November 2021

France is willing to discuss autonomy for the French Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe if it is in the interests of the people who live there, government minister Sebastien Lecornu said.

Guadeloupe and the nearby French island of Martinique have seen several days of protests against COVID-19 measures that have spilled over into violence.

Lecornu, the minister for France’s overseas territories, said in a YouTube video issued late on Friday that certain elected officials in Guadeloupe had raised the question of autonomy, changing its status as an overseas region.

“The government is ready to talk about this. There are no bad debates, as long as those debates serve to resolve the real everyday problems of people in Guadeloupe,” he said.

That was one of a series of initiatives he said the government in Paris would be taking in Guadeloupe, including improving healthcare, infrastructure projects, and a scheme to create jobs for young people.

The French government this week announced that it would be postponing a requirement that public sector workers in Guadeloupe and Martinique get a COVID-19 vaccination.

That had sparked protests, fanning long-standing grievances over living standards and the relationship with Paris.

In Guadeloupe there is a historic mistrust of the French government’s handling of health crises after many people were exposed to toxic pesticides used in banana plantations in the 1970s.

 
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The world’s largest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India has resumed exports of coronavirus vaccines to COVAX the partnership that is distributing vaccines to developing countries. The resumption of exports comes at a critical time when a new variant found in South Africa is causing concern around the world.

India suspended exports of vaccines in March this year following a severe surge in infections during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as it used its stocks to ramp up its domestic inoculation program.

The first shipments went out Friday.

“This will go a long way in restoring vaccine supply equality in the world,” Serum Institute chief executive Adar Poonawalla said on Twitter.

The company said in a press statement that said that it expects the supply of vaccines to COVAX to increase substantially in early 2022. The Serum Institute of India was expected to be one of the main suppliers to the vaccine sharing facility which was created to ensure global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines after the outbreak of the pandemic.

The Serum Institute linked the resumption of exports to surpassing its target of producing 1 billion doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of this year – it has produced 1.25 billion doses so far.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which leads the COVAX program along with the World Health Organization, called the restart of exports from India an important development “as it enters its busiest period yet for shipping vaccines to participating economies.”

The export curbs by India were a huge setback to efforts by COVAX, which had been relying on supplies of the affordable and easy to store AstraZeneca vaccine from India’s Serum Institute to distribute to low-income countries. The vaccine is called Covishield in India.

“While COVAX’s portfolio is now much more diversified than it was earlier this year when we received our first SII deliveries, COVISHIELD remains an important product which has the potential to help us protect hundreds of millions of people in the months ahead,” according to Seth Berkley, chief executive of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.

India has allowed exports to resume as its vaccination program makes substantial progress and vaccine supplies improve – about 80% of the country has received one dose and about 40% is fully vaccinated. Cases of coronavirus have also reduced dramatically – on Friday, India reported about 9,000 cases.

However, a new variant found in South Africa, dubbed omicron, is causing widespread concern and has prompted experts in India to caution against complacency. Designated a variant of concern by the World Health Organization, omicron has already been found in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong and has prompted several countries, including the United States and Britain to impose travel curbs.

India has said it is scaling up screening of passengers from overseas. At a meeting held Saturday to review the pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked officials to review plans to ease international travel restrictions.

“In light of the new variant, we remain vigilant with a focus on containment and ensuring increased second dose coverage,” he tweeted. 
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With hunting season under way, wildlife agencies in the northeastern U.S. states of New Hampshire and Vermont have started testing for COVID-19 in white-tailed deer, as antibodies for the virus have been found in deer in other states, according to a government study.

“We collected blood samples this year during the five busiest days of the hunting season,” said Dan Bergeron, the deer biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. “We have biologists at biological check stations and collect ages and weights annually. This year, we also had them collect blood samples.”

New Hampshire and Vermont were approached by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service about testing the white-tailed deer population as part of its national research on the spread of COVID-19 among the species.

