Zimbabwe President Predicts Prosperous New Year

01 JAN, 2021 - 00:01 

President Mnangagwa delivers his End of Year message to the nation at State House in Harare yesterday. — Picture: Tawanda Mudimu

Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter

Herald

AFTER setbacks spawned by Covid-19 last year, 2021 promises to be a year of progress as it begins today against the backdrop of a good rainy season, prospects of a vaccine against the global plague and unprecedented economic and infrastructural development, the President has said.

In his End of Year message to the nation at State House in Harare yesterday, President Mnangagwa said 2021 was a year to remain focused as the country moves towards Vision 2030 to be an upper middle class economy.

“Now is the time to press our foot on the pedal and confidently move forward undeterred, to modernise and industrialise our country towards Vision 2030.

“As outlined in our National Budget and the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), our ambitions for 2021 are bold and to realise them, we must be united. With the optimism of plentiful rainfall and promising news of a vaccine against the pandemic, 2021 must be a year of progress, development and making up for lost time,” said the President.

“As a result of our collective, hard honest work and unshakable loyalty to our national interest, there is abundant evidence that we are indeed masters of our destiny.”

Reflecting on 2020, the President saluted Zimbabweans — both in the country and abroad — for their resilience and adapting to the new normal spawned by Covid-19.

“As your President and on behalf of the Government of Zimbabwe, I salute the people of our great country, both at home and abroad, for their resilience, perseverance, focus, unity of purpose and adaptiveness in the face of the prevailing Covid-19 ‘new normal.’ I further applaud all stakeholders, including traditional and religious leaders, community based organisations, local authorities and political parties, for mobilising our communities such as the fight against the Covid-19 pandemics, national prayer and fasting and Pfumvudza/Intwasa,” said President Mnangagwa.

“To our fellow citizens in the diaspora, we are grateful to you for the continued support rendered to your families here back home, even under the difficult and constrained circumstances of the year. We are also thankful to various Governments, development partners and the international community who stood in solidarity with us.”

Throughout the year, said President Mnangagwa, he was proud of Zimbabweans who remained disciplined in the face of adversity.

“You were responsible, you were peaceful and united. And through your actions, thousands of lives were saved. It is my profound hope that we carry with us this spirit of commitment and unity into the New Year and beyond. Equally, may the events of the 2020 always remind us that we are all bonded together as diverse, but one people, united by one Flag and one National Anthem,” said President Mnangagwa.

He chronicled several developmental projects and reforms registered in the year by the Government.

They include setting up and operationalising the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) , granting Victoria Falls city status, rolling out devolution and decentralisation policy, implementation of the Heritage based Education 5.0 among other achievements.

“The media reform agenda also took huge steps which resulted in the issuance of new national commercial television licenses by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe and the first campus radio station at Great Zimbabwe University,” he said.

President Mnangagwa also noted the repeal of Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act through the enactment of Freedom of Information Act, appointment of Zimbabwe Media Commissioners into office and resuscitation of the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust.

Full Text of Xi Jinping's 2021 New Year Address

By Agencies

Dec 31, 2020 07:03 PM

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a New Year speech Thursday evening in Beijing to ring in 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Comrades, friends, ladies and gentlemen, greetings to you all! 

The year 2021 is arriving. From China's capital Beijing, I extend my New Year wishes to you all! 

2020 was an extraordinary year. Facing the sudden coronavirus pandemic, we put people and their lives first to interpret the great love among humans. With solidarity and resilience, we wrote the epic of our fight against the pandemic. 

During the days when we addressed the hardships together, we saw the heroic spirit of marching straight to the frontlines, holding posts with tenacity, taking responsibility to get through thick and thin, sacrifices with bravery, and touching moments of helping each other. 

From medical workers to the people's army, from scientific researchers to community workers, from volunteers to those who built the projects, from seniors to youths born after the 1990s and 2000s, numerous people fulfilled their missions at the cost of their lives and protected humanity with sincere love. 

They pooled their drops of strength into tremendous power and built an iron wall to safeguard lives. Many figures marched ahead without hesitation, many relays were accomplished hand in hand, many scenes showed touching moments, all these vividly illustrate the great spirit of fighting against the pandemic.  

Greatness is forged in the ordinary. Heroes come from the people. Every person is remarkable! 

Our sympathy goes to all the unfortunate ones infected with the coronavirus! We salute all the ordinary heroes! 

I am proud of our great motherland and people, as well as the unyielding national spirit. Only in hard times can courage and perseverance be manifested. Only after polishing can a piece of jade be finer. We overcame the impact of the pandemic, and made great achievements in coordinating prevention and control and in economic and social development. 

The 13th Five-Year Plan has been accomplished in full. The 14th Five-Year Plan is being comprehensively formulated. We are accelerating the pace to set up a new pattern for development, and are deeply implementing high-quality development. 

China is the first major economy worldwide to achieve positive growth, and its GDP in 2020 is expected to step up to a new level of 100 trillion yuan. China has seen a good harvest in grain production for 17 years in a row. China has seen breakthroughs in scientific explorations like the Tianwen-1 (Mars mission), Chang'e-5 (lunar probe), and Fendouzhe (deep-sea manned submersible). Construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port is proceeding with vigor. 

We also defeated severe flooding. With the military and civilians heedless of danger and difficulty, and standing in unity, we managed to minimize the damage of the floods. 

I inspected 13 provincial-level regions and was glad to see people carefully implementing coronavirus prevention and control measures, racing against time to resume work and production, and sparing no efforts to advance innovation. 

Everywhere were vibrant scenes of confident, resilient people making the most of every minute. In 2020, China made the historic achievement of establishing a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieved decisive success in eradicating extreme poverty. 

We launched the final assault on the fortress of entrenched rural poverty, and cracked this "hardest nut."

Through 8 years, under the current standard, China has eradicated extreme poverty for the nearly 100 million rural people affected, and all the 832 impoverished counties have shaken off poverty. 

These years, I have visited 14 contiguous areas of dire poverty. The unremitting efforts of the folks and the wholehearted contribution of the poverty-eradication cadres often come to my mind. 

We still need to stay tenacious like a bamboo deeply rooted in the rocks, keep our feet on the ground, and work hard to paint a magnificent picture of rural vitalization, and steadily march ahead towards the goal of common prosperity.   

This year, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, among others, and 30 years of the development and opening-up of Pudong in Shanghai.  As I stood on the southern coast as the spring tide surged and on the colorful bank of the Huangpu River, my mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts. 

Pilot trials have become models and leading forces, and explorations to innovate have become leading forces of innovation. The opening-up and reform has created miracles of development. In the future, we should further deepen reform and expand opening-up with greater courage, and create more "Stories of Spring." 

We are not alone on the Great Way and the whole world is one family. After a year of hardship, we can understand more than ever the significance of a community with a shared future for mankind. 

I had many phone calls with friends from the international community, both old and new, and attended many "cloud conferences." What we discussed most was staying united to combat the pandemic. 

We still have a long way to go in pandemic prevention and control. People from all over the world should join hands and support each other to early dispel the gloom of the pandemic and strive for a better "Earth home." 

2021 will see the 100th birthday of the Communist Party of China. Its 100-year journey surges forward with great momentum. Its original aspiration remains even firmer one hundred years later. 

From Shikumen in Shanghai to the South Lake in Jiaxing City, the small red boat (where the first CPC congress concluded) bore the great trust of the people and the hope of the nation. The boat has sailed through turbulent rivers and treacherous shoals, and has voyaged across violent tidal waves, becoming a great ship that navigates China's stable and long-term development. 

The CPC bears its eternal great cause in mind, and the centenary only ushers in the prime of life. We adhere to putting people at the center, stay true to our original aspiration, keep our mission well in mind, break the waves and sail out for our journey ahead, and we will certainly realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. 

At the historic crossroad of the "Two Centenary Goals," the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country is about to start. The road ahead is long; striving is the only way forward. We have strived, broken through brambles and thorns, and crossed ten thousand rivers and thousands of mountains. 

