Author Archives: Reuters News Agency

Knee-deep in sewage: German rescuers race to avert health emergency in flood areas

By Ann-Kathrin Weis and Andi Kranz

AHRWEILER, Germany (Reuters) – Red Cross volunteers and emergency services in Germany deployed emergency stand-pipes and mobile vaccination vans to flood-devastated regions on Tuesday, attempting to avert a public health emergency.

Last week’s freak floods killed more than 160 people, and wrecked basic services in the hilly villages of the Ahrweiler district, leaving thousands of residents knee-deep in debris and without sewage or drinking water.

“We have no water, we have no electricity, we have no gas. The toilet can’t be flushed,” said Ursula Schuch. “Nothing is working. You can’t shower…I am nearly 80 years old and I have never experienced anything like it.”

Few have, in a prosperous corner of one of the world’s richest countries, and that sense of disbelief was widely echoed among residents and aid workers coming to terms with the chaos caused by the floods.

If the clean-up operation does not move swiftly ahead, more disease will come in the floods’ wake, just as many had come to believe the coronavirus pandemic was nearly beaten, with rats coming in to feast on the discarded contents of freezers.

Few recovery workers are able to take the kind of anti-infection precautions that are possible in more ordered circumstances, so mobile vaccination plans have come to the region.

“Everything has been destroyed by the water. But not the damn virus,” said Olav Kullak, head of vaccine coordination in the region.

“And since the people now have to work side by side and have no chance of obeying any corona rules, we at least have to try to give them the best protection via vaccination.”

(Reporting by Reuters TV, Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Raissa Kasolowsky)

IMF urges countries to shift from economic rescue to reforms

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund’s No. 2 official on Tuesday called on countries to pivot from saving their economies from collapse to reviving growth-oriented policy reforms to boost their recovery prospects and make them more sustainable.

IMF First Deputy Managing Director Geoffrey Okamoto said in a blog posting on the IMF website that the COVID-19 pandemic delayed and reversed some pro-growth reforms and restoring these can help make up for output lost during the pandemic.

Reforms that allow for faster restructurings and resolution of unviable businesses and labor policies to help retrain workers and line them up with job openings can help shift workers and capital to more promising, dynamic parts of the economy, Okamoto said.

Improved competition policy frameworks such as those being debated in Europe and the United States can reduce the concentration of market power among a few firms and create more dynamic competition and innovation.

“Using this moment for some of these difficult reforms means that the monetary and fiscal stimulus still flowing will serve as a springboard to a brighter and more sustainable future rather than a crutch to a weaker version of the pre-COVID-19 economy,” Okamoto said. “Seizing the opportunity could deliver years of solid post-COVID-19 growth and progress in living standards.”

The call for a renewed focus on reforms comes as the IMF is shifting from non-conditional emergency COVID-19 pandemic financing toward the negotiation of more traditional IMF loan programs, which require recipient countries to meet policy reform benchmarks.

The Fund last week approved a new, $1.5 billion, three-year Extended Credit Facility arrangement for the Democratic Republic of Congo, which includes reforms to boost revenue collections, improve natural resource management governance and strengthen the country’s monetary policy framework to ensure central bank independence.

The IMF is also negotiating a new Extended Fund Facility with Argentina, which has struggled under a $57 billion IMF loan, arranged in 2018, the Fund’s largest-ever.

The IMF estimates that comprehensive growth-enhancing reforms in product, labor and financial markets could lift annual GDP per capita growth by over 1 percentage point in emerging market and developing economies in the next decade.

Countries taking such steps would be able to double their speed of convergence with advanced economies’ living standards relative to pre-pandemic years, Okamoto said.

For advanced economies, pro-growth reforms that target the supply side could guard against persistent inflationary risks caused by excess demand pressures.

These reforms can boost investor confidence in emerging market countries that have been able to maintain access to global capital markets during the pandemic and help these countries cope with any tightening of financial conditions, especially if inflation persists in advanced economies, prompting interest rate hikes.

The higher growth by reforms can help poorer countries avoid harsh fiscal austerity, allowing them to maintain social and health spending while investing in the future, Okamoto said.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Factbox: Countries make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory

(Reuters) – A sharp upturn in new coronavirus infections due to the highly contagious Delta variant and a slowdown in vaccination rates have pushed governments to make COVID-19 jabs mandatory for health workers and other high-risk groups.

A growing number of countries also stipulate that a jab, or a negative test, will be needed for dining out, among others.

Here are some countries’ vaccine mandates:

AUSTRALIA

Australia decided in late June to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for high-risk aged-care workers and employees in quarantine hotels.

