The Latest: Israel: US, other countries must quarantine

By Associated Press 04 August 2021, 12:00AM

JERUSALEM — Israel will require all people arriving from the United States and 17 other countries to quarantine starting next week as the country grapples with a coronavirus surge.

The Health Ministry issued a travel warning on Tuesday, saying all individuals -- vaccinated and unvaccinated -- arriving from 18 countries must fully quarantine for 14 days effective Aug. 11. If a person tests negative for coronavirus after seven days, they can be released from quarantine.

The countries are the United States, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Iceland, Greece, Ukraine, Iswatini, Botswana, Bulgaria, Tanzania, Malawi, Egypt, Czech Republic, Cuba, Rwanda and Tunisia.

They join a list of 24 other countries with various existing travel restrictions due to the pandemic, including the U.K., Brazil, India, Russia and Turkey.

The Israeli Health Ministry recorded 3,834 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the highest daily count topping a monthlong acceleration in new infections. Serious cases of COVID-19 have grown from 19 in mid-June to at least 221 despite the country’s rapid vaccination campaign.

More than 57% of the country’s 9.3 million citizens have received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Israel had secured a large supply of the Pfizer vaccines in exchange for trading medical data.

___

MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

— New York City: Vaccination proof needed for indoor events, dining, gyms

— WH: US shipped abroad more than 110M doses of vaccines

— China orders mass coronavirus testing for Wuhan

— 1st cruise ship docks in Puerto Rico since start of pandemic

___

— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

___

HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

NEW YORK — Meat processer Tyson Foods will require all of its U.S. employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19, becoming one of the first major employer of frontline workers to do so amid a resurgence of the virus.

Tyson, one of the world’s largest food companies, announced Tuesday that members of leadership team must be vaccinated by Sept. 24 and the rest of its office workers by Oct. 1. Its frontline workers must be vaccinated by Nov. 1, although the company said the specifics were being negotiated with unions.

Just under half of its U.S. workforce -- about 56,000 employees -- have been vaccinated after the company staged more than 100 vaccination events since February, the Springfield, Arkansas, company says. It plans to continue with those events and offer a $200 bonus for all frontline workers who receive a vaccine.

In a memo to employees, CEO Donnie King expressed alarm about the rise of the delta variant and made clear the vaccine requirement was needed to overcome persistent hesitancy to get the shots.

___

JACKSON, MISS. — The number of people receiving doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Mississippi is increasing as new cases surge in the state.

Around 53,000 people received either a first or second dose of the coronavirus vaccine the week of July 25-31, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health. That’s after the state reported a low of around 20,000 vaccinations for the week of July 4-10.

The last time vaccination rates were so high was April 25 to May 1, when 55,638 people were inoculated.

Mississippi is ranked among the least vaccinated states in the country. Around 1.2 million people in the state of 3 million have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Mississippi’s department of health reported the state had nearly 5,000 new confirmed cases over the weekend. That’s more than six times the number of new cases — 796 — reported three weeks ago on July 12.

___

DETROIT — Unionized auto workers in the U.S. will go back to wearing masks in all factories, offices and warehouses starting Wednesday because of the spreading delta coronavirus variant.

The decision by a task force of representatives from General Motors, Ford, Stellantis and the United Auto Workers was announced on Tuesday. It includes all workers regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated.

The move comes just under a month after vaccinated union workers were allowed to shed their masks. But the union says in a statement the decision was made for worker safety due to a change in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mask guidelines. The statement says the delta variant’s “alarmingly high” transmission rate is making the return of masks necessary.

The task force encourages all workers to get vaccinations so mask requirements can be relaxed. About 150,000 factory workers from all three companies wore masks at work from May 2020 until the requirement ended July 12.

“We will continue to closely monitor this situation to ensure we are doing everything possible to keep our families, members and employees safe,” the union said in a statement.

Last week, the CDC changed course on some masking guidelines, recommending that even vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where cases are surging.

___

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida has risen to an all-time high of 11,515 patients.

The figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show 2,400 of those patients are in ICU beds. The previous day, the data showed there were 10,389 COVID-hospitalizations in the state.

The new number breaks a previous record for current hospitalizations set more than a year ago before vaccines were available. Last year, Florida hit its previous peak on July 23, with 10,170 hospitalizations.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis insisted the spike will soon abate and he won't impose any business restrictions or mask mandates.

___

NEW YORK — New York City will soon require proof of COVID-19 vaccinations for indoor activities.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the move Tuesday, the first big city in the U.S. to impose such restrictions.

The new requirement starts Aug. 16. It applies to indoor dining, gyms and indoor entertainment venues.

De Blasio said Monday he was making “a strong recommendation” that everyone wear a mask in public indoor settings but stressed that the city’s “overwhelming strategic thrust” remained getting more people vaccinated.

Official data indicates about 66% of adults in New York City are f

___

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Carnival Mardi Gras has docked in Puerto Rico — the first cruise ship to visit the U.S. territory since the start of the pandemic.

Some cautiously celebrated Tuesday’s visit. The ship arrives as Puerto Rico is reporting an increase in COVID-19 cases blamed on the delta variant. It’s also seeking to restart its tourism sector, which depended on record numbers of cruise ship passengers visiting in recent years.