We will continue to strive, march ahead with courage, and create brighter glory! At just this moment, the festive lanterns have been lit, and family members gather for reunion. The New Year is coming. I wish our land to be splendid, our country to be prosperous, and our people to live in peace. I wish you all a harmonious, smooth and auspicious year, full of happiness! 

Thank you!

US 'Two-Warship' Transit of Taiwan Straits Last, Desperate Move by Trump Admin: Observer

By Guo Yuandan

Dec 31, 2020 04:02 PM

Vessels in the Taiwan Straits, July 20, 2017. Photo: CGTN

Chinese Defense Ministry firmly opposed two US Navy warships that sailed through the Taiwan Straits on Thursday, the last day of 2020. Amid incumbent US administration's desperate destructive acts, Chinese observers regarded the ministry's strong response as a warning that the Taiwan question is China's core interest and no one is allowed to challenge China over the question.  

On Thursday morning, right before the New Year, two US Navy destroyers, the USS John S. McCain and USS Curtis Wilbur, sailed through the Taiwan Straits and "Chinese military monitored their activities with air and navy forces," defense ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said in a statement published on the ministry's WeChat account. 

The US flexed its muscles again after a sail-through on December 18. This sent a wrong signal to Taiwan secessionists, seriously jeopardizing regional peace and stability, Wu said. 

Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) always keeps high alert and is ready to deal with any threats and provocations to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the spokesperson said. 

Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also slammed the US warships' frequent provocations in the region at Thursday's routine press conference, urging the US to play a constructive role for regional peace and stability, not the opposite.

The two warship sail-through is rare and the provocation came just after a previous menace no more than two weeks ago. Accordingly, China escalated its reaction.  Previously such sail-throughs were slammed mostly by the PLA Eastern Theater Command, but this time the Defense Ministry spokesperson issued the opposition, Chinese observers said, noting the US has the tradition of stirring up troubles around festivals.

Tian Shichen, vice president of think tank Grandview Institution, told the Global Times that the Defense Ministry sent a signal that the US should not cross the line. The Taiwan question is China's core interest and there is no room for ambiguity.   

China, out of security concerns, must express concerns and warnings to US military's provocations, Tian said. 

International relations experts contend that the rare two-warship sail-through reflects the US' tough stance with the Taiwan question. President Donald Trump has about 20 days left in the White House and such random acts of maneuvers are expected. 

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times that the US will not change its strategy of containing China by playing the Taiwan card and that China should be alert to it. 

Although it is unclear how Joe Biden will deal with Taiwan-related affairs after taking office, he is likely to prioritize domestic topics and be less provocative, Li added. The two-warship sail-through is part of the Trump administration's desperate and destructive moves during its final days, Li said. 

He believed such moves will be adjusted by Biden's team during his first 100days because both China and the US "are willing to act in a controlled manner on Taiwan-related topics," Li said on Thursday. 

China Grants Conditional Market Approval for its First Homemade COVID-19 Vaccine

By Leng Shumei, Hu Yuwei and Zhang Hui

Dec 31, 2020 10:11 AM

A staff member checks the packaging quality of COVID-19 inactivated vaccine products at a packaging plant of the Beijing Biological Products Institute Co., Ltd. in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 25, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

China on Thursday announced that it has granted market approval attached with conditions for its first homemade COVID-19 vaccine, which was developed by Sinopharm, marking a monumental step in the battle against the pandemic that has killed 1.79 million globally.

The inactivated vaccine developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute under Sinopharm’s subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), got official authorization from China's National Medical Products Administration on Wednesday，Chen Shifei, deputy head of the National Medical Products Administration, said at Thursday's press conference.

The move came one day after the institute announced that the vaccine showed 79.34 percent efficacy and a 99.52 percent antibody positive conversion rate, according to interim results of the Phase III clinical trials. 

The results are better than the 50 percent standard of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese authorities, according to the institute. The vaccine also showed a good safety level, its producers noted.

A vaccine has to undergo strict review by each country's national drug administration before being authorized for public use. All data and processes are reviewed by professional third-party committees, CNBG's chairman Yang Xiaoming told the Global Times in a recent exclusive interview. 

Yang was inoculated with a CNBG vaccine in March with hundreds of his colleagues. He said they had tested the level of antibodies six months after vaccination and the results were good.

Yang noted that data on safety and efficacy collected so far in the Phase III clinical trials is better than expected. 

Reported side effects of the vaccines are also milder than expected, Yang said. The side effects of CNBG's inactivated vaccines include aches or redness at the injection site, fever, muscular soreness, sickness and headache. 

A representative of Sinopharm told the Global Times on Wednesday that the interim results are mainly based on data from trials conducted in the United Arab Emirates, the vaccine's largest test base. The Chinese regulator uses a very rigorous standard - stronger even than the international criteria - in reviewing the number of confirmed infected cases in the double-blind placebo-controlled trials for understanding the efficacy of the vaccine.

The Beijing institute's vaccine was approved in the UAE and Bahrain earlier this month. 

Sinopharm's two inactivated vaccines have been administered to nearly 1 million people for emergency use and no serious adverse reactions have been reported. About 70,000 volunteers have participated in the phase-III clinical trials in more than 10 countries. 

So far, at least 10 provinces in China, including East China's Jiangsu Province and South China's Guangdong Province, have officially announced a vaccination plan for local residents. 

To form an immunology barrier it requires at least 700 million Chinese residents to be  vaccinated, which means at least 1.4 billion doses, Yang said. 

Normally there would only be 500-700 million doses of vaccines available on the Chinese market every year, Yang said, noting that it would be a big challenge for China to conduct mass vaccination in such a short time.  

According to Yang, CNBG's production capacity of COVID-19 inactivated vaccines has reached 120 million doses by the end of the year and it will expand to one billion doses per year in 2021. 

Yang noted that China has established a complete cold-chain industry for vaccine delivery. The only potential problem may lie in the imbalance between different areas such as developed coastal areas and central and western areas that are comparatively less developed.

Tao Lina, a vaccine expert in Shanghai, said that the approval demonstrated that China has created a "miracle" by creating a vaccine within one year. 

Pfizer and Moderna have announced 95 percent efficacy for their mRNA vaccines, which was beyond predictions and drove up the public's expectation for Chinese inactivated vaccines.   

Tao noted that despite the high efficacy, the US mRNA vaccines have shown more side effects as well as acute allergy occurrences. The mRNA vaccines also have more strict requirements for transportation. 

Tao suggested that the inactivated and mRNA vaccines can both help human beings to resist the novel coronavirus. But both are early-stage products and more improved ones are expected, which will offer more balance between efficacy, safety and transportation requirements. 

When and How Can China Make COVID-19 Vaccines Free to its General Public?

By Zhang Hui

Dec 31, 2020 05:06 PM

Sinopharm vaccine File photo:VC

Chinese health officials said on Thursday that China will make COVID-19 vaccines affordable to all Chinese residents and eventually offer them free of charge to the public as a premise, a pledge which analysts said would be realized next year when China's production capacity of the vaccine increases to cover the entire population.

Zheng Zhongwei, director of the Development Center for Medical Science & Technology of the National Health Commission, said at a Thursday media briefing that mass vaccination will roll out, and costs for the COVID-19 vaccine will be significantly lowered—this will make the vaccine affordable to ordinary Chinese residents. 

Zheng made the remarks after China gave conditional market approval to an inactivated vaccine developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute under Sinopharm's subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG).

Zeng Yixin, vice minister of the National Health Commission, stressed at the media briefing that the vaccine price will depend on its scale of use, but the premise is that as a public product, the vaccine will eventually be made free to the public. 

Ye Qing, deputy director of the Statistics Bureau of Central China's Hubei Province and a professor of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan, told the Global Times on Thursday that we need to pay for the vaccines at this moment because China's vaccine capacity has not reached to a level to cover all residents. 

