Monday 3 August 2020

13 Dhul-Hijja - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8338

Wishing you a warm and blessed Eid

SPORT | 16BUSINESS | 11

ExxonMobil tears

up growth plan

in bid to defend

its dividend

Al Duhail beat

Al Gharafa to

go four

points clear

Quarantine policies for entering Qatar take effect: GCOTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Government Communica-tions Office (GCO) yesterday announced that new quarantine policies for those entering Qatar have come into effect.

For arrival to Qatar from low-risk countries, the GCO said on its Twitter account that these people will need to take a COVID-19 test upon arrival to the airport, unless they have obtained a COVID-19-free cer-tificate from an accredited COVID-19 testing centre abroad less than 48 hours before travel.

The travellers will then sign a formal pledge to adhere to quarantine at home for a week noting that the traveller’s status on the Ehtraz application will be yellow.

After a week, arrivals will need to go to a dedicated health centre for COVID-19 test. If the result is positive, the traveller will be transferred to isolation facilities or if the result is neg-ative, the quarantine period will end and the traveller’s status on the Ehtraz application will change to green.

For arrivals to Qatar from countries not listed as the low-risk but with accredited

COVID-19 testing facilities, the GCO said that such people will need to obtain a COVID-19-free certificate from an accredited COVID-19 testing centre no more than 48 hours before travel.

The travellers will then sign a formal pledge to adhere to the quarantine at home for a week noting that the traveller’s status on the Ehtraz application will be yellow. After a week of self-quarantine, arrivals will need to go to a dedicated health centre for a COVID-19 test.

If the result is positive, the traveller will be transferred to

isolation facilities or if the result is negative, the quarantine period will end and the travel-ler’s status on the Ehtraz appli-cation will change to green.

For the arrivals to Qatar from countries not listed as the low-risk and without accredited COVID-19 testing facilities, the GCO said in tweet that these people are expected to stay in mandatory quarantine in a hotel at their own expense for seven days, booked thorough the ‘Dis-cover Qatar’ website before arriving in Qatar.

These arrivals will be tested

for COVID-19 on day 6 at the hotel. If the result is positive, the traveller will be transferred to isolation facilities or if the result is negative, the hotel quarantine period ends and the traveller must enter home quarantine for another week, noting that their status on the Ehtraz application will be yellow and will change to green after a week has passed, the GCO tweeted.

The GCO also shared names of low risk countries which include Brunei, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Malta, Finland, Hungary, South Korea. �P2

50,000 benefit from Qatar’s Eid initiative THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Qatar government joined the members of the expatriate community living in Qatar in the joy of Eid Al Adha by launching the ‘Our Eid is One Initiative – 2’ in order to help them to celebrate Eid at their homes and to convey the importance of staying at their residences for the prevention of the spread of COVID-19.

The second of phase of the initiative is executed as a con-tinuation of the ‘Our Eid is One Initiative – 1’, which was imple-mented during last Eid Al Fitr.

Under this initiative, 50,000 Qatar residents from 17 nation-alities benefited from 25,000 food coupons including nec-essary food materials for the Eid. The coupons were dis-tributed on the first day of Eid at a function held in the head-quarters of the Qatar Charity in Lusail in the presence of 40 officials representing embassies a n d c o m m u n i t y organisations.

Jointly initiated by the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the Ministry of Interior (MoI), the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and

Social Affairs (MDLSA), Qatar Charity and Ooredoo, ‘Our Eid is One Initiative’ has come as another step that strengthens the bond between Qatar and members of expatriate commu-nities in Qatar and also as a support and care by the Qatar government towards ensuring the welfare of its expatriate communities during the tough time of the COVID-19.

The embassies of Philip-pines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Tunisia, Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Kenya and expat

community organisations such as the Bangladeshi Community Organisation, the Indian Com-munity Benevolent Forum, the Indian Cultural Centre, the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre, the Cultural Forum, the Indo-nesian Community Association – Permica, the Indian Com-munity Center, the Helping Hands — Al Khor, the Filipino Community in Qatar, the Non Resident Nepalese Associ-ation, the Thrissur Dt. Souhruda Vedi, the Kerala Cultural Center and the Sri Lankan Community Devel-opment Forum will benefit

mainly from the ‘Our Eid is One Initiative – 2’.

The coupons received by the community representatives will be distributed among the needy members of the com-munity including the families, individuals and workers.

To convey the joy of hap-piness on the occasion of Eid Al Adha, as part of the initiative, a total of 25,000 Eid greeting cards also were distributed among the community members along with food coupons and to spread the joy among the children of the needy families from the com-munities, 3,000 gifts were also distributed. In addition to this, 4,000 gifts will be distributed among the residents of COVID-19 quarantine facility in Umm Salal and several gifts and Ooredoo recharge coupons among the workers.

For ensuring the reach of the benefit of this initiative, the Min-istry of Interior in cooperation with Ministry of Administrative Development,Labour and Social Affairs set up a Google regis-tration link and shared that link with leaders of all community organisations who were part of this initiative. �P2

Number of COVID-19 new cases drops further in QatarTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

In a major drop in the number of new COVID-19 cases, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 196 cases due to the virus in the country.

Another 201 people have recovered from the COVID-19, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 107,779. All new cases have been introduced to isolation and are receiving necessary healthcare according to their health status.

The Ministry has also reported three deaths of people aged 48, 60 and 71 — all were receiving the necessary medical care.

The Ministry added that measures to tackle COVID-19 in Qatar have succeeded in flat-tening the curve and limiting the spread of the virus. The number of daily new cases and hospital admissions has grad-ually declined over the past few weeks.

The Ministry has also said that Qatar has one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates

in the world, as a result of Qatar’s young population, proactive testing to identify cases early, expanding hospital capacity especially intensive care to ensure all patients receive the medical care they need, and protecting the elderly and those with chronic diseases.

However, the Ministry has emphasised on the impor-tance of taking precautions against COVID-19. “Even though restrictions are being lifted, and numbers are declining, this does not mean that the COVID-19 pandemic is finished in Qatar – every day between 50 and 100 people are admitted to hos-pital with moderate to severe COVID-19 symptoms,” the Ministry said.

“Unless we follow all pre-cautionary measures, we may experience a second wave of the virus and see numbers increasing – there are already signs of this happening in other countries around the world. Now more than ever, we must be careful and protect the most vulnerable.”

HMC registers decline in emergency cases during three days of EidFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENNSULA

The number of cases seen at Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Emergency Departments and attended by the Ambulance Service during the three days of Eid Al Adha has reduced compared to previous years and none were critical, said officials.

The Emergency Department at Hamad General Hospital (HGH) and Al Wakra Hospital have seen a total of 3,191 cases for different conditions. The Ambulance Service attended 1,349 calls in the last two days of Eid.

The number of cases seen during the Eid Al Adha, has reduced as a result several reasons as awareness created among the public regarding the

use of emergency services, fol-lowing preventive measures against COVID-19 and others.

“The number of cases seen at the Emergency Department has reduced, in comparison to

previous years. This is due to the awareness created among the public about use of emergency services. For non-emergency conditions they go to health centres,” Dr. Galal Saleh Al Essai, Vice-Chairman for Cor-porate Affairs, Department of Emergency Medicine at HMC told The Peninsula.

“Cases received both at HGH and Al Wakra Emergency Department were not serious or critical and most of them were simple or routine ones related to digestive and respi-ratory problems. Among them very few were admitted for continues treatment and others were treated and sent back home.

