The mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinic for house-to-house service will be conducted at several mukims this week to administer COVID-19 vaccines for people with limited mobility or are bedridden.
Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar, during a press conference yesterday, said the house-to-house service will be from 9am to 2.30pm.
Yesterday, the clinics visited Mukim Gadong ‘A’, Mukim Gadong ‘B’, Mukim Berakas ‘A’, Mukim Berakas ‘B’ and Mukim Mentiri.
The service will be available in Mukim Bato Apoi, Mukim Bokok, Mukim Bangar, Mukim Amo, Mukim Mentiri, Mukim Lumapas, Mukim Kota Batu and Mukim Liang today.
Tomorrow, it will continue in Mukim Pekan Tutong, Mukim Keriam, Mukim Telisai, Mukim Serasa, Mukim Kilanas, Mukim Berakas ‘A’, Mukim Berakas ‘B’ and Mukim Liang, while January 6, the service will be available in Mukim Telisai, Mukim Pekan Tutong, Mukim Keriam, Mukim Tanjong Maya and Mukim Berakas ‘B’.
On January 8, the clinic will arrive in Mukim Pekan Tutong, Mukim Keriam, Mukim Tanjong Maya, Mukim Berakas ‘B’ and several mukims in Kampong Ayer.
The minister said the patients eligible for the house-to-house service will be contacted by the Ministry of Health. They will be required to share their identity card or passport details and Bru-HIMS number.
KUALA LUMPUR (AGENCIES) – AirAsia Group Berhad has proposed changing its company name to Capital A Berhad, the operator of Malaysia’s flagship budget airline said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
The airline group said the proposed name was approved by the Companies Commission of Malaysia and is now subject to shareholders’ approval.
BRASILIA (AP) — Passengers on the cruise ship MSC Preziosa had to wait more than six hours to disembark at Rio de Janeiro on Sunday due to an inspection by Brazilian health authorities that confirmed 28 cases of COVID-19 on board – 26 passengers and two crew members.
Rio’s health secretariat said in a statement that among those who tested positive, people living in Rio or the nearby region can quarantine themselves at home. Others must first isolate in hotels, and there was no information provided about who would pay for the
costs.
After the inspection, MSC Preziosa was authorised by federal health regulator Anvisa to continue operating. Other passengers were waiting to embark for Bahia. The ship had set out from the Brazilian resort of Búzios.
In a statement to the Associated Press, MSC said it applies “protocols that are stricter and stronger than in any other travel industry”, adding that only vaccinated people are allowed to board, and that it conducts regular tests on passengers and crew members.
A passenger arrives to board the cruise ship MSC Preziosa in the Port Area of Rio de Janeiro. PHOTO: AP
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – One person has been found and two are still feared dead following a devastating Colorado wildfire that wiped out swaths of several towns and forced thousands of people to flee with little notice, officials said on Sunday.
Of three reported missing “one of those persons has been accounted for alive and well”, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle told journalists, adding that a search was ongoing for the remaining two.
Hot debris that has been covered by snow has however hampered recovery efforts, he said.
The so-called Marshall Fire, which was sparked in a tinder-dry landscape, was fanned by winds gusting at more than 160 kilometers an hour on Thursday.
As the blaze raced through the towns of Superior and Louisville, just outside the state’s biggest city Denver, tens of thousands of people were forced to flee with little notice.
Shocking aerial footage showed whole streets as little more than piles of smoking ash, destruction that appeared almost total but somehow left a few homes oddly untouched.
The cause of the blaze is still under investigation, with a search warrant in one location announced on Saturday.
“There’s no news yet on the ongoing investigation into the source of the fire,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis told CNN on Sunday. “It’s being done professionally in conjunction with the FBI, with forensic expertise around it.”
MONTREAL, QUEBEC (AP) – Quebec proceeded with the first of three planned closures of non-essential retail stores on Sunday as the provincial government tried to curb a new wave of COVID-19 driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant.
Hospitals and health-care resources in Quebec and Canada’s remote northern communities are also being stretched as case numbers explode.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced last week that the bulk of the province’s stores would be closed for the next three Sundays, with the exception of pharmacies, convenience stores and gas stations.
