PETALING JAYA: People should keep their face masks on in crowded and enclosed areas as the new Covid-19 wave sweeps the nation, says Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
Khairy said the public should remain vigilant and adhere to the TRIIS method – Test, Report, Isolate, Inform and Seek – should they be infected.
He also said the drug Paxlovid would be given to high-risk patients.
“Covid-19 cases have reached nearly 4,000 today (Thursday), with about 96% belonging to Category 1 and 2.
“We are experiencing a wave of infections. Whether the wave is big or small depends on our actions,” he said in a post on his Twitter account.
Prior to this, Khairy had said the nation was experiencing a small wave of Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron XBB subvariant.
On Monday (Oct 31) , he said that Covid-19 infections due to the XBB subvariant were expected to go up in the next few weeks – to between 3,000 and 5,000 daily cases – with the crest of the wave coinciding with the 15th General Election.
He reminded the public to be careful, especially with the country entering the campaign period for GE15.
Khairy also encouraged frontline staff, including Election Commission employees who will be on duty during GE15, to get a second booster vaccine dose.
The world still faces the risk of a combined pandemic of COVID-19 and influenza, especially this winter, Zhong Nanshan, top Chinese respiratory diseases expert, said on Tuesday in The World Flu Day 2022 Symposium that more efforts are needed to tackle the scientific problems of influenza prevention and control during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Both COVID-19 and influenza viruses are respiratory viruses, and respiratory virus infections tend to have a short incubation period, rapid and wide spread, strong transmission, high incidence, and are difficult to control," Zhong pointed out. Once the epidemic caused by respiratory viruses breaks out, it often leads to serious public health crisis, and then becomes the focus of the prevention and control of infectious diseases in the world.
At the conference, Dong Chen, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, also said that the world still faces a high risk of overlapping epidemics of respiratory infectious diseases such as influenza and COVID-19, and the prevention of that still has a long way to go.
"Since June, there has been a new outbreak of avian influenza in Europe and an unprecedented outbreak of H5N1 infection in birds in the US, with a very high risk of spillover into humans. So the combination of influenza and COVID-19 is a very big challenge for us this winter and next spring," Gao Fu, former head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, also warned that the current level of COVID-19 vaccination is gradually increasing, but the flu vaccination rate is generally low.
Due to COVID-19 prevention and control measures, data over the past two years have shown that influenza prevalence level has remained low. But things are gradually changing.
As COVID-19 flares up in several places across China with total daily cases nearing 3,000, many localities, including Central China's Henan and South China's Guangdong, are stepping up efforts to contain the virus and resume work and life as soon as possible.
On Tuesday, 465 new confirmed cases were reported nationwide. As Tuesday, 31 Chinese provinces, regions and municipalities have reported 4,854 confirmed cases.
Zhang Wenqing, Director of WHO Global Influenza Programme, said in the conference that at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the influenza situation was very weak around the world, but the change occurred in the second half of 2021. The data showed an increase in influenza virus activity in many countries, both in the northern and southern hemispheres.
"In some countries in the southern hemisphere, influenza virus is more active than it was before the COVID-19 outbreak," Zhang said. This points to the important question of whether the northern hemisphere will see the same seasonal flu spike as the southern hemisphere.
Talking about the reasons for this change, Gao said one possible reason is that in the past three years, public health measures have been implemented globally, which has caused the overall population to have a weak immunity to influenza viruses. Some countries have relaxed their public health policies recently, making it more likely that new strains will emerge, Gao warned. At the same time, the low rate of influenza vaccination also causes the situation that the influenza virus is easy to spread.
As for how to effectively deal with this crisis, scholars from different regions and countries, such as Russia and the UK, agreed that the experience of COVID-19 prevention and control is worth learning, for example, the development of rapid and accessible diagnostic methods may play a crucial role in the prevention and control of influenza epidemic.
Zhong believes that basic research and clinical research have important scientific and practical significance in the diagnosis, treatment, and control of respiratory viruses. The COVID-19 epidemic has promoted basic research on pathogenesis and accelerated the development of rapid clinical diagnostic methods, and provided an important basis for the clinical practice of epidemic prevention and control and the judgment of disease prognosis.