“As we were well prepared to receive patients during the Eid holidays everything was

smooth. The team with spe-cialised doctors, nurses and paramedics, we ensure that operations are not affected and patients are given the best care,” he added.

On the third day of Eid, a total of 800 emergency cases were treated at the Hamad General Hospital and 423 cases at the Al Wakra Hospital. Only 27 patients were admitted to the hospital for further treatment.

While, the Ambulance Service has attended 668 calls on the third day of Eid. Among those, 13 were due to road traffic accidents and 63 due to other accidents. The Ambulance Service has also attended 592 medical emergency cases. Two people were transferred by air ambulance to hospital, according to aid Ali Darwish,

Assistant Executive Director of the Ambulance Service.

“Number of cases have def-initely reduced compared to previous years. This could be due to the COVID-19 restric-tions, though we are in the third phase of relaxing restrictions, many people still prefer to stay indoors,” he said.

The Pediatric Emergency Centers of HMC have received a total of 524 cases, yesterday. Among them nine were COVID-19 suspected cases and all are being tested, said Dr. Mohamed Al Amri, the Acting Chairman of Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Centers at HMC. “All suspected COVID-19 cases were swabbed and transferred to home iso-lation and waiting for results,” he said. �P2

From low-risk countries: COVID-19 test upon arrival at the airport for

those without COVID-19-free certificate. Pledge to adhere to quarantine at

home for a week. After a week, arrivals will need to go to a dedicated health

center for COVID-19 test.

Other countries with accredited testing centres: COVID-19-free certif-

icate from an accredited testing centre no more than 48 hours before travel.

Pledge to adhere to the quarantine at home for a week. After a week of self-

quarantine, COVID-19 test from a dedicated health center.

All other countries: Mandatory quarantine in a hotel at their own expense

for seven days. COVID-19 test on day 6 at the hotel. If tested positive, the

traveller will be transferred to isolation facilities. If the result is negative, the

traveller must enter home quarantine for another week.

The Emergency Department at HGH and

Al Wakra Hospital have seen 3,191 cases.

The Ambulance Service attended 1,349 calls in the

last two days.

Cases at HGH and Al Wakra Emergency Department

were not serious and most of them were related to

digestive and respiratory problems.

Number of cases have reduced compared to

previous years.

Under ‘Our Eid is One Initiative – 2’, 50,000 Qatar residents from 17 nationalities benefited from 25,000 food coupons.

The initiative strengthens the bond between Qatar and expatriate communities and shows support and care by Qatar's government towards ensuring the welfare of its expatriate communities.

A total of 25,000 Eid greeting cards also were distributed among the community members and to spread joy among the children, 3,000 gifts were distributed.

02 MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2020HOME

FAJR SUNRISE 03.38 am 05.02 am

W A L R U WA I S : 34o↗ 39o W A L K H O R : 32o↗ 42o W D U K H A N : 34o↗ 4 4o W WA K R A H : 34o↗ 45o W M E S A I E E D 34o↗ 45o W A B U S A M R A 32o↗ 46o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 03:12 – 16:55 LOW TIDE 00:08–10:28

Misty at some places at first becomes hot daytime with slight dust and some clouds, relatiely humid by night.

Minimum Maximum33oC 43oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.40 am06.20 pm

ASR ISHA

03.08 pm07.50 pm

Qatar Museums opens four major exhibitionsQatar Museums (QM) yesterday launched major exhibitions at the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA).

As part of Mathaf’s 10th anniversary programme, the museum unveiled three exhi-bitions including two major monograph exhibitions by leading women artists and an extensive survey of art and culture in Doha spanning more than half a century.

Marking her first major solo museum exhibition in the Gulf region, Moroccan-French artist Yto Barrada showcases photo-graphs, films, videos, sculptures, prints and fabric works that focus on threads of regener-ation and growth in social and geological transformation in “Yto Barrada: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nougat.” Barrada is known for her work which engages with

self-education, architecture, palaeontology, botany and modernist histories in order to explore forms of knowledge production.

Also making her museum exhibition debut in the Arab region is Huguette Caland, daughter of the first president of the independent Republic of Lebanon. Named “Huguette Caland: Faces and Places,” the exhibition features six decades of Caland’s paintings, drawings, caftans, smocks and sculptures, including a selection of never before exhibited works. It is organised around three different geographical locations that define Caland’s personal and professional journey namely Beirut, Paris and California.

“Lived Forward: Art and Culture in Doha from 1960–2020” focuses on Mathaf col-lection and expands on research and local collaborations. It looks at reference points of genera-tions of artists, intellectuals and cultural activists who played a

major role in activating the cul-tural scene in Doha for the past 60 years through a display of paintings, archival materials, photography, video, and installation.

The exhibitions are part of the extensive programme of exhibitions, artists residencies, research projects, discussions, workshops and community events taking place in Mathaf’s 10th anniversary year.

“This is a momentous time in the world’s history. As we start to re-open our cultural institutions, we want to bring the museum closer to the issues of our societies and contribute to amplifying the voices of art at a global scale. Mathaf is con-ceived as a place of production and debate of ideas for the co-presences of multiple cultures and perceptions of the world. We are a young organisation. And we still have a lot to learn. But we aim to amplify the voices of art from our part of the world and contribute to the

international discourse about the role of culture in a fractured time,” said Abdellah Karroum, Director of Mathaf.

The much anticipated “A Falcon’s Eye: Tribute to Sheikh Saoud Al Thani” opened yes-terday at MIA. This exhibition which runs until April 10 next year celebrates the outstanding accomplishments of one of Qatar’s greatest collectors, who

was largely responsible for laying the foundation for Qatar Museums’ world-class collec-tions. The exhibition showcases more than 300 outstanding art works from prehistoric fossils and Egyptian antiquities to Ori-entalist paintings and master-pieces of the history of photog-raphy in a spectacular display following the concept of Renais-sance “cabinets of curiosities,”

reflecting Sheikh Saoud’s fasci-nation with both natural history and the world of art.

Visitors planning to see the exhibitions must purchase tickets in advance on QM’s website. During their visit, they must present a “green” health status on the Ehteraz virus-tracing app and wear face masks for the duration of their visit.

“The future was desert (still), Part II, 2016 by Sophia Al Maria on show at “Lived Forward: Art and Culture in Doha from 1960–2020” exhibition which opened at Mathaf yesterday.

RAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

MME extends closure of Fuwairit BeachTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment represented by Environment Affairs Sector has announced the extension of the closure of Fuwairit Beach for the implementation of turtle protection project and conducting research. The announcement was made on the social media account of the Ministry.

QRCS delivers Adahi food aid to 125,000 beneficiariesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has begun Phase 2 of the Adahi project for the year 1441 AH, which involves slaughtering sacrificial animals and distrib-uting the meat rations as food aid to 125,000 poor persons in Qatar and five other countries.

Locally, the distribution of meat will be at Al Wakra Butchery, 7am to 4pm, during the third and fourth days of Eid Al Adha. The third day was allo-cated for families, while the fourth day will resume families and receive other beneficiaries from foreign communities, lab-orers, and staff.

To ensure a smooth reception and distribution process, a group of 40 volun-teers will be stationed there to organise the entry of cars, apply all the safety precautions announced by the government, and check the e-vouchers sent

to the beneficiaries. All the steps will be taken quickly without the beneficiary having to get out of the car at all.

