Omicron threat | Travel bans may do more harm than good, warns WHO

News Network
December 1, 2021

The World Health Organization has warned blanket travel bans will not prevent the spread of Omicron, as more countries rushed to impose curbs and the first cases of the new Covid strain were detected in Latin America.

In the week since the new virus strain was reported by South Africa, dozens of countries around the world have responded with travel restrictions -- most targeting southern African nations.

But the World Health Organization warned Tuesday that "blanket" travel bans risked doing more harm than good, just as Canada expanded its restrictions.

In a travel advisory, the WHO warned the bans could ultimately dissuade countries from sharing data about the evolving virus.

But it did advise that unvaccinated people vulnerable to Covid-19, including over-60s, should avoid travel to areas with community transmission of the virus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was understandable for countries to seek to protect their citizens "against a variant we don't yet fully understand".

But he called for the global response to be "calm, coordinated and coherent", urging nations to "take rational, proportional risk-reduction measures".

The likely futility of broad travel restrictions was underscored as Dutch authorities reported that Omicron was present in the country before South Africa officially reported its first cases on November 25.

The new variant -- whose high number of mutations the WHO believes may make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines -- was found in two Dutch test samples from November 19 and 23, with one having no travel history.

So far, well over a dozen countries and territories have detected cases, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy and Portugal.

Latin America reported its first two cases Tuesday -- in people who travelled from South Africa to Brazil -- and a first case was confirmed in Japan, one day after it barred all foreign arrivals.

However, US President Joe Biden said the travel bans on just the southern African nations would stay in place, without referencing the other places where Omicron has been detected.

Asked how long travel restrictions that took effect Monday on South Africa and seven other southern African countries would remain, Biden said it "kind of depends".

"We're going to learn a lot more in the next couple weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how much it spreads, what we have to control it, etcetera," he told reporters.

Asked if any expansion of the travel restrictions to other countries could be made suddenly, as happened under former president Donald Trump, Biden said: "Unlike Trump I don't shock our allies."

In Asia, governments continued Wednesday to expand restrictions, including with Indonesia adding Hong Kong to its travel ban list alongside various African nations.

Hong Kong also added three more countries - Japan, Portugal and Sweden -- to its highest travel restriction category after Omicron cases were discovered in those nations.

While much is still unknown about the Omicron variant -- it could take weeks to determine whether and to what extent it is vaccine-resistant -- it has highlighted that the global fight against Covid-19 is far from over.

Omicron has emerged as much of the northern hemisphere was already bracing for a new winter wave of the pandemic -- leaving even nations with high vaccination rates struggling to contain rising infection numbers and prevent health services from being overwhelmed.

Governments, particularly in Western Europe, have already reintroduced mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns -- leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

Greece went ahead Tuesday in making vaccines compulsory for over-60s, while Norway will offer booster shots to all adults before Easter, as preferable to a lockdown.

Britain has set a target of delivering third jabs to all adults within two months.

While the European summer of fleeting Covid freedoms may be over, in the southern hemisphere, the Pacific island of Fiji ended 615 days of international isolation on Wednesday and reopened to tourists.

Traditional dancers in grass skirts welcomed waving holidaymakers from Sydney, the first of an expected flood of desperately needed tourists in the coming weeks.

Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said it was a "momentous" occasion, where tourism accounts for about 40 percent of the economy.

"The international border reopening will reignite Fiji's economy," he told reporters.

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News Network
March 7,2024

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Bengaluru: The BJP, which aims to secure significant victories in Karnataka in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, may nominate two of its former Chief Ministers -- Basavaraj Bommai and Jagadish Shettar, both hailing from the dominant Lingayat community, considered the party's core vote-base. Providing indications about this, veteran party leader B S Yediyurappa said discussions have taken place regarding candidates for all 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, including Bommai and Shettar, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the party's national president J P Nadda, but no final decision has been made.

Yediyurappa, a former Chief Minister and a member of the BJP's Parliamentary Board and Central Election Committee, also hinted that the BJP may allocate two to three seats to its alliance partner JD(S) in Karnataka, with the final decision to be made by the party's national leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. BJP leaders from various states are meeting Shah and Nadda ahead of the party's Central Election Committee, which includes Modi and other senior leaders, holding its second meeting later this week to finalize the party's candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. The party has so far announced candidates for 195 Lok Sabha seats out of the total 543 across the country.

"Yesterday, Amit Shah ji, Nadda ji, and all of us together discussed candidates for all 28 Lok Sabha seats. Who should be given the ticket has not yet been finalized. All of that will be discussed with the Prime Minister, and we might get clarity in two to three days," Yediyurappa told reporters in the national capital. He added, "Everything has been discussed, but who will be given a ticket from where has not yet been finalized. Discussions have happened about Bommai and Jagadish Shettar."

Speculations are rife within the state BJP circles that Bommai, currently an MLA from Shiggaon, may be fielded from Haveri, with the party's sitting MP Shivakumar Udasi announcing retirement from electoral politics after the current term ends. Shettar may be fielded from Belgaum (Belagavi), currently represented by Mangala Angadi, the widow of former Union Minister of State Suresh Angadi. She won by a margin of over 5,000 votes in the 2021 bypolls against the Congress strongman Satish Jarkiholi when the seat fell vacant due to her husband's death.

BJP aims to replace Mangala with a strong candidate to retain the seat, and Shettar’s name is doing the rounds as he also happens to be a relative of the Angadi family and was the poll incharge of this seat during the bypoll. Shettar, who quit the BJP to join the Congress ahead of the state assembly polls last year after being denied the ticket, rejoined his old party in January. Both Bommai and Shettar are from the Lingayat community, which is considered the strong vote-base of the BJP in Karnataka. According to party sources, the community's "slight shift" away from the saffron party in the Assembly polls last year is said to be one of the major reasons for its defeat. Yediyurappa is also a Lingayat.

