Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege warned Wednesday that the scourge of sexual violence and rape in all conflicts is now “a real pandemic” and without sanctions and justice for the victims these horrific acts won’t stop.The Congolese doctor told the U.N. Security Council in a video briefing that “we are still far away from being able to draw a red line against the use of rape and sexual violence as a strategy of war domination and terror.”Mukwege appealed to the international community “to draw a red line against the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war.” And he stressed that the “red line” must mean “blacklists with economic, financial and political sanctions as well as judicial prosecutions against the perpetrators and instigators of these egregious crimes.”Mukwege founded the Panzi Hospital in the eastern Congo city of Bukavu, and for more than 20 years has treated countless women who were raped amid fighting between armed groups seeking control of some the central African nation’s vast mineral wealth. He lamented that sexual violence and impunity continue.He shared the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize with activist Nadia Murad, who was kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery by Islamic State militants in 2014 along with an estimated 3,000 Yazidi girls and women.Mukwege said there has been progress in international law, and the greatest challenge today is to transform commitments into obligations, and Security Council resolutions into results. Accountability and justice “are the best tools of prevention,” he said, and without punishment and sanctions, rapes and sexual violence in conflicts will continue.Mukwege spoke at a council meeting on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ latest report on sexual violence in conflict that said the COVID-19 pandemic led to a spike in gender-based violence last year. It focused on 18 countries where the U.N. said it has verified information that 52 warring parties are “credibly suspected” of patterns of “rape and other forms of sexual violence” in conflicts on the council agenda. The majority of the parties are opposition, rebel and terrorist groups — so-called “non-state actors” — and over 70% “are persistent perpetrators.”In the latest example, Pramila Patten, the U.N. special representative on conflict-related sexual violence, told the council that right now in Ethiopia’s remote, mountainous regions of north and central Tigray, where fighting continues between the government and the region’s fugitive leaders, “women and girls are being subjected to sexual violence with a level of cruelty beyond comprehension.””Health care workers are documenting new cases of rape and gang-rape daily, despite their fear of reprisals and attacks on the limited shelters and clinics in operation,” Patten said, noting that the report records allegations of over 100 rape cases since fighting began in November but it may take months to determine the full scale and magnitude of the atrocities.She said the report documents “over 2,500 U.N.-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence committed in the course of 2020,” including in Congo, Central African Republic, Libya and South Sudan’s western Darfur region.”Each of these cases cries out for justice,” Patten said. “It is time to write a new social contract in which no military or political leader is above the law, and no woman or girl is beneath the scope of its protection.”Caroline Atim, director of the South Sudan Women with Disabilities Network who represented non-governmental organizations focused on women, peace and security, became the first deaf person to brief the Security Council. She used sign language for her remarks, which were voiced by an interpreter.Despite a 2018 peace deal, Atim said, “South Sudan remains engulfed by intercommunal, ethnic, political and armed conflicts where gender-based violence is deliberately used as a tool of humiliation against women and girls.””More than 65% of South Sudanese women have experienced sexual or physical violence, a figure that is double the global average and among the highest in the world,” she said, echoing calls for a halt to sexual violence, a survivor-centered approach for victims, and accountability for perpetrators.
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Kurdish officials in northeast Syria are expressing concerns over a sharp increase in coronavirus cases in their region, calling on international health organizations to intervene to prevent a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
 
A 10-day curfew went into effect Tuesday in an attempt to curb the spread of the deadly virus in the semiautonomous region, which is home to nearly 5 million people, including thousands of internally displaced people, refugees and prisoners of the Islamic State (IS) terror group, also known as ISIS or its Arabic acronym, Daesh.
 
“The situation is getting out of control,” said Jowan Mustafa, co-chair of the Health Department at the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES), a governing body affiliated with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
 
“In the past few weeks, we have witnessed a growing rate of COVID-19 cases in our region,” he told VOA by phone. “We need immediate assistance from international health organizations to stop a potential humanitarian catastrophe.”
 
On Wednesday alone, 248 new cases and five deaths were reported, bringing the total number of coronavirus infections in northeast Syria to 13,004, including 437 deaths.
 
Local health officials said the actual number of those infected with the virus could be much higher.
 
“Our testing capacity is very limited, and our hospitals and health facilities are overwhelmed,” said Mustafa, adding that “many people carrying the virus are staying at home without reporting to us.”
 Al-Hol camp
 
One in four COVID-19-related deaths confirmed on Tuesday occurred in al-Hol camp, where over 60,000 people reside, including thousands of families of IS foreign fighters.
 
Sheikhmous Ahmed, head of the Refugee Affairs Office at the AANES, said overpopulation and poor health infrastructure make camp residents more susceptible to the coronavirus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, the viral strain that causes COVID-19.  
 