Meanwhile, making vaccines free at this time will put great fiscal pressure on the central and local governments, Ye said. 

The Chinese government at various levels has allocated 110.48 billion yuan ($ 15.92 billion) for epidemic prevention and control as of early March, and Ye predicted that the entire expenditure this year may reach to 200 billion yuan. 

"The fiscal stress out of epidemic prevention and control for the central and local governments may last for years," Ye said. 

On production capacity, Chinese vaccine developer has ramped up production lines. China has previously said it has 600 million doses of vaccine by the end of this year, and Sinopharm said it will produce 1 billion doses next year. 

Ye said we need to appeal to the public that they should get vaccinated no matter the vaccine was free or not when China has enough vaccine, which may come next year. 

Vaccination is the right of every individual as well as the duty of every individual in controlling the spread of infectious diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in December.  

China's vaccines went into emergency use in June, and have provided a majority of essential workers and key groups at high risk of infection the jab since December 15. Inoculations will be expanded to cover seniors, and people with underlying diseases before being promoted to cover all residents, Zeng said.

Several provinces have rolled out free vaccinations to key and high-risk groups, including Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces. In some places such as Wuhan, people from key groups, including students going abroad, paid 234 yuan ($35.83) for each shot.

China to Eventually Make COVID-19 Vaccines Free to Public as a 'Premise'

Global Times

Dec 31, 2020 01:57 PM

Vaccine. Photo:VCG

China will ensure the COVID-19 vaccines be affordable to all Chinese residents. The price will depend on the scale of use but the premise is that it would eventually offer free access to the vaccines, Chinese health officials said on Thursday. 

The remarks came on the heels of announcements that China gave conditional market approval to an inactivated vaccine developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute under Sinopharm's subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG).

Zheng Zhongwei, director of the Development Center for Medical Science & Technology of the National Health Commission, said at a Thursday media briefing that mass vaccination will roll out, and costs for the COVID-19 vaccine will be significantly lowered—this will make the vaccine affordable to ordinary Chinese residents. 

Zeng Yixin, vice minister of the National Health Commission, stressed at the media briefing that the vaccine price will depend on its scale of use, but the premise is that as a public product, the vaccine will eventually be free of charge. 

China's vaccines went into emergency use in June, and have provided a majority of essential workers and key groups at high risk of infection the jab since December 15. Inoculations will be expanded to cover seniors, and people with underlying diseases before being promoted to cover all residents, Zeng said.

Several provinces have rolled out free vaccinations to key and high-risk groups, including Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces. In some places such as Wuhan, people from key groups, including students going abroad, paid 234 yuan ($35.83) for each shot.

The cost for China's nucleic acid testing has been gradually lowered with further tests. Many provinces and cities announced that they have been lowering the price for nucleic acid testing since June. Starting on June 25, the price for each test in Beijing went down from 180 yuan ($25) to a ceiling of 120 yuan at all of the city's public medical institutions.

Will COVID-19 Vaccines Work on the New Coronavirus Variant?

Associated Press

December 29, 2020

https://apnews.com/article/us-news-anthony-fauci-infectious-diseases-coronavirus-pandemic-6839fde8261b404ef995c682017b5a84

Will COVID-19 vaccines work on the new coronavirus variant?

Experts believe so, but they’re working to confirm that.

A coronavirus variant in the United Kingdom has caused alarm because of the possibility that it might spread more easily. But even if that turns out to be true, experts say the COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out will likely still work on the variant.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said data coming from Britain indicates the vaccines still will block the virus. But the U.S. also will do tests to be sure.

Viruses often undergo small changes as they reproduce and move through a population. In fact, the slight modifications are how scientists track the spread of a virus from one place to another.

But if a virus mutates significantly enough, one worry is that current vaccines might no longer offer as much protection. And although that’s a possibility to watch for over time with the coronavirus, experts say they don’t believe it will be the case with the variant in the U.K.

“My expectation is, this will not be a problem,” said Moncef Slaoui, the chief science adviser for the U.S. government’s COVID-19 vaccine push.

Texas Hits New Virus Hospitalization Record, Passing 12,000

Gov. Greg Abbott talks about the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a UPS Distribution Center in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. Listening is Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas hit another grim milestone Thursday when it surpassed 12,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, setting a new record high in that category for the fourth consecutive day.

Meanwhile, a Travis County district judge sided with Austin officials after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office tried to overturn a ban on late-night dine-in services on New Year’s Eve following a hearing just hours before people would normally head out for a long night of celebrations.

Judge Amy Clark Meachum ruled the Austin-area ban on dine-in eating and drinking between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. each night from Thursday until Sunday morning can be enforced. At a livestreamed court hearing, the state argued that Austin’s local orders are not allowed under previous statewide orders issued by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Texas did not object to similar orders previously put in place by other cities, notably El Paso and San Antonio.

The Austin-area’s top elected official, County Judge Andy Brown, said in a statement the ruling will “help our community slow the spread of COVID-19, while allowing businesses to safely continue their operations through takeout, drive-thru, and delivery service options.”

“I encourage everyone in Travis County to order food for takeout from a local restaurant and to celebrate the New Year safely at home tonight,” Brown said.

Paxton’s office said Thursday night it had filed an appeal of the decision.

An official record of the hearing will not be available for another day after Judge Meachum said during that neither her nor her staff planned to work the holiday and were called in last-minute for a temporary restraining order.

Texas reported 12,268 COVID patients in hospitals, an increase of 1,400 in one week. State officials also counted 349 newly-reported deaths. The Texas death toll has reported more than 26,400 fatalities.

The stark numbers keep rising as officials roll out the first vaccines in a system that has produced delays, some confusion and frustration.

Texas had about 4,300 doses of the Moderna vaccine that had to be checked for problems with cold storage requirements and some shipments had to be replaced, the Department of State Health Services said this week. Texas also had more than 144,000 doses that were expected prior to Christmas not arrive until this week, an agency spokeswoman said.

Abbott and state health Commissioner Dr. John Hellerstedt suggested this week that some providers were not using all their vaccines and keeping some in reserve, which several hospital groups have disputed.

According to state vaccine data, the state has received 773,000 doses and more than 282,515 people have received at least one round of the shot, through Wednesday.

California Passes 25,000 Deaths, Finds 3 More Variant Cases

By BRIAN MELLEY and STEFANIE DAZIO

A pedestrian wears a face mask while walking past a sign at a Forward healthcare location during the coronavirus pandemic in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California surpassed 25,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic and officials disclosed Thursday that three more cases involving a mutant variant of the virus have been confirmed in San Diego County.

The grim developments came as an ongoing surge swamps hospitals and pushes nurses and doctors to the breaking point as they brace for another likely increase after the holidays.

“We’re exhausted and it’s the calm before the storm,” said Jahmaal Willis, a nurse and emergency room leader at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley. “It’s like we’re fighting a war, a never-ending war, and we’re running out of ammo. We have to get it together before the next fight.”

Public health officials continued to plead with residents just hours before the start of 2021 not to gather for New Year’s Eve celebrations.

In Los Angeles County, where an average of six people die every hour from COVID-19, the Department of Public Health tweeted out snippets every 10 minutes on lives that have been lost.

“The hair stylist who worked for 20 years to finally open her own shop.”

“A grandmother who loved to sing to her grandchildren.”

“The bus driver who put her daughter through college and was beaming with pride.”

The tweets, which included messages to wear a mask, physically distance, stay home and “Slow the spread. Save a life,” came on a day when the county reported a record 290 deaths. That would be a rate of one death every five minutes, though it included a backlog.

Los Angeles County, which has a quarter of the state’s 40 million residents, has had 40% of the deaths in California, the third state to reach the 25,000 death count. New York has had nearly 38,000 deaths, and Texas has had more than 27,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Infections are spreading rapidly. San Diego County confirmed Thursday that it had found a total of four cases of the virus variant that appears to be more contagious. A 30-year-old man tested positive for the variant on Wednesday and three more men — two in their 40s and one in his 50s — also have been confirmed to have the strain.