Maine is monitoring the tests from other states, but is not actively testing deer for COVID-19.

In its study, released in July, the inspection service tested 481 deer in Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania and found COVID-19 antibodies in 33% of the samples.

“We do not know how the deer were exposed” to the virus, the study said. “It’s possible they were exposed through people, the environment, other deer, or another animal species.”

The study said that based on available information, the risk of deer and other animals spreading COVID-19 to people is low. It also said there were no reports of clinical illness in the deer populations surveyed, and that captive deer “experimentally infected” with the virus as part of a USDA Agricultural Research Service study didn’t show clinical signs of illness. 

 
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Anxious-looking travelers thronged Johannesburg international airport and stood in long queues on Friday, desperate to squeeze onto the last flights to countries that had just shut their doors to South Africa.

Many cut short their holidays, rushing back from safaris and vineyards when Britain announced late Thursday night that all flights from South Africa and its neighbors would be banned the following day.

A flurry of nations — including the United States, Canada and several European countries — have followed suit, concerned about the discovery of a new coronavirus variant, renamed omicron, with several mutations fueling an infection resurgence in South Africa.

United Kingdom citizen Toby Reid, a 24-year-old trader in London, was camping on Cape Town’s Table Mountain with his girlfriend when the ban was announced.

“At about 5:30 a.m., we got up to see if we could catch the sunrise, and at six in the morning, we found out that there was still a possibility to get back,” he told AFP while standing in line for check-in at the Johannesburg airport just hours later.

The couple managed to grab the last two seats on an evening flight to Frankfurt, Germany.

Others who were not so lucky discussed options at ticket counters, eyes widening at proposed prices and convoluted itineraries.

“There should have been more notice,” muttered Christian Good, 50, returning to Devon, England, via Frankfurt with his husband after a beach holiday.

By chance, the pair had originally planned to return on that flight, meaning they would arrive home before mandatory hotel quarantine begins on Sunday — a requirement for citizens returning from “red list” countries.

“It’s ridiculous. We will always be having new variants,” his husband, David, exclaimed, passports in hand.

“South Africa found it, but it’s probably all over the world already,” he told AFP.

The variant has so far been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.

‘Tired of this’

At the airport, red “canceled” signs flashed next to London-bound flights listed on the departures board.

Other destinations were still in limbo.

A KLM flight to Amsterdam was delayed by several hours after passengers were suddenly compelled to produce negative COVID-19 results.

Rapid PCR tests were offered at the airport, with results guaranteed in two hours, but at a cost of $86, compared with the standard fee of around $52 for results delivered in roughly 12 hours.

An AFP correspondent observed Some African passport holders being told they would not be allowed to fly to Europe.

Earlier, travelers milled around a closed Air France check-in desk, waiting to find out whether an evening flight to Paris would take off as scheduled, just hours after France announced its own ban.

Among them were U.K. citizen Ruth Brown, 25, who lives in South Africa and had planned to return home for the first time since 2019 next week.

Britain kept South Africa on its red list until early October, meaning many of its citizens have been unable to travel back since the pandemic started because of the costly hotel quarantine.

They had only a few weeks of leeway before the status was revoked.

“We are tired of this situation,” said Brown, who spent the morning on the phone trying to change her flight.

“Apparently (this one) is full, but we are trying to see if we can still get seats,” she sighed.

Further down the line, Elke Hahn cradled a toddler.

She had traveled to South Africa with her partner to adopt the child and was desperate to get back to their home in Austria.

The child’s paperwork was only valid for a specific flight route that had since been changed.

“We will have to get another flight, but I don’t know how that will work,” she said. 
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Top U.S. infectious disease official Anthony Fauci said Friday that a ban on flights from southern Africa was a possibility and the United States was rushing to gather data on the new COVID-19 variant. 

No decision to halt flights had yet been made, he said. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said White House officials were discussing potential travel restrictions on southern African countries. Those officials were expected to meet with agency officials Friday afternoon to make a recommendation, the newspaper said, without specifying which agency. 

