Day: September 24, 2021

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday that around 60 million Americans are eligible for a booster shot against the coronavirus.

His announcement came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved a third Pfizer shot for those 65 and older, frontline workers and adults with underlying medical conditions.

Biden urged eligible Americans to get COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, and he said he would get his own shot as soon as possible.

In comments from the White House Friday, Biden said, “Like your first and second shot, the booster shot is free and easily accessible.”

The CDC approved the boosters for Americans 65 or older; frontline workers such as teachers, health care workers and others whose jobs place them at risk of contracting COVID-19; and those ages 50 to 64 with underlying conditions.

The booster shot will be available for those who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at least six months ago. The White House said Friday 20 million Americans are eligible for the shot immediately, while a total of 60 million Pfizer-shot recipients will be eligible for boosters once they reach the six-month mark.

The European Union’s drug watchdog said Thursday it plans to decide in early October whether to approve a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for those over age 16.

Elsewhere, Norway’s government said Friday it would end all remaining coronavirus restrictions on Saturday.

“It is 561 days since we introduced the toughest measures in Norway in peacetime. … Now the time has come to return to a normal daily life,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg told a news conference.

In Australia, health officials announced Friday that more than half the population had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

A wave of coronavirus infections has led to lockdowns in Australia’s two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as the capital, Canberra.

Health officials in South Korea said Friday the country set a record for daily cases with 2,434 in the past 24 hours, surpassing a record set last month.

Officials said that although cases were spiking, the mortality rate and the number of severe cases remain relatively low. They attributed that in large part to a vaccination campaign that prioritized older people and those who were at high risk for disease.

In Singapore, the health ministry announced it was tightening restrictions to fight a wave of coronavirus infections. The new policies include limiting social gatherings to two people, down from five.

The ministry also reported 1,650 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic.

Earlier this week, Singapore said 92% of the population had been fully vaccinated. Officials said about 98% of the confirmed coronavirus cases in the past four weeks were in people who had mild or no symptoms.

Russia reported 828 deaths from COVID-19 in past 24 hours on Friday, the country’s highest daily number of the pandemic. The toll breaks the record set a day earlier.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Thursday in a video address to the United Nations General Assembly, “It is an indictment on humanity that more than 82% of the world’s vaccine doses have been acquired by wealthy countries, while less than 1% has gone to low-income countries,”

The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 4% of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated.

“The hoarding and inequitable distribution with the resultant uneven vaccination patterns across the globe is not acceptable,” Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said in a prerecorded message to the assembly on Thursday.

“Vaccine nationalism is self-defeating and contrary to the mantra that ‘no one is safe until everyone is safe.’ Whether in the global North or South, rich or poor, old or young, all people of the world deserve access to vaccines.”

Source: Voice of America

ABUJA, NIGERIA — Police in Nigeria say they have arrested three men in connection with the July abduction of more than 100 students in northern Kaduna state. Gunmen took the students from Bethel Baptist High School, part of a wave of kidnappings for ransom that have shaken communities across the north.

Nigerian national police spokesperson Frank Mba announced the arrests on Thursday as the three suspects were paraded before reporters in the capital, Abuja.

Mba didn’t disclose where the men were picked up, but said they are part of a larger 25-member gang that seized the 121 students on July 5.

About 100 of the students have since been freed, and police say operatives of Nigeria’s special tactical squad are in pursuit of other members of the gang.

One of the kidnappers told reporters he was paid about $40 for the operation. But Darlington Abdullahi, a security analyst and retired air force officer, says the kidnappings are far more lucrative.

“They’re forced to kidnap for survival, obtain ransoms,” he said. “Strangely enough, they have found out that they even make more money from the kidnapping.”

For the past year, armed gangs have been seizing students from schools in northwest and central Nigeria and squeezing thousands of dollars in ransom from their families.

About 1,200 students have been taken since December of last year. The mass kidnappings have led to sudden school closures across the affected states, mostly Kaduna, Niger, and Zamfara.

This month, Kaduna state authorities ordered the reopening of schools after shutting down for two months. Authorities promised more security at schools to prevent further attacks.But Abdullahi says he still has concerns.

“The kidnapping in parts of the north central, northwest and so on will continue until we’re able to adequately take care of the border areas through which they come in. … Zamfara, Katsina, Niger, that is the ones that come in through Benin republic,” he said.

Last month, bandits released more than 90 pupils abducted from an Islamic seminary in central Niger state after three months in captivity. The pupils are the youngest to be kidnapped by bandits in Nigeria.

Source: Voice of America

KANO, NIGERIA At least eight Nigerian soldiers were killed and several others were missing Friday after being ambushed by IS-affiliated jihadists in violence-wracked northeast Borno state, two military sources told AFP.

A military convoy came under rocket fire by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) militants as it made its way between the towns of Dikwa and Marte in the Lake Chad region, the sources said.

Eight other soldiers and an anti-jihadist militiaman were injured in the attack, a military officer said.

According to a second military source, who lacked authorization to speak about the incident and asked not to be identified, the jihadists took away two military vehicles and burned three others.

It was the second high-profile attack in less than two weeks by ISWAP jihadists, who are waging a 12-year Islamist insurgency in Nigeria’s northeast.

ISWAP has been consolidating territory in the Lake Chad area since rival Boko Haram commander Abubakar Shekau was killed in fighting between the two jihadist forces earlier this year.

Earlier this month, 16 Nigerian soldiers and two anti-jihadist militia were killed in another ambush by IS-allied fighters on their patrol on a highway in northeast Borno state.

ISWAP has recently intensified attacks on civilians along the 135-kilometer (84-mile) Maiduguri-Monguno highway where they set up checkpoints, robbing and killing motorists, according to accounts of local residents.

The near-daily attacks prompted military patrols along the highway, the military sources said.

Since 2019, soldiers have shut down some smaller army bases and moved into larger, fortified garrisons known as “super camps” in an attempt to better resist militant attacks.

But critics say the “super camp” strategy has also allowed militants liberty to move freely in rural areas and left travelers more vulnerable to kidnapping.

The conflict has spilled into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

A regional military coalition is fighting the Islamist groups to end their violence.

Source: Voice of America