Executive director of Puerto Rico’s Tourism Company Carlos Mercado tells The Associated Press the government has taken precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, including allowing only the fully vaccinated to disembark.

He says the ship was traveling at 70% capacity, with some 4,500 people aboard. He estimates a total of 3,500 will disembark.

Mercado noted 95% of the ship’s passengers are vaccinated, with children younger than 12 making up the majority of those not inoculated.

The Carnival Mardi Gras departed Port Canaveral, Florida, and Puerto Rico was its first stop. Some 1.9 million cruise ship passengers visited Puerto Rico in 2019, a record for the island, said tourism spokeswoman Astrid Rolón.

___

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A South Florida school district that voted last week to require masks when in-person learning resumes now says it will comply with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order preventing mask mandates in schools.

The Broward County Public Schools board unanimously voted last week to require students, teachers and staff — even those who are vaccinated — to wear facial coverings inside schools when classes begin Aug. 18.

But Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an order empowering the state’s Board of Education to withhold funding from districts that enforce a mask mandate. DeSantis says he wants parents to decide whether their children should wear a mask to school. He also claimed the outbreak is seasonal.

___

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Japan is donating 1.4 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Sri Lanka, which has been facing a severe shortage of AstraZeneca vaccine to complete the second dose.

The Japanese donation follows a personal request made by Sri Lanka president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the Japan prime minister Yoshihide Suga, said a statement from the president’s office.

The first of consignment — amounting to 728,460 doses — was flown into the Indian ocean island nation on July 31, under the COVAX Facility. The next batch of AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive on Aug. 7.

Sri Lanka has been facing a shortage of more than 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine after the producer in the neighboring India failed to deliver the promised shots amounting to nearly 13 million, because of the surge of the virus in India. The nation has experienced a sharp increase of positive cases and deaths since April because of the celebrations and shopping by the people during the traditional new year festival.

Sri Lanka’s total cases have reached 313,769 and 4,571 confirmed deaths.

___

WASHINGTON — The White House says the U.S. has shipped more than 110 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 60 countries, ranging from Afghanistan to Zambia.

President Joe Biden was expected to discuss that milestone and more Tuesday in remarks about the U.S. strategy to slow the spread of the coronavirus abroad. The president’s announcement will come amid a rise in infections in the U.S., fueled by the highly contagious delta variant of the virus.

Biden has promised the U.S. will be the “arsenal of vaccines” for the world, and it has shipped the most vaccines abroad of any donor nation. While notable, the 110 million doses donated largely through a vaccine program known as COVAX represent a fraction of what is needed globally.

The White House says in a statement the U.S. will begin shipping at the end of August the half a billion doses of Pfizer vaccine it has pledged to 100 low-income countries.

___

BEIJING — Chinese authorities have announced mass coronavirus testing in Wuhan as an unusually wide series of COVID-19 outbreaks reached the city where the disease was first detected in late 2019.

The provincial capital of 11 million people in central China is the latest city to undergo city-wide testing. Three cases were confirmed in Wuhan on Monday, its first non-imported cases in more than a year.

China has largely curbed COVID-19 at home after the initial outbreak that devastated Wuhan and spread globally. Since then, authorities have tamped down and controlled the disease whenever it pops up with quick lockdowns and mass testing.

The current outbreaks are still in the hundreds of cases in total, but have spread much more widely than previous ones. Many of the cases have been identified as the highly contagious delta variant.

The National Health Commission says Tuesday that 90 new cases had been confirmed the previous day.

___

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s top health official says his country for the first time has administered 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine across the country in the past 24 hours.

Faisal Sultan made the announcement on Twitter on Tuesday.

He congratulated all those who made it possible for Pakistan to inoculate people in such a large number on Monday.

Sultan said Pakistan since March has administered 30 million vaccine doses and 10 million doses were administered in only the past two weeks.

The latest development comes days after Pakistan imposed a lockdown in the southern port city of Karachi and in other high-risk areas to contain the spread of coronavirus.

___

SYDNEY — Australia’s Qantas Group says it expects Sydney’s COVID-19 lockdown to last for at least another two months and it will furlough 2,500 staff due to an associated downturn in domestic flights.

Sydney and Brisbane, Australia’s biggest and third-biggest cities, respectively, are in lockdown due to growing clusters of the delta variant.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce says 2,500 staff from Qantas Airways and budget subsidiary Jetstar will be furloughed for an estimated two months. The airlines employ 26,000 staff in Australia.

Joyce sas based on current daily tallies of new infections, “it’s reasonable to assume that Sydney’s borders will be closed for at least another two months.”

Sydney, where Qantas is headquartered, and surrounding cities in New South Wales state have been locked down since June 26. The lockdown will continue until at least Aug. 28.

New South Wales on Tuesday reported 199 new cases in the latest 24-hour period. Brisbane and surrounding municipalities in Queensland state locked down on July 31 until Aug. 8. Queensland on Tuesday reported 16 new cases in the latest 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Australia’s prime minister has dismissed an opposition proposal to pay people to be vaccinated as an insult to Australians.

Only 19% of Australian adults had been fully vaccinated by Monday. Most would prefer Pfizer, which is in short supply. Many are concerned about the slight risk of blood clotting caused by AstraZeneca, the only alternative in Australia.

___

By Associated Press 04 August 2021, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>