The White House referred to Fauci’s earlier comments when asked about the report and declined further comment. Global authorities have reacted with alarm to the new variant, detected in South Africa, with the European Union and Britain among those tightening border controls as scientists seek to find out if the mutation is vaccine-resistant. 

The World Health Organization (WHO), however, has cautioned against hasty measures and South Africa said a British ban on flights seemed rushed. 

“There is always the possibility of doing what the UK has done, namely block travel from South Africa and related countries,” Fauci said in an interview on CNN. 

“That’s certainly something you think about and get prepared to do. You’re prepared to do everything you need to protect the American public. But you want to make sure there’s a basis for doing that,” he said. 

“Obviously as soon as we find out more information we’ll make a decision as quickly as we possibly can.”

Fauci said U.S. scientists would speak with South African counterparts Friday about the new variant, called B.1.1.529, which has raised concern about its transmissibility and whether it might evade immune responses. 

He added there was no indication the new variant was already in the United States. 

 
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South African scientists are scrambling to determine how quickly a newly discovered variant of the coronavirus can spread and if it is resistant to vaccines.  The new strain has led Britain to reimpose flight bans on six southern African countries, which could deal another heavy blow to their economies. 

Coronavirus cases are once again on the rise in South Africa. 

Amid the spike, several mutations of a new variant called the B 1.1.529 have been detected in the country, Botswana and Hong Kong. 

It has sparked concern it could compete with the previously dominant delta variant and trigger another wave of the pandemic.

Dr. Michelle Groome is with South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

“There’s the potential that this could be more transmissible and that this, there is potential immune escape, but we don’t know yet,” said Groome. “We are busy conducting some laboratory tests, obviously, we can have a look at how, you know, this new variant reacts both to, you know, serum from people who have been infected previously, as well as vaccinated, which will give us a better idea of the potential immune escape.”  

The uncertainty has prompted travel restrictions. 

Britain added six African countries to its so-called red list today, requiring quarantine for incoming travelers and temporarily banning flights.

The European Union also is looking at halting air travel from southern Africa. 

The South African government has called the decisions “rushed” and raised concerns about the impact on business. 

The CEO of South Africa’s inbound tourism association, David Frost, says the effects will be devastating on the sector.  

“We got off the red list in in October and it was sorely needed. We’ve been shut down for over 18 months,” said Frost. “You know, the industry really is on its knees. The impact of this is absolutely dire to livelihoods, to families.”

While social distancing and mask use can help combat the virus, Dr. Groome also questions the efficacy of travel bans.  

“We haven’t been able to contain the spread initially of the of the original virus, and all subsequent variants have spread globally, you know,” said Groome. “I think there’s limited value in terms of these restrictions.”  

Instead, she says vaccinating more of the population would help prevent the most severe cases and deaths.

Roughly 35 percent of the South Africa’s adult population is vaccinated, a figure far below targets of 70 percent. 

Figures are even lower across much of the continent.

Experts have warned vaccine inequality would create a breeding ground for the virus to mutate. 

Astrid Haas is an independent urban economist in Kampala, Uganda.  

“In Europe now and in North America, in particular, they’re talking about booster shots and third vaccines, whereas we know now from the WHO, that less than 10% of African countries are going to even meet their vaccine target for this year. …Just a very sad manifestation of the global vaccine inequity,” said Haas.

In the absence of vaccinations, lockdowns may be on the horizon. 

Such measures already have taken a harsh economic toll across southern Africa. 

Haas says the halt to retail and other services has made it hard for many people to survive.  

“Particularly with respect to the urban poor is that a lot of income is used to purchase food, or a high proportion of income is used to purchase food, and when they are not able to make income, then that affects food security as well,” said Haas.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is convening the country’s coronavirus council this weekend in response to the new variant. 