“Given the current high number of COVID cases outside the camp, its spread could be much more rapid inside the camp,” Ahmed told VOA.
 
He said medical teams at al-Hol don’t have enough resources to contain a sudden outbreak of the virus.FILE – A member of Kurdish internal security stands guard at the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp, in northeastern Syria, Jan. 28, 2021.Philippe Nassif, Middle East and North Africa advocacy director at Amnesty International, said “in Syria, where over half the population has been displaced and tens of thousands remain in IDP camps in the northeast, the pandemic has taken a particularly heavy toll.”
 
“This includes prisons holding ISIS fighters, their families and other detainees creating a crisis within a crisis,” he said.
 
In addition to those held in al-Hol and other detention camps, the SDF says it holds more than 10,000 IS fighters, including about 2,000 foreign nationals.
 
“Amnesty International has profound concerns for the well-being of those held in detention, and for the hundreds of thousands of refugees and IDPs scattered across Syria and the region,” Nassif told VOA. “The world needs an urgent plan to help these vulnerable populations get vaccinated immediately.”
 Call for help  
 
Mustafa of AANES said the organization has reached out to international health bodies, including the World Health Organization, to take immediate action in this part of the war-ravaged country.  
 
“The WHO has said it would deliver a small number of vaccines to northeast Syria in April, but even that hasn’t happened yet,” he said, noting that “if we don’t receive immediate assistance from the WHO, then other non-governmental health groups should step in to help us stop this crisis.”  
 
 WHO said last month it will run a coronavirus vaccination campaign in Syria, with the goal of inoculating 20% of the country’s population by the end of 2021.  
 
WHO representative to Syria Akjemal Magtymova recently said only one of 16 public hospitals in the region is fully functioning, and three are partially functioning.
 
“It is a massive challenge to ensure the adequate number of hospital beds in intensive care units, in the wake of the third wave of COVID-19 in Syria,” she said in a statement, noting that “access to COVID-19 vaccines to reduce ongoing transmission is yet another mammoth task for Syria.” 
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South Africa’s health minister says the nation will still hit its COVID-19 vaccination targets, even as it pauses the use of the Johnson & Johnson shot amid concerns over blood clots. South Africa’s mass-inoculation campaign was dealt the setback following word that six women in the United States developed a blood clotting disorder after receiving the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. One person died. Nearly 7 million doses have been administered in the United States.    This is now the second time that South Africa has had to shift gears in its vaccination campaign. In February, just days after receiving its first shipment of vaccines, authorities jettisoned plans to use the AstraZeneca product amid reports that it did not protect against the variant of the coronavirus that is most prevalent in South Africa. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease.    And now this, said Dr. Zweli Mkhize, the nation’s health minister. So far, he said, more than 290,000 South African health workers have been given the vaccine, with no reported blood clots. Nevertheless, he told officials, South Africa will pause the program until everyone is sure the vaccine is safe.       As COVID-19 Epicenter, South Africa to Receive 41 Million Vaccine DosesSouth Africa lauds arrival of tens of millions of doses; announces alcohol ban over major holiday weekend “Based on their advice, we’ve determined to voluntarily suspend our rollout until the causal relationship between the development of clots and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is sufficiently interrogated,” he said to parliamentarians via webinar on Wednesday. “… I call for calm and patience as we ensure that we continue to be properly guided by science and ensuring the safety of our people as we roll out the vaccine campaign.”     Mkhize says he hopes deliberations on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s safety will last only a few days and will not lead to complete withdrawal of the product.   He says the news about the vaccine is disappointing as mortality rates from the coronavirus appear to be declining, and South Africa will soon receive a total of 30 million doses of the two-shot Pfizer vaccine. South Africa has more than 1.5 million confirmed cases, giving it the highest burden on the continent.    But, he said, the bigger battle — the one he hasn’t been able to discuss until now — is the behind-the-scenes fight South African officials have waged with pharmaceutical giants. Both Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, he said, have asked for what he described as “difficult and unreasonable” guarantees from South Africa and other nations.    “I can also assure you that we have not been sleeping on the job,” he said. “The fact that we previously did not disclose before parliament the blow-by-blow details of the intense negotiations is because we’re prioritizing the closing of those agreements in order to secure the vaccines we require for us to reach population immunity.” 
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European Commission President Urusula Von der Leyen Wednesday announced the European Union has reached a deal with pharmaceutical partners Pfizer-BioNTech for 50 million additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine, to be delivered in the coming months.
At a news briefing in Brussels, Von der Leyen said the new deal means the EU will have obtained 250 million doses. She said the bloc is negotiating a third contract with the partners for 1.8 billion doses to be delivered in 2022 and 2023.  
She said the deal will “not only include the production of vaccines, but also the essential components. All of that will be based in the European Union.”
Von der Leyen said 100 million doses have been administered in the 27-nation EU bloc already, saying this is “a milestone we can be proud of.”   
But, noting issues with AstraZeneca, and this week, the Johnson & Johnson shots, the European Commission president said many factors can disrupt the planned delivery schedules of vaccines.
 
