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A coronavirus outbreak among hundreds of Russian and Ukrainian fishermen who flew to New Zealand to bolster its struggling deep-sea fishing industry has led to the largest daily increase in infections in that country in months, authorities said.
More than 230 fishermen were flown from Moscow last week, and 18 of the crew members tested positive for Covid-19 while in quarantine, New Zealand Health Director-General Ashley Bloomfield said.
The Pacific nation has nearly eliminated local transmission of the virus, but regularly records a small number of new cases in returning travelers.
The fishing group raised the daily count of new infections to 25, the highest level since April, prompting concern among officials in Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s recently re-elected government.
New Zealand has recorded more than 1,500 cases and 25 deaths in a population of nearly five million and has been widely praised for its handling of the pandemic.
Health officials said two new cases had also been linked to a port worker, who may have come into contact with a ship that is now docked off the east coast of Australia.
Extensive travel bans remain in place in New Zealand and those granted exemptions, including fishermen, who were classified as essential workers, are forced to stay in quarantine for 14 days.
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Bloomfield said the new cases highlighted the threat of overseas arrivals.
“We cannot afford to be complacent, we are not being complacent at the border,” he said.
The maritime sector has also come under scrutiny in Australia, where dozens of crew members from a cattle ship docked off the west coast of Australia tested positive for the virus.
“It is becoming clear that ships arriving with Covid-19 on board is one of the weakest links and the greatest risk to our way of life in Western Australia,” Western Australian Prime Minister Mark McGowan said yesterday.
Australia has recorded more than 27,400 cases and 905 deaths in a population of 25 million.
Brazil adopts Chinese Covid vaccine after dispute
Brazil’s health minister said the country would add the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine against Covid-19 to its national immunization program, despite a political and diplomatic dispute over whether to use it.
Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said the federal government had reached an agreement with the state of Sao Paulo, which is helping to test and produce the vaccine, to buy 46 million doses to be administered starting in January.
“This vaccine will be the Brazilian vaccine,” in addition to another developed by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical AstraZeneca, said Nr Pazuello in a video meeting of the 27 governors of the South American country.
“That is our great news. This is going to recalibrate the process” of eventually vaccinating the population of Brazil against Covid-19, which has claimed more lives here than any other country except the United States.
CoronaVac, developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech, has been embroiled in a messy battle in Brazil.
President Jair Bolsonaro had labeled it the vaccine from “that other country” and resisted using it, pushing for the Oxford vaccine.
Meanwhile, Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, one of Bolsonaro’s main opponents, pushed for an agreement between Sinovac and Brazil’s Butantan Institute to test and produce the vaccine in his state.
Both the Sinovac and Oxford vaccines are currently in end-stage clinical trials in Brazil, a superior testing ground for vaccine candidates due to their high infection rate.
Both still need regulatory approval.
Brazil had previously signed a contract for 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine.
But CoronaVac is expected to be available first, after Oxford had to suspend testing in September when a volunteer developed an unexplained illness.
Brazil, a country of 212 million inhabitants, has registered 5.3 million cases and 155,000 deaths from the new coronavirus.
Coronavirus-related deaths in Ukraine hit record as infections rise
The number of daily deaths from coronavirus in Ukraine has risen to 141 from the previous record of 113 deaths recorded yesterday, the national security council said.
The council also reported a record 6,719 new coronavirus cases recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 315,826 cases with 5,927 deaths.
Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said the number of coronavirus cases may rise to 8,000-10,000 per day in the coming weeks.
The daily case count soared above 5,000 in October, prompting the government to extend the lockdown measures until the end of 2020.
Stepanov said Ukraine would introduce stricter lockdown restrictions if cases increase to 11,000-15,000 a day.
He warned that the resources of the medical system would be depleted if the number of daily cases exceeds 20,000.
Meanwhile, the Czech Republic reported 11,984 new coronavirus cases yesterday, the highest daily count on record, as the country is battling a surge in recent weeks.
The number of people who died due to Covid-19 rose to 1,619 from 1,513 in the last 24 hours in the country from 10.7 million, data from the Health Ministry showed.
The government will meet in an extraordinary session to discuss the epidemiological situation. Health Minister Roman Prymula had hinted yesterday that stricter restrictions were coming.
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