At least two of the men hadn’t traveled outside of the country and none had “any known interaction with each other,” the county said. Officials believed many more cases will surface.

San Diego County also reported a record high number of new deaths in a single day at 62, well over the previous record of 39 reported only a week earlier.

Hospitals, particularly in Southern California and the agricultural San Joaquin Valley in the middle of the state, have been overrun with virus patients and don’t have any more intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients.

In Los Angeles County, hospitals have been pushed “to the brink of catastrophe,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, health services director. “This is simply not sustainable. Not just for our hospitals, for our entire health system.”

Cathy Chidester, director of the county’s Emergency Medical Services Agency, said hospitals are facing problems with oxygen with so many COVID-19 patients needing it because they are struggling to breathe. Older hospitals are having difficulty maintaining oxygen pressure in aging infrastructure and some are scrambling to locate additional oxygen tanks for discharged patients to take home.

Ambulances are being forced to wait in bays as long as eight hours before they can transfer patients inside hospitals — and in some cases, doctors are treating patients inside ambulances, she said.

At Providence St. Mary Medical Center, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, there is a cacophany of alarms that sound when a patient’s heart stops and a constant hiss from the oxygen keeping so many alive, Willis said. The hospital has filled the triage area with beds and is assessing new arrivals in the parking lot. Three dozen patients were waiting to be admitted.

“We’re overflowing,” Willis said. “We’re treating patients in chairs, we’re treating patients in the hallways.”

In Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, only 8% of ICU beds were available, which is better than many places. Hospitals are still “stretched to the limit,” said Dr. Ahmad Kamal, county director of healthcare preparedness.

Two months ago, the county had 4.5 cases per 100,000 people. Now it has 50 cases per 100,000.

“What we are seeing now is not normal,” Kamal said. “It is an order of magnitude more than we saw just two months ago. We are not out of the woods. We are in the thick of the woods. And we all need to redouble our efforts.”

Kamal said the one bit of good news was that hospitals hadn’t felt the additional pressure of new cases after Christmas that they did after Thanksgiving, which has led to the current surge.

But public health officials fear a double-whammy from people who gathered at Christmas and New Year’s will create a surge upon a surge. They made their final pleas to persuade people to stay home on what is typically one of the biggest party nights of the year.

“We recognize the temptation and the frustration,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. “You may simply want to stray for one night to celebrate with friends. However, all it takes is one slip to have one exposure and the coronavirus has found another host, another victim, and our dangerous surge continues.”

Most of the state is under a 10 p.m. curfew and newly extended restrictions that have closed or reduced capacity of businesses. People people are being urged to stay home as much as possible to try to slow the spread of infections.

Police in Los Angeles will be patrolling streets and looking to shut down large New Year’s Eve gatherings, Mayor Eric Garcetti said. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria issued an executive order directing stricter enforcement of state and local public health rules.

___

This story has been corrected to show that 25,000 coronavirus deaths were reported Thursday, not Friday, and that the San Diego man with the new variant of COVID-19 is 30 years old, not 20.

Chief: Police Didn’t Show Care for Andre Hill After Shooting

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS and JOHN SEEWER

The driveway of a home in the 1000 block of Oberlin Drive where fatal police shooting occurred seen on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020 in Columbus, Ohio. Body camera footage released Wednesday shows Andre Hill, a 47-year-old Black man, emerging from a garage and holding up a cellphone in his left hand seconds before he is fatally shot by a Columbus police officer. (Joshua A. Bickel/The Columbus Dispatch via AP)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — In the minutes that ticked by after a police officer shot Andre Hill inside his friend’s garage, officers scoured the driveway for shell casings, strung crime scene tape around the house and blocked off the street.

At one point, two Columbus officers rolled Hill over and put handcuffs on him before leaving him alone again. None of them, according to body camera footage released Thursday, offered any first aid even though Hill, a 47-year-old Black man, was barely moving, groaning and bleeding while laying on the garage floor.

Roughly 10 minutes passed before a police supervisor showed up and asked, “Anybody doing anything for him?” It wasn’t until then that an officer began pumping the chest of Hill, who later was pronounced dead at a hospital on Dec. 22.

While Officer Adam Coy, who is white, was fired this week over accusations of incompetence and gross neglect of duty in the fatal shooting, the officers who failed to treat Hill also are under investigation for failing to follow department policy.

Police Chief Thomas Quinlan said he was horrified by the lack of compassion shown in the bodycam videos.

“As a police chief, and just as a human being, the events of the last week have left me shaken, and heartbroken for the family of Andre Hill,” Quinlan said in a statement. “Every man and woman who wears this badge should feel the same.”

Family members on on Thursday blasted officers’ treatment of Hill at an emotional news conference.

“The way that my brother was treated, to me, it’s like an animal,” said his sister, Michelle Hairston. “He was preyed upon. He wasn’t given any kind of chances.”

“Where is the humanity?” said Benjamin Crump, a civil rights and trial attorney representing the family and who, with family members, called on Coy to be arrested and charged. “This is a couple days before Christmas. Why is nobody being Christ-like?”

Coy, a 17-year member of the force, shot Hill when he emerged from the garage holding a cellphone with his left hand and his right hand not visible. Another officer on the scene said she didn’t perceive any threats and didn’t see a gun, contrary to a mistaken claim by Coy.

According to the bodycam video released Thursday, Coy told another officer leading him away from the home: “I’ve got to figure out what I missed.”

“We’ll take care of that, I promise you,” Officer Jared Barsotti responded.

Coy and Officer Amy Detweiler were responding to a neighbor’s nonemergency call when they encountered Hill.

A woman inside a house where Hill was shot told the officers moments after the shooting that he was coming over to bring her money, according to the bodycam footage.

“He was bringing me Christmas money. He didn’t do anything,” she shouted.

Roughly five minutes after Hill was shot, one officer shouted: “Let’s cuff him up. He’s still moving.”

Shawna Barnett, another one of Hill’s sisters, called out officers directly for their lack of action.

“How can you sleep at night knowing that you did this, and left him there, and had the nerve to turn him over and handcuff him but not offer him any type of help?” she said Thursday.

Hill was shot two weeks after a white Franklin County sheriff’s deputy shot 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr., who was Black, outside Goodson’s house on the north side of Columbus.

Twenty faith leaders, including the Roman Catholic bishop for the Columbus diocese, called for changes Thursday in central Ohio policing. The problem goes deeper than a “few bad apples” in departments, the leaders said in a letter sent to Columbus city and police officials.

“The deeper problem is the existence of a systemic culture within many police departments, as evidenced here in Columbus, where Black men are perceived as threats by the police,” the letter said. “The result is that Black communities always feel harassed and threatened.”

___

Seewer reported from Toledo. Kantele Franko in Columbus and Mark Gillispie from Cleveland contributed.

Africa Sails Through Despite Covid-19, Terrorism Threats

31 DEC, 2020 - 00:12  

President Mnangagwa chats to his counterparts — Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi (far right), President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa (second from right), Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi (second from left) and Tanzanian Vice President Samia Suluhu — in Maputo, Mozambique, after an Extraordinary Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation Summit

Ruth Butaumocho

African Agenda

Twenty-twenty is a year many people would easily want to forget following the outbreak and subsequent effect of the novel coronavirus of 2019 (Covid-19).

Massive developmental projects that African leaders had anticipated to roll out at the beginning of the year were shelved as Governments diverted funds meant for them towards fighting the pandemic.

The outbreak of the pandemic and its subsequent effects, which literally left nearly two million people dead and major economies grinding to a halt numbed the globe, throwing the world into disarray.

However, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Africa held its own and plodded through the challenges posed by the virus to implement important strategies for the development and stability of the continent.

AfCFTA gains momentum

Preparations to kick-start the continent’s biggest trading market, the African Continental Free Trade  Area Agreement have been gathering steam throughout the year amid indications that Nigeria is now the 34th country to ratify the treaty.