She said, “It is therefore important to act swiftly, anticipate, and adjust whenever it is possible, and we are doing everything in our power to support Europe’s vaccination rollout.”
Several European nations suspended administering the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of rare cases of blood clots. Tuesday, U.S. health regulators recommended pausing inoculations with Johnson & Johnson’s product because of similar reports.
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Health care workers in Cameroon say they are reluctant to take the coronavirus vaccines donated by China because they doubt the drug’s efficacy. On Sunday, 200,000 Sinopharm doses arrived in Cameroon’s capital. Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute accepted the vaccine donation on behalf of President Paul Biya at Yaounde’s international airport, in a ceremony that was broadcast live on state radio and television.  However, the same day in Beijing, a Chinese official said Chinese vaccines provide low protection against the coronavirus and officials are looking for ways to boost the efficacy by mixing them, according to the Associated Press.  FILE – Empty vials of China’s Sinopharm vaccine sit in a cup at a public hospital in Lima, Peru, Feb. 10, 2021.In Cameroon, some health care workers are skeptical the Sinopharm vaccine is effective. “The government should have given more time for trials to be made to see if the side effects on Cameroonians are bearable or not,” said Honorine Aza, a nurse at the Messassi government hospital in Yaounde. “What is the need rushing with a vaccine to Cameroon on Sunday and asking health workers to be vaccinated immediately? I prefer other preventive methods like washing of hands with soap and water, wearing face masks, social distancing and avoiding overcrowded places.” Clementine Ndjock, 34, is the leader of the Association of Female Traders in Douala. She says several local news organizations like Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV, Canal 2 and Star FM have reported cases outside Cameroon of potentially serious side effects after taking the vaccine. She wants Cameroon and China to prove that the vaccine is safe. Cameroon Health Minister Manaouda Malachie was the first to get injected with the vaccine. He says the vaccine is safe and is encouraging everyone to get it voluntarily. While he says he understands that some people are scared because of reports that fake vaccines were discovered in China, he stressed that the vaccines in Cameroon were taken directly from the factory making them in China. Malachie says although there may be side effects, there is no scientific evidence of a death being causally linked with the coronavirus vaccine.  On Monday, Cameroon’s Medical Council said about 400 people — including 90 health workers — had received the Sinopharm vaccine.  The government had projected at least 1,000 to be vaccinated 24 hours after the doses arrived. 
 
