July 2021

Private space operations continue to expand.  Plus, Europe’s space agency continues its quest for diversity, and a French astronaut makes good — sort of — on a promise to his crewmates.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us the Week in Space.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi 
 
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The World Health Organization says the recent decline in the number of new coronavirus infections throughout Europe “has come to an end.”Hans Kluge, the director of the U.N. health agency’s Europe region, said Thursday during a news briefing in Copenhagen that the number of cases in the area’s 53 countries rose 10 percent last week.  Kluge attributed the rise to “increased mixing, travel, gatherings, and easing of social restrictions,” which he said is taking place amid “a rapidly evolving situation” — the emergence of the more transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus, a situation aggravated by the regions slow rate of vaccinations. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease.With more than 60 percent of all people still waiting for at least their first shot of COVID-19 vaccine, and with the relaxed restrictions on travel and “social mixing,” Kluge warned the European region will be “Delta dominant” by August.  “Delays in getting vaccinated cost lives and economies, and the slower we vaccinate, the more variants will emerge,” he told reporters.The warning from WHO Europe comes as Russia reported another record-setting 672 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, breaking the record of 659 deaths posted just the day before. Russia has posted 5.4 million cases since the start of the pandemic, including 132,973 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced Thursday that new emergency measures will go into effect on Saturday for the islands of Java and Bali to blunt the rise of new cases in the world’s fourth most-populous country. The measures, which include tighter restrictions on movement and air travel, a ban on restaurant dining and the closure of non-essential offices, will last through July 20, a period that includes the Muslim holiday of Eid.  Indonesia has been dealing with the worst coronavirus outbreak in Southeast Asia, posting 24,836 new infections and 504 deaths on Thursday, both of them record-setting numbers. The country has recorded more than 2.1 million coronavirus infections, including 58,491 deaths.Johns Hopkins University is now reporting 182.2 million confirmed coronavirus infections, including 3.9 million deaths. The United States remains the global leader in both categories with 33.6 million overall cases and 604,718 deaths. 
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The South African pharmaceutical company Aspen has begun production of hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine for African countries. To speed up the process, the company is getting a large funding boost from the U.S. government.
 
Speaking during a virtual press briefing Thursday, Mark Marchick, a top executive for the U.S. International Development Financial Corporation, said Aspen would receive about $712 million to produce vaccine for people in Africa.  
 
“Our consortium of development financing institutions would provide a direct loan to Aspen, among other things, to strengthen their balance sheet with long-term financing, support vaccine production and expand their operations with core operations based in South Africa. This loan will help them increase capacity to support Aspen’s effort to produce vaccines for the continent this year and next year,” Marchik said.  
 
Gayle Smith, the U.S. State Department coordinator for the global COVID-19 response, said the investment will help Africa deal with long-term health issues.  
 
“We see this investment as in the short-term a really viable response to the urgent need on the continent for vaccines for COVID and also, importantly, as a long-term investment in the capacity of the continent to increase its own production of this vital goods so there is a greater availability and resilience over time, so it’s a short-term investment with a long-term vision,” Smith said.
 
It is estimated that the world needs at least 11 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to at least help communities return to normal lives.  So far, less than 2% of Africans have received a vaccine.   
 
The need for vaccine has prompted criminals to exploit Africa’s weak regulatory systems to bring in phony and substandard drugs.
 
In November, officers from South Africa’s customs and crime unit seized 2,400 fake COVID-19 vaccine doses.  Zambian and Chinese nationals were arrested.
 
In January of this year Nigeria’s food and drug administration advised the public to be aware of nefarious players pushing phony vaccines.
 
Adebayo Alonge, head of RxAll, an organization that fights counterfeit and substandard pharmaceuticals in Africa using artificial intelligence technology, said African governments need systems to efficiently distribute and keep track of the vaccine.
 
“They can have selected sites across the country where people can go and be vaccinated. People pre-book online or by SMS and make a record of those people who have come and taken the vaccine at those locations,” Alonge said.
 
