Coronavirus Global Updates 20 September :::No new coronavirus cases in South Australia; Jabs rolled out to children aged 12 to 15 across the UK

Mon Sep 20 08:32:32 CAT 2021

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Coronavirus Global Updates 20 September  :::No new coronavirus cases in South Australia; Jabs rolled out to children aged 12 to 15 across the UK

Zimbabwe COVID19 Update

COVID-19 update: As at 19 September 2021, Zimbabwe had 127 938 confirmed cases, including 120 946 recoveries and 4 567 deaths. To date, a total of 2 949 025 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Number of COVID-19 patients needing intensive care increasing 'rapidly', says Alfred Hospital ICU director

The head of intensive care at one of Melbourne's largest hospitals said a surge in COVID-positive patients in coming months will put a strain on Victorian hospitals.

Associate Professor Steve McGloughlin said the number of Victorians in intensive care with COVID is increasing "rapidly".

"We are fortunate in Victoria we have good hospitals and good infrastructure, really it is about the staffing and being able to support all those intensive care beds," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.

Victoria currently has around 55 COVID patients in ICU, up from 34 this time last week.

Dr McGloughlin is concerned about Burnet Institute modelling that suggests the state could see 700 plus patients in intensive care after the state's reopening.

"Unfortunately, with coronavirus if you are in that group of patients that get really sick, you do get really sick," Dr McGlouglin said.

"The average time you are in intensive care is a couple of weeks, which is a much longer say than after major surgery or even after most car accidents, to be honest."

Normally Victoria would expect to have 400-450 patients in intensive care across the state.

Vietnam's capital Hanoi will further ease its coronavirus restrictions from this week, the government said, with new cases on the decline and the majority of its adult population partially vaccinated.

Most construction projects can resume from Wednesday, authorities said late on Sunday, adding further easing would follow, with average new daily cases down to just 20.

So far, 94 per cent of Hanoi's adult population of 5.75 million has received one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, with the aim of completing second doses by the end of November, said deputy chairman of Hanoi's ruling People's Committee, Duong Duc Tuan.

"We can't maintain the social distancing measures indefinitely," Duong Duc Tuan said in a statement.

Hanoi has escaped the brunt of a fierce wave of coronavirus infections in Vietnam since late April, recording less than 50 of the more than 17,000 COVID-19 deaths nationwide, and just 4,414 of the country's total 687,000 cases.

Epicentre and business hub Ho Chi Minh City, more than 1,500 km away by road, has been the hardest hit, with 49 per cent of the country's cases and 78 per cent of its fatalities.

Hanoi became busier last week after authorities removed dozens of checkpoints and allowed restaurants to offer takeaway services.

Tuan said the city's approach will be flexible and scientific, aimed at containing the virus while reviving economic activities.

Reuters

Adelaide court issues warrant for man accused of throwing house parties during lockdown
Bitanya Sibeko failed to appear for a hearing on his charge of failing to comply with a health directive.

He was one of five people arrested when police attended a house party in the suburb of Lightsview on July 26, allegedly for the fourth time in five days.

Researchers are collecting samples from bats in northern Cambodia in a bid to understand the coronavirus pandemic, returning to a region where a very similar virus was found in the animals a decade ago.

Two samples from horseshoe bats were collected in 2010 in Stung Treng province near Laos and kept in freezers at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC) in Phnom Penh.

Tests done on them last year revealed a close relative to the coronavirus that has killed more than 4.6 million people worldwide.

An eight-member IPC research team has been collecting samples from bats and logging their species, sex, age and other details for a week. Similar research is going on in the Philippines.

"We hope that the result from this study can help the world to have a better understanding about COVID-19," field coordinator Thavry Hoem told Reuters, as she held a net to catch bats.

Host species such as bats typically display no symptoms of pathogens, but these can be devastating if transmitted to humans or other animals.

Dr Veasna Duong, Head of Virology at the IPC, said his institute had made four such trips in the past two years, hoping for clues about the origin and evolution of the bat-borne virus.

"We want to find out whether the virus is still there and … to know how the virus has evolved," he told Reuters.

Deadly viruses originating from bats include Ebola and other coronaviruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS).

But Veasna Duong said humans were responsible for the devastation caused by COVID-19, due to interference and destruction of natural habitats.

"If we try to be near wildlife, the chances of getting the virus carried by wildlife are more than normal. The chances of the virus transforming to infect humans are also more," he said.

The French-funded project also aims to look at how the wildlife trade could be playing a part, said Julia Guillebaud, a research engineer at the IPC's virology unit.