A total of 1,000 heads of sheep is to be distributed, including 605 animals for 711 families registered with QRCS’s social assistance program, 50 animals for poor members of the Sudanese community, 200 animals for poor members of the Yemeni community, 109 animals to be distributed at 436 rooms hosting 2,180 labourers in total, and 36 animals for the workers and donation col-lection agents taking part in the implementation of the project.

Using six buses for trans-portation, the volunteers will deliver Adahi meat to 52 bene-ficiary families living in remote areas of the country. In the West Bank, QRCS’s representation mission is distributing Adahi sheep meat to 7,355 families in many areas, including the city

of Hebron and neighboring vil-lages, Ramallah, Al Bireh, vil-lages of northwestern Jeru-salem, Qalqilya, Tubas, Aghwar Shamaliyah, Salfit, Jericho, Aghwar Janoubiyah, Nablus, Aghwar Wusta, Tulkarm, Jenin, and the city of Bethlehem and neighbouring villages.

Zeena Hmoud, acting head of QRCS’s mission in the West

Bank and Jerusalem, said the Adahi project would have a great impact on the Palestinian families. “It reflects the soli-darity between the Palestinian and Qatari peoples. The project serves as a bridge of alleviation and mercy from the rich to the poor. All the target districts will receive equal rations of food aid, as an Eid AL Adha gift from

the benevolent donors of Qatar,” she added.

In Somalia, QRCS’s mission is distributing meat rations to the beneficiaries in five prov-inces. All preventive measures are strictly followed at all dis-tribution points, such as main-taining a safe distance, washing hands, and wearing masks.

QRCS staff delivering food aid to the beneficiaries.

Municipality supervises slaughtering

of 8,879 sheep at abattoir in Doha

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Health Monitoring Section at Doha Municipality super-vised the slaughtering of 8,879 sacrificial sheep and 117 cattle during first and second day of Eid Al Adha at Automated Abattoir in Doha.

The slaughtered sacrificial animals were handed over to the people through three butcheries – Butchery of Automated Abattoir, Butchery of Regency Signal and Butchery of Kharatiyat and other outlets across the country.

The Automated Abattoir in Doha was dedicated to slaughter sacrificial animals from charity organisations operating in Qatar on third and fourth day of Eid Al Adha, said the Ministry of Municipality and Environment in a statement.

Meanwhile, Al Sheehaniya Municipality represented by the Health Monitoring Section supervised slaughtering of 221 sac-rificial animals at mobile abattoir on the first day of Eid Al Adha.

The veterinary doctors destroyed a sacrificial animal com-pletely and 16 animals partially after they were found unfit for human consumption during the inspection.

Quarantine policies for entering Qatar take effect: GCOFROM PAGE 1

Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Japan, Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, Denmark, Nether-lands, Germany, Poland, France, Australia, Canada, Slovenia, UK, Czech Republic, Austria, Swit-zerland, Algeria, Iceland, Spain, Croatia, Andorra, New Zealand, Norway, Greece, Morocco, Belgium and Turkey are also listed as low-risk countries.

The above mentioned low-risk countries are subject to change at the discretion of the Ministry of Public Health, people can visit the website for

updates, the tweet further said.Meanwhile, Discover Qatar,

the website through which quar-antine packages has to be booked before arriving in Qatar, has launched a new 14-night quarantine packages for domestic staff, company spon-sored and other workers in shared motel accommodation.

This is in addition to the hotel quarantine packages, where residents returning to Qatar can choose 7-day packages in 3, 4 or 5 star hotels.

The motel 14-night package is available at Mekaines Motel, which is a budget motel

providing comfortable rooms and is located in Alsheehaniya, Mekaines Area on Salwa Road. Rooms feature a shower with hot and cold water, amenities and a kettle. All people on the same booking must be on the same arrival flight, and must book the same room type.

From August 1, those with a sponsored Work Permit/Employment Visa may also return to Qatar. An employer who wants to make a group booking for 10 or more indi-viduals can contact Discover Qatar after receiving the approval for staff to return.

For individual booking in dormitory accommodation, after obtaining approval to enter Qatar by applying through the Qatar Portal, one can book 14 nights’ quarantine in this shared motel accommodation.

Cost of accommodation starts from QR105 per day. This includes 3 meals a day, breakfast, lunch and evening meal, plus one-way coach transport from Hamad Interna-tional Airport to the accommo-dation. The coach will operate throughout the day, and may involve a wait at the airport.

For shared accommodation

it will cost QR2160 for 14-night package and QR4302 for single room.

For individual bookings, an additional QAR 700 per person shared room/QAR 1400 per person single room insurance premium will also be taken at the time of booking. This will only be used if the quarantine period is extended for more than 14 nights, for example in case of a positive COVID-19 test. If an extension is not required, the deposit will be refunded in full. The insurance premium can also be retained to cover any damages to the room.

50,000 benefit from Qatar’s Eid initiative

FROM PAGE 1

Qatar Charity coordi-nated with Al Meera for the delivery of the food kits through Al Meera branches in different parts of Qatar.

After closing the regis-tration deadline, the data of each community and organ-izations were handed over to the community leaders and then, the community leaders were asked to deliver the coupons to those who regis-tered in order to collect the food kits from various branches of Al Meera supermarkets.

HMC registers drop in emergency cases on three days of Eid

FROM PAGE 1

Dr. Al Amri also clarified that any suspected COVID-19 case will be taken through a different patient pathway and seen at a segregated area at all Pediatric Emergency Centers of HMC. All others were mild and moderate cases due to common pediatric health problems.

Officials from Ministry of Interior; Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, and Qatar Charity pose for a group photo with community leaders after the distribution of coupons as part of ‘Our Eid is One Initiative-2’.

Northwesterly freshto strong wind inQatar from tomorrow

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Qatar Meteorology Department has forecast that the country expected to be affected by northwesterly fresh to strong wind over most areas from tomorrow, August 4 to 7 2020 ranging during daytime between 12-22 kt gusting to 30 kt at times in some places.

03MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2020 HOME

QRCS provides Eid clothing for Yemeni childrenTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

In partnership with its Yemeni counterpart, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has imple-mented the Eid Clothing project for the poor children of Yemen.

So far, 2,400 vulnerable families have been covered in three districts of Taiz Gover-norate, with a special focus on the poor, the displaced, and the disabled.

Mukhtar Amin, Executive Manager of Yemen Red Crescent Society – Taiz, said, “With support from QRCS, as is usual every year, the poor fam-ilies are being given clothes as a gift to their children, in order to make them happy during the

Eid Al Adha. This year, the deliverables are more than the last year, due to the increased needs.”

Rajwa Ahmed, the project coordinator at QRCS’s mission, stated, “Under the project, prepaid vouchers were given to the families, each valued at $45. Some clothes stores had been contracted in advance to provide the clothes that match each family’s children.”

The recipient families expressed their happiness with the gift from QRCS, which enabled them to bring new clothes for their kids, at a time when everyday life is becoming so difficult that they cannot afford to purchase new clothes

due to expensive prices.This year, the project is

implemented in the governo-rates of Taiz and Dhale, pro-viding a total of 11,400 clothing sets to 3,800 families.

A social survey had been conducted to select the eligible families that are displaced; affected by the war; or sup-ported by widows, children, orphans, or disabled persons.

Also, the list of beneficiaries includes the teachers of public schools who have not received their salaries. The overall budget for the project is $205,455, totally funded by QRCS.

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qur’anic Botanic Garden (QBG) recently hosted a webinar titled ‘Home Farming in Qatar: A Life-style for Our Daily Needs’ that explored the role of home gardening in self-sufficiency and its contribution to strength-ening food security.