It has also made vaccinations obligatory for Paralympic athletes heading to Tokyo because unvaccinated members on the team could pose a health risk.

BRITAIN

It will be mandatory for care home workers in England to have coronavirus vaccinations from October.

English nightclubs and other venues with large crowds will require patrons to present proof of full vaccination from the end of September.

CANADA

Canadian Treasury Board Secretariat said on July 20 it was considering whether COVID-19 vaccines should be required for certain roles and positions in the federal government, according to CBC.

FRANCE

All health workers in France must get COVID-19 jabs and anyone wanting to get into a cinema or board a train will need to show proof of vaccination or a negative test under new rules announced by President Emmanuel Macron on July 12.

The government said on July 19 that the planned 45,000 euro fine for businesses that do not check that clients have a health pass will be much lower, starting at up to 1,500 euros and increasing progressively for repeat offenders. Fines will not be imposed immediately.

GREECE

Greece on July 12 made vaccinations mandatory for nursing home staff with immediate effect and healthcare workers from September. As part of new measures, only vaccinated customers are allowed indoors in bars, cinemas, theatres and other closed spaces.

INDONESIA

Indonesia made COVID-19 inoculations mandatory in February, with capital Jakarta threatening fines of up to 5 million rupiah ($357) for refusing the vaccine.

ITALY

A decree approved by the Italian government in March mandates that health workers, including pharmacists, get vaccinated. Those who refuse could be suspended without pay for the rest of the year.

KAZAKHSTAN

Kazakhstan will introduce mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations or weekly testing for people working in groups of more than 20, the health ministry said on June 23.

POLAND

Poland could make vaccinations obligatory for some people at high risk from COVID-19 from August.

RUSSIA

The Russian capital has unveiled a plan requiring 60% of all service sector workers to be fully vaccinated by Aug. 15, according to the Moscow Times.

Moscow residents no longer have to present a QR code demonstrating they have been vaccinated or have immunity in order to sit inside cafes, restaurants and bars from July 19.

SAUDI ARABIA

In May, Saudi Arabia mandated all public and private sector workers wishing to attend a workplace get vaccinated, without specifying when this would be implemented.

Vaccination will also be required to enter any governmental, private, or educational establishments and to use public transportation as of Aug. 1.

Saudi citizens will need two COVID-19 vaccine doses before they can travel outside the kingdom from Aug. 9, state news agency SPA reported on July 19, citing the ministry of interior.

TURKMENISTAN

Turkmenistan’s healthcare ministry said on July 7 it was making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for all residents aged 18 and over.

(Compiled by Paulina Cwikowska, Dagmarah Mackos and Oben Mumcuoglu; editing by Milla Nissi and Steve Orlofsky)

Massive Oregon wildfire grows worse, forcing more residents to flee

By David Ryder

BLY, Ore. (Reuters) – Fed by hot, dry winds, the country’s biggest wildfire ripped through more acreage in a southern Oregon forest on Monday, with more than 2,100 residents near the California border ordered from their homes, officials said.

An army of nearly 2,200 fire-fighting personnel battling the so-called Bootleg fire about 250 miles (400 km) south of Portland increased their containment lines overnight to 25% of its perimeter from 22%, Oregon Department of Forestry spokesman Marcus Kauffman said.

“We are fighting the fire aggressively and there are active efforts to build a containment line, both direct and indirect, wherever it is safe to do so,” Kauffman said.

The fire grew by an additional 4,000 acres overnight to nearly 304,000 acres (123,020 hectares), he said.

Record-breaking heat has baked much of the West in recent weeks, killing hundreds of people. Scientists have said the growing frequency and intensity of wildfires are largely attributable to prolonged drought and increasing bouts of excessive heat.

Since it started nearly two weeks ago, the Bootleg fire has taken advantage of favorable weather conditions which are forecast to continue.

The National Weather Service in Medford forecast steady winds, which are pushing the fire toward the north and east, of about 15 miles per hour (24 km per hour), with gusts up to 25 mph, low humidity and temperatures topping 90 Fahrenheit (32 Celsius).

Even the 15% chance of thunderstorms forecast for the area around Klamath County and the Fremont-Winema National Forest was unwelcome news for firefighters.

“Thunderstorms often just come with dry lightning and wind and don’t necessarily produce any precipitation,” said Kauffman, adding that they can also produce unhelpful wind gusts.

Two evacuation centers, one at the Klamath Falls fairgrounds and one at a middle school in Lakeview, have been set up for residents displaced by the fire, which has destroyed 67 homes and is threatening 2,460 more.