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Hours after U.S. federal health officials urged a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine after it was linked to a rare but dangerous blood clot, the U.S. pharmaceutical giant announced Tuesday it was delaying rollout of the single-dose vaccine in Europe.“We have been working closely with medical experts and health authorities, and we strongly support the open communication of this information to healthcare professionals and the public,” the company said in a written statement.Syringes with AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines are prepared in Fasano, Italy, Apr. 13, 2021.The delay strikes a major blow to Europe’s already sluggish vaccination efforts, which has been plagued by logistical problems and a shortage of vaccines. The continent’s vaccination campaign has also been hindered by the troubled rollout of the vaccine developed by British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which has also been linked to cases of rare blood clots.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said six women between 18 and 48 years of age who had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine developed blood clotting known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) within six to 13 days after being inoculated. One of the women died, while another has been hospitalized in critical condition.Dr. Jane Woodcock, the acting commissioner of the F.D.A., told reporters Tuesday during a joint virtual briefing the pause is expected to last only “a matter of days” as both agencies investigate the matter. The CDC is holding an emergency meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Wednesday to review the cases.CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat said people who received the vaccine more than two weeks ago have very little to fear. Those who received the vaccine within the last week or so who develop symptoms such as severe headache, abdominal or leg pain, or shortness of breath, should contact their health care provider.They note the six cases occurred out of more than 6.8 million doses of the vaccine administered.FILE — In this Feb, 17 2021 file photo, health care workers look through a window at a hospital in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa during the rollout of the first batch of Johnson and Johnson vaccines in the country.South Africa also followed suit Tuesday by suspending use of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.Both the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines were developed using so-called adenoviruses to carry DNA into human cells that generates the body’s immune system to ward off the coronavirus.Better news on the COVID-19 vaccine front came Tuesday from Moderna. The U.S.-based pharmaceutical company said data from its late-stage clinical trials shows its two-dose vaccine is more than 90% effective against a coronavirus infection, and 95% effective against severe disease up to six months after the second dose. Moderna is currently testing its vaccine among young people between 12 to 17 years of age.A new study conducted by U.S.-based health care provider Kaiser Permanente found that a lack of physical activity poses a greater risk of severe COVID-19 infection and death. The study, published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, covered nearly 50,000 people in the United States who had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. The researchers say those physically inactive for at least two years before the pandemic were twice as likely to be hospitalized as those who engaged in regular exercise.Scientists say the previous risk factors for severe COVID-19 infection includes advanced age, being male and having such pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, obesity or cardiovascular disease.  
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The U.N. Population Fund called on nations Wednesday to respect bodily autonomy as a universal right, saying too many women and girls are denied this basic power over their own bodies.“The right to autonomy over our bodies means that we must have the power and agency to make choices without fear of violence or having someone else decide for us,” UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem told reporters.Natalia Kanem, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, gives a press conference in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on March 22, 2021.Those other decision-makers include partners, family members, society and government.In a new report, “My Body is My Own,” UNFPA reviewed data from nearly 60 countries, representing about a quarter of the world’s population. It found that nearly half of the women lack the power to make their own decisions about their health care, whether or not to use contraception, or to have sexual intercourse with a partner.“A woman who has control over her body is more likely to have power in other spheres of her life,” Kanem said.
But when they are denied this power, she said it reinforces inequalities and perpetuates violence arising from gender discrimination, which is at the root of the problem.“When control rests elsewhere, autonomy remains perpetually out of reach,” the report notes.Crimes and practices that violate a woman’s bodily autonomy include “honor” killings, forced and early marriage, “virginity” tests and female genital mutilation. Forced pregnancy or abortion also violate a woman’s power to make decisions concerning her body.“Some violations, such as rape, may be criminalized, but then not always prosecuted and punished,” Kanem said. “Other violations go unchallenged altogether because they are reinforced by community norms, practices and laws.”Despite constitutional guarantees of gender equality in many countries, the report says on average, women globally enjoy only 75% of the legal rights of men.Kanem said COVID-19 has worsened the situation for millions of women, increasing sexual violence, especially during lockdowns, creating new barriers to access to health care, and job and education losses.The report notes that bodily autonomy is an issue for other often marginalized groups, including unmarried women, LGBTI communities and persons with disabilities.No country has achieved total gender equality, but among those with the best track record are Sweden, Uruguay, Cambodia, Finland and Netherlands.“A diversity that shows you that this aspirational value doesn’t really depend on culture or location,” Kanem said, noting that the same is true at the bottom of the scale.She said governments have a lead role to play by fulfilling obligations under human rights treaties and altering social, political, institutional and economic structures that reinforce gender inequalities.
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Several U.S. states have temporarily stopped providing Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines in line with federal guidance after six people who received the shots developed rare blood clots. Meanwhile, several countries have suspended the AstraZeneca vaccines after reports it, too, may be linked to blood clots. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports. 
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U.S. health officials have pressed pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after a handful of people developed a rare but serious blood-clotting disorder following vaccination. Six cases have been reported so far, out of nearly 7 million doses given. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine makes up a small proportion of the U.S. vaccine supply, so the setback may be relatively minor. But experts say the problem may make more people reluctant to get vaccinated. The six cases occurred among women between 18 and 48 years old, between six and 13 days after vaccination. The patients developed an unusual combination of blood clots and low platelet counts. One woman died, and one was hospitalized.  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
A Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is administered at the Banning Recreation Center in Wilmington, Calif., April 13, 2021. The site switched from its original plan to use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the Pfizer vaccine.The symptoms of a serious clotting problem include severe headaches, abdominal or leg pain, and shortness of breath. Patients who experience those symptoms should tell their doctor if they have been vaccinated recently because treating these kinds of clots requires different treatment than normal, and standard treatment can be harmful, officials said. Vaccination drive continues Pausing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine “will not have a significant impact on our vaccination program,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters Tuesday. He said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine accounts for less than 5% of the shots delivered so far. The Biden administration had secured enough Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to immunize 300 million adults by the end of July, he added.  “The bottom line is, the vaccines that are now being administered are clearly safe and are saving lives,” Zients said. “Every American should get vaccinated when it’s their turn.” The fact that regulators spotted a one-in-a-million adverse event is, in a way, a good sign, noted vaccine expert Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.”You can be reassured that the other vaccines don’t have that rare side effect or else it would have also been picked up,” he said. The adverse reactions appear very similar to a small number of cases of serious blood-clotting problems linked to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Europe and Britain. People arrive at the Javits Center mass vaccination location amid the coronavirus pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, April 13, 2021.Those patients appear to have developed an immune response to a protein that platelets produce, according to a new study.The same thing may be happening with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.  “I think it’s a rare phenomenon, but I think it’s real,” Offit said. ‘Very wise’ Bad news about the vaccines will likely make it harder to get enough people vaccinated to stop transmission of the virus, experts say. “I think there’s no doubt that it will make hesitant people even more hesitant, which will mean that we have a bigger job to do to reach out to them, whatever the results of the investigation are,” said infectious diseases professor William Schaffner at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Schaffner called the pause “very wise,” adding it “actually reinforces the notion that we have an excellent, comprehensive and very transparent vaccine safety system in the United States.” Experts have been cautioning that these kinds of one-in-a-million problems tend to pop up as the vaccines move from clinical trials involving tens of thousands of people to large-scale use among hundreds of millions.  “That’s what happens when there’s very widespread implementation of any new therapy,” said Jeffrey Kahn, director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. “We just haven’t experienced this before, where we have a set of brand new vaccines that we’re trying to effectively vaccinate everybody in the world with.”  Thirteen other countries and the World Health Organization have authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. It is favored for harder-to-reach populations because it requires just one shot and can be stored at refrigerator temperatures. The Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines require two doses, and the Pfizer and Moderna shots need ultra-cold storage.  VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday she is asking Parliament for temporary powers that would allow her federal government to implement nationwide coronavirus lockdowns to curb a third wave of the pandemic in the country.
 
