The Latest: Hong Kong ends lockdown in Kowloon neighborhood
By The Associated Press
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Updated:
Esteban Felix
A healthcare worker takes a nasal swab sample to test for the new coronavirus, in a market in Santiago, Chile, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. Chilean President Sebastian Pinera announced Friday that they expect a shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd on Thursday, Jan. 28.
Passengers wear face masks to protect from coronavirus as they sit together in the departure hall in Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021 during a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the virus COVID-19. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel was closing its international airport to nearly all flights as the government races to bring a raging coronavirus outbreak under control.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021, in Washington.
In this image made from video, a burnt out COVID-19 testing center is seen after being set on fire in Urk, 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Amsterdam, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. Dutch police have clashed with protesters demonstrating against the country’s lockdown in the capital, Amsterdam and the southern city of Eindhoven. The unrest comes a day after rioting youths protesting on the first night of the country’s curfew torched a coronavirus testing facility in Dutch fishing village Urk.
Israeli police officers stand guard next to burning garbage during clashes with ultra-Orthodox Jews in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. Ultra-Orthodox demonstrators clashed with Israeli police officers dispatched to close schools in Jerusalem and Ashdod that had opened in violation of coronavirus lockdown rules, on Sunday.
Employee Juan Monroy, dressed in full protective clothing, measures the temperature of a restaurant worker as a measure to slow the spread of COVID-19, at the Angela Peralta Theater in Mexico City, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. As in many nations, the new coronavirus pandemic’s pace has been uneven across Mexico. Mexico City remains the country’s epicenter, with 89% of its hospital beds full.
Healthcare worker Lupita Cruz, dressed in full protective clothing, carries a cooler filled with COVID-19 test samples, at the Angela Peralta Theater in Mexico City, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. As in many nations, the new coronavirus pandemic’s pace has been uneven across Mexico. Mexico City remains the country’s epicenter, with 89% of its hospital beds full.
Nurse Ahmed Hamdan Zayed, left, and Dr. Abdel Menoim Selim, the first two Egyptians to receive the Sinopharm China-made COVID-19 vaccine, stand on a stage to answer questions during a press conference, at the Abu Khalifa Hospital in Ismailia, 120 km (75 miles) east of Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021.
Dr. Alejandra Saavedra takes a nasal swab sample to test for COVID-19 at the Angela Peralta Theater in Mexico City, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. As in many nations, the new coronavirus pandemic’s pace has been uneven across Mexico. Mexico City remains the country’s epicenter, with 89% of its hospital beds full.
A woman wearing a mask to help protect against the spread of coronavirus, rests in a deserted street after shopping for food during a two-day weekend curfew, in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. Turkey has passed the milestone 25,000 COVID-19 deaths on Sunday.
Chicago Teachers Union members and hundreds of supporters march through the Loop, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. The Chicago Teachers Union said Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021 that its members voted to defy an order to return to the classroom over concerns about COVID-19, setting up a showdown with district officials who have said such a move would amount to an illegal strike.
Signs direct drivers waiting for a COVID-19 testing at a pop-up testing centre at Marsden Point, New Zealand, on Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Health officials in New Zealand say genome tests indicate the country's most recent COVID-19 patient contracted the virus from another returning traveler just before leaving quarantine.
The deserted Damrak street is seen during curfew in the heart of Amsterdam, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. The Netherlands entered its toughest phase of anti-coronavirus restrictions to date, imposing a nationwide night-time curfew from 9 p.m. until 4:30 a.m. in a bid to control the COVID-19 infection rate.
A woman wearing a mask for protection against the COVID-19 infection stands outdoors during an outdoor Lutheran Church religious service in Csovar, Hungary, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. While Hungary has imposed strict COVID-19 restrictions, including a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people, the government has not limited religious events. The Catholic Church, which represents a majority of Hungarian Christians, holds its masses almost as it did in pre-pandemic times, but other religious communities have sought other solutions to limit exposure to the virus.