With Nigeria’s decision to ratify the treaty early this month, Africa is already geared to deliver a commercially viable continental trading market that kicks off tomorrow, amid expectations of a high turnout of traders on an exclusively African platform.

Twenty-member states among them Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique are yet to comply. However, that will not stop AfCFTA to execute its mandate of ensuring that African member states will be trading by themselves, a platform that the continent had been yearning for all these years.

The AfCFTA agreement entered into force on May 30, 2019 after the treaty was ratified by 22 countries, Zimbabwe included, the minimum number required under the treaty.

Trading that was initially scheduled to start on July 1, had to be postponed for six months to January, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The platform is expected to spawn an array of opportunities for countries whose products and services are good enough to trade on such a highly competitive arena. It therefore calls to order for countries to polish their workmanship, lest they might find it difficult to access opportunities.

Africa affirms democracy through elections

This year, Africa pulled a feat in the political terrain when more than 20 African countries held elections — 12 of them presidential — in a show of democracy despite the financial and social strain that Covid-19 had on many economies.

Some of the countries that held elections included Tanzania, Niger, Central African Republic, Ghana and Malawi.

Despite some reported cases of violence in some countries, new leaders were sworn into office, a clear attestation that Africa is capable of defining its own political trajectory without the interference of the outside world.

However, good as this may sound, critics say the 2020 elections may turn out to be a historic lost opportunity towards gender equality in politics after it emerged that the few female candidates participated in the elections from various countries failed to make it into office.

Unlike the Americans who played the gender card right by electing Kamala Harris — the first female of colour as their vice president-elect, male candidates emerged winners in Africa, with no single female candidate being elected into high office.

Lack of female representation in the top echelons of power in Africa is a historical and structural problem African leaders will need to urgently address, considering that women make up half of Africa’s population, yet their representation has remained insignificant over the years. The challenges stalling women in governance issues are well documented and would need political will and resourcing to hoist the female populace on a political pedestal.

Africa committed to deal with insurgency

Silencing the guns by 2020, proved to be a challenge for Africa, after violence and terrorism broke out in some parts of the continent, with conflicts being reported in Nigeria, Ethiopia’s northern Tigray and insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado.

However, the robust decisions taken by both the Ethiopian government and Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security on insurgency attests to the continent’s commitment to thwart any attempt to destabilise constitutionally elected governments.

The conflict between Ethiopia’s federal forces and the rebellious Tigray’s People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is believed to have killed thousands and displaced approximately 950 000 people since November.

In the northern part of Mozambique, terrorism has left more than 3 000 people dead and thousands more homeless, a development that resulted in Sadc calling for an Extraordinary Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation Summit in Maputo this month.

The summit was attended by President Mnangagwa among other leaders to strategise on the way forward.

However, Sadc countries will not take the events in Mozambique lying down and the bloc has since indicated that it is monitoring the security situation in that country while mapping out strategies to ensure Islamic insurgency activities in the northern parts of the country are tackled appropriately. In the event that the insurgency escalates, Sadc will have no option, but to step in and stop the further loss of lives.

End of an era: Western Countries dump the CFA Franc

In a landmark decision, several countries in the West African Economic and Monetary Union finally agreed with France to rename its CFA franc the ECO and cut some of its financial ties with Paris that had pinned the region’s common currency since its creation during World War Two.

Under the new development, the Eco will remain pegged to the Euro, but the countries in the bloc will no longer have to keep 50 percent of their reserves in the French Treasury. In addition, they will no longer be French representatives on the currency’s board.

Some West African countries wanted it gone because they viewed it as a relic from the colonial times, while others argued that it provided some form of financial stability in the turbulent regions.

chinhemaruva@gmail.com

WHO Warns of Worse Pandemics

Caution expressed as global cases continue surging

By AFP

Dec 29, 2020 06:18 PM

A photo taken in the late hours of August 17, shows a sign of the World Health Organization (WHO) at their headquarters in Geneva Photo: VCG

South Africa banned alcohol sales and made masks mandatory in public from Tuesday after a surge in coronavirus cases, as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that pandemics far more deadly than COVID-19 may lie ahead.

Nations around the world are struggling with winter spikes in infections that have pushed the global caseload close to 81 million, even as the rollout of vaccines gathers pace in North America and Europe.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Monday a ban on selling alcohol and said face masks will be compulsory in public after his nation became the first in Africa to record one million cases. 

He said data showed "excessive alcohol consumption" leads to an increase in trauma cases reported at hospitals, causing an "unnecessary" strain on public health facilities.

Surging cases also forced authorities in Rio de Janeiro to announce Monday that they will block access to beaches on Thursday to prevent crowds celebrating New Year's Eve.

And in Spain, where the death toll has topped 50,000, the health minister said the government would set up a registry of people who refuse to be vaccinated, and share it with other EU member states.

Vaccinations in Spain and other EU countries started over the weekend, and authorities fear vaccine hesitancy and rejection could hamper those efforts - especially because of misinformation campaigns on social media.

The coronavirus has devastated lives and economies across the globe, but the WHO warned Monday that worse pandemics could lie ahead, urging the world to get serious about preparedness.

"This is a wakeup call," WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan said. "This pandemic... has spread around the world extremely quickly and it has affected every corner of this planet, but this is not necessarily the big one." 

While huge scientific progress was made to study the virus and develop vaccines at record speed, WHO senior advisor Bruce Aylward cautioned that the world was far from ready for the next pandemic.

"While we are better prepared... we are not fully prepared for this one, let alone the next one."

With Schools Shut by Pandemic, Solar Radios Keep Kenyan Pupils Studying

By Reuters

Dec 24, 2020 05:57 PM

A student sits at her desk along a corridor at Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, as she studies at Kibera School for Girls. Photo: AFP

Deep in Tana River County, in southeastern Kenya, a group of pupils formed a circle around their teacher, jotting down notes as they listened to a Swahili diction lesson coming from the solar-powered radio sitting in their teacher's lap.

The radio the children from Dida Ade primary school gathered around was one of hundreds distributed for free to the most vulnerable households in the semi-arid region east of Kenya's capital, Nairobi. The radios allow children without internet access or electricity at home to continue studying while schools are closed to slow the spread of COVID-19, in a project that could also help children stay in school after the pandemic.

Funded by the Zizi Afrique Foundation, a Kenyan nongovernmental organization that produces research to drive education policy, the solar-powered radios also come with bulbs for household lighting and slots for phone-charging.

When schools across Kenya shut in March to slow the spread of COVID-19, Zizi Afrique did a survey in Tana Delta subcounty and found that just over one-fifth of households owned a radio and only 18 percent had access to electricity.

"We immediately knew something had to be done to bridge the gap," said Sara Ruto, who leads the foundation's accelerated learning program.

The foundation has distributed 1,660 solar radios in Tana River and Turkana counties since the project launched in May. 

The Tana River phase has cost more than 18 million Kenyan shillings ($165,000) so far, Ruto said.

The solar-powered radios take a day to fully charge, and after that the battery can last up to three days, she added.

Zarah Abude, an 11-year-old student at Imani Primary School in Tana Delta subcounty, said the solar lights were an improvement on studying by the light of a fireplace or kerosene lamps, which can fill a house with smoke and toxic fumes.

Each year, nearly 4 million people die from illnesses linked to indoor air pollution caused by the use of polluting fuels, according to the World Health Organization.

"We used to light firewood at night, or when there is enough kerosene in our home, we would light the tiny metal lamps to help us conduct our studies," Abude said.

"Now, at least, we have these solar lamps that are clean and produce more light."

Serving the vulnerable

James Nyagah, Tana River County's director of education, said the project was especially important after the government's ambitious initiative to get tablets into schools proved to be of little help during the pandemic. The government had distributed nearly 1.2 million tablets to primary schools around Kenya in phase one of its Digital Learning Project, launched in 2016. But, when schools shut their doors earlier in 2020, the tablets were locked inside them.