Merkel spoke to reporters after her Cabinet approved a draft of legislation that would give her government the power to impose pandemic-related restrictions, including curfews and school and business closings in areas with high infection rates.
 
The chancellor said the measures are needed to “break the third wave of the pandemic and stop the rapid rise in infections” in those areas where infection rates are more than 100 per 100,000 residents for three consecutive days within a week.
 
Earlier this year, when laying out a plan for reopening the nation and lifting restrictions, Merkel mentioned the need for what she called “an emergency brake” should infections rise.  
 
Merkel said it is clear that emergency brake is overdue. Citing daily figures from the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, she said the latest daily infection rate is at nearly 11,000 new cases, and nearly all the nation’s intensive care unit beds are in use. Merkel said she hoped Parliament would swiftly debate and pass the bill.
 
She again asked for Germans to show patience and noted the vaccine program has been “building momentum every day,” with the recent start of vaccinations in doctors’ offices.
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U.S federal health officials Tuesday said “out of an abundance of caution” they are recommending an immediate pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after six cases of blood clots were reported in the United States.
At a joint virtual news briefing, officials of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the pause would last “a matter of days” while the agencies investigate the cases of blood clotting, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), which occurred in women between 18 and 48 years old within six to 13 days after receiving the one-dose vaccine.  
They note the six cases occurred out of more than 6.8 million doses of the vaccine administered.
 
CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat said people who received the vaccine more than two weeks ago have very little to fear. Those who received the vaccine within the last week or so who develop symptoms such as severe headache, abdominal or leg pain, or shortness of breath, should contact their health care provider.
The officials said they are working to reschedule those people who had appointments to receive the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Schuchat said the decision is not a mandate, and people who, after discussions with their physicians, feel they can safely take it, will be allowed to do so.
In a statement Tuesday, White House COVID-19 Response Team Coordinator Jeff Zients said the decision to pause the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will not have a significant effect on the nation’s vaccine program, as it made up less than five percent of the vaccine administered to date. Zients says the U.S. has secured enough doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for 300 million people.
The New York Times is reporting that one woman has died and another woman in the state of Nebraska has been hospitalized in critical condition.   
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the second one linked to potential blood clots. Several nations have issued new guidelines on the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after the European Union’s medical regulator announced a link between the vaccine and rare, possibly fatal blood clots.   
Meanwhile, a new single-day record of COVID-19 cases has pushed India into second place, behind the United States, as countries with the world’s largest number of confirmed coronavirus infections.
The South Asian nation’s 168,912 new COVID-19 cases posted on Monday gives India 13,527,717 total cases, compared to Brazil’s 13,517,808 total cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. 
The new surge coincides with an acute shortage of vaccine in some Indian states, along with the annual Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival, on the Ganges River, where millions of Hindu devotees bathe to seek absolution, raising fears it could evolve into a superspreader event. 
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Scientists with the U.S. space agency, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) say the much-anticipated first flight of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars has been delayed again while scientists make some software modifications.
 
Scientists had hoped to perform the first controlled powered flight of an aircraft on a planet other than Earth as early as Sunday. Problems encountered last week, though, when high-speed tests on the rotors were performed switching from “pre-flight” means the helicopter won’t be attempted as planned Wednesday.
 
A statement issued by JPL  Tuesday said they identified a software solution to the problem, but that it would take some time to implement.  They said it is not clear at this point when the tiny helicopter will make its first brief flight, but it likely will be next week sometime.
 
They scientists say all other systems on the Ingenuity helicopter are working as designed.  
 
Ingenuity, weighing a mere 1.8 kilograms, was stowed away on the Perseverance rover probe when it landed on Mars in February.  It was unfolded and dropped from the rover a bit more than a week ago to prepare its launch.  
 