Medical personnel test a passenger for coronavirus as her mother holds her on their arrival in Israel, at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, during a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
A COVID-19 patient receives treatment in the ICU of the Hospital del Mar, in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. The unrelenting increase in COVID-19 infections in Spain following the holiday season is again straining hospitals, threatening the mental health of doctors and nurses who have been at the forefront of the pandemic for nearly a year.
Government workers wearing personal protective equipment stand guard at the closed area in Jordan district, in Hong Kong, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. Thousands of Hong Kong residents were locked down Saturday in an unprecedented move to contain a worsening outbreak in the city, authorities said.
A police officer takes images of a torched coronavirus testing facility in the Dutch fishing village of Urk, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, after it was torch Saturday night by rioting youths protesting on the first night of a nation-wide curfew.
Government workers wearing personal protective equipment gather at the closed area in Jordan district, in Hong Kong, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. Thousands of Hong Kong residents were locked down Saturday in an unprecedented move to contain a worsening outbreak in the city, authorities said.
FILE - April 7, 2020, file photo, workers in protective overalls walk past the Hankou railway station on the eve of its resuming outbound traffic in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. One year after Wuhan’s lockdown to curb the coronavirus, the Chinese city has long since sprung back to life.
A COVID-19 patient receives treatment in the ICU of the Hospital del Mar, in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. The unrelenting increase in COVID-19 infections in Spain following the holiday season is again straining hospitals, threatening the mental health of doctors and nurses who have been at the forefront of the pandemic for nearly a year.
After getting their vaccines, recipients sit for a 15-minute observation period at a mass vaccination clinic at the Walla Walla Fairgrounds pavilion Saturday, Jan. 23, 2020, in Walla Walla, Wash.
People, wearing masks for protection against the COVID-19 infection, stand outdoors during an outdoor Lutheran Church religious service in Csovar, Hungary, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. While Hungary has imposed strict COVID-19 restrictions, including a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people, the government has not limited religious events. The Catholic Church, which represents a majority of Hungarian Christians, holds its masses almost as it did in pre-pandemic times, but other religious communities have sought other solutions to limit exposure to the virus.
A cyclist wears a mask as he passes graffitti in London, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021 during England's third national lockdown since the coronavirus outbreak began. The U.K. is under an indefinite national lockdown to curb the spread of the new variant, with nonessential shops, gyms and hairdressers closed, and people being told to stay at home.
In this Jan. 19, 2021 file photo, COVID-19 patients receive treatment in the ICU of the Hospital del Mar, in Barcelona, Spain. The unrelenting increase in COVID-19 infections in Spain following the holiday season is again straining hospitals, threatening the mental health of doctors and nurses who have been at the forefront of the pandemic for nearly a year.
People gather during a protest in support of coronavirus deniers and restrictions by the government in downtown Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. Although health authorities believe that the surge of coronavirus infections is waning, the rate of contagion has shot to over three times the extreme risk level, dangerously straining the health system.
Pedestrians pass a closed souvenir stand in London, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021 during England's third national lockdown since the coronavirus outbreak began. The U.K. is under an indefinite national lockdown to curb the spread of the new variant, with nonessential shops, gyms and hairdressers closed, and people being told to stay at home.
People exercise along the bank of the River Thames in London, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021 during England's third national lockdown since the coronavirus outbreak began. The U.K. is under an indefinite national lockdown to curb the spread of the new variant, with nonessential shops, gyms and hairdressers closed, and people being told to stay at home.
A medical team prepares to rotate a COVID-19 patient in the ICU of the Hospital del Mar, in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. The unrelenting increase in COVID-19 infections in Spain following the holiday season is again straining hospitals, threatening the mental health of doctors and nurses who have been at the forefront of the pandemic for nearly a year.
Employee Juan Monroy, dressed in full protective clothing, measures the temperature of a restaurant worker as a measure to slow the spread of COVID-19, at the Angela Peralta Theater in Mexico City, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. As in many nations, the new coronavirus pandemic’s pace has been uneven across Mexico. Mexico City remains the country’s epicenter, with 89% of its hospital beds full.
FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2020, file photo, Dr. Rafik Abdou checks on a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles. U.S. hospital intensive care units in many parts of the country are straining under record numbers of COVID-19 patients.