The Bootleg fire is the largest of 80 active wildfires that have burned nearly 1.2 million acres in 13 states and are being battled by more than 19,600 firefighters and support personnel, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

In California, PG&E Corp, the state’s largest power company, said its equipment may have been involved starting the Dixie fire last Tuesday in a remote, difficult to reach area about 85 miles (140 km) north of Sacramento.

That wildfire has burned more than over 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) as more than 1,900 fire-fighting personnel have set up containment lines over 15% of its perimeter, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The so-called Dixie fire, the biggest in the state, prompted some evacuation orders for Plumas and Butte counties, it said.

In an incident report to state regulators on Sunday that PG&E described as preliminary, the company said one of its workers last Tuesday found blown fuses on a utility pole and spotted a fire near the base of a tree that was leaning into a conductor. The worker reported the fire, it said.

Thirteen months ago, the company pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from a devastating 2018 wildfire touched off by its power lines that destroyed much of the nearby town of Paradise.

(Reporting by David Ryder in Bly, Oregon; Writing by Peter Szekely; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

U.S. coronavirus cases rise, fueling fears of resurgence

By Maria Caspani

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A rapid increase in coronavirus cases in the United States and abroad is fueling fears of a pandemic resurgence and sending shockwaves through the stock market as the highly contagious Delta variant takes hold and vaccinations lag in several states.

Largely due to outbreaks in parts of the country with low vaccination rates, the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 have been on the rise in recent weeks.

The vaccines work against the Delta variant, but lab tests have shown them to be less effective than they were against the original form of coronavirus.

Studies have also shown that two shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and of the AstraZeneca vaccine are much more effective than one shot against being infected with the virus, making it more important for people to be fully vaccinated.

Concerns the outbreaks could derail an economic recovery sent the Dow down more than 2% on Monday.

In a speech about the U.S. economy, President Joe Biden said the recovery hinges on getting the pandemic under control. He said four states with low vaccination rates accounted for 40% of all cases last week.

“So please, please get vaccinated,” Biden said. “Get vaccinated now.”

The average number of new COVID-19 cases per day has tripled in the past 30 days in the United States, according to an analysis of Reuters data. In the month from June 18 to Sunday, it climbed from 12,004 to 32,136.

The average number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has gone up 21% over the past 30 days to over 19,000, up from 16,000, according to the same Reuters analysis.

Deaths, which can lag weeks behind a rise in cases, rose 25% last week from the previous seven days with an average of 250 people dying a day.

Some states have been especially hard hit. All but two of the 75 Arkansas counties have substantial or high levels of transmission, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

But even in states with higher vaccination rates, such as New York, officials have expressed concern about fresh outbreaks, pointing to the significantly more contagious Delta variant.

So far, the variant has been detected around 100 countries globally and is now the dominant variant worldwide, top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci told reporters last week.

In California, Los Angeles County reimposed a mask mandate at the weekend. It followed six straight days of more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases in the county, with nearly 400 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, up 275 from the week before.

While New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged a rise in the number of cases, he told a daily news conference on Monday there were no plans to reintroduce mask mandates. He vowed instead to redouble vaccination efforts.

Overseas, COVID-19 restrictions are being reimposed in countries experiencing worrying spikes. The Netherlands announced it was re-imposing work-from-home guidelines due to soaring COVID-19 infections, just weeks after lifting them, as well as some restrictions on bars, restaurants and nightclubs.

Britain ended over a year of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions on Monday but the so-called “Freedom Day” was marred by surging infections and grim forecasts.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday issued a more severe warning against travel to the United Kingdom, elevating the nation to “Level Four: COVID-19 Very High,” the CDC’s highest level.

(Reporting by Maria Caspani in New York; Additional reporting by Anurag Maan, Sharon Bernstein and Caroline Humer; Editing by Howard Goller)

No trace of mRNA vaccine found in breast milk; gene found that helps identify COVID-19 early

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – Here is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

No trace of vaccines’ mRNA seen in breast milk

No traces of mRNA vaccines end up in mothers’ breast milk, a small study suggests. The COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna deliver a synthetic version of messenger RNA molecules, designed to instruct cells to build replicas of the coronavirus spike protein. The immune system then learns to recognize the spike and produce antibodies to attack it, while the messenger RNA quickly breaks down into inert pieces. While these beneficial antibodies may pass from mothers to infants via breast milk, the milk does not contain the mRNA itself, researchers found in their analyses of 13 breast milk samples from seven vaccinated women. The World Health Organization recommends that breastfeeding mothers be vaccinated against COVID-19 and does not advise stopping breastfeeding afterward. Many mothers have declined vaccination or discontinued breastfeeding due to concern that the vaccine may alter breast milk. Writing in JAMA Pediatrics, the authors of the new study said more data is needed to better estimate the vaccines’ effect on breastfeeding. But the new results “strengthen current recommendations that the mRNA vaccines are safe in lactation, and that lactating individuals who receive the COVID vaccine should not stop breastfeeding,” coauthor Dr. Stephanie Gaw of the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement.