President of the Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce Charles Milliard urged the government to lift the measures as soon as possible.
“The last thing businesses need during these difficult times is additional restrictions,” Milliard said in a statement. “We must leave the choice to businesses to open or close at the time that makes the most sense for them, their employees and their customers.”
The closures came as Quebec reported 15,845 new COVID-19 cases, as well as 13 additional deaths linked to the virus.
The Health Department said the number of hospitalisations linked to the disease rose by 70 to 1,231. It said 162 people are in intensive care, an increase of nine.
A woman walks by a closed store in a shopping mall in Montreal. PHOTO: AP
Quebec City’s main hospital network said it will postpone half of its surgeries and medical appointments starting tomorrow due to the spike in COVID patients.
President and CEO of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval told a news conference that as many as 10,000 medical appointments could be delayed, allowing roughly 50 nurses to also be redirected to the
pandemic’s ward. The hospital network said 783 health-care workers are in isolation, in addition to the 600 nurses already missing from the workforce before the pandemic’s fifth wave hit. The strain caused by the growing number of cases is exacerbated in remote communities where health care is already limited.
Bearskin Lake First Nation, a fly-in only community in northern Ontario, declared a state of emergency on December 30 when 43 residents tested positive for the virus.
By Sunday, 169 people had confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, more than 40 per cent of the total population.
“That’s a crisis,” Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Derek Fox said in an interview.
Outbreaks in remote communities are also affecting Nunavut, northern Quebec and Labrador.
Nunavut confirmed another 22 cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the total to 196 in just 10 days.
Nunavut is discouraging all non-essential travel within the territory and has banned non-essential travel to and from several communities, including Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, Arviat, Igloolik and Pangnirtung.
Travel bans are also in place now in Nunavik in northern Quebec until mid-January, with only critical or essential travel allowed into or out of the region’s 14 villages.
Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar yesterday reminded the public that hospital visits are only permitted for critically or terminally ill patients and only two immediate family members at a time.
The minister said the recently updated visitor and carer policy in government hospitals is aimed at safeguarding the well-being of visitors, patients and hospital staff from exposure to COVID-19.
Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham said visitors are requested to comply with all instructions given by hospital staff.
The minister said, “The Ministry of Health cannot emphasise enough that the number of people allowed to visit critically or terminally ill patients at intensive care unit (ICU) or cardiac care unit (CCU) or regular wards are two immediate family members at a time.”
He iterated that antigen rapid test (ART) certificates must be shown to hospital staff prior to entering ICU, CCU or regular wards. However, one carer is permitted for any patient according to the guidelines.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Americans returning home from holiday travel had to battle another day of airport chaos on Sunday, with more than 2,600 flights cancelled due to bad weather or airline staffing woes sparked by a surge in Covid cases.
Further disruptions are predicted as a winter storm blows eastward.
As of 10pm more than 2,650 domestic flights or international ones starting or finishing in the United States (US) had been cancelled – almost as many as the 2,750 scrapped over the course of Saturday, said the flight-tracking service FlightAware.
That figure represented well over half of the nearly 4,400 flights cancelled around the world. Almost 8,600 US flights were delayed.
Southwest Airlines, one of the hardest-hit carriers, had to cancel some 400 flights on Sunday morning, a spokesperson said in an email to AFP, adding that it expected further cancellations.
On Saturday, poor weather, much of it linked to Winter Storm Frida, forced Southwest to cancel 490 flights, most of them in the centre-north states south of the Great Lakes and reaching west to the Great Plains.
The result: intense frustration for many travellers.
Airline passengers wait to collect bags from a baggage carousel at the Harry Reid International Airport. PHOTO: AFP
“This is insane,” tweeted Haley, a Southwest passenger who was trying to fly out of Chicago.
“This is the third cancellation and still not home. Was supposed to be home four days ago!!!”
Airports in Chicago – a major transit hub – were the most affected on Saturday, but by Sunday the airports in Atlanta, Denver, Detroit, Houston and Newark were also hard hit.
A woman named Kayla described her own ordeal: “I was supposed to get home at 10.30am yesterday and at this point I’ve had three flights cancelled and one delayed to the point where I missed my connection.”