The helicopter is considered by NASA to be a technology demonstration, designed to test a new capability – in this case, flight in the thin Marian atmosphere – for the first time. It has specially designed rotors that spin much faster than they would have to on Earth to achieve flight. It also has innovative batteries and solar cells for recharging.
 
But aside from cameras, Ingenuity carries no scientific instruments. If successful, Ingenuity will pave the way for other more ambitious future robotic projects.
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A new single-day record of COVID-19 cases has pushed India into second place behind the United States for the world’s most confirmed coronavirus infections.The South Asian nation’s 168,912 new COVID-19 cases posted on Monday gives India 13,527,717 total cases, compared to Brazil’s 13,517,808 total cases, according to the FILE PHOTO: File labelled “Sputnik V coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine”, March 24, 2021.Reuters is reporting that India has approved the use of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.In the United States, the Biden administration is urging the midwestern state of Michigan to impose a mandatory lockdown to deal with a new surge of coronavirus infections sweeping the state.Michigan ‘s Governor Gretchen Whitmer has pleaded with the administration to provide extra doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the state in an effort to blunt the surge, which has the highest rate of new infections in the nation. But Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday “the answer is not necessarily to give vaccine” because of the length of time it takes for one to become effective.“The answer is really to close things down, to shut things down, to flatten the curve, to decrease contact,” Walensky said. The administration says it will send extra supplies of COVID-19 antibody treatments and tests to Michigan, but says it will stick with its plan to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to all states based on population.Governor Whitmer came under fire last year from conservatives for implementing strict coronavirus restrictions at the start of the pandemic, including armed groups entering the state capitol building in Lansing during a heated protest.FILE PHOTO: World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference in GenevaThe ongoing surge of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and India comes as the World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday blamed “confusion, complacency and inconsistency in public health measures and their application” for seven consecutive weeks of rising COVID-19 infections and four consecutive weeks of increasing numbers of deaths, after starting the year with six weeks of declining numbers.During a briefing Monday from WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, Tedros said while vaccines are a vital and powerful tool in fighting the pandemic, the standard mitigation efforts of social distancing, hygiene, masks and continued testing and tracking continue to be effective means of saving lives.People drink in the Soho area of London, on April 12, 2021, as coronavirus restrictions are eased across the country in step two of the government’s roadmap out of England’s third national lockdown.In a relatively positive development, Britain announced that it is ahead of schedule of offering a first shot of COVID-19 vaccine to its older citizens on Monday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said vaccinating all people 50 years old and older by the self-imposed deadline of April 15 means “more than 32 million people have been given the precious protection vaccines provide against COVID-19.”The prime minister’s triumphant statement capped the end of a three-month strict lockdown imposed across Britain in response to a wave of infections triggered by a more transmissible strain of the virus, which was discovered late last year in the southeastern county of Kent.Thousands of gyms, hair salons, retail shops and zoos reopened their doors across England, along with bars and restaurants, which are limited to just outdoor service. Similar restrictions remain in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have their own timetables for reopening.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday the world has now seen seven consecutive weeks of rising COVID-19 infections and four consecutive weeks of increasing numbers of deaths after starting the year with six weeks of declining numbers.
 
At the agency’s Monday briefing from its headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the fourth-highest number of cases in a single week since the pandemic began occurred last week. This, after the world has delivered more than 780 million doses of vaccine.
 
The WHO chief blamed “confusion, complacency and inconsistency in public health measures and their application” for driving up infections and costing lives. He said while vaccines are a vital and powerful tool in fighting the pandemic, they are not the only tool.  
 
Tedros said the standard measures — social distancing, hygiene, masks and continued testing and tracking — work and save lives. He noted that many countries have shown it is possible to bring the virus under control using and consistently applying these proven public health measures.
 
He noted countries where there is continuing transmission of the virus, and yet restaurants, nightclubs and markets are reopening, with people taking few precautions.  
 
The director said WHO does not want to see endless lockdowns and wants to see societies and economies reopened and travel resumed.
 
 “But right now, intensive care units in many countries are overflowing, and people are dying — and it’s totally avoidable,” he said.
 
Tedros said the decline in cases and hospitalizations the world saw at the beginning of the year show the virus can be stopped.   
 
With equitably distributed vaccines and consistent public health measures, he said, “we could bring the pandemic under control in a matter of months. Whether we do or not comes down to the decisions and the actions that governments and individuals make every day.”
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Tobacco farmers in Zimbabwe, Africa’s largest tobacco producer, are pinning their economic hopes on the addictive plant. Despite anti-smoking campaigns ahead of the World Health Organization’s No Tobacco Day on May 31, farmers say the crop is one of their biggest sources of income. After quitting journalism at a government-controlled company four years ago, 39-year-old Itai Mazire went into farming. This year, he expects to sell at least 9,000 kilograms of tobacco from his eight-hectare plot, about 150 kilometers east of Harare. Mazire says delayed selling seasons, due to the coronavirus pandemic, forced him to dip into his savings to pay workers. But Mazire says his harvest this year was the biggest ever and he expects sales to more than double that of 2020.    
 
