- First children can make an appointment for corona prick
- Quarantinebeleid far from waterproof
- How do you avoid kind release after corona?
- Round chaos crownpaspoort: fear of long lines at the counter
12. 38 – Busy Testing for Access
It will be busy again on Saturday in the Testing for Access test streets. But according to a spokesperson for the Open Netherlands Foundation, the organization that is responsible for providing the test evidence, things are going well.
At the RAI in Amsterdam it was very busy on Friday and people had to wait a long time due to a shortage of staff. “Friday 168,000 bookings were made and today 111,000, so it’s a bit better now. It is therefore now also better in the RAI. That also applies to Breda, where people also queued for a long time yesterday,” said the spokesman.
Last weekend it was also busy in the test streets and people had to wait a long time. That was then due to the aftermath of a hacking attempt. Koninklijke Horeca Nederland stated on Friday that due to the long queues, the capacity of Testing for Access must be increased and that the test streets must be more easily accessible.
The Open Netherlands Foundation has started an accelerated tender for eight XL test locations. A total of 120,000 access tests per day should soon be taken there. The locations will open in about three weeks.
12.47 – South Africa approves Sinovac vaccine from China
South Africa has approved the Sinovac vaccine developed in China, the South African Ministry of Health announced. The approval to use the vaccine comes at a time when South Africa is dealing with an ever-growing number of corona infections with the highly contagious Delta variant dominating there.
About 3.3 million of the 60 million South Africans have been vaccinated against corona, or just over 5 percent. About 2 million infections have been identified since the outbreak of the pandemic. The actual number is probably higher because much less testing is done in rural areas. At least 60,000 South Africans have already died of corona.
There were initially doubts about the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine, due to lack of transparency in the clinical trial data. Those doubts have been partly allayed by data released in July showing that the vaccine in Uruguay is more than 90 percent effective in reducing deaths and intensive care admissions.
10.55 – For the fifth consecutive day, highest daily total of corona deaths in Russia
In Russia, 697 deaths from Covid-19 have been recorded in the past 24 hours. That is the highest number of confirmed deaths in one day since the start of the pandemic for the fifth day in a row. The authorities attribute the record to the more contagious Delta variant of the virus in combination with a relatively low number of vaccinations. A day earlier, 679 deaths were reported.
The government’s coronavirus task force registered 24,439 new infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the official Russian total to 5,585,799.
According to government statistics, 137,262 people have died in the country from the effects of Covid-19, making Russia the hardest hit European country. But the Rosstat statistics agency, which has a broader definition of deaths related to Covid-19, already recorded 270,000 deaths at the end of April. Newer data from that agency is not yet available.
The Kremlin said on Friday that, despite the daily rising corona figures, it is not considering a new lockdown.
Moscow is gloomy about the developments. On Tuesday, the government admitted that it will not be possible to vaccinate 60 percent of the population against the virus before the fall. Expectations will be lowered, government spokesman Dmitri Peskov acknowledged. A high vaccination coverage is necessary to contain the virus.
About 22.2 million of Russia’s 146 million residents have received at least one dose.
7.02 – De Jonge does not understand the resistance
Outgoing Health Minister Hugo de Jonge cannot understand that some people who oppose the corona measures do not want to be vaccinated either. According to the minister, vaccination is the only way out of the corona crisis, he says in conversation with NU.nl.
“People who do not want to be pricked do not want to go back to the measures. But they do make the way out of the crisis, vaccinating, suspicious. That’s very weird. It’s not possible to do both,” De Jonge told the news site. “There’s something decadent about thinking that you can give thanks for the only means that will get us out of this crisis, but at the same time count on solidarity and the protection of others who do get vaccinated.”
“A kind of corona fatigue has arisen. A kind of anger out of helplessness. I can understand that,” said De Jonge. “But I can’t understand that you don’t want to contribute to reducing that nasty virus by getting vaccinated and at the same time you don’t want those measures.”
6.45 – Protest groups take action against vaccinating children
Protest groups will go to Malieveld in The Hague on Saturday to protest against the vaccination of children. They also criticize the wearing of mouth caps by children and the testing of this group. Action group Viruswaarheid organizes the event together with Police 4 Freedom, Nederland in Verzet, LNN, Lijst 30 and Army of Love.
No music is allowed during the protest. According to a spokesperson for the mayor of The Hague, this was decided because in previous protests against the corona measures it appeared that music “soon set people too close to each other.”
The organizers had to draw up and submit a clear plan in advance, including with regard to compliance with the corona measures during the protest. Emergency services will monitor this, the spokesperson said. “Otherwise they will be held accountable for it.”
6.35 – United States sends 4 million corona vaccines to Indonesia
The United States is sending four million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Indonesia to help the country fight the coronavirus. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said this during a meeting with Indonesian minister Retno Marsudi on Friday. Sullivan said the vaccines will be shipped “as soon as possible,” a statement released by the White House said.
Both officials also discussed US plans to further increase aid to the country. “Sullivan stressed the importance of Indonesia and Southeast Asia to the Biden-Harris administration and ending the pandemic in general and pledged continued support and high-level engagement,” the White House said.
Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world and is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of Covid-19 in Asia. In eight of the past 12 days, authorities registered a record number of daily infections. Nearly 26,000 newly infected people were reported on Friday and a record number of 539 corona deaths.
Last Tuesday, the Red Cross warned that an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta strain and increased travel through the Muslim month of fasting would put Indonesia on the brink of a “catastrophe.”
6.30 – Suriname lifts curfew on Sunday, curfew remains
The Surinamese government has decided to lift the curfew that was still in place before Sunday. The curfew, which applies between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., will remain in force, Paramaribo announced via a press release on Friday evening.
Another relaxation is that you can work out again. Individual sports are allowed and yoga and dance schools and fitness centers are also opening again. Schools will remain closed for the time being, except for the exam classes. Churches and other places of worship will also remain closed, but the aim is to open them in phases from 11 July. Other measures such as the ban on being together with more than five people, restaurants that are not allowed to open and the closing of borders remain in place, the press release said.
The figures published daily show that the number of positive cases is slowly decreasing. On Friday, the counter stood at 127 new cases, 30 percent of the total of 425 people tested. On Thursday that percentage was still 41 percent and on Wednesday almost 37 percent. 34 people are in intensive care, while 137 Surinamese are being treated in hospital. The total number of corona deaths now stands at 539.
Suriname is dealing with the third wave of contamination, with the so-called Brazilian or Manaus variant being the biggest culprit. This virus variant is much more contagious than other mutants from the early days of the pandemic.
–