Security patrol outside the Pullman Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, July 6, 2020. Health officials in New Zealand say Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, that genome tests indicate the country's most recent COVID-19 patient contracted the virus from another returning traveler just before leaving quarantine.
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s government on Monday morning ended an unprecedented lockdown after testing thousands of residents living in an area that had reported an increasing number of coronavirus cases, authorities said.
The lockdown, which was implemented in the early hours of Saturday, covered 16 buildings in Kowloon’s Yau Tsim Mong district, known as a working-class neighborhood with many subdivided apartment units. During the lockdown, residents were not allowed to leave their premises until they had tested negative for the coronavirus.
The district has been at the center of a worsening coronavirus outbreak, with over 160 cases reported over the first three weeks in January. Higher concentrations of the COVID-19 virus were also found in sewage samples, prompting fears that the virus could be transmitted via poorly installed plumbing systems in subdivided units that lack ventilation.
The government said in a statement early Monday that about 7,000 people were tested for the coronavirus during the lockdown, with 13 positive infections found.
“The Government hopes this temporary inconvenience will completely cut the local transmission chains in the district and ease residents’ worries and fear, so that they will regain confidence in resuming social and business activities in the area, and return to a normal life,” authorities said in the statement.
Health minister Sophia Chan said Sunday that the government would not rule out similar restrictions in the future if there is such a need.
As of Sunday, Hong Kong has reported 10,086 cases of the coronavirus, with 169 deaths recorded.
— The entire University of Michigan athletic department is pausing after several positive tests for the new COVID-19 variant that transmits at a higher rate.
SYDNEY — Australia’s medical regulator has approved use of its first coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for inoculations to begin next month. The Therapeutic Goods Administration on Monday gave provisional approval for people aged 16 and over to use the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The regulator said priority would be given to groups that include aged-care residents and workers, frontline healthcare workers, and quarantine workers. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed the development. He said Australia was among the first countries to complete a comprehensive and thorough process to formally approve a vaccine rather than just grant an emergency approval. Australia is aiming to complete inoculations by October. The nation of 26 million people has reported fewer than 30,000 virus cases and a little over 900 deaths.
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MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday about obtaining doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, his foreign affairs secretary said Sunday.
Marcelo Ebrard said via Twitter the two leaders would speak Monday morning about the bilateral relationship and supplying doses of the vaccine.
The vaccine has not been approved for use in Mexico, but the government is desperate to fill supply gaps left by shortages of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Mexico has given more than 618,000 vaccine doses.
A week ago, López Obrador said that his government had agreed with a U.N. proposal to delay shipments of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to countries like Mexico that had existing purchase agreements, in order to get more doses to poorer countries quicker.
Mexico has registered nearly 150,000 COVID-19 deaths and more than 1.7 million infections. Hospitals in the capital have been near capacity for weeks as a surge of cases followed the holiday season.
Earlier this month, Mexico’s assistant health secretary Hugo López-Gatell, visited Argentina in part to learn about its review of the Sputnik V vaccine. Argentina started using the vaccine in late December.
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OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma State Department of Health on Sunday reported 48 additional deaths due to COVID-19 and 2,941 more cases of the new coronavirus.
There have been 373,090 total virus cases and a death toll of 3,279 since the pandemic began, according to the health department.
Oklahoma had the fourth highest rate of new cases per capita in the United States at 1,148.19 per 100,000 population according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The rolling average of deaths in the state has increased from 30.14 to 39.86 per day during the past two weeks.
State health officials rising death rates are likely to continue for a week or more, despite a decline in the number of new cases, because it can take several weeks to confirm a death was caused by COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
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WASHINGTON — Dr. Deborah Birx says when she was coordinator of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, she had to grapple with COVID-19 deniers in the White House and that someone gave the president “parallel” streams of data that conflicted with hers.
Defending her tenure, Birx told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that she was at times censored by the Trump administration but denied ever withholding information.
Birx said she would see Trump “presenting graphs that I never made” and that “someone out there or someone inside was creating a parallel set of data and graphics that were shown to the president.”