Aspen, which is based in the city of Durban, is slated to produce 400 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.  Distribution will begin in the next few weeks.
 
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Amid rising caseloads of coronavirus infections as it emerges from a strict COVID lockdown, Cambodia is pinning its hopes on a vaccination rollout that will help the nation reach herd immunity, even as the nation confronts unique challenges that could hamper that effort.Daily case numbers reached a record high of 1,130 Wednesday, far more than reported in April, when severe lockdowns, bans on alcohol sales and travel between provinces were imposed.Cambodia, though, like most developing countries, faces a range of problems not typically associated with wealthier countries in the West, particularly overcrowding in the capital, Phnom Penh, where several people often rent one room, in some cases one bed, to find a few hours’ sleep, away from the grind outside.Bradley Murg, a senior adviser to the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, told VOA people here simply don’t have the space, security, or access to health services and supermarkets as those in the leafy suburbs of Western cities in countries such as the United States or Australia.“In a highly densely populated city like Phnom Penh, it’s incredibly difficult to implement a lockdown effectively even with a whole-of-government approach,” he said.“There are naturally going to be challenges in light of the level of development, in light of the daily needs of the population et cetera,” he added.“Ultimately a permanent lockdown or long-term lockdown is simply not a feasible strategy in Cambodia or in Phnom Penh specifically.”The closure of markets resulted in food shortages and price gouging, with authorities struggling to enforce lockdowns after dividing the capital into yellow, orange and red zones, depending on case numbers and transmissions – with red areas containing the greatest risks.Restrictions have eased, but schools, bars, gyms and many other businesses remain closed, while restaurant hours have been curtailed with strict social distancing and other health measures in place.Hang Sokunthea, an academic and author of I Am a Daughter, a book about female empowerment in Cambodia, said life during the pandemic has been harsh on the poor.“A lot of the poor families live very close to each other, which is where a lot of the red zones was located, where they live together and then they spread the COVID infection even faster,” she told VOA.Moreover, she said, “without the market, without having the living income, they just cannot really make much of a living,” she said.The situation resulted in a cat-and-mouse game between the police and vendors, Hang Sokunthea said, adding, “they were just selling anything on the streets even with the police chasing them.”Keo Savady is a small business operator, selling clothes online, and, like many from Cambodia’s burgeoning middle classes, she too is feeling the pinch after losing her job at the Hard Rock Cafe in Phnom Penh.“The bad thing is I just start my new online business, a small online business, and it doesn’t work because of the situation, COVID-19 is not so good,” she said, adding, “me and my family, some of them lost their job, so we had to find a smaller room.”Cambodia had emerged relatively unscathed from the pandemic during its first year but that changed on Feb. 20 when, authorities say, two Chinese women bribed their way out of quarantine, went out dancing and spread the disease.Since then, the number of confirmed cases has climbed from less than 500 to more than 50,000 with more than 44,143 recoveries and 602 deaths.However, Cambodia is ranked second, after Singapore, in its vaccination rollout among the 10 Association of South East Asian Nations countries after securing about 11 million doses of Sinopharm and Sinovac from China.It says a total of 20 million doses will be secured by August, while funding from Australia and the United States has enabled access to the COVAX-facility and AstraZenica vaccinations.“When one places Singapore in comparison to Cambodia in terms of level of development, level of infrastructure etcetera – it’s truly remarkable that Cambodia’s had this level of success in its all-of-government campaign to rollout vaccinations as quickly as possible,” Murg said.“The kingdom is well on track towards meeting its goals and it’s a story that has not received nearly the attention it deserves,” he added.Almost 18% of Cambodia’s population of 16.5 million people have been fully vaccinated with two doses, while a quarter of its population have received a single dose.Cambodia hopes to reach herd immunity with 10 million people vaccinated by the end of the year and it wants to reopen its tourism industry in the fourth quarter to fully vaccinated tourists.
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