"Most teachers are not locals, so when schools closed, the teachers went away with the keys," said Nyagah, noting that pupils were not allowed to take the tablets home.

"The radio project will go a long way in mitigating that challenge," he added.

Douglas Mainga, regional director of the Tana Delta Teachers Service Commission, which employs government teachers, said head teachers worked with Zizi Afrique to identify students from the poorest homes who most needed the radios.

Those households each received a radio and pupils from neighboring homes can congregate there to listen to educational programs, either on their own or with a teacher.

Zizi Afrique contacted local FM radio station Amani, whose presenters agreed to read prepared lessons from Kenya's national curriculum over the air, Ruto said.

During the week, the station broadcasts lessons in English and Swahili, and on Saturdays, lessons are broadcast in Swahili only for students who are not fluent in English, she explained. Zizi Afrique plans to expand the distribution of solar radios to eight additional counties, even after schools reopen in January, she added.

"We are also willing to share the idea across the continent with other development organizations and governments, to ensure pupils in far-flung areas have access to a quality education," Ruto told Reuters.

Reaching further

Athman, the head teacher at Dida Ade, praised the project, but said it would be more effective if the government employed additional teachers to reach students in remote areas and supplemented what they learn from the radio programs.

With schools still closed to most students, many children have to help their families with housework and livestock-tending, which often involves moving the animals around to find grazing, he explained.

"This makes it hard for our available teachers to keep on following the students everywhere they move," Athman said.

Zakaria Abdula, a 10-year-old student at Dida Ade, said the radios meant he could spend less time feeding his family's herd.

"Before the radios came, we used to graze the animals each day. We still work, but not every day - and on Saturday we have to listen to the radio," he said, smiling.

‘End of History’ Obsession Links to West’s Problem with Democracy

By Yu Ning

Dec 30, 2020 09:58 PM

Degradation in the Western system Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Despite a full-blown crisis in the US democratic system, which has been laid bare by the raging epidemic and post-election chaos, US political scientist Francis Fukuyama underscored the superiority of the Western democratic system in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro on Saturday. He said that although the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the differences between China and Western countries, and has shifted the center of the global economy toward East Asia, China's advantages might not last. He urged Western countries not to lose confidence, as the West will not necessarily lose in a "long fight" with China and that a democratic system with accountability is better. 

Fukuyama is best known for his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man, which argued that Western liberal democracy would become a global norm after the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Nearly 30 years have passed. Although liberal democracy has not triumphed all over the world as Fukuyama predicted, Fukuyama's "end of history" theory has had a profound influence on Westerners' views on the so-called non-democratic countries. It is like a trap that keeps Westerners believing in the myth of the Western system, making them unable to evaluate non-Western democratic countries, particularly China, in a fair and objective way and face up to flaws within the Western system.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, China's moves have formed a sharp contrast to the incompetent responses by many Western countries, especially the US. In the face of the health emergency, China has acted promptly and effectively, and it has mobilized the entire society to cooperate and keep solidarity in the epidemic fight. This demonstrates the institutional advantages of China and is the main reason why China was among the first countries to contain the epidemic and start its economic recovery. However, some Westerners represented by Fukuyama are reluctant to understand and admit the vitality, effectiveness and superiority of the social governance model under the Chinese system.

Fukuyama believes the Western democratic system with accountability will be better. Ironically, it is right under this system that a humanitarian tragedy has claimed over 330,000 lives in the US alone and is killing more. What we see are political and economic interests being put above people's lives, and there is still no clear and consistent anti-virus strategy in the US after some 10 months of confusion, chaos and deaths. Moreover, we have not seen any politicians, officials, or institutions being held accountable for this disaster.   

Many Westerners, including Fukuyama, regard Joe Biden's election to the presidency as the result of the US system's ability to correct mistakes and hold people for their incompetency. Fukuyama in the interview emphasized that the US will have a new president and government in January. But does this mean the US system is accountable? Incumbent Donald Trump still received over 70 million votes. Few believe that Biden, with the support of only half of Americans, will be able to fix the problems that have deep roots in the country's political system, such as political polarization, social division, ethnic conflicts and the botched response to the COVID-19 epidemic.  

"In a sense, Fukuyama is in a very awkward theoretical position. He has realized some internal problems within the Western system, but still stubbornly adheres to his 'end of history' theory. He is unwilling to deny the 'superiority' of the Western democratic system he conjectured. Nor can he face up to the essential problems that threaten the democratic system," Gao Jian, a scholar at Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times. "He is deeply stuck in a Cold War mentality and Western centrism," Gao noted.  

It is fair to say that when Fukuyama put forward the "end of history" theory, the West was in its heyday. But how can a theory that is out of touch with reality nowadays still guide the West's understanding of its own system and the non-Western system? The obsession with the "end of history" prevents Westerners from facing up to their system's problems. It is very likely the degradation in the Western system will worsen. 

China Grants Conditional Market Approval for Its First Homemade COVID-19 Vaccine

By Leng Shumei, Hu Yuwei and Zhang Hui

Dec 31, 2020 10:11 AM

Vaccine Photo: VCG

China on Thursday announced that it has granted market approval attached with conditions for its first homemade COVID-19 vaccine, which was developed by Sinopharm, marking a monumental step in the battle against the pandemic that has killed 1.79 million globally.

The inactivated vaccine developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute under Sinopharm’s subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), got official authorization from China's National Medical Products Administration on Wednesday，Chen Shifei, deputy head of the National Medical Products Administration, said at Thursday's press conference.

The move came one day after the institute announced that the vaccine showed 79.34 percent efficacy and a 99.52 percent antibody positive conversion rate, according to interim results of the Phase III clinical trials. 

The results are better than the 50 percent standard of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese authorities, according to the institute. The vaccine also showed a good safety level, its producers noted.

A vaccine has to undergo strict review by each country's national drug administration before being authorized for public use. All data and processes are reviewed by professional third-party committees, CNBG's chairman Yang Xiaoming told the Global Times in a recent exclusive interview. 

Yang was inoculated with a CNBG vaccine in March with hundreds of his colleagues. He said they had tested the level of antibodies six months after vaccination and the results were good.

Yang noted that data on safety and efficacy collected so far in the Phase III clinical trials is better than expected. 

Reported side effects of the vaccines are also milder than expected, Yang said. The side effects of CNBG's inactivated vaccines include aches or redness at the injection site, fever, muscular soreness, sickness and headache. 

A representative of Sinopharm told the Global Times on Wednesday that the interim results are mainly based on data from trials conducted in the United Arab Emirates, the vaccine's largest test base. The Chinese regulator uses a very rigorous standard - stronger even than the international criteria - in reviewing the number of confirmed infected cases in the double-blind placebo-controlled trials for understanding the efficacy of the vaccine.

The Beijing institute's vaccine was approved in the UAE and Bahrain earlier this month. 

Sinopharm's two inactivated vaccines have been administered to nearly 1 million people for emergency use and no serious adverse reactions have been reported. About 70,000 volunteers have participated in the phase-III clinical trials in more than 10 countries. 

So far, at least 10 provinces in China, including East China's Jiangsu Province and South China's Guangdong Province, have officially announced a vaccination plan for local residents. 

To form an immunology barrier it requires at least 700 million Chinese residents to be  vaccinated, which means at least 1.4 billion doses, Yang said. 

Normally there would only be 500-700 million doses of vaccines available on the Chinese market every year, Yang said, noting that it would be a big challenge for China to conduct mass vaccination in such a short time.  

According to Yang, CNBG's production capacity of COVID-19 inactivated vaccines has reached 120 million doses by the end of the year and it will expand to one billion doses per year in 2021. 

Yang noted that China has established a complete cold-chain industry for vaccine delivery. The only potential problem may lie in the imbalance between different areas such as developed coastal areas and central and western areas that are comparatively less developed.

Tao Lina, a vaccine expert in Shanghai, said that the approval demonstrated that China has created a "miracle" by creating a vaccine within one year. 