"(The project) aims to provide new knowledge on wild meat trade chains in Cambodia, document the diversity of betacoronaviruses circulating through these chains, and develop a flexible and integrated early-detection system of viral spill-over events," Ms Gillebaud said.

Coronavirus restrictions in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, will be eased slightly from Wednesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference.

The city, which is at the centre of the latest Delta variant outbreak, will move to alert level 3 from alert level 4 starting at midnight on Tuesday, Ms Ardern said.

Schools and offices will still remain closed at level 3 but businesses can operate contactless services.

The rest of the country will remain at alert level 2, she said.

Fifteen of the 24 cases announced in the region today were infectious in the community, while seven are mystery cases.

With chains of transmission not being detected, Hunter New England (HNE) Health's public health controller Dave Durrheim pleaded for people to get tested.

"Newcastle was getting around 14,000 tests per week but last week it was just over seven thousand," Dr Durrheim said.

"At those levels I get really nervous. If we're not looking, we won't find the virus."

Newcastle health officials worry people are losing enthusiasm for COVID tests but that risks spreading it to vulnerable family members and friends.

As many of you have pointed out, we haven't heard from SA for a little while. 

You'll be glad to hear the news is good: No new cases for several days now.

If I hear more, so will you.

Both states have agreed to follow the national plan outlined in July that hinges on the milestones of having 70 per cent and 80 per cent of those aged over 16 fully vaccinated.

But even though they've signed up to the same plan that will eventually see Australia reopen its international borders and do away with the strategy of large-scale lockdowns, there are some marked differences between the pathways chosen by the two state governments.

There's more to it, but put very simply, NSW has chosen the 70 per cent double-dose mark as its major step away from lockdown, but Victoria will not open up substantially until it reaches the 80 per cent double-dose target.

Plenty of Victorians are drawing comparisons with the New South Wales roadmap, as they push for a faster easing of restrictions. These are the key differences between the paths laid out by Australia's two most populous states. 

Andrews was asked about the protest about CFMEU headquarters in Melbourne.

He said it was an illegal gathering, but he wouldn't draw the conclusion that a sizeable number of people in the construction industry had no respect for the rules.

He said the president of the Pharmacy Guild (Victoria), Anthony Tassone, had told him his pharmacy had been "overwhelmed with tradies" on Saturday wanting to get their jab.

He said:

Protests are not smart, they are not safe. This industry is open at 25 per cent. We want to get it to 50 and 57 per cent. Being vaccinated is an incredibly important part of that.

…

I have nothing but respect for the people who do the building of our city and state.

As a government, we have employed and supported that industry, I think, more than any other government in the history of this state.

But … there would be a whole bunch of people at home because their industry is shut and they would be scratching their heads about why anyone would be protesting about being open?

Mr Andrews said none of the decisions about the rules that apply on a building site were taken lightly.

A good deal of work goes into that and I'd ask people to follow those rules.

Frankly, if protests worked against this virus, we would be in a very different position, wouldn't we.

No new coronavirus cases in South Australia

Back on Covid, the never-ending news story:

Sydney! It’s warm now but there’s a cold front a-coming.

Mr Miskelly tells Sydney twitter: “expect precipitous cooling from around 5pm”.

AAP has filed on the CFMEU protests in Melbourne:

Hundreds of construction workers and their supporters have stormed their union’s headquarters in Melbourne, protesting against new mandatory vaccination rules for the building industry.

Protesters wearing hi-visibility workwear gathered outside the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union head office on Elizabeth Street in the city on Monday morning.

Chanting “f*** the jab”, those rallying are against having to show proof of their vaccination to be allowed back on building sites, with some saying they would rather the entire construction industry be shut down.

A sign with “my body my choice” can be seen among the protesters.

There is currently a 25% cap on the industry’s workforce in Victoria, with tradies required to have had their first dose of a vaccine by this Thursday to be allowed back to work.

Monday’s protest escalated when two union officials, including Victorian construction branch secretary John Sekta, came outside to speak to protesters just before midday.

Setka was met with boos and insults from the crowd, while some protesters hurled bottles.

“Please calm down, can you at least give me the respect to talk. We’re not the enemy, I don’t know what you have heard,” he says to protesters, in a video posted to social media.

“I have never, ever said I support mandatory vaccination.”

The protesters then called for the CFMEU leader to “stand up or stand down” and yelled “we are one”.

Once Setka went back inside, the protesters smashed a glass door to the building.

By 1pm the protest had swelled to fill both sides of Elizabeth Street, with union delegates standing at the front of the building to stop protesters from entering.

Rain and hail has not deterred the protesters, with calls for Setka to come back outside and march with them.

Some of those rallying say they will come to the CFMEU office every day until the union bows to their demands.