The interactive discussion, moderated by renowned Qatar Radio anchor Buthaina Abdul Jalil, brought together well-established independent agri-cultural experts, as well as rep-resentatives of entities and ini-tiatives in Qatar and Kuwait, such as the Behavioral Healthcare Center in Doha and

‘Nahmeeha’ Kuwait, in addition to QBG speakers.

The panelists outlined the role of Qatari institutions in supporting agricultural initia-tives in the country and the opportunities and challenges of home gardening in the Gulf region, as well as the Kuwaiti experience in home gardening and the country’s environ-m e n t a l c o n s e r v a t i o n initiatives.

As COVID-19 has limited the access to outdoor activities, home gardening in Qatar has become an attractive alter-native for communities in the country, who have begun cul-tivating fruits, vegetables and

herbs using readily available household products. The garden at QBG, which contains all the plants mentioned in the Holy Quran, Hadith, and Sunnah, is home to many plants and herbs, which can be easily harvested at home as well. In addition to the webinar, QBG regularly hosts educational events and activities related to food security, such as its hands-on Food Security program for sec-ondary school students, which has graduated more than 250 students in the last three years alone.

Dr. Mamoun Mobayed, Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of the Treatment and

Rehabilitation Department, Behavioral Healthcare Center in Qatar, and a webinar speaker said: “Home gar-dening is an essential factor in helping overcome certain psy-chological issues. It makes people feel hopeful and opti-mistic and the life cycle of the plant itself elicits a person’s meditative and reflective side. This brings forth feelings of gratitude, optimism, and cre-ativity and boosts the pro-duction of hormones asso-ciated with happiness. In addition, gardening enhances mental and physical relax-ation, increases patience and improves both sleep and

breathing, due to being in an open-air environment.”

Souad Al Jarallah, President of the ‘Nahmeeha’ initiative in Kuwait, believes that, in addition to its importance to the ecosystem, home gardening has become an essential element of national food security. She added that the ‘Nahmeeha’ ini-tiative is keen to raise the awareness of Kuwaiti and Gulf society about recycling and praised the steps taken by Qatar to stimulate and encourage home gardens as part of its plan to achieve food security on a social level.

Fatima Al Khulaifi, Director, QBG, said, “In addition to the

contribution to self-sufficiency and food security that home gardening makes, it is also shown to have many positive psychological benefits. Environ-mental awareness and conser-vation efforts are at the heart of what we do at QBG, this is why we aim to plant 2,022 trees in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and help con-tribute to the country’s sus-tainable development. QBG is pleased to have brought together some of Qatar’s and Kuwait’s important stake-holders to exchange expertise and discuss the increasingly important topic of food security.”

Qur'anic Botanic Garden webinar underscores importance of home gardening

QU holds first virtual debate by healthcare studentsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar University’s (QU) Health Interprofessional Education Committee in collaboration with the Interprofessional Education Students’ Association Qatar recently organised its first virtual debate.

The debate was held with the motion that the house believes that considering the continuous quarantine and pre-cautionary measures should be of a priority over lifting the restrictions to avoid the neg-ative economic and social consequences.

The event lasted for two hours and was conducted online through Qatar University WebEx application. It was attended by around 250 local and international participants. Vice-President for Medical and Health Sciences in Qatar Uni-versity Dr. Egon Toft welcomed attendees followed by Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at College of Pharmacy (CPH) and QU Health Chair of the Inter-professional Education Com-mittee Dr. Alla El Awaisi. This was followed by an overview

of the association’s vision, mission and activities presented by the Vice-President of the IPE Student Association and CMED third year medical student Ms. Jawaher Baraka.

The debate was moderated by the President of the IPE Student Association and CPH MSc graduate Sawsan AlMukdad. Members of the affirmative side included CPH student Fatima Nazar; College of Health Sciences (CHS) student Shaza Malik and College of Medicine (CMED) student

Ahmed Daniyal. The negative side team included CHS student Bana Salim, University of Calgary in Qatar (UCQ) student Aysha Saeed and Weill Cornell Medicine — Qatar (WCM-Q) Shahryar Rana.

It followed a format where each student was given a five minute for a speech, a two minute caucus and a chance for a cross examination from the opposing team. The audience were allowed to ask questions directed to the teams after the debate and the judges also gave

their clarifications and com-ments on both teams.

Dr. Egon Steen Toft congrat-ulated the winner and said: “The initiation of this interprofes-sional debate format for our students is an excellent idea. The pandemic has shown the importance of working together more than ever and the potential online fora for high level of discussions and patient treatment is an obvious future solution for the benefit of patients and improving health care system care.”

As both sides comprises an interprofessional team, the debate contest opened an opportunity to see the perspec-tives of various healthcare stu-dents and allowed the partici-pants to increase their knowledge on the different issues concerning the novel coronavirus that is currently affecting the lives of everyone around the globe through reliable data and evidence based research.

Dr. Hanan commented: “Debates provide an excellent medium for stimulating critical thinking and for engaging

students deeply. It was really gratifying to see students across health professions and across institutions working together as a team and engaging with such enthusiasm on the topic of COVID-19 public health measures. I look forward to future debates on further topics of interest to the health sector and to society as a whole.”

Fatima Nazar from the winning team said: “We would like to thank QU Health and Student Interprofessional Edu-cation Association for giving us this wonderful opportunity to work together and collab-orate as a team. We were able to explore in depth the dif-ferent policies that were applied around the world, and the consequences of these pol-icies. ”.

Shahryar Rana from the negative team commented: “A welcome challenge. I learned a lot from my interlocutors. Yes, there were heated moments but I left having learned more from my teammates as well as my opponents, and the panel’s thoughts were enlightening on the overall scope of the issue.”

Yemeni children react as they receive clothes as part of QRCS Eid Clothing project.

WCM-Q trainee doctors learn new skills from Cornell Stars

A screen grab from Qatar University's virtual debate.

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Examining and diagnosing children is not always easy but trainee doctors from WCM-Q had it harder than usual – they had to do it online.

The Cornell Stars pro-gramme is one of the highlights of the academic year for stu-dents in the third year of the medical programme; faculty and staff at the college usually bring their young children into the college and the students are able to practice dealing with small children under the super-vision of an experienced and qualified doctor.

But this year, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that social dis-tancing rules made this impos-sible, so the decision was made to take Cornell Stars online via video conferencing apps.

Dr. Amal Khidir, associate professor of pediatrics at

WCM-Q, said the Cornell Stars event is a valuable learning activity that allows students to become familiar, and hopefully comfortable, interacting with children and their families. Another goal is to highlight to the students that the field of pediatrics is not always disease-based and healthy children are the majority of patients cared for by pediatricians.

Dr. Khidir said: “Cancelling Cornell Stars because of COVID was never really an option as the event is so useful for stu-dents heading into the full clinical experience in their third year of the medical programme. Instead, we adapted it using online conferencing apps. Stu-dents were able to talk to the children and their parents to gather histories and interact with the young ‘patients’ by asking them to perform various tasks. Although they were not

able to listen to their hearts or touch them, they were able to practice and refine their obser-vation skills which are important when they take care of children during their clinical rotations.

“They learn how to approach and engage children supported by our experienced doctors, who can pass on hints and tips in the context of virtual sessions.”