The government says it will announce any new measures in coming days. 
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With the Northern Hemisphere heading into winter and COVID-19 cases on the rise across Europe and North America, political leaders from Washington to Brussels are struggling to persuade a pandemic-weary public to get vaccinated against the disease that has killed more than 5 million people and sickened hundreds of millions around the world.

In the United States, a high-profile push by President Joe Biden to force all businesses with more than 100 employees to require workers to get vaccinated or submit to regular testing is snarled in court challenges. Across Europe this week, protests, some violent, flared as various governments announced that they would implement stricter measures to combat the disease, including many that limit the ability of unvaccinated people to take an active part in public life.

Worldwide, countries have responded to the continued presence of COVID-19, now nearly two years after it was first detected, with a variety of measures, from blanket vaccine mandates for all eligible individuals to more targeted requirements for people at particular risk, like health care workers.

Plentiful vaccines, variable uptake

According to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, nearly 7.5 billion doses of vaccine have been administered since shots became available. Those doses have not been spread evenly around the world. The bulk of vaccines have been purchased by wealthy countries, like the United States and much of Europe.

That would seem to suggest that Europe and North America would be well protected from a winter surge of the virus, but even among countries where vaccines are plentiful, the percentage of the population that has chosen to get vaccinated against COVID-19 varies sharply.

According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, only 59.7% of the American public is fully vaccinated, compared with 76.9% in Canada and 50.4% in Mexico. In Europe, vaccine uptake varies widely, from 86.9% in Portugal to just 12.6% in Armenia.

In Central Europe, cases are spiking in Germany and Denmark, where the rates of vaccination are 68.1% and 76.4%, respectively. Both countries are well above the global average in the percentage of people vaccinated, indicating that the disease can still spread rapidly, even where vaccination rates are relatively high.

This has leaders around the world searching for ways to compel more people to get vaccinated, with varied success.

Different approaches to vaccination

A handful of countries — Indonesia, Micronesia, and Turkmenistan — have implemented blanket requirements that all adults receive a vaccination.

This week, Austria became the first European country to announce that vaccination will be compulsory, with a requirement that all adults be vaccinated by February. The announcement came as the government announced it would be enforcing a fourth national lockdown to reduce the spread of the virus, prompting protests across the country.

Many other countries have taken a less extensive approach, tying vaccination status to the ability to work and take part in public activities, including going to restaurants, concerts, and other events.

With other European countries announcing stricter limits on what the unvaccinated are able to do, as well as broader restrictions on public life in general, protests broke out this week in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Croatia, among other nations.

Many European countries have adopted a “vaccine passport” system that limits access to public venues to people who can show proof of vaccination or of recent recovery from COVID-19.

Government employees face requirements

Among the most common measures being taken around the globe is the requirement that government employees be vaccinated in order to remain in their jobs. In addition to the U.S., countries with a requirement that public sector workers be vaccinated include Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Fiji, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Of those, many have added a mandate for private sector workers as a whole; others have limited the requirement to private sector workers who deal with customers.

Some countries, among them Denmark, France, Lebanon, Morocco, and the Netherlands, have limited mandates to health care workers but have implemented restrictions on the activities of the unvaccinated.

US vaccine resistance

In the United States, President Biden’s attempt to require private businesses with more than 100 employees to require vaccination or testing is in limbo. The proposal, which would take effect in January, would affect about 84 million U.S. workers, on top of existing mandates on health care workers, federal employees and contractors, and the U.S. military.

However, the push by the Democratic president has been met with pushback from Republican politicians across the country. Multiple Republican state attorneys general have filed lawsuits to stop the mandate from coming into force. A federal judge placed a stay on the mandate, preventing its enforcement.

The cases have been consolidated before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Cincinnati, where the Biden administration is requesting that the stay on the mandate be lifted.

Supreme Court-bound

Brian Dean Abramson, an adjunct professor of vaccine law at Florida International University and the author of the BloombergLaw/American Health Law Association treatise Vaccine, Vaccination, and Immunization Law, told VOA that the fate of the mandate remains unclear.