According to Yediyurappa, there will be another round of discussions with the BJP's central leadership on Thursday at which some decisions may be taken. He also expressed confidence about winning at least 25 seats, and noted that efforts are underway in this direction. Regarding the seats that will be given to JD(S), he said the decision made by Modi and Shah is final. "It is not yet finalized as to which seats will be given to them. Two to three seats may be given to them," he added.

BJP and JD(S) have held discussions on seat sharing, but there is no official announcement yet. As per available information, JD(S) may contest in three seats -- Mandya, Hassan, and Kolar. There may also be a possibility of a JD(S) candidate contesting on the BJP symbol, according to sources, and it is likely to be noted cardiac surgeon and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's son-in-law Dr. C N Manjunath from the Bangalore Rural segment, where sitting MP and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar's brother D K Suresh is likely to be the Congress candidate once again. There is also pressure from party workers on Gowda's son -- former CM and JD(S) state President H D Kumaraswamy -- to contest from the Vokkaliga bastion of Mandya, JD(S) sources added.

The BJP aims to repeat or surpass its 2019 Lok Sabha polls performance, when it swept the state, winning 25 out of the total 28 seats, and ensured the victory of a party-supported independent candidate in Mandya. The Congress and the JD(S), which were running a coalition government back then and fought the election together, each won just one seat. However, the political landscape has changed significantly; the Congress scored a resounding victory in the Assembly elections in May last year and now appears battle-ready, determined to put up a strong show in the Lok Sabha polls. It is also a role reversal of sorts for JD(S), which joined the BJP-led NDA in September last year and aims to prove that it is still a force to be reckoned with, particularly in South Karnataka.

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News Network
March 13,2024

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Bengaluru, Mar 13: Karnataka government has not yet discussed the issue of implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in the State, and the Cabinet will take a call on it, Home Minister G Parameshwara said on Wednesday.

The Centre on Monday announced the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, a move that comes four years after the contentious law was passed and paves the way for citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

"We have not yet discussed it. If the Chief Minister says it has to be discussed and decided in the Cabinet, we will decide it. Whether to accept or reject it has to be decided by the Cabinet," Parameshwara told reporters.

The rules were notified days ahead of the expected announcement of the Lok Sabha elections. With this, the Modi government will now start granting Indian nationality to self-proclaimed persecuted non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from the three countries.

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News Network
March 12,2024

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The Congress on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Anantkumar Hegde's remark about amending the Constitution, asking whether he would take action against the BJP MP to demonstrate his commitment to the Constitution.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh hit out at the prime minister who is on a visit to Gujarat and Rajasthan and posed five questions to Modi.

"The prime minister is in Ahmedabad for the Sabarmati Ashram Memorial Project. While the prime minister is embracing the Mahatma for his political gains, will he commit to Mahatma Gandhi's ideals of non-violence, inclusivity, and equality?" he said in a post on X.

The Congress leader also asked whether PM Modi would take action against Anantkumar Hegde, the BJP MP from Karnataka, to demonstrate his personal commitment to the Constitution that he swore an oath to bear true faith and allegiance to.

Hegde, at a gathering at Karwar in Karnataka on Saturday, had said the BJP needed a two-third majority in both Houses of Parliament to amend the Constitution and 'set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress'.

In his posers to the prime minister, Ramesh also asked whether PM Modi would explain the 14 paper leaks that have occurred in Gujarat over the last seven years.

'The Congress has announced a comprehensive plan, 'Paper Leak se Mukti' under its Yuva Nyay guarantees to tackle the issue. How does the Prime Minister plan to address it?' he said.

Ramesh said on crucial indicators of development, Gujarat fares poorly compared to other states.

'Gujarat does worse on retention of students in higher secondary education and spends less on public education than poorer states like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Gujarat currently ranks 10th among 20 major states in terms of its population living Below Poverty Line,' he said.

'Despite the prime minister's public posturing on 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao', Gujarat ranks 15th out of 20 states in sex ratio. How does PM Modi reconcile the reality of Gujarat's socio-economic backwardness with the 'Gujarat Model' that he publicised in 2014 or the 'Double Engine' Sarkar model that he espouses today? the Congress leader said.

Ramesh said Prime Minister Modi will also visit Pokhran in Rajasthan, made famous exactly 50 years ago by Indira Gandhi as the site of India's first 'peaceful nuclear explosion', to celebrate India's indigenous defence capabilities which have incidentally been developed despite his best efforts.

'The share of expenditure on defence has fallen from 17.43 per cent of the Union Budget in FY19 to 13 per cent for FY25. As percentage of GDP, it has fallen from 2.13 per cent to 1.9 per cent between 2014 and 2024 - below the global standard of at least 2 per cent,' he said.

How does the prime minister intend to safeguard India's border or show China his 'Lal aankh' (red eye) without adequate expenditure on the armed forces, Ramesh asked.

'In the same vein, the prime minister has set up two committees in the last three years to investigate ways in which he can privatise or shut down the DRDO. The K VijayRaghavan committee has reportedly suggested that the DRDO's role be limited to research and development without being involved in developing prototypes or technology demonstrations,' he said.

'Instead, any production and further development would be done by selected private players. What is the prime minister's motivation in privatising defence research and development? Is it an attempt to bring his favoured industrialist friends into the industry through the backdoor?' Ramesh asked.

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