Dr. Khidir added that the event would not have been pos-sible without the support of WCM-Q’s ITS department and Office of Curriculum Support, and particularly the doctors from Hamad Medical Corporation, Sidra Medicine and WCM-Q who gave their time and experience to the students; Drs. Madeeha Kamal, Magda Wagdy Yousef, Sohair Elsiddig, Manasik Hassan, Shabina Khan, Samar Magboul, Suzan Gameel, Stella Major and

Mohamud Verjee. She added: “We are also

very grateful to the 16 families who volunteered their time over the weekend and particularly the 21 children who were our Cornell Stars.”

Nour Al Masri was one of the WCM-Q staff members to volunteer for Cornell Stars and said it had all gone very

smoothly, possibly because both students and children had become very used to commu-nicating via apps since the coro-navirus struck.

Class of 2022 student Jamal Al Ani, one of the 51 students who participated in this event, said it was a really useful learning experience. He said: “In the midst of everything taking

place across the world right now, the children’s strength and smiles were really refreshing and exciting to be a part of. Seeing them go from shy and timid to confident and inter-active was extremely eye opening. It was a really fun and engaging way to practice some of our interviewing skills, whilst also having fun with the kids.

Al Jazeera English's sonic brand wins Music+Sound award

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Music+Sound Awards announced the Sonic Lens Agency as the winner in the category of ‘Best Original Composition in Branding’ for the work it produced on Al Jazeera English’s sonic branding.

The Music+Sound Awards is the world’s first and only global awards programme that celebrates the indispensable role and outstanding contri-bution that both music and sound design play in the media.

Al Jazeera English launched its channel refresh on January 1, 2020. Besides the sonic branding, the refresh included an upgraded news studio; new screen archi-tecture and furniture for all programming; and a new visual strategy and structure for commercial breaks. The sonic branding was an integral part of the channel refresh and was vital for its success.

Al Jazeera English’s sonic branding is designed to com-plement and reflect the rich content, mission and values of the channel. It is a full audio toolkit made up of signature tracks, style tracks, mnemonics and sound design elements.

Marco Vitali, Composer and Managing Partner at the Sonic Lens Agency, said: “The Al Jazeera brand really stands out in its competitive land-scape for many reasons — from the quality of its award winning content to its unique brand values while providing a balance between hope and beauty versus on the ground realism and bringing power to account. Our goal was to create a system of music and sound that would embody the many aspects of the brand in all situations.”

“Al Jazeera English is delighted with the innovative work undertaken by the Sonic Lens Agency,” said Al Jazeera English Managing Director, Giles Trendle. “The agency delivered our channel a flexible but unified sonic strategy allowing for an endless combination of sounds, instruments and styles to help amplify our brand.”

A snapshot during the Cornell Stars virtual event.

04 MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2020MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Iran reports highest virus cases in a month

AFP — TEHRAN

Iran yesterday reported its highest single-day novel coro-navirus infection count in nearly a month, warning that most of its provinces have been hit by a resurgence of the disease.

The Islamic republic has been battling the Middle East’s dead-liest outbreak of COVID-19 since late February.

After a lull in deaths and infections from April to May, it now appears that the provinces first hit, including the holy city of Qom, are back in the same place as figures have been on the rise.

Health ministry spokes-woman Sima Sadat Lari said that 2,685 more people had tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the country’s highest single-day count since July 8.

This raises total cases iden-tified since late February to

309,437, she added.Another 208 people also died

during the same period, bringing the overall toll to 17,190.

According to Lari, the situ-ation is “concerning” in 25 out of Iran’s 31 provinces.

“Sadly, since late June, daily infections have been on a rising trajectory” in Qom in central Iran, she said.

“We are concerned that triv-ialising the situation and lax observance of health protocols may lead to a worsening of the outbreak in the province.”

Lari warned against travel to Mazandaran, a popular northern tourist resort at the vanguard of the outbreak where daily infec-tions had more than quadrupled in the past six weeks.

Official figures show a marked increase in deaths and infections since the end of June.

As a result, mask-wearing

was made compulsory in covered areas and provinces were given powers to reimpose restrictive measures.

Iranian media said that

renowned Iranian filmmaker Khosro Sinai, 79, had died from the virus on Saturday.

Celebrated and awarded in numerous Iranian and

international festivals, Sinai was the latest high-profile figure to succumb to COVID-19 in Iran fol-lowing several government offi-cials and politicians.

Men wear protective face masks and gloves in a nuts shop amid the outbreak of coronavirus disease, in Tehran.

Ethiopia begins massive COVID-19 testing campaignANATOLIA — ADDIS ABABA

Ethiopia yesterday began a massive campaign against the novel coronavirus across the nation of more than 110 million people.

The launch of the COVID-19 Prevention and Testing Cam-paign was announced late on Saturday by Prime Minister

Abiy Ahmed. According to the campaign programme, the country will test 200,000 people for the virus in the coming two weeks.

“The country is better pre-pared with 45,000-capacity quarantine facilities, while local production of hand san-itisers made it possible to save what could have been an

expense in foreign currency,” Abiy said, speaking during the televised launch of the one-month campaign.

“Increasing the number of people tested will enable effective decision making,” he said, adding that people had now become accustomed to wearing face masks.

Depending on the

campaign’s results, authorities will decide on whether to resume in-person schooling.

Since April, Ethiopia has been in a state of emergency due to the pandemic but has refrained from locking down, in a bid to preserve the coun-try’s economy.

At the launching event, Health Minister Lia Tadesse

said the nation managed to prevent 85% of possible cases and 95% of deaths in com-parison to the 1.5 million people originally expected to contract the virus by mid-July.

Ethiopia has so far con-firmed nearly 18,000 corona-virus cases, 284 deaths and 7,195 recoveries.

UN ‘dismayed’

at Libya scribe’s

15-year jail termAFP — TRIPOLI

The UN’s mission in Libya has voiced “dismay” at the sentencing of a journalist to 15 years in prison in the country’s east, controlled by strongman Khalifa Haftar.

“UNSMIL is dismayed by the sentencing of the journalist Ismail Abuzreiba to 15 years imprisonment following a trial by a military tribunal in Benghazi,” it said on Twitter on Saturday.

“The detention and trial appear to violate Libya’s laws as well as its international obli-gations on the right to a fair trial” and freedom of expression, it added.

The European Union’s ambassador to Libya, Alan Bugeja, wrote on Twitter that he was “extremely concerned” by the sentence, which he said came after the journalist had been held in detention for two years or more.

“I call on the authorities to immediately release him, ensure the respect of his fun-damental rights and of freedom of expression,” Bugeja said.

Authorities in eastern Libya have not specified the exact nature of the charges faced by Abuzreiba, but, according to local media, he was accused of contact with channels and agencies banned in that part of the country. Haftar launched an offensive on the capital Tripoli, seat of the interna-tionally recognised Gov-ernment of National Accord, in April last year.

South Africa surpasses 500,000 infections, but President hopefulAP — JOHANNESBURG

South Africa has surpassed 500,000 confirmed corona-virus cases, but President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday he sees “promising signs” that the rapid growth of cases has stabi-lised and that the country’s strained health system is managing to cope.

Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize announced 10,107 new cases on Saturday night, bringing the country’s cumu-lative total to 503,290, including 8,153 deaths. South Africa has now tallied more than 50 percent of all reported coronavirus infections in Africa’s 54 countries.

With a population of about 58 million, South Africa has the fifth-highest number of cases in the world, behind the US, Brazil, Russia and India, all

countries with significantly higher populations, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins Uni-versity. Experts say the true toll of the pandemic worldwide is much higher than confirmed cases, due to limited testing and other reasons.

