only 39% said they thought there would still be a monarch in 100 years’ time.
Source: Voice of America
A top official at the World Health Organization said the U.N. health agency assumes the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea is “getting worse, not better,” despite the secretive country’s recent claims that COVID-19 is slowing there.
At a press briefing on Wednesday, WHO’s emergencies chief, Dr. Mike Ryan, appealed to North Korean authorities for more information about the COVID-19 outbreak there, saying, “We have real issues in getting access to the raw data and to the actual situation on the ground.”
He said WHO has not received any privileged information about the epidemic — unlike in typical outbreaks, when countries may share more sensitive data with the organization so it can evaluate the public health risks for the global community.
Tough to analyze
“It is very, very difficult to provide a proper analysis to the world when we don’t have access to the necessary data,” he said.
WHO has previously voiced concerns about the impact of COVID-19 in North Korea’s population, which is believed to be largely unvaccinated and whose fragile health systems could struggle to deal with a surge of cases prompted by the highly infectious omicron and its subvariants.
Ryan said WHO had offered technical assistance and supplies to North Korean officials multiple times, including offering COVID-19 vaccines at least three times.
Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other top officials discussed revising stringent anti-epidemic restrictions, state media reported, as they maintained a widely disputed claim that the country’s first COVID-19 outbreak is slowing.
The discussion at the North’s Politburo meeting on Sunday suggested it would soon relax a set of draconian curbs, imposed after its admission of the omicron outbreak this month, out of concern about its food and economic situations.
North Korea’s claims to have controlled COVID-19 without widespread vaccination, lockdowns or drugs have been met with widespread disbelief, particularly its insistence that only dozens have died among many millions infected — a far lower death rate than seen anywhere else in the world.
The North Korean government has said there are about 3.7 million people with fever or suspected COVID-19. But it disclosed few details about the severity of illness or how many people have recovered, frustrating public health experts’ attempt to understand the extent of the outbreak.
Help sought from China, South Korea
“We really would appeal for a more open approach so we can come to the assistance of the people of [North Korea], because right now we are not in a position to make an adequate risk assessment of the situation on the ground,” Ryan said. He said WHO was working with neighboring countries like China and South Korea to ascertain more about what might be happening in North Korea, saying that the epidemic there could have global implications.
WHO’s criticism of North Korea’s failure to provide more information about its COVID-19 outbreak stands in contrast to the U.N. health agency’s failure to publicly fault China in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
In early 2020, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus repeatedly praised China publicly for its speedy response to the emergence of the coronavirus, even as WHO scientists privately grumbled about China’s delayed information-sharing and stalled sharing of the genetic sequence of COVID-19.
Source: Voice of America
The coronavirus mutant that is now dominant in the United States is a member of the omicron family, but scientists say it spreads faster than its omicron predecessors, is adept at escaping immunity and might possibly cause more serious disease.
Why? Because it combines properties of both omicron and delta, the nation’s dominant variant in the middle of last year.
A genetic trait that harkens back to the pandemic’s past, known as a “delta mutation,” appears to allow the virus “to escape pre-existing immunity from vaccination and prior infection, especially if you were infected in the omicron wave,” said Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas. That’s because the original omicron strain that swept the world didn’t have the mutation.
The omicron “subvariant” gaining ground in the U.S. — known as BA.2.12.1 and responsible for 58% of U.S. COVID-19 cases last week — isn’t the only one affected by the delta mutation. The genetic change is also present in the omicron relatives that together dominate in South Africa, known as BA.4 and BA.5. Those have exactly the same mutation as delta, while BA.2.12.1 has one that’s nearly identical.
This genetic change is bad news for people who caught the original omicron and thought that made them unlikely to get COVID-19 again soon. Although most people don’t know for sure which variant caused their illness, the original omicron caused a giant wave of cases late last year and early this year.
Long said lab data suggest a prior infection with the original omicron is not very protective against reinfection with the new mutants, though the true risk of being reinfected no matter the variant is unique to every person and situation.
In a twist, however, those sickened by delta previously may have some extra armor to ward off the new mutants. A study released before it was reviewed by other scientists, by researchers at Ohio State University, found that COVID patients in intensive care with delta infections induced antibodies that were better at neutralizing the new mutants than patients who caught the original omicron.
“The omicron infection antibody does not appear to protect well against the subvariants compared to delta,” said Dr. Shan-Lu Liu, a study author who co-directs the viruses and emerging pathogens program at Ohio State.
But Liu said the level of protection a delta infection provides depends partly on how long ago someone was ill. That’s because immunity wanes over time.
People who got sick with delta shouldn’t think of themselves as invulnerable to the new subvariants, especially if they’re unvaccinated, Long said. “I wouldn’t say anyone is safe.”