Just before 2pm a protester went inside to meet with union officials.

Police are gathered around the rally and have blocked off parts of the road, but do not appear to be moving protesters on.

It is unclear whether all of those protesting are construction workers, as a message on the Melbourne Freedom Rally Telegram group encouraged anti-lockdown protesters to join them.

“If you are in the area and wish to support these guys head down,” a Telegram message said.

Another said: “If you got a high vis just get down there NUMBERS!”.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters in Melbourne during his daily coronavirus update the protests were “not smart, they are not safe”.

“This industry is open at 25%, we want to get to 50, being vaccinated is an incredibly important part of that,” Mr Andrews said.

“Protests don’t work. Getting vaccinated works, following the rules works. That’s how you stay open, that’s how you get open.”

Monday’s protests come after construction workers set up plastic chairs and tables in the middle of streets across Melbourne on Friday, protesting against the lockdown restrictions that included shutting down tea rooms for morning breaks.

A statement provided to the Guardian by the CFMEU’s QLD/NT branch, the Electrical Trades Union, the Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union, and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, stressed they were not opposed to vaccinations but that “construction unions oppose any blanket ‘no jab-no job’ laws which would penalise workers and remove a person’s right to make informed personal choices”.

“The Building Trades Group of unions in no way underestimates the public health challenges in managing a deadly virus such as Covid-19, but punitive measures that create two classes of citizens is not a path out of this pandemic.

“We strongly support and have followed the health advice that has helped keep Queenslanders safe and our members working, even during periods of restrictions and lockdown.

“Ultimately though, medical decisions must be a matter for an individual acting on the advice of their doctor, and workers should not be punished for acting according to their own personal circumstances.”

As we reported earlier, New Zealand has recorded 22 new cases of coronavirus in the community, including three cases outside Auckland. The new cases could put the brakes on prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s much anticipated easing of lockdown restrictions. Here’s our full report:

New Zealand Covid update: Auckland to move out of level 4 lockdown as 22 cases reported 

There will be no all out “freedom day” in South Australia when vaccine targets are reached, premier Steven Marshall says.

The premier says while SA has signed up to the national roadmap, to allow border measures and lockdown rules to ease, some level of local restrictions will remain in force to keep people safe.

“We will have to keep some public health social measures in place,” he said.

“We’re not going to have a freedom day where the borders are open and restrictions are removed at the same time.

“This is still a very dangerous pandemic. We want to ensure we maintain our good management of the disease.”

Marshall said anybody who became infected in SA, along with their close contacts, would still face periods in quarantine.

The premier said South Australia did not want the disease “running through our state” but believed the virus “will eventually come in”.

“We want to do that on our own terms and that means, test, trace, isolate and quarantine, and have some public health measures remaining in place,” he said.

Fiji, which was hit hard by a surge in Covid cases in July and August and at one stage had the highest per capita Covid infection rate in the world, has begun a school vaccination program, using the US Moderna vaccine.

Body launched to self-regulate Covid testing companies
Founders of the Laboratory and Testing Industry Organisation (LTIO) said the body will represent and self-regulate providers who can demonstrate they offer "trustworthy testing services" to businesses and the public.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has previously said the cost of PCR testing can be "a barrier" to people and insisted consumers and families need to be protected from "exploitative practices".

Earlier this month, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it found travellers do not have the means to find the best deals and are at risk from providers who breach consumer law when it comes to travel testing.

Only providers which accept a code of conduct based on a CMA letter recently sent to all Covid-testing providers and which score 3.5 or above on the independent Trustpilot rating website will be accepted as members, the LTIO said.

Vietnam capital Hanoi to ease curbs this week
Vietnam's capital Hanoi will further ease its coronavirus restrictions from this week, the government said, with new cases on the decline and the majority of its adult population partially vaccinated.

Most construction projects can resume from Wednesday, authorities said late on Sunday, adding further easing would follow, with average new daily cases down to just 20.

So far 94pc of Hanoi's adult population of 5.75 million has received one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine, with the aim of completing second doses by the end of November, said deputy chairman of Hanoi's ruling People's Committee, Duong Duc Tuan.

"We can't maintain the social distancing measures indefinitely," Tuan said in a statement.

Hanoi has escaped the brunt of a fierce wave of coronavirus infections in Vietnam since late April, recording less than 50 of the more than 17,000 deaths nationwide, and just 4,414 of the country's total 687,000 cases.

Third of staff would refuse full-time job in an office

One in three workers would not take a job that required them to be in the office full time, research has found.

The Government's official work-from-home guidance was removed on July 19, and in recent weeks a growing number of employees have returned to their offices full time.

The London Underground recorded its busiest morning since March 2020 two weeks ago.