Ramaphosa, in a letter to the nation yesterday, said despite the high number of con-firmed cases, he sees some pos-itive developments.

“After a rapid rise in infec-tions over the last two months, the daily increase in infections appears to be stabilising,” said Ramaphosa. He said the number of new infections has slowed in the provinces of the Western Cape, which includes Cape Town, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, which hosts the major cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria.

South Africa’s hospitals

have been stretched to the limit but in most provinces they are succeeding in providing treatment to COVID-19 patients, he said.

“The health system has so far had sufficient capacity to cope with the number of admis-sions,” said Ramaphosa of the hard-hit provinces of Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. He said, however, that in the Eastern Cape several public hospitals were overwhelmed and a specialist team has been deployed to help.

He said his government is working hard with “greatest urgency” to deliver adequate supplies of personal protective equipment to areas where shortages have been reported. South African authorities are also working to root out corruption in the purchase and distribution of medical equipment, he said.

Sudanese men drive on a flooded road after torrential rain led to landslides and flash floods, in the town of Umm Dawan Ban, southeast of the capital Khartoum, yesterday.

Flash floods in Sudan

Sudan welcomes Pompeo remark on ending of terror listingAFP — KHARTOUM

Sudan’s government has welcomed remarks from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week that he would like to delist Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, local media reported.

Pompeo has repeatedly indi-cated that the State Department hopes to remove the desig-nation, which severely impedes investment to Sudan, but dis-putes have arisen on a compen-sation package over the 1998 bombings of two US embassies.

The US top diplomat told the Senate Foreign Relations Com-mittee on Thursday that legis-lation on a settlement should come before Congress “in the very, very near term”.

According to an English-lan-guage report by official news agency SUNA, the Sudanese transitional government on Sat-urday welcomed Pompeo’s statement and “promised to do its level best to meet the require-ments that would help the (American) administration” take “positive action”.

Independent online news

site Sudan Tribune reported the government had said in a statement that it “is ready to continue working with the US administration to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and enter into a part-nership relationship that ben-efits both countries”.

Pompeo said that the fall of longtime dictator Omar Al Bashir following mass protests and the nearly year-old government of a civilian prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, marked “an oppor-tunity that doesn’t come along often”.

“There’s a chance not only for a democracy to begin to be built out, but perhaps regional opportunities that could flow from that as well,” he said.

“I think lifting the state sponsor of terrorism desig-nation there if we can... take care of the victims of those trag-edies would be a good thing for American foreign policy,” Pompeo said.

According to SUNA, Hamdok reaffirmed “his commitment to continue exerting efforts with all friends in the United States and abroad” to bring the issue to a

close and for Sudan to fully return to “be part of the international community”.

Bashir had welcomed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Sudan was accused of aiding militants who blew up the embassies in Kenya and Tan-zania, killing 224 people and injuring around 5,000 others.

Sudan’s new government has agreed to a compensation package but a dispute has arisen over higher payments to Amer-icans than to Africans, who accounted for the vast majority of the casualties.

Lagos eases virus lockdown

AFP — LAGOS

The governor of Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos said on Saturday churches and mosques would reopen next week as the authorities move to ease the lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic.

“Places of worship in Lagos will now be opened from August 7 for our Muslim worshippers, and August 9 for our Christian worshippers,” Babajide Sanwo-Olu said in a statement.

But the numbers of wor-shippers will be limited as a measure to prevent further infections.

“We will only allow 50 per cent of their maximum capac-ities, either at the church or at the mosque,” he said.

“For the avoidance of doubt, there will be Friday worships for our Muslim followers and Sunday worships for our Christian followers,” the gov-ernor said.

But night vigils and other services are still not allowed, he added. Sanwo-Olu also advised elderly worshippers from 65 years to stay at home.

Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city of over 20 million inhabitants, shut churches, mosques, night clubs and hotels in March as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Court orders Netanyahu’s son to stop ‘harassing’ protest leadersAFP — JERUSALEM

A court ordered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu’s son yesterday to refrain from harassing several indi-viduals helping lead protests against his father, after he tweeted their personal addresses.

Yair Netanyahu, who has caused controversy for past social media posts, was also ordered to delete the tweet and to “refrain from har-assing” the individuals con-cerned for six months, according to a ruling from Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court judge Dorit Feinstein.

Reacting to the ruling, Yair Netanyahu, 29, said Feinstein had “totally ignored” evidence presented by his defence, including of threats against him by protest leaders.

A bombastic defender of his father, Yair Netanyahu caused controversy in 2018 when he was recorded seem-ingly drunk outside a club talking about a natural gas deal reached by the Israeli government. He has also pre-viously posted on Facebook about alleged conspiracies against his family.

The ruling came a day after what Israeli media described as the largest protest in a

decade against Netanyahu’s tenure, estimating the crowd at roughly 10,000 strong.

Thousands of demon-strators, mainly in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, have in recent weeks rallied against the pre-mier’s handling of the corona-virus crisis. Some have called for his resignation.

Speaking before a weekly cabinet meeting yesterday, the right-wing prime minister lashed out the media, accusing it of “fuelling” rather than cov-ering “violent demonstrations.” He said Israel’s media was behaving in “North Korean terms” with a lack of balance and unwavering support for

“left-wing demonstrators.” Some of the protesters have voiced frustration over the gov-ernment’s pandemic response, while others have expressed broader objections to Netan-yahu’s stewardship, in par-ticular noting corruption charges against the premier, which he denies.

Israel won praise for its initial response to the COVID-19 outbreak, but the government has come under criticism amid a resurgence in cases after restrictions were lifted starting in late April. Netanyahu has acknowledged that the economy was re-opened too quickly.

Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said that 2,685 more people had tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the country’s highest single-day count since July 8.

Yair Netanyahu, who has caused controversy for past social media posts, was also ordered to delete a tweet and to “refrain from harassing” the individuals concerned for six months, according to a ruling from Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court judge Dorit Feinstein.

05MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2020 ASIA

Virus curfew imposedon Australia’s second-biggest cityAFP — MELBOURNE

Australia imposed an overnight curfew on its second-biggest city yesterday and banned people from moving more than 5km from home in a bid to control a growing coronavirus outbreak that is infecting hundreds daily.

Declaring a “state of dis-aster”, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said Melbourne would move to Stage 4 restrictions until September 13 given “unac-ceptably high” levels of com-munity transmission.

The harshest rules in Aus-tralia to date will see city resi-dents face a curfew from 8pm to 5am for the next six weeks. Only those carrying out essential work, or seeking or providing care, will be allowed out.

“The time for leniency, the time for warnings and cautions is over,” Andrews said.

“If you are not at home and you should be, if you have the virus and are just going about your business, you will be dealt with harshly. Lives are at stake.” Melbourne residents will be

limited to an hour of exercise a day, no further than 5km from home, starting yesterday night.

Only one person per household will be able to shop for essential items each day, also within the same strict radius.

Most school and university students in Melbourne will go back to online learning from midnight Wednesday, just weeks after returning to their classrooms, while weddings will also be banned.

The sweeping new measures follow a city-wide lockdown that began in early July but has failed to curb the spread of the virus, with Andrews blaming the con-tinuing rise in cases on people flouting stay-at-home orders.

“These are the decisions made because anything short

of this will not keep us safe,” Andrews said, adding anything less “will see it drag on for months and months and months”.