In recent years, China has made a series of landmark achievements in respiratory virus research, Dong added.
Basic research has made progress in respiratory viruses, etiology, structural biology, immunology, and cross-species and so on, and formed a good technical reserve, which can provide guidance for the prevention and control strategy of influenza, Dong said.
In an interview with CGTN on April 3, China's top respiratory scientist Zhong Nanshan said lockdown measures adopted by some countries in Europe or the United States are not effective as they are not exactly implementing real lockdown. He said that the lockdown should go deeper and be stricter, stressing the importance of social distancing to stop the spread of the coronavirus. "Nobody can block, can stop the spreading or stop the infection of this kind of disease. But we can try to do our best to inhibit the spreading. So, that's what we are successful," he added.
US must take more stringent containment measures: top respiratory expert
Zhong Nanshan, 80, China's revered infectious disease expert, warned on Thursday that if the COVID-19 outbreak continues to worsen in the US, it could become a global issue, since the number of US confirmed cases account for almost a quarter of global cases.
"I am now gravely concerned with the epidemic in the US, and if it gets worse, it will become a global problem," Zhong said on Thursday night during a COVID-19 international experience sharing and exchange video conference.
Zhong said that he noticed a significant increase in the number of COVID19 patients in the US over the past few days, suggesting that the country has begun mass screening of its citizens.
Screening in the US is progressing very advanced, Zhong noted. It takes about 15-20 minutes for a patient to get test results, while it currently takes an hour and a half in China, he said.
"US has made much progress in testing and determining the infected patients, but tracing all their close contacts, separating them, isolating them and cutting the transmission chain is much important," Zhong said.
Zhong urged the US federal government to adopt stronger measures to stem the spread of the pandemic in the US.
The US has reported more than 241,000 cases as of late Thursday, almost a quarter of confirmed cases in the world, and more than 5,800 deaths.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 300,000 by 3:40 p.m. local time Saturday (1940 GMT), according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
Whether the US and China can now pivot toward collaboration where interests overlap will shape the degree of global cooperation with regard to both more effectively combating the coronavirus and no less, in the huge challenge of restarting the global economy.
Chinese coronavirus test kits are desperately clamored for by many foreign clients, but some unfriendly Western media outlets have chosen to smear and discredit made-in-China products.
Masks can help prevent people from being infected. The suggestion is scientific and Asian countries have a lot of experience in this regard. However, excessive cultural confidence has hindered the US and European countries from giving due attention to the experience of their Asian counterparts.
Ignorance is bliss
However, the kind ailing that United States' top brass has come at a devastasting cost to the Uncle Sam
https://youtu.be/sdre7SOd2hg
A news report appeared in the New York Times a week ago. It was probably glossed over, even in the Big Apple, as most New Yorkers struggle with overnight unemployment and keeping a roof over their heads.
It was conspicuously absent from CNN’s newsfeeds, too, despite its world-wide audience, as it remains preoccupied with ridiculing President Trump, while Fox News was per-script in blaming the virus on China.
Most of us outside the US were expectedly unaware of this significant event.
But on March 29, the NY Times reported about a commercial aircraft carrying 80 tonnes of gloves, masks, gowns and other medical supplies from Shanghai, touching down in New York last Sunday, marking the first of 22 scheduled flights that White House officials say will supply much-needed goods to the US by early April.
The NY Times is a credible 169-year-old American newspaper with a worldwide influence and readership. It has won 127 Pulitzer Prizes – more than any other newspaper.
The report quoted Lizzie Litzow, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who said the plane delivered 130,000 N95 masks, 1.8 million face masks and gowns, 10 million gloves and thousands of thermometers for distribution in NY, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Apparently, there should be subsequent flights to Chicago and Ohio, where supplies will be despatched to other states using private-sector distribution networks.
Now, here’s the gem. The NY Times added, attributing a White House spokesman, that the shipment from China which arrived in NY was the product of a public-private partnership – led by President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner – with major health care distributors including McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, Owens & Minor, Medline and Henry Schein.