Pfizer and Moderna have announced 95 percent efficacy for their mRNA vaccines, which was beyond predictions and drove up the public's expectation for Chinese inactivated vaccines.   

Tao noted that despite the high efficacy, the US mRNA vaccines have shown more side effects as well as acute allergy occurrences. The mRNA vaccines also have more strict requirements for transportation. 

Tao suggested that the inactivated and mRNA vaccines can both help human beings to resist the novel coronavirus. But both are early-stage products and more improved ones are expected, which will offer more balance between efficacy, safety and transportation requirements. 

WPK Central Committee Convenes 22nd Politburo Meeting

The 22nd meeting of the Political Bureau of the Seventh Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea took place at the office building of the WPK Central Committee on Tuesday.

Kim Jong Un, chairman of the WPK, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the armed forces of the DPRK, attended the meeting.

Present there were members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee and members and alternate members of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee.

Under the guidance of Chairman Kim Jong Un, Kim Jae Ryong, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

The meeting studied the preparations for the Eighth Congress of the WPK.

It screened and decided on the delegates who had been elected at the conferences of WPK organizations at all levels, discussed and confirmed the proposals for forming the presidium, platform members and secretariat of the congress and schedules according to its agenda and deliberated on the documents to be presented to it.

The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee made an in-depth study of the above issues and approved the agenda items.

It adopted a decision on holding the Eighth Congress of the WPK early in January 2021.

The meeting appreciated that all fields made innovative achievements and progress during the 80-day campaign, thanks to the extraordinary political enthusiasm of the whole Party and all the people, thus providing excellent conditions for the holding of the congress, and that all the preparations for the congress are going ahead smoothly. It emphasized the need to go ahead with its preparations in an efficient way in order to thoroughly guarantee its success.

The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee also made an in-depth study and discussion of a series of important issues to be laid before the congress and adopted relevant decisions.

KCNA-THE PYONGYANG TIMES

22nd Meeting of Political Bureau of 7th WPK Central Committee Held

The 22nd meeting of the Political Bureau of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea was held at the office building of the Party Central Committee on December 29.

Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the WPK, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and Supreme Commander of the armed forces of the DPRK, was present at the meeting.

The meeting was attended by members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee and members and alternate members of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee.

Under the guidance of the Supreme Leader, Kim Jae Ryong, vice-chairman of the WPK Central Committee, presided over the meeting.

The meeting studied the preparations for the 8th Congress of the WPK.

The meeting examined and confirmed the qualifications of delegates who had been elected at the conferences of the WPK organizations at all levels, discussed and confirmed the proposals for forming the presidium, members of the platform and secretariat of the 8th Congress of the Party and schedules according to the agendas of the Party Congress and deliberated on the documents to be presented to the Party Congress.

The Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee made a serious discussion on the above-said issues and approved the agendas.

It adopted a decision on holding the 8th Congress of the WPK early in January 2021.

The meeting appreciated that innovative achievements and progress were made in all fields during the 80-day campaign thanks to the great political enthusiasm of the entire Party and all the people so as to provide excellent conditions for the 8th Party Congress, and all the preparations for the Party Congress are going on smoothly. It stressed that the success of the Party Congress should be thoroughly guaranteed by keeping on the effective preparations.

The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee also made an in-depth study and discussion on a series of important issues to be presented to the 8th Party Congress and made relevant decisions.

KCNA

2020-12-30

 A Proud Year

The year 2020, which was beset with unprecedented difficulties, is drawing to a close.

As they have surmounted the difficulties, helping and leading one another forward, the Korean people look back upon this year with great pride and self-confidence.

This year they have faced with gruelling ordeals owing to a world health crisis that coincided with natural disasters caused by floods and typhoons hit the DPRK in succession. However, they have braved all challenges and difficulties, united around the Workers’ Party of Korea with a single mind.

The WPK has taken many important measures to get closer to the people with intimate feelings and ease the inconvenience and suffering of the disaster victims as soon as possible. The people have supported, accepted and implemented the Party’s decisions with highly voluntary unity and unity of their act.

In those days, Chairman Kim Jong Un of the WPK inspected the disaster areas in North and South Hwanghae, Kangwon and South Hamgyong provinces to learn about the damages there and took concrete steps for reconstruction.

The reconstruction of the stricken areas was defined as the forefront on which the Party and the state must focus an all-out effort. The immediate goal of the reconstruction effort was to provide all the victims with the new houses before the arrival of winter cold.

Powerful reconstruction forces throughout the country, including Korean People’s Army units and the divisions of Party members from the capital city of Pyongyang were promptly dispatched to the damaged areas and building materials were transported by land and sea on a top priority basis.

Industrial establishments strove to supply building materials and daily necessities to the damaged areas, and the people across the country consoled and sincerely supported the disaster victims.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of the KPA service personnel, all the builders and volunteers who turned out in hearty response to the call of the WPK, miraculous achievements were brought about in the damaged areas and the disaster victims moved into their new houses in smile and tears.

Yun Kwang Ju, assistant manager of the Pyongyang Municipal General Passenger Traffic Service Enterprise says: “Still I can’t forget the days when I worked for the reconstruction of a damaged area as a member of the division of Party members from the capital city. The whole Party and all the people struggled together to overcome trials and difficulties, in the course of which the single-hearted unity of our society has been consolidated rock-solid. This year’s struggle has proved once more that no trials and ordeals can check the advance of the Korean people who are rallied firmly behind their Party.”

2020-12-30

Elite Divisions of Party Members from Capital City

Among the stirring events in 2020 in the DPRK is a story about the elite divisions of Party members from the capital city, Pyongyang.

In August and September flash floods and typhoons simultaneously hit several parts of the country including North and South Hamgyong provinces in succession, causing severe damage and leaving numerous flood victims homeless.

Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un designated the reconstruction campaign as the forefront to which the Workers’ Party of Korea should direct all its efforts and ensured that the major civilian construction forces and Korean People’s Army units were immediately dispatched to the afflicted areas.

On September 5, he convened on the spot an enlarged meeting of the Executive Policy Council of the WPK Central Committee for organizing the campaign for recovery from natural disasters in North and South Hamgyong provinces and decided to unburden himself of the problem of providing strong support to the reconstruction projects to Party members in the capital city.

He then wrote an open letter “To All the Comrade Party Members in the Capital City of Pyongyang” in a typhoon-afflicted area.

In a single day after the publication of his open letter, hundreds of thousands of Party members in the capital city volunteered for the reconstruction campaign. And on September 8, the elite 12 000 strong divisions of Party members in the capital city held an oath-taking meeting at the plaza of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, before leaving for the reconstruction sites by train, land and sea.

The disaster-stricken areas were unfamiliar places far from the capital city of Pyongyang, and the damage was enormous beyond their imagination.

As soon as they arrived at the reconstruction sites, they launched into the building of dwelling houses rather than their own barracks and pushed ahead with the repair of damaged roads and river improvement project simultaneously. They did not only reconstruct the damaged areas. With warm affection of Pyongyang, they wholeheartedly consoled the people in the afflicted areas and offered sincere assistance to them so that they would cope with the aftermath of the disasters as soon as possible.

After completing their tasks of housing construction for the people in the disaster-stricken areas before October 10, the 75th founding anniversary of the WPK, the divisions of Party members in the capital city volunteered to work in other areas.

Single- and low-storey houses for hundreds of families were splendidly built in a little over 70 days in the damaged areas of North and South Hamgyong provinces which were reduced to rubble by natural disasters, and roads and rivers reconstructed to withstand any flood.

“We carried out the reconstruction projects assigned by the Party in a short span of time at the highest level. The sacred name of the elite divisions of Party members in the capital city gave us incredible strength and courage,” says Jong Myong Gil, department director of the Pyongyang Municipal People’s Committee who was a member of the division.

The divisions will remain etched in the minds of the Korean people as an honorable title exhibiting the original people-friendly features of the WPK and its invincible might along with the year 2020 beset with unprecedented difficulties.

