World
S’Korea’s New Covid-19 Cases Remain Over 600 For 2nd Day
South Korea’s daily new virus cases remained over 600 for the second day on Friday.
The country has therefore extended its social distancing measures against the coronavirus amid concerns of another wave of the pandemic.
The country reported 661 more Covid-19 cases, including 642 local infections, raising the total caseload to 122,007, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
The latest tally was slightly down from 679 new cases the previous day, after reaching 769 cases on Wednesday on a growing number of untraceable cases.
The country added three more deaths, raising the total to 1,828.
As of 6 p.m. Friday, the country added 503 more cases, up five from the same time Thursday, according to health authorities and local governments.
A medical worker administers a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine shot at a vaccination centre in Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul, on April 30, in this photo provided by the city’s Buk District office.
Amid fears over another wave of the pandemic, health authorities decided to maintain the country’s social distancing measures and ban on large private gatherings, originally set to expire Sunday for three more weeks.
Currently, the greater Seoul area, where more than half of the country’s 52 million people reside, is under Level 2 social distancing, the third highest in the five-tier scheme, with the rest of the country under Level 1.5.
Gatherings of five or more people are banned nation-wide, with exceptions for family members.
Acting Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki said the extensions were necessary, considering the upcoming two holidays next month, Children’s Day and Buddha’s Birthday, which could potentially heighten infection risks.
Health authorities said they would also apply a revamped social distancing system from July if the average daily caseload remained under 1,000 by the end of June.
Based on the trend of infections then, the country also plans to revise its restrictions on private gatherings and operating hours of restaurants and bars.
South Korea has been grappling with sporadic cluster infections, coupled with the rising number of cases with unknown trans-mission routes.
The proportion of virus cases with unknown transmission routes stood at 29.9 per cent over the past two weeks as of Wednesday, the highest since the country began compiling related data in April last year.
Amid fears of another wave of the pandemic, the country is accelerating its vaccination drive.
Since the country started its vaccination programme on Feb. 26, a total of 3,056,004 people had received their first shots of Covid-19 vaccines, including 241,967 the previous day.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine had been given to 1,640,570 people, while 1,415,434 had received that of Pfizer.
The KDCA said 198,734 people have received two doses.
A total of 15,499 cases of side effects after vaccinations have been reported, up 499 from a day earlier, but 98.1 per cent were mild symptoms, including muscle pain and fever.
A total of 73 deaths after vaccinations have been reported, unchanged from the previous day.
Authorities, however, said the exact causes of the deaths remained unknown as they could not determine causality.
Authorities said they aimed to vaccinate three million people by the end of this month and 12 million by the end of June.
The country targets inoculating around 70 per cent of the country’s population with the first dose of the vaccine by September and achieving herd immunity by November.
As the vaccination campaign picks up steam, health authorities said they would allow those who were fully vaccinated to make in-person visits to nursing homes.
Authorities had partially allowed non-contact visits to nursing homes early last month, although some visitors were allowed in-person meetings under strict conditions.
From May 5, those who have been fully inoculated here would also be exempt from the mandatory 14-day isolation measures when arriving from overseas or when they were found to have come into contact with Covid-19 patients.
Of the newly confirmed locally transmitted cases, 222 came from Seoul, 148 from Gyeonggi Province and 14 from Incheon, 40 km west of the capital.
There were 19 additional imported cases, raising the total to 8,322.
The total number of people released from quarantine after making full recoveries was 111,422, up 635 from a day earlier.
The UN on Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of the entry into force of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) – the first multilateral disarmament treaty to ban an entire category of weapons of mass destruction
The UN’s High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu. in a statement, said that the world came together 50 years ago to ban biological weapons,.
She noted that in today’s volatile geopolitical climate we can ill-afford to let this moral safeguard “erode”,
Disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu told Member States in Geneva that the BWC “remains a testament to the conscience of humankind”. Yet as technology evolves, so too do potential risks.
“We must ensure the instruments of the 20th century can respond to today’s global 21st century challenges,” Nakamitsu said.
In his message, the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres urged all States parties to actively participate in the Working Group on Strengthening the BWC – which verifies compliance, capacity-building and assistance – and called on the Group to accelerate its efforts in this milestone year.