One bright spot? Booster shots can provide strong protection against the new mutants, Liu said. In general, vaccines and prior infection can protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID-19. At this point, scientists say, it’s too early to know if the new mutant gaining ground in the U.S. will cause a significant uptick in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Scientists are still trying to figure out how virulent these new mutants are. Long said he hasn’t seen anything that answers that question for him, but Liu said emerging data point toward more serious illness. Liu said the subvariants have properties suggesting they spread more efficiently cell-to-cell.
The virus “just hides in the cell and spreads through cell-to-cell contact,” Liu said. “That’s more scary because the virus does not come out for the antibody to work.”
Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, said the new mutants certainly don’t appear less virulent than previous versions of omicron, and whether they are more virulent or not “will become clear in the months ahead.”
In the meantime, scientists expect the latest powerhouse mutants to spread quickly, since they are more transmissible than their predecessors.
Though home testing makes it tough to track all U.S. COVID cases, data from Johns Hopkins University show that cases are averaging nearly 107,000 a day, up from about 87,000 two weeks ago. And new hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19 have been trending upward since around mid-April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I’m hopeful that we don’t see a similar increase in hospitalizations that we’ve had in prior waves,” Long said. “But with COVID, any time you have lots of people being infected, it’s just a numbers game. Some of those people are going to be severe. Some of those people are going to need hospitalization. Some of them, unfortunately, are going to pass away.”
Source: Voice of America
Japan will open its borders to foreign tourists in June for the first time since imposing tight pandemic travel restrictions about two years ago, but only for package tours for now, the prime minister said Thursday.
Beginning June 10, Japan will allow the entry of people on tours with fixed schedules and guides, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
Tourists from areas with low COVID-19 infection rates who have received three vaccine doses will be exempt from testing and quarantine after entry.
Japan this week is hosting small experimental package tours from four countries, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States. That experiment, which involves only 50 people who received special visas, not tourist visas, is to end May 31.
“Free and active exchange of people is the foundation of economy and society, as well as that of Asia’s development,” Kishida told his speech at a Tokyo hotel Thursday.
Japan, while watching the infection situation, will gradually accept more tourists in stages to the level of arrivals before the pandemic, he added.
After facing criticism that its strict border controls were xenophobic, Japan began easing its restrictions earlier this year and currently allows entry of up to 10,000 people a day, including Japanese citizens, foreign students and some business travelers.
Japan will double the cap to 20,000 a day from June 1, which will also include package tour participants, said Makoto Shimoaraiso, a Cabinet official in charge of pandemic measures.
The scale of the package tours and other details will be finalized after officials evaluate the results of the current experimental tours, he said.
It will take some time before foreign visitors can come to Japan for individual tourism, Shimoaraiso said.
Japan this week also eased requests for mask wearing. While masks are still requested on public transportation, hospitals and other public facilities, people can take off masks outdoors where others are not around or talking. Despite the easing, most Japanese so far are seen sticking to wearing masks in public.
Japan’s tourism industry, hit hard by the border controls, is eager for foreign tourism to resume. COVID-19 infections have slowed in Japan since earlier this year and the government is gradually expanding social and economic activity.
Kishida said during a visit to London earlier this month that he planned to ease the border controls as early as June in line with the policies of other Group of Seven industrialized countries, but gave no further details.
Foreign tourist arrivals fell more than 90% in 2020 from a record 31.9 million the year before, almost wiping out the pre-pandemic inbound tourism market of more than 4 trillion yen ($31 billion).
Source: Voice of America
The COVID pandemic is “most certainly not over” World Health Organization Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Sunday at the 75th World Health Assembly.
His warning comes as some countries are rescinding their COVID mandates, and cases are on the rise again.
“Reported cases are increasing in almost 70 countries in all regions,” Tedros said. “This virus has surprised us at every turn — a storm that has torn through communities again and again, and we still can’t predict its path, or its intensity.”
The WHO chief said that while more than 6 million global coronavirus deaths have been reported, the U.N. agency estimates that the worldwide tally is much higher at “almost 15 million deaths.”
Tedros called on countries to do all they can to eradicate COVID, including vaccinating 70% of their population, which would include 100% of people over 60 years old, 100% of health workers. and 100% of people with underlying conditions.
“The pandemic will not magically disappear,” warned the WHO leader, “but we can end it … Science has given us the upper hand.”
Meanwhile, Gallup, the global analytics firm, asks Americans every month — What is the most important problem facing the United States?
The answer has been COVID since the beginning of the pandemic. That all changed this March, however, when concerns about COVID were replaced with worries about the U.S. economy.
Gallup Senior Editor Megan Brenan said in an interview on The Gallup Podcast with Mohamed Younis that apprehension about how the U.S. government is handling the economy and inflation, now tops the list of Americans’ worries.
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Monday more than 525 million global COVID infections and more than 6 million global coronavirus deaths.
Source: Voice of America