She added that in the White House, “There were people who definitely believed that this was a hoax.”
Birx did not identify the COVID-19 deniers and said she did not know who was presenting the parallel data to Trump, but said she realizes now that Trump coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas was providing some of it.
Birx said in December that she would retire but was willing to first help President Joe Biden’s team with its coronavirus response as needed. More than 25 million people have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 418,000 people have died in the U.S. since the pandemic began.
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ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey on Sunday passed 25,000 Covid-19-related deaths since the start of the outbreak in March, the health ministry said.
A daily toll of 140 fatalities saw the total figure rise to 25,073. Turkey has recorded more than 2.4 million infections since the first case was recorded on March 11 last year.
The government reintroduced restrictions at the start of December, including weekday evening curfews and weekend lockdowns, to stem a second wave of infections.
Restaurants and cafes have been restricted to take-away services, weddings and funerals are limited to 30 people and the over-65s and under-20s are banned from using public transport.
The number of daily cases has fallen to around 6,000 in recent days from a high of more than 33,000 in December.
Turkey began its vaccination program on Jan. 14, initially focusing on health workers and the elderly. More than 1.2 million people had been given the first dose of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine as of Saturday night, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
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JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel will be closing its international airport to nearly flights as the government races to bring a raging coronavirus outbreak under control.
The entry of highly contagious variants of the coronavirus, coupled with poor enforcement of safety rules in ultra-Orthodox communities, has contributed to one of the world’s highest rates of infections. It also has threatened to undercut Israel’s highly successful campaign to vaccinate its population against the virus.
Late Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet approved what Netanyahu said would be a tight closure on incoming and outgoing air traffic. The government said it would make exceptions for a small number of humanitarian cases, such as funerals and medical patients, and cargo flights.
“We are closing the skies hermetically, except for really rare exceptions, to prevent the entry of virus mutations, and also to ensure that we progress quickly with our vaccination campaign,” Netanyahu said.
The order is to begin early Tuesday and remain in effect until Jan. 31. Netanyahu’s office said the order still required parliamentary legislation to be finalized.
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LA PAZ, Bolivia — Former President Evo Morales was released from a hospital on Sunday after almost two weeks of treatment for COVID-19 at a moment the disease has rebounded in Bolivia.
Morales told a news conference that he felt “very good, I feel recovered“ as he left the private clinic in the city of Cochabamba.
Hospital director Gastón Cornejo recommended that Morales remain in repose, without visitors, for two more weeks.
The 61-year-old Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, left the country from 2006 to 2019, when he went into exile after protests over his reelection. He returned home in November after his party won presidential and legislative elections, ousting the interim government that had replaced him.
Bolivia has reported about 200,000 cases of the new coronavirus and almost 10,000 deaths.
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WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that President Joe Biden’s goal of administering 100 million vaccinations in the first 100 days actually means about 67 million Americans should be protected from COVID-19 during that time.
Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, said the president’s goal refers to 100 million shots, not people. Current vaccines require two shots.
Fauci maintained that goal could be difficult to meet even though the U.S. recently has been able to administer shots to about a million people a day. He explained that it will be harder to reach people once shots are given outside hospital and nursing home settings.
Fauci also told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he supports a national commission to understand some of the problems in coordinating a COVID-19 response on the state and local level because states shouldn’t just be told, “You’re on your own.”
Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, called the 100 million shots in 100 days “a very bold and ambitious goal.” He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it won’t stop the administration from aiming higher if doable.
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NEW YORK — The United States has surpassed 25 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. The new milestone, reported Sunday by Johns Hopkins University, is a grim reminder of the coronavirus’ wide reach in the U.S., which has seen far more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country in the world.
The U.S. accounts for roughly one of every four cases reported worldwide and one of every five deaths. India has recorded the second most cases, with about 10.7 million.
The number of new cases in the U.S. has shown signs of slowing recently, with an average of 176,000 reported daily in the past week, down from 244,000 in early January. The country’s first case of the infection was diagnosed almost exactly a year ago.