Additional restrictions affecting workplaces would be announced today, Andrews added, suggesting that non-essential businesses will face closures.

Victoria accounts for the vast majority of active corona-virus cases in Australia, recording 671 new cases and seven deaths from the virus yesterday.

Health authorities have linked the resurgence to security bungles at hotels used to quarantine international travellers that allowed the virus to leak back into the community.

The state’s chief health

officer, Brett Sutton, said an estimated 20,000 cases were averted during Stage 3 restric-tions, but flattening the curve to hundreds of new cases a day was “intolerable”.

“We need to see those numbers through the eyes of our healthcare workers and the kind of awful fear that they have about what it means for people presenting to hospital,” he said.

The virus has spread rapidly among vulnerable res-idents in aged-care centres, where government disaster relief teams have been deployed to replace infected staff.

Outside Melbourne, the rest

of Victoria will move to a Stage 3 lockdown from midnight Wednesday with people allowed to leave home only for essential work, study, care and needed supplies.

Elsewhere in Australia, other states and territories have for weeks reported few or no new cases while relaxing restrictions.

They have, however, banned visitors from Victoria and Sydney — another virus hotspot. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said people were now being “strongly encouraged” to wear masks, particularly on public transport, in shops and at places of worship as the

state attempts to avoid the fate of neighbouring Victoria.

“We are holding the line and doing OK but I cannot stress enough that the next few weeks will make or break us, in terms of the way we get through this pandemic,” she told reporters in Sydney.

Berejiklian added that unlike in Victoria, masks were not compulsory but would instead act as a “fourth line of defence” after testing, social distancing and hand-washing.

Australia’s total reported infections reached almost 18,000 yesterday, with 208 deaths in a population of 25 million.

A group of police and soldiers patrol the Docklands area of Melbourne yesterday after the announcement of new restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Vietnam says origin of Danang outbreak hard to track as virus cases riseREUTERS — HANOI

Vietnamese authorities said yesterday they were finding it hard to track the origin of a fresh coronavirus outbreak that began in the central city of Danang and has infected

around 200 people in recent weeks.

“In Danang, there are many sources of virus, and there are still many infections out there in the community,” a gov-ernment statement said of the city, a popular tourist hotspot

with a population of 1.1 million.The country reported 34

infections yesterday, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases to 620. The death toll rose by two to five, the Health Min-istry said in a statement.

Health Minister Nguyen

Thanh Long said the strain of the virus detected in the new out-break is a more contagious one. He said with the new strain, each infected person may infect about 5-6 people compared to 1.8-2.2 people in the previous period.

Authorities have taken a

series of “unprecedented measures” to fight the outbreak in Danang, including the mobi-lisation of several hundred mil-itary school students to help with contact tracing and collecting test samples, the government said in its statement.

Heavy rain inSouth Korealeaves 6 dead, 7 missingAP — SEOUL

Torrential rain pounded most of South Korea over the weekend, leaving six people dead and seven others missing, officials said yesterday.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said the heavy rainfall triggered landslides in dozens of places, flooded res-idential areas and roads, and damaged some riverside structures.

Much of the damage occurred in the Seoul metro-politan area and the central region.

The ministry said the six dead people were either buried by mud or destroyed building parts following landslides or swept away by swollen waters. Ministry officials said one died on Saturday and the other five yesterday, all in the Seoul met-ropolitan area or the central region.

The torrential rain also left six people injured and 360 others homeless, the ministry said.

The Seoul area and the central region are expected to continue to receive heavy rain until today morning.

India’s Home Minister tests

positive for virus; Bollywood

star Bachchan discharged

AFP — NEW DELHI

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan said yesterday he had been discharged from hospital, three weeks after being admitted with “mild” coronavirus symptoms after testing positive for the disease.

The news came as powerful Indian Home Minister Amit Shah revealed he had tested positive for coronavirus, which is infecting tens of thousands of people a day — and killing hun-dreds — in the world’s second most-populous country.

More than 1.7 million people have now been infected in India, giving it the world’s highest toll behind the United States and Brazil, and more than 37,000 have died.

Bachchan’s actor-son Abishek, who was admitted at the same time, will remain in hospital, while his daughter-in-law, actress and former Miss

World Aishwarya Rai, and granddaughter Aaradhya were discharged last week.

They were the highest-profile family in India to contract the virus in a country that wor-ships movie stars.

“I am back home. I will have to be in solitary quarantine in my room,” Bachchan wrote on Instagram, saying he had tested negative. He thanked his family, fans “and the excellent care and nursing” at the hospital, saying they “made it possible for me to see this day”.

At the time he said he had “mild” symptoms.

Bachchan’s discharge came as Home Minister Amit Shah — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-hand man — said he had tested positive for the virus.

“On getting initial symptoms of coronavirus, I got myself tested and my report is positive,” Shah tweeted.

“My health is fine, but on the

advice of doctors I’m getting myself admitted to a hospital.” The 55-year-old — the first national government cabinet minister to test positive — called on everyone in contact with him over the past two days to get tested and isolate.

It was not clear if Shah had met Modi or other senior cabinet ministers in recent days. He was admitted to a hospital in Gurgaon, just outside the capital New Delhi, local media reported.

Screen legend Bachchan, 77, idolised in India and affection-ately known as “Big B”, has

worked for more than half a century in the film industry.

His release from hospital was cheered by his legion of fervent fans.

Hundreds of them gathered at the Amitabh Bachchan Temple — built by his fans in the city in 2001 and which has a life-size statue of the revered celebrity —in Kolkata on Sunday.

“Amitabh is our ‘guru’. He is more than god to us,” Amitabh Bachchan Fan Association sec-retary Sanjoy Patodiya said yes-terday ahead of the actor’s

announcement.“His fans are spending

sleepless nights praying that their god gets well soon.” India will reopen gyms and yoga teaching facilities, as well as end a nighttime curfew — subject to state and territory requirements — from August 5, as part of its latest easing of virus restrictions.

Metro train services are however still suspended while cinemas, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, auditoriums and assembly halls remain closed.

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah Actor Amitabh Bachchan

Thailand suspends

US training plans

after virus cases

REUTERS — BANGKOK

Thailand has suspended plans for its army to undertake joint training with the US military after nine Thai soldiers tested positive for coronavirus upon returning from Hawaii, the defence ministry said yesterday.

The Thai Army said the infected soldiers were among 151 Thai officers who had returned from Lightning Forge 2020 training with US soldiers in Hawaii for the first three weeks of July.

“The army has suspended all plans to bring forces abroad until the situation improves,” said defence ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tanta-wanich. Thailand had no plans for joint training with other countries but the United States, he said.

Nattapon Srisawat, the head of the Thai Army’s anti-COVID-19 unit, said the army had to exercise caution. “It will be difficult to travel at the moment as we have to be careful,” he said.

Doctors’ plight mounting in Bangladesh amid pandemicANATOLIA — DHAKA

The misery of doctors and frontline staff in the war against the novel coronavirus is surging in Bangladesh with at least 92 physicians having died due to the disease.

The country reported 2,199 more infections as of Saturday with 21 additional deaths as the virus shows no indication of slowdown, according to the health ministry data.

Deaths related to COVID-19 now stand at 3,132 and total infections stand at 240,000.

Infections among doctors are raging and have already spread across the country as authorities allegedly failed to stop cases by taking proper measures even after the first COVID-19 case was detected March 8.