2020-12-30

Flower Baskets to Kim Jong Un from Foreign Organizations and Figures

Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un was presented with flower baskets from foreign organizations and figures on December 29 on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of his assumption of the supreme commandership of the armed forces of the DPRK.

The foreign organizations are the Asia-Pacific Regional Committee for Supporting Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the Beijing Chao Ya International Cultural Exchange Center in China, the Beijing international cultural development center for China-DPRK friendship, and the Japan Committee for Supporting the Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea.

The foreign personages are the family of the former Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Shin Kanemaru and Ibrahim Mantu, chairman of the Nigeria-Korea Friendship Association.

That day, the Supreme Leader was presented with a flower basket from the family of Zhang Weihua, a Chinese anti-Japanese revolutionary martyr, on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of his assumption of the supreme commandership of the armed forces of the DPRK and the New Year Juche 110 (2021).

KCNA

2020-12-30

Abiy’s “Horrendous Misjudgment”: TPLF’s History of “Fight from the Hills”

“…Abiy Ahmed did not start the conflict; in fact, he had been largely criticized for his leniency towards the TPLF cabal…” The Queen of Sheba

The Queen of Sheba

December 28, 2020

In a recent Aljazeera interview(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uc-451qPrxE), the news anchor posed a question to his guest, Mr. Martin Plaut, the self-declared Horn of Africa analyst: “Why did, if he did, the PM Abiy Ahmed misjudged the situation so horrendously [when he declared an operation against the TPLF]?” Mr. Plautt, one of the well-known apologists of the TPLF cabal, pontificated without qualms attributing the Prime Minister’s “horrendous” misjudgement to two reasons. 

Mr. Plaut proclaimed, “First he thought he had the force of the Ethiopian Federal army behind him, an air force that the Tigreans could not possibly respond to, and that he had with him also Amhara militia.” He went on, “So he had a very powerful force and then from the North he had allies in Eritrea who have also become involved in this conflict so he [was] essentially attacking from three directions from the North, from the east and from the South and he thought he could crash the Tigreans.”

Mr. Plaut’s second response was particularly lower-grade even for a self-declared analyst of the Horn. “The second one is,” he blurted “He is pentecontalist and very much believes that positive thought is enough. It will get you by” and concluded abruptly: “so in essence there were two reasons to this.”

It is so telling how an “established” analyst would wish to be so visibly divisive—and outright dishonest. First of all, Abiy Ahmed did not start the conflict; in fact, he had been largely criticized for his leniency towards the TPLF cabal. Abiy leapt into a response only after the Northern Command was savagely attacked by the cabal on the night of November 3, 2020, leaving him with absolutely no choice but defend the Army and prevent the country from disintegration. For that matter, the pre-emptive attack was already admitted by a high-ranking cabal official in a televised interview. Contrary to the analyst’s statement, Abiy needed to decide to act without regard to his power base—because he had no, absolutely no, option left to him.

Mr. Plaut was also evidently falling over himself to apologize for the cabal’s humiliating defeat when he listed the “air force that the Tigreans could not possibly respond to.” In an instant contradiction and blatant prejudice, he attempted to resurrect the cabal by mocking Abiy that “he thought he could crash the Tigreans” as if they were not. Furthermore, in a dubious narrative, he opted to omit the Afar militia which was an active part of that long list, when he only selectively mentioned the Amhara militia, which, indeed played a key role in supporting the Federal army. For that matter, the Oromia and the Somali militias also played an important role in supporting the government and the Federal army.

“The Tradition in Tigre is to Go into the Hills… and Fight”

In his second daring question the anchor continued: “Do you think the Tigreans will carry on pushing back; and if they try to, can they sustain that?” 

 “I think that is a very difficult question to answer,” coyly conceded the good analyst but promptly made up groundless premises. He equivocated: “The indications at the moment are that there is still fighting going on and how long that will continue for is impossible to tell though they did have more than 100 may be 150 thousand men under arms.” In a blatant incitement, he continued, “the tradition in Tigre is to go into the hills and fight from the hills not to try to hold the cities; if they do that, they have a long history of doing it and they there is no reason why they could not continue.”  

Posing a question to himself the analyst continued: “The big question is what will Sudan do because all their supplies of essentials like fuel, food and ammunition will need to come in from Sudan. Can that be sustained? Will Sudan allow that to be sustained? That we do not know.”

Mr. Plaut undertook to confuse the global community by maintaining “that there is still fighting in the region” when he knows too well that this is a final mop up operation to subdue the last vestiges of the cabal. More so, in his audacious remarks yet, he incited the Tigre “to go into the hills and fight from the hills [and] not to try to hold the cities”. He then crowed that “they have a long history of doing it” and callously prompted that “there is no reason why they could not continue”. After spitting that poison, he then subtly hinted on the possibilities of the Sudan to help sustain the conflict. 

The anchor went on: “So, clearly this may be never started out as a law enforcement operation; that was what it was labelled as; it sounds as if you’re painting a picture describing this descending into almost a civil war.” The analyst audaciously contradicted: “Well, no it is not a civil war; this is an international war”. He then rushed to validate that: “You already have the Eritreans involved; the United States has made it clear that they believe Eritrean forces are involved; Britain, sort off-the-record accepts that this is the case; so did the European Union. There is little indication that is not true; Eritrean forces are involved so you are now in, this is now [sic], a full-scale war on three fronts involving more than one country that is terribly dangerous for the Tigreans but also for Ethiopia because they also withdraw troops from Somalia that destabilize Somalia. They pulled people out of other areas which are tense like Benishangul which has now seen more than hundred people dead with ethnic violence. How much that can be laid out at the door of Abiy Ahmed? Well, I think quite a lot.” 

The Hollow Dialogue

The good Horn analyst in his pronouncement conveniently forgot the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s explicit denunciation of the TPLF cabal for the savage attack of the military and the firing of rockets into Asmara, in its futile attempt to internationalize the conflict. If there was any attempt to internationalize the conflict, it was unambiguously triggered by the cabal, which however has miserably failed, to the chagrin of Mr. Plaut and other shenanigans. The Ethiopian government never denied that its forces retreated into Eritrea when the army came under massive and coordinated attack. When the cabal forces overpowered the army forces and kicked them out to Eritrea, naked and barefooted, the Eritrean forces clothed and provisioned them. This was officially stated.

In shading crocodile tears, the analyst attempted to describe the conflict as “terribly dangerous for the Tigreans but also for Ethiopia because they also withdraw troops from Somalia that destabilize Somalia.” Mr Plaut, does not admit that the removal of the TPLF cabal—which he conflated with the Tigrayan people—from domineering Ethiopian political power is far, far from “terribly dangerous”; in fact, it was a blessing for the masses of tormented Ethiopians who have been yearning its removal for years, if not decades. What is even more bizarre is that the very analyst who appears to be overly caring for the “Tigreans” (to be read as TPLF cabal)—and pretentiously adding Ethiopians to the list—was hinting the continuity of violence “to fight on the hills”. 

What is notably missing in this hollow interview is the utter lack of interest in the return of normalcy in Tigray. The restoration of transport and communication; resumption of provision of health, education and other services; supply of humanitarian provisions; surrendering of weapons by militias, in thousands; preparations for the return of the displaced; installation of provisional regional and zonal administrations were never mentioned. These critical developments were of interest neither to Aljazeera nor its subject. 

In Conclusion: Way Forward

In reviewing the reporting of the conflict, many expressed dissatisfaction with Aljazeera and quite a number of its analysts, including Mr. Plaut, for their manifest bias, misleading information and twisted analysis intended to favour the TPLF cabal while undermining Ethiopia’s interest—and global standing. As a matter of fact, Aljazeera was not alone in this misdeed; major media houses including the BBC, Deutche Welle, and the New York Times have been implicated. 

It is time that Ethiopia took a good hard look at this deplorable chapter and systematically respond by formulating a robust global media strategy—without further delay.

The Queen of Sheba may be reached at QueenOfSheba2020@outlook.com