“This season is a success for us Zimbabwe tobacco farmers, in particular,” he said. “The rains were with us and we did our job. It’s a perfect story. We are curing our tobacco and every farmer will be smiling all the way to the bank. He gets his money, the economy improve[s], our foreign currency reserves will improve through tobacco.”  Workers at a tobacco auction floor in Marondera about 100km east of east of Harare, Zimbabwe, Apr. 10, 2021. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)After gold, tobacco is Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign currency earner. The cash-strapped government expects earnings this year to jump from last year’s $452 million U.S. dollars to $800 million.    Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka says that’s not enough. “The tobacco’s potential is immense,” he said. “It is in this regard that the government, together with stakeholders in the industry, is at an advanced stage of developing a three-pronged strategy. First, to increase annual production to 300 million kilograms largely from small holder farmers by 2025.” 
  
Campaigners say Zimbabwe should instead work to replace tobacco, which is known to cause cancer, with other crops that are less damaging to health.     Sharon Nyatsanza of South Africa-based National Council Against Smoking (Apr. 12, 2021) says Zimbabwe should work to replace tobacco with other crops that are less damaging to health. (Columbus Mavhunga/SKYPE)Sharon Nyatsanza, from the South Africa-based National Council Against Smoking, says people who use tobacco are more vulnerable to the coronavirus, the cause of the COVID-19 disease.    “Emerging signs show that people who are exposed to tobacco are at higher risk of developing worse COVID-19 outcomes. But beyond COVID-19 pandemic is a threat to humanity and it kills millions each and every year. It is very, very key for Zimbabwe to start to take significant strides to move away from tobacco farming and to invest more and to promote more alternative livelihoods for tobacco farmers,” she said. 
The World Health Organization says tobacco  kills more than eight million people each year globally.       For farmers like Mazire, the crop remains one of the best options to make a living in Zimbabwe’s long-struggling economy. Mazire says he plans to use more hectares for the 2021/2022 growing season, which begins mid-year.  
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When plotted on a graph, the curve of Bhutan’s COVID-19 vaccination drive shoots upwards from the very first day, crossing Israel, United States, Bahrain and other countries known for vaccinating people rapidly.
Those countries took months to reach where they are, painstakingly strengthening their vaccination campaigns in the face of rising coronavirus cases. But the story of Bhutan’s vaccination campaign is nearly finished — just 16 days after it began.
The tiny Himalayan kingdom wedged between India and China has vaccinated nearly 93% of its adult population since March 27. Overall, the country has vaccinated 62% of its 800,000 people.
The rapid rollout of the vaccine puts the tiny nation just behind Seychelles, which has given jabs to 66% of its population of nearly 100,000 people.Its small population helped Bhutan move fast, but its success has also been attributed to its dedicated citizen volunteers, known as “desuups,” and established cold chain storage used during earlier vaccination drives.
Bhutan received its first 150,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from neighboring India in January, but the shots were distributed beginning in late March to coincide with auspicious dates in Buddhist astrology.  
The first dose was administered by and given to a woman born in the Year of the Monkey, accompanied by chants of Buddhist prayers.
“Let this small step of mine today help us all prevail through this illness,” the recipient, 30-year-old Ninda Dema, was quoted by the country’s Kuensel newspaper as saying.  
Dr. Pandup Tshering, secretary to the Ministry of Health, said jabs were still being provided to those who could not get vaccinated during the campaign period and that the country had enough doses to cover its entire population.
Bhutan has recorded 910 infections with the coronavirus and one COVID-19 death so far. It has a mandatory 21-day quarantine for all people arriving in the country. All schools and educational institutions are open and are monitored for compliance with COVID-19 protocols, Tshering said.
Bhutan is the last remaining Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas. But the country has transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a democratic, constitutional monarchy.
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Aid groups say Myanmar’s efforts to contain the novel coronavirus have been crumbling since a Feb. 1 coup that has plunged parts of the country into chaos, raising fears of a third wave of infections. The military takeover has set off daily — and increasingly violent — confrontations with protesters across the country. A local rights group claims soldiers and police have rounded up thousands of people and killed more than 700, dozens of children among them, in a bid to quell resistance. FILE – Young demonstrators flash the three-fingered symbol of resistance during an anti-coup mask strike in Yangon, Myanmar, April 4, 2021.A so-called civil disobedience movement has also seen thousands of public and private sector workers go on strike, bringing much regular daily life and business to a grinding halt. That includes the public health care system, threadbare even before the coup from decades of underfunding. Sources told VOA that thousands of doctors and nurses have walked off the job to join the strikes. Local news outlet Frontier Myanmar put the number of striking healthcare workers at over 