Researchers find gene that helps identify COVID-19 cases

A gene called IFI27 that becomes activated early in COVID-19, even when symptoms are absent, might help identify people most likely to have contracted the virus after coming in contact with an infected person, researchers said. Four hundred UK healthcare workers completed weekly questionnaires about COVID-19 symptoms and provided blood samples and nasal swabs for PCR testing for six months. In 41 workers diagnosed with COVID-19, IFI27 genes were “switched on” at the time of their first positive PCR test, even in asymptomatic individuals, according to a report in The Lancet Microbe. In some cases, IFI27 could predict infection one week before a positive PCR test, said coauthor Joshua Rosenheim of University College London. Overall, testing for IFI27 correctly identified 84% of COVID-19 cases and correctly ruled it out in 95% of uninfected participants. Blood biomarkers like IFI27 can signal other viruses as well, so PCR is still the gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19. “However, testing for blood biomarkers is still valuable,” Rosenheim said. “IFI27 predicted infection despite the person not having any symptoms and often before a positive PCR test, so it could be used during contact tracing.” IFI27 tests in people who recently came in contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient could allow for earlier diagnosis and treatment and “might even permit us to recommend self-isolation in a more targeted manner.”

Intranasal vaccine aims to block virus at point of entry

An experimental intranasal COVID-19 vaccine now being tested for the first time in humans showed promising results in monkeys, researchers will report on Thursday at ASV 2021, the annual meeting of the American Society of Virology. The protection provided to the primates by a single dose of the vaccine from Meissa Vaccines was equivalent to the protection provided by currently authorized vaccines, according to a news release from the company. Like injected vaccines, the intranasal vaccine, which is administered via drops or spray into the nose, stimulates the body to produce antibodies that circulate in the blood. But the intranasal vaccine also stimulates production of antibodies on mucosal surfaces that line the airways, which is where the virus first makes contact and enters the body, the research team reported in a paper seen by Reuters and submitted for posting ahead of peer review on the bioRxiv preprint server. The pilot study in humans, which got underway in March, is expected to enroll 130 volunteers to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immune system effects of various doses of the vaccine. Once it selects a safe dose likely to be most effective against the virus, the company will need to conduct larger and more rigorous trials. “We believe Meissa’s intranasal COVID-19 vaccine has the potential to be an important part of the endgame solution to contain SARS-CoV-2,” Roderick Tang, chief scientific officer of Meissa Vaccines, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Megan Brooks; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

In a first under Biden, detainee transferred out of Guantanamo Bay

By Idrees Ali

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden’s administration said on Monday that it had transferred its first detainee from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, a Moroccan man imprisoned since 2002, lowering the population at the facility to 39.

Abdul Latif Nasir, 56, was repatriated to Morocco.

Set up to house foreign suspects following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the prison came to symbolize the excesses of the U.S. “war on terror” because of harsh interrogation methods critics said amounted to torture.

While former President Donald Trump kept the prison open during his four years in the White House, Biden has vowed to close it, a promise White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated on Monday.

Nasir had been cleared for release in 2016 during the Obama administration before Trump took office. Most of the prisoners left at Guantanamo Bay have been held for nearly two decades without being charged or tried.

“The (Biden) administration is dedicated to following a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population of the Guantanamo facility while also safeguarding the security of the United States and its allies,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

Morocco’s general prosecutor said in a statement that Nasir would be investigated for suspected involvement in terrorist acts, and a police source said he had been taken into custody in Casablanca.

More than a dozen Moroccans have been held at Guantanamo Bay and those repatriated have faced investigation and trial. One, Ibrahim Benchekroun, was jailed for six years after being repatriated in 2005 and died in 2014 in Syria where he had traveled to join a militant group.

A senior U.S. administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that of the remaining detainees at the prison, 10 are already eligible for transfer.

Advocacy groups welcomed the move but said more needed to be done.

“The Biden administration urgently needs to negotiate and implement similar decisions for other cleared prisoners,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national security project.

“Bringing an end to two decades of unjust and abusive military detention of Muslim men at Guantanamo is a human rights obligation and a national security necessity,” Shamsi said.

Opened under Republican President George W. Bush, the prison’s population peaked at about 800 inmates before it started to shrink. President Barack Obama, a Democrat like Biden, whittled down the number, but his effort to close the prison was stymied largely by Republican opposition in Congress.