But a poll of 1,000 workers carried out last month for IWG, which provides serviced offices, found that 33 per cent of those surveyed said they would not consider applying for a new job that did not offer flexible or hybrid working.

Sturgeon accused of ‘going into hiding’ while Scotland’s NHS faces crisis

Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of “going into hiding” while Scotland’s NHS faces the gravest crisis in its history.

Opponents claimed that the nationalist administration at Holyrood had put up a “wall of silence” over recent days, with ministers refusing several media invitations to publicly address a growing emergency.

Paramedics on Sunday called for temporary field hospitals to be set up in major Scottish cities, as questions mounted over why the NHS Louisa Jordan in Glasgow, which had the capacity for more than 1,000 beds, was allowed to close in July without being replaced. 

New Zealand NBL team release player after vaccine refusal

The New Zealand Breakers basketball team released guard Tai Webster on Monday after he decided not to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

The Breakers play in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL) and were based on the other side of the Tasman Sea for most of last season because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

They look set to relocate to Australia for at least the beginning of the 2021-22 season and Webster's decision not to be vaccinated would complicate travel arrangements.

"I fully support each player's freedom of choice in regards to the vaccine," Breakers owner Matt Walsh said in a news release. The club will keep the door open for Tai but unfortunately we are living in extraordinary times and without being vaccinated he will not have freedom of travel which would allow him to play for us this season."

Virus-hit Fiji to reopen borders for tourists

Fiji plans to reopen for international tourists by November, aiming to rebuild a pandemic-devastated economy while battling a delta-variant outbreak.

"Our goal is to free our country - and our economy - from the rut of the pandemic," Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said in a statement last week.

Once 80 per cent of Fiji's eligible population is vaccinated, it will offer quarantine-free travel to visitors from a "green list" of locations.

Of Fiji's eligible population, 66 per cent is now fully vaccinated and Bainimarama predicts the country's target will be met by November 1.

Fiji's green list includes Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, Korea, Singapore and parts of the United States.

Visitors would need to be fully vaccinated and test negative for Covid-19 prior to departure.

Sydney cases fall as curbs ease in virus hotspots

Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state on Monday reported its lowest rise in daily Covid-19 cases in more than three weeks as some lockdown restrictions were eased in Sydney, the state capital, amid higher vaccination levels.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said 935 new cases had been detected in NSW, the lowest daily tally since Aug. 27, and down from 1,083 on Sunday. The state reported four more deaths.

Nearly half of Australia's 25 million people is in lockdown after the delta variant spread rapidly in Sydney and Melbourne forcing officials there to abandon a Covid-zero target and shift to rapid vaccinations to ease curbs.

With 53pc of NSW's adult population now fully vaccinated, some restrictions on gatherings were relaxed on Monday in 12 of the worst-hit suburbs in Sydney's west. Time limits for outdoor exercise were lifted, while the fully vaccinated people can gather outside in groups of five.

Neighbouring Victoria state, which includes Melbourne, logged one new death and 567 new infections, its biggest daily rise this year, a day after revealing its roadmap back to freedom when vaccinations reach 70pc, expected around Oct. 26.

Jabs rolled out to children aged 12 to 15 across the UK

Coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out to children aged between 12 and 15, with three million youngsters eligible across the UK.

The programme is expected to be delivered primarily within schools, and guidance has been issued to headteachers to contact police if they believe protests could be held outside their buildings.

Children will be offered jabs at some schools in England from Monday. The rollout for 12 to 15-year-olds is also beginning in Scotland and Wales this week.

Young people in this age bracket in Scotland can go to drop-in clinics or wait for a letter offering them a scheduled appointment. Jabs for children in Wales will be carried out at mass vaccination centres and some school settings.

In Northern Ireland, the head of the region's vaccination programme said jabs are likely to be offered to children aged 12 to 15 in schools from October.

INVESTORS DIARY 2021

Company

Event

Venue

Date & Time

Star Africa

AGM

virtual

September 23 -11am

National Unity Day

December 22

Christmas Day

December 25

Boxing Day

December 26

Public Holiday in lieu of Boxing Day falling on a Sunday

December 27

Companies under Cautionary

ART

PPC

Starafrica

Fidelity

Turnall

Medtech

Zimre

Nampak Zimbabwe

DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of Faith Capital (Pvt) Ltd for general information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. The information contained in this report has been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty is made or guarantee given as to its accuracy or completeness. All opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without notice. Securities or financial instruments mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors. Securities of emerging and mid-size growth companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any other member of Bulls ‘n Bears nor any other person, accepts any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this report or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Recipients of this report shall be solely responsible for making their own independent investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

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