60,000, citing a source at the Ministry of Health and Sports. ‘A perfect storm’ In an April 1 statement, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said the turmoil “poses a significant threat to efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.” “In the coming months we could be facing a perfect storm in Myanmar where another wave of COVID-19 infections collides with a deepening humanitarian crisis spreading across the entire country,” the statement quoted the federation’s Asia Pacific director, Alexander Matheou, as saying. The U.N.’s acting resident country coordinator, Andrew Kirkwood, told reporters in a virtual press conference last month that Myanmar’s health system “has practically collapsed” and that “nearly all COVID-19 testing and treatment has halted.”The head of the Health Ministry’s emerging infectious diseases unit, Khin Khin Gyi, rejected forecasts of an impending collapse while speaking with VOA last week. However, she confirmed that daily testing rates have plummeted, from as many as 25,000 a day before the coup to 2,000 at best now. The number of confirmed new cases of COVID-19 has taken a similar dive. The day before the coup, Myanmar had logged just over 140,000 total cases and 3,131 deaths. The country was on the downward slope of a second wave of infections, its worst since the pandemic began, but still registering hundreds of new cases a day. Suddenly, from Feb. 5 to 6, confirmed new cases nosedived from 200 a day to zero, and they have averaged a few dozen a day since then. FILE – A woman reacts while getting a coronavirus swab test by medical staff at a quarantine center amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Yangon, Myanmar, Oct. 7, 2020.Khin Khin Gyi conceded that the latest numbers reflect the drop in testing due to a lack of staff. “We cannot test much, that’s why the case seems to be very much lower than the previous months,” she said. “We can find only [the] tip of the iceberg, but we cannot find the submerged portion of the ice,” she added. ‘Paralyzed’ A source with an aid group in Myanmar’s health care sector told VOA that government hospitals and clinics have been hemorrhaging staff because of the strikes since the coup, reducing the facilities to skeleton crews or none, forcing some to close.“We’ve seen that in several places,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The [civil disobedience movement] has paralyzed the public system, and of course as COVID-19 was a public [sector] response, it has paralyzed all the COVID systems,” he added. The source said even the meager testing data available no longer comes out with key details including where positive cases were caught and whether the patients received treatment. He shared the IFRC’s fears of a new wave of infections, just when the country was least prepared to handle it. “Of course, we are concerned because… the junta cannot abolish COVID like it’s abolishing a lot of laws,” he said. “You can close your eyes, but the disease will keep on spreading.” The country director of an international charity that had been cooperating with the ousted government on its pandemic response, also speaking anonymously, said Myanmar’s modest private health care system had taken on some of the burden from the public sector but was no substitute. FILE – Medical workers wearing red ribbons pose during a protest against the coup that ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in Yangon General Hospital in Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 3, 2021.“Many of the public hospitals have basically been shut down or taken over by the military,” he told VOA. “So, what you’ve got is just this kind of menagerie of private clinics or newly cropped-up health facilities to try and deal with [patients], whether it’s shootings from the coup or others who may have other issues.” He said the unrest and understaffing made contact tracing all but unthinkable and “close to impossible to roll out any coordinated, organized vaccination campaign.” Fear and loathing Myanmar administered its first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, to a nurse at Yangon General Hospital, on Jan. 27, a few days before the coup. FILE – A medical worker receives AstraZeneca’s COVISHIELD coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine in Yangon, Myanmar, Jan. 27, 2021.The Health Ministry’s Khin Khin Gyi said public hospitals have given out some 1.4 million shots since, mostly to government staff, and that daily numbers were on the rise as some of the staff who joined the strikes trickle back to work. Before the coup, the government had set itself the goal of vaccinating 40% of its 54 million people by the end of 2021. Khin Khin Gyi said the target was “tentative” and had no idea if the new regime would meet it. Fear and boycotts stand in the way. Frontier Myanmar reported that most of the health care staff on strike are refusing to get their second shots until the junta retreats, and out of concern that they will be forced back to work if they show up for the vaccine. The charity country director said rampant reports of arbitrary arrests and random shootings by police and soldiers on patrol have most of his own staff simply too afraid to leave their homes, whether for a handout of rice or a free vaccination. And with a widely reviled military turning back the clock on years of hard-earned progress toward democracy, he added, the risk of catching COVID-19 now seems, to most, the far lesser of two evils. “People, honestly, they’re really not concerned about another outbreak,” he said. “They’re more concerned about trying to get this junta out of power. The likelihood that there’s an outbreak going on right now is probably pretty high, it’s just going to be close to impossible to get any kind of accurate figures.” 
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