The federal government is barred by law from transferring any inmates to prisons on the U.S. mainland. Even with Democrats controlling Congress now, Biden has majorities so slim that he would struggle to secure legislative changes because some Democrats might also oppose them.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that the administration was actively looking into recreating the position of a State Department envoy for the closure of the prison at the Guantanamo Bay naval base.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali, additional reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi in Rabat and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Howard Goller)

Recession ended in April 2020, making it shortest on record

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The recession touched off by the coronavirus lasted only two months, ending with a “trough” reached in April 2020 just one month after the sharp drop in economic activity in March of that year, the U.S. Business Cycle Dating Committee announced Monday.

The committee, a group of macroeconomists who assign the start and end dates of U.S. business cycles, said that while the country had by no means gotten back to normal operating capacity at that point, indicators of both jobs and production “point clearly to April 2020 as the month of the trough,” with a rebound beginning in May.

Indeed, the resumption of growth was so rapid the committee said it was only “the unprecedented magnitude of the decline” that led members to consider what happened to be a recession in the first place, with a downturn typically requiring “depth, duration and diffusion” to qualify for the label.

Around 22 million jobs disappeared from company payrolls in March and April of that year, an event that sparked concern about a new Depression and led Congress and the White House to approve the first of several massive relief packages to keep firms and households afloat.

Amid what became a divisive national conversation over masks and lockdowns, during May 2020 2.8 million people were brought back to work, and over the next year about 15 million jobs were recovered.

Jobs “reached a clear trough in April before rebounding strongly the next few months and then settling into a more gradual rise,” with incomes rising as well, the committee said in a statement released through the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The announcement makes the pandemic recession by far the shortest on record, at two months only a third as long as the six-month downturn at the start of 1980. There have been several 8 month recessions, including the one that followed the collapse of the bubble in technology stocks in 2001.

But the hole it created in the U.S. job market remains substantial, and filling it a focus of the Biden administration and the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Nor is the battle over. Coronavirus infections are again increasing as the Delta variant takes hold and a national immunization drive stalls with only about 57% of those eligible having been fully vaccinated.

This year may still see the fastest expansion of economic activity in 40 years, but rekindled fears about the pandemic on Monday hit markets hard. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were both down more than 2% by midday, and U.S. 10 year Treasury yields fell to a 5-month low.

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

England to demand vaccination proof for clubs, mass events

By Andrew MacAskill

LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that English nightclubs and other venues with large crowds will require patrons to present proof of full vaccination from the end of September.

Clubbers flocked on Monday to the first live music events without restrictions since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The government reopened nightclubs and dropped almost all coronavirus measures in England in a bet that mass vaccinations will prevent another deadly wave of COVID-19.

But later in the day, Johnson announced that people who were not fully vaccinated, including those who had not had both doses of two-shot immunizations, would be barred from nightclubs.

The decision follows large outbreaks linked to nightclubs in other countries such as the Netherlands and Israel, where authorities were forced to close them again.

“I can serve notice now that by the end of September when all over 18’s will have had their chance to be double jabbed, we’re planning to make full vaccination the condition of entry to nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather,” Johnson told a press conference.

“Proof of a negative test will no longer be enough.”

Britain’s Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said nightclubs and other closed venues could be “potential super spreading events” because of crowds in close contact.

“I would expect that with opening of nightclubs, we’ll continue to see an increase in cases, and we will see outbreaks related to specific nightclubs as well,” he said.

Johnson said that the government was not planning similar requirements for pubs. “I certainly don’t want to see passports for pubs,” he said.

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Canada to ease border measures, welcome vaccinated U.S. tourists next month

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada will start allowing fully-vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents into the country on Aug. 9 for non-essential travel as the threat from the COVID-19 pandemic fades, Ottawa said on Monday.

Businesses on both sides of the border, particularly the travel and airline industries, are demanding an end to restrictions on non-essential travel between Canada and the United States which were first imposed in March 2020.

Fully-vaccinated visitors from countries other than the United States will be permitted to enter beginning on Sept. 7. The relaxation depends on Canada’s COVID-19 epidemiology remaining favorable, the government said in a statement.

“Thanks to the hard work of Canadians, rising vaccination rates and declining COVID-19 cases, the government … is able to move forward with adjusted border measures,” it said.

People eligible to enter Canada must have been fully vaccinated at least 14 days beforehand. From Aug. 9, Ottawa is also lifting the requirement that all travelers arriving by air must spend three nights in a hotel.

The government repeated that Canadians should avoid non-essential travel abroad.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Steve SchererEditing by Paul Simao)