Around the world, air traffic has suffered snarls since the holidays because of airline staffing issues linked to the spread of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant. Many pilots and flight attendants have called in sick after testing positive for the virus or being forced to quarantine due to contact with someone who has the virus.
This has left carriers with staffing shortages and forced them to delay or cancel flights.
The latest travel chaos carried echoes of a frustrating holiday weekend, when around 7,500 flights around the world were scrapped.
And rebooking cancelled flights has been a major challenge for many. One traveller, Eric Crawford, described his frustration at trying to call a Delta Airline agent to reschedule.
“An estimated wait time of 22+ hours to speak with a rep about a cancelled flight,” he said on Twitter, “is not the best look for starting 2022.”
And Kowshick Boddu offered this account, also on Twitter, about his troubles with Alaska Air: “We were supposed to fly out from Fairbanks to San Jose on December 30, but our flights got rescheduled to today which is eventually cancelled again??? Long customer call wait hours, no response and flights not been rebooked? Need help!!”
AMSTERDAM (AFP) – Thousands of protesters defied authorities and gathered in the Dutch capital Amsterdam on Sunday to oppose coronavirus restrictions, leading to clashes and 30 arrests.
“This is Holland! Power to the people!” chanted one protester.
The demonstrators rallied in one of the city’s main squares, despite Dutch authorities banning the protest beforehand.
Police said anti-riot officers had to use force after protesters refused to leave the square despite a warning.
Four officers were injured in the clashes with protesters and 30 arrests were made for offences including assault, public disorder, possession of a forbidden weapon and not respecting security forces, they added.
Local media reported that at least two protesters suffered injuries.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced a lockdown on December 18, one week before December 25, 2021, in response to a fresh wave of COVID infections fuelled by the Omicron variant.
Non-essential shops, restaurants, cinemas, theatres and museums will remain closed until January 14 and schools until January 9.
Under the new rules, only two people may meet outdoors, with an exception for burials, but no travel restrictions were imposed.
Dutch riot police beat a protestor during clashes as thousands of people defied a ban to gather and protest the Dutch government’s coronavirus lockdown measures in Amsterdam. PHOTO: AP
There were reports of antigen rapid test (ART) kits giving false negatives for Omicron variant because of reduced sensitivity. However, Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar said it is unknown which ART kits the reports referred to.
During a press conference yesterday, the minister added, “We must understand that ART is not 100 per cent accurate but it is in the 90 per cent and above range.The test kits approved for sale in Brunei had gone through rigorous tests to ensure reliable results.”
Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham said false positives are more commonly reported but the results can easily be confirmed with a PCR test.
The minister noted, “What we fear is false negative as it gives false assurance”, while urging the public to use only approved test kits.
MADRID (AFP) – Over 4,000 migrants died or disappeared trying to reach Spain by sea in 2021, twice as many as in the previous year, a migrant rights group said yesterday.
Migrant arrivals in Spain’s Canary Islands in the Atlantic have increased since late 2019 after increased patrols along Europe’s southern coast dramatically reduced crossings to the continent via the Mediterranean.
This route is fraught with dangers due to strong currents and the greater distances involved.
A total of 4,404 migrants perished or vanished in attempts to reach Spain last year, up from 2,170 in 2020, according to Spanish non-governmental organisation Caminando Fronteras, which tracks data from boats in distress.
That is the highest yearly number since the group started keeping records in 2015.
The bodies of the vast majority of migrants, 94 per cent, were never found so they are counted as missing.
Over 90 per cent of the deaths or disappearances last year, 4,016, took place during attempts to reach Spain’s Canary Islands.
The shortest route to the archipelago is more than 100 kilometres from the Moroccan coat.
“There are painful figures,” Maria Gonzalez Rollan, one of the authors of the annual report, told a news conference.
Migration routes to Spain were becoming more “feminised”, with 628 women and 205 children among those who died or went missing last year while trying to reach the country, she added.
The figures from the non-governmental organisation are much higher than those from the United Nations International Organization for Migration which has tallied 1,279 deaths or disappearances of migrants on their way to Spain from northern Africa last year.
At least 37,385 migrants arrived in Spain by sea last year, according to Spanish interior ministry figures, slightly less than the 38,014 that arrived in 2020.