Representatives from those companies had previously met with Trump at the White House.
So, while Trump was busy throwing punches at China, with his incessant China Virus remarks, he was, instead, quietly seeking help from the republic behind the scenes.
Trump isn’t the only one culpable, either. His Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is equally pompous with his obsession in lambasting China for everything, including Covid-19, from which spawned the now-infamous “China Virus” line.
His remarks have become much more contagious than the virus itself with each passing day.
The virus struck Wuhan, China, in December last year, then spread to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, during which Trump was still dismissive of it.
He portrayed it as a mere flu bug, with his predictable barrage of false claims and fake news, and even until last month, he kept repeating that Covid- 19 was not as bad as the seasonal flu.
And of course, as the rest of Asia was busy stocking up on face masks, sterilisers and food supplies, he still insisted that “the United States is in a far better shape than other countries.”
None of us in Asia, especially, believed him. In fact, we feel sorry that many ordinary Americans didn’t wake up to the threat. Echoing their president’s sentiments, they assumed the US would be immune to it. Mr T shot from the hip again, and in his usual condescending manner.
After all, Asians deserve it, what with their filthy eating habits and dirty animal markets, right?
The British likely thought the same, and continued to attend huge gatherings like football matches, and went on pub crawls and walks in the park, too.
Asians watched in exasperation at the continuing nonchalance of these people.
Incredibly, as the bodies pile up at the morgue, there are US leaders who continue to engage in the meaningless blame game.
If they think they can gain sympathy with this inane approach, they should know that the virus isn’t going away, and eventually, victims will wise up. And as leaders, they will still have to tackle this health disaster.
As of now, US health workers have resorted to rationing protective gear or using homemade supplies, with the Department of Health and Human Services saying it estimates the US will require 3.5 billion masks if the pandemic lasts a year.
The NY Times, quoting Litzow, said “the overwhelming demand has set off a race among foreign countries, American officials at all levels of government and private individuals to acquire protective gear, ventilators and other much-needed goods from China, where newly built factories are churning out supplies even as China’s own epidemic wanes.”
It added that the US was working with manufacturers from Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, India, Honduras and Mexico.
Until a few months ago, the US was halting trade with China, imposing barriers and tariffs, and kicking out US-based Chinese scientists, but now, the NY Times reports that “American governors, mayors and lawmakers have been trying to arrange their own shipments of products from China, with some saying the federal government has been moving too slowly, which risks losing out to other foreign buyers.
“American officials have leaned on sister cities and province relationships, liaison offices they had set up in China to attract investment and connections with state-run Chinese companies to try to secure scarce equipment.”
It also said that the private sector, comprising a motley crew of wealthy individuals, charitable organizations and corporate executives with connections to China, have also stepped forward to help deliver goods to the United States.
Tragically, as Italy and Spain, among other nations, battle helplessly against the Covid-19 virus, the European Union’s miserable failure casts a long shadow. No EU member has sent aid to their Italian brethren.
The politicians can question China’s motives in its aid offer, in what is now dubbed the “face mask diplomacy”, but real help goes a long way in tough times. Talk is cheap, President Trump.
Representing the private sector, Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire and co-founder of Alibaba, donated a million masks and 500,000 test kits to the US.
Other benefitting countries of the masks will include Spain, Belgium and France, with the same resource already sent to Czech Republic, Greece and Serbia.
For Malaysia, China has donated 100,008 units of novel coronavirus nucleic acid diagnostic (PCR-Fluorescence Probing) test kits, 100,000 pieces of N95 face masks, 500,000 pieces of surgical masks, 50,000 units of personal protective equipment (PPE) and 200 ventilators.
The Committee of 100, a leadership organisation of Americans of Chinese descent, has raised US$1mil (RM4.3mil) to purchase medical supplies and protective gear from around the world to help their country.
Against this backdrop of generosity and care, Pompeo still had time to hold a global teleconference on March 29, as he continued his offensive on China for its alleged campaign of misinformation on the virus.
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