According to Abramson, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the bureau within the Labor Department that crafted the mandate, left itself open to a number of challenges. For example, it is claiming that the new mandate is necessary to protect workers from a dangerous disease, but simultaneously claiming that health care workers can continue to observe a standard put in place earlier this year that is considerably less stringent.

Regardless of its fate in the 6th Circuit, Abramson said, the case is probably headed for the highest court in the land.

“What I do think is fairly inevitable, is that this will get to the U.S. Supreme Court rather quickly,” he said. “And I think we could see the Supreme Court receiving this, having some kind of expedited argument, and issuing a decision before the end of the year.” 
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Like many others in Europe, Switzerland is facing a steep rise in coronavirus cases. But its federal government, unlike others, hasn’t responded with new restrictive measures. Analysts say it doesn’t want to stir up more opposition to its anti-COVID-19 policies, which face a crucial test at the ballot box this weekend as critics have grown increasingly loud.

On Sunday, as part of the country’s regular referendums, Swiss voters will cast ballots about the so-called “COVID-19 law” that has unlocked billions of Swiss francs (dollars) in aid for workers and businesses hit by the pandemic. The law has also imposed the use of a special COVID certificate that lets only people who have been vaccinated, recovered, or tested negative attend public events and gatherings.

If the Swiss give a thumbs-up, the government may well ratchet up its anti-COVID efforts.

The vote offers a relatively rare bellwether of public opinion specifically on the issue of government policy to fight the coronavirus in Europe, the global epicenter of the pandemic. The continent enjoys relatively high rates of vaccination compared with countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, but has been nearly alone in facing a surge in cases in recent weeks.

Polls suggest a solid majority of Swiss will approve the measure, which is already in effect and the rejection of which would end the restrictions — as well as the payouts. But in recent weeks, opponents have raised heaps of cash for their campaign and drawn support from abroad, including a visit from American anti-vaccination campaigner Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to a rally in the capital, Bern, this month.

Swiss weekly NZZ am Sonntag reported that campaigners have sent hundreds of petitions to government offices around the country alleging that the language in the referendum question is vague and makes no mention of the “COVID certificate” that affords access to places like restaurants and sporting events.

On Tuesday, Swiss health authorities warned of a rising “fifth wave” in the rich Alpine country, where vaccination rates are roughly in line with those in hard-hit Austria and Germany — at about two-thirds of the population. Infection rates have soared in recent weeks. The seven-day average case count in Switzerland shot up to more than 5,200 per day from mid-October to mid-November, a more than five-fold increase — with an upward curve like those in neighboring Germany and Austria.

Austria has responded with a much-ballyhooed lockdown, and Germany — which is forming a new government as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tenure nears its end — has taken some steps like requiring workers to provide their employers with proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative test set to take effect next week.

The Swiss Federal Council, the seven-member executive branch, went out of its way on Wednesday to say: “It’s not the time to decree a tightening of measures nationwide,” while opting for a region-by-region approach and calling on citizens to act responsibly through mask-wearing, physical distancing, and proper airing of indoor areas.

That’s even though the council admitted in a statement that cases — particularly among the young — are rising and “the number of daily infections has reached a record for the year and the exponential rise is continuing.” Hospitalizations — notably among the elderly — are rising too, it said, but not as fast.

Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset has insisted his government hasn’t tightened restrictions because COVID-19 patients still make up only a small percentage of people in intensive-care units.

“But we also know that the number of hospitalizations lags behind the number of infections,” said Pascal Sciarini, a political scientist at the University of Geneva. “One can imagine that if Switzerland didn’t have this particular event — the vote on Sunday — we’d already be preparing (the) next steps.”

The Swiss council may simply be holding its breath through the weekend, he suggested.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if as early as next week, the tone changes,” Scarini said. “It’s starting to budge … the Federal Council is surely going to wait until after the referendum.” 

 
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