When infections were taking its toll among physicians in Dhaka, it could have also been controlled but new cases are spreading to other parts of the country, according to doctors,

experts and associations. The Bangladesh Medical

Association (BMA) said in its latest data updated on July 30 that there were 2,458 doctors who have contracted the virus, raising the number of infections among health workers to 7,086.

ASM Mahbubur Rahman, a government doctor, has been a COVID-19 patient twice.

Rahman first contracted the virus while working April 28 at the civil surgeon office in the Jamalpur district that shares an international border with the Indian state of Meghalaya in the northeast.

“During my tenure I had to conduct field visits to the hos-pitals in the districts and other routine jobs where we have to meet general people and do issues related to public health services, and I might have gotten infected by any of those,” he said.

“My wife, also a doctor, also tested positive after 15 days of my recovery. And then our only daughter has been taken to the

house of my father-in-law in order to save from virus trans-mission,” he said.

Rahman recently was made an assistant director at the Direc-torate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the health and family welfare ministry where he again tested positive, and since July 10 is taking treatment for COVID-19 from home.

It is difficult for a government to maintain all the things, so respective institutions and hos-pitals should provide necessary safety gear, including ensuring sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) and monitor health guidelines, said Rahman.

“There are lack of trained and skilled manpower and technical hands in the health services; at least two people are needed to do off a PPE in a right manner otherwise it could contaminate others,” he said, adding, “if health care institutes could ensure those needs then infections among doctors could be controlled.”

The chair of the Bangladesh

Doctors’ Foundation (BDF), an association of doctors, said infec-tions and deaths from the virus has kept coming and has already spread to other parts of the country which was earlier mostly found in Dhaka.

Shahed Rafi Pavel said at least 80 doctors died from COVID-19 while 12 others died with COVID-19 symptoms. But the BMA said at least 69 physi-cians have died. And there were some issues, including insuffi-cient health safety gear in line with guidance from the World health Organization (WHO), arrangement for treatment, transportation facility and resi-dential safety for on-duty doctors at COVID-19 dedicated health care facilities that leave them exposed to the virus and spread the infection, according to Pavel.

There are allegations and reports of mismanagement in the arrangement of hotels, food and transportation for doctors who have to work in COVID-19 ded-icated hospitals. The government

addressed some of those issues and was trying to meet other demands raised by physicians, added Pavel.

“But still doctors receive low standard food items and there is a small gap between two shifts of duties; while the healthy gap in shifts and good foods are needed for the survival of doctors in such a pandemic,” he said.

BMA Secretary General Md. Ehteshamul Huq Choudhury, admitted there were short-comings in the beginning but the situation is improving and the infection rate among doctors is decreasing with efforts from authorities. He described said that “sometime patients hide being a COVID-19 carrier and travel history in virus hit areas which do infect health workers.”

He emphasised providing information to doctors during treatment so the treatment seeker and giver can benefit and called for “changing people’s attitude towards doctors in the country.”

Declaring a “state of disaster”, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said Melbourne would move to Stage 4 restrictions until September 13 given “unacceptably high” levels of community transmission.

06 MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2020ASIA

Afghan troops kill senior Islamic State militantAP — KABUL

Afghanistan’s intelligence service said the country’s special forces killed a high-ranking official with the local Islamic State group affiliate in an oper-ation in eastern Afghanistan.

A statement late on Sat-urday by the National Direc-torate of Security said the slain militant was Assadullah Orakzai, an intelligence leader for the IS affiliate in Afghan-istan. The statement said he was killed near Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. IS has its headquarters in the province.

Orakzai was suspected of being involved in several deadly attacks against both mil-itary and civilian targets in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has seen a recent spike in violence, with most attacks claimed by the local IS affiliate.

Still, a United Nations report last week said Afghanistan saw a 13 percent drop in the number of civilians killed and wounded in violence across the country in the first six months of the year, compared to the same period last year.

The report credited the drop in casualties in part to the reduction of operations by international forces — which now only act when called upon and in support of the Afghan forces — and also to a decrease in the number of attacks by IS.

The report said the UN had recorded 17 attacks by IS that caused civilian casualties during the first six months of 2020, down from 97 attacks in the same period last year. Overall, the UN said 1,282 people were killed in violence in the first six months of 2020 in Afghanistan and 2,176 were wounded.

Another UN report last month estimated there are around 2,200 IS members in Afghanistan, and said that while its leadership has been depleted, IS still counts among its leaders a Syrian national Abu Said Mohammad Al Khorasani. The report also said the moni-toring team had received

information that two senior IS commanders, Abu Qutaibah and Abu Hajar Al Iraqi, had recently arrived in Afghanistan from the Middle East.

“Although in territorial retreat, (the Islamic State) remains capable of carrying out high-profile attacks in various parts of the country, including Kabul. It also aims to attract Taliban fighters who oppose the agreement with the United States,” the report said, referring to a US peace deal signed with the Taliban in February.

That deal was struck to allow the US to end its 19-year involvement in Afghanistan, and calls on the Taliban to guarantee its territory will not be used by terrorist groups. The deal is also expected to guar-antee the Taliban’s all-out par-ticipation in the fight against IS.

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb and multiple gunmen attacked a prison in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, Afghan officials said, killing at least one person and injuring 20 others.

The gunbattle between Afghan security forces and insurgents in Jalalabad was still ongoing yesterday evening, and casualties were likely to rise, according to Attaullah Kho-gyani, spokesman for the pro-vincial governor.

Ajmal Omer, a provincial council member, and Tariq Arian, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, also con-firmed the attack.

Taliban prisoners before being released from Pul-e-Charkhi prison, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday.

Hundreds of Taliban prisoners freedAFP — KABUL

The Afghan government yesterday urged the Taliban to extend a rare ceasefire hours before it was due to end yesterday, with hundreds of militant prisoners released in a bid to bring peace talks closer.

Calm prevailed across much of Afghanistan, with officials not reporting any major clashes between the two foes since the truce began on Friday to mark Eid Al Adha.

“We hope the Taliban will not resume violence,” said Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman to Ghani.

“The Afghan government’s actions and steps taken in the peace process must be recip-

rocated by the Taliban.”President Ashraf Ghani and

the Taliban have both indicated that long-delayed negotiations could begin straight after Eid.

“This Eid feels different, parks are full with people... you almost forget that there has been a war in this country for 40 years,” said Shahpoor Shadab, a resident from the eastern city of Jalalabad.

The National Security Council said yesterday that a further 300 Taliban prisoners had been released since Friday, taking the total number freed so far to just over 4,900.

Authorities, however, have refused to free hundreds of inmates accused of serious crimes that the insurgents had

requested for release.In restive Zabul province,

several residents recited poems calling for the ceasefire — only the third official halt in fighting in nearly two decades of con-flict — to be made permanent.

“Peace is everybody’s need and aspiration,” said Sardar Wali, who took part in the poetry session.

“This is a great opportunity to extend the ceasefire today and start intra-Afghan talks tomorrow.” Under a deal signed by the Taliban and the US in February, the “intra-Afghan” talks were slated to start in March, but were delayed amid political infighting in Kabul and as a contentious prisoner swap dragged on.

Thai PM orders

deeper look into

death of witness in

hit-and-run case

REUTERS — BANGKOK

Thailand’s prime minister has ordered a second autopsy be conducted after the death of a key witness in a deadly hit-and-run case linked to the heir to the Red Bull energy drink fortune, amid public anger that the charges were dropped.

Jaruchart Mardthong, 40, died in what police said looked like a motorcycle accident on Thursday, amid public suspicion about