“These efforts reinforce the commitment in the Pact for the Future, adopted at the United Nations last year, for all countries to pursue a world free of biological weapons,” he said.
Guterres hailed the Convention as a cornerstone of international peace and security, having contributed over five decades to “collective efforts to reject the use of disease as a weapon.”
Today, 188 countries are party to the convention, which effectively prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological and toxin weapons.
The BWC stands as a safeguard, ensuring that advances in biology and biotechnology are used solely for “peaceful purposes” – and not to trigger artificial epidemics that threaten us all.
While the vast majority of UN Member States have joined the convention, nine countries remain outside.
The secretary-general called on those governments to ratify the treaty without delay.
UN disarmament affairs office, UNODA, is working to support the convention’s implementation – especially in Africa where it has engaged 100 young scientists through the Youth for Biosecurity Fellowship in the last five years.
“Together, let us stand united against biological weapons,” the secretary-general said.
As the world grapples with new global health challenges and geopolitical uncertainty, the BWC remains a vital barrier against the misuse of science.
Reinforcing it, the UN chief said, is essential to prevent biological weapons from ever being used again – whether in conflict, acts of terror, or by accident.
NAN reports that the BWC currently has 187 states-parties, including Palestine, and four signatories (Egypt, Haiti, Somalia, and Syria).
The 10 states that have neither signed nor ratified the BWC are Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Israel, Kiribati, Micronesia, Namibia, South Sudan, and Tuvalu.
Kirsty Coventry hopes her election as the first female and African president of the International Olympic Committee, IOC, beating six male candidates including Britain’s Lord Coe, sends a powerful signal.
The 41-year-old former swimmer, who won two Olympic gold medals, secured a majority of 49 of the 97 available votes in the first round of yesterday’s election, while World Athletics boss Coe won just eight.
Zimbabwe’s sports minister Coventry will replace Thomas Bach, who has led the IOC since 2013, on 23 June and be the youngest president in the organisation’s 130-year history.
Her first Olympics will be the Milan-Cortina Winter Games in February 2026.
“It’s a really powerful signal. It’s a signal that we’re truly global and that we have evolved into an organisation that is truly open to diversity and we’re going to continue walking that road in the next eight years,” Coventry said.
Runner-up Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr won 28 votes while France’s David Lappartient and Japan’s Morinari Watanabe earned four votes each. Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan and Sweden’s Johan Eliasch both took two.
Coventry, who already sits on the IOC executive board and was said to be Bach’s preferred candidate, is the 10th person to hold the highest office in sport and will be in post for at least the next eight years.
Coventry has won seven of Zimbabwe’s eight Olympic medals – including gold in the 200m backstroke at both the 2004 and 2008 Games.
“The young girl who first started swimming in Zimbabwe all those years ago could never have dreamed of this moment,” said Coventry.
“I am particularly proud to be the first female IOC president, and also the first from Africa.
Cameroon were held to a shock draw away to unfancied Eswatini as African qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup resumed on Wednesday.
Bryan Mbeumo came closest to breaking the deadlock for the Indomitable Lions when the Brentford forward hit the woodwork with a curling effort from distance in the first half.
Eswatini are ranked 159th in the world, 110 places below the central Africans, but were able to hold on in the second half, with Mlamuli Makhanya tipping a header from Cameroon captain Vincent Aboubakar over the crossbar.
Cameroon remain unbeaten after five games but could be replaced as Group D leaders before they host Libya on Tuesday next week.
Elsewhere, Tunisia continued their unbeaten start with a hard-fought 1-0 win away against Liberia to move five points clear at the top of Group H.
Madagascar moved to the summit of Group I after coming from behind to win 4-1 away against Central African Republic (CAR) in Corentin Martins’ first match in charge.
The islanders lead Comoros and Ghana by a point.
There were nine qualifiers yesterday, with Comoros having a chance to regain top spot in Group I when they hosted Mali.
Qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup finals resumed after a nine-month hiatus, with the final six rounds of group matches spread across March, September and October.
The nine group winners are guaranteed a place in the World Cup finals, hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Cameroon have appeared at an African-record eight editions of the tournament but their task has got trickier after dropping two points in neutral Mbombela.
Mbeumo also had a shot deflected wide in the first half while Aboubakar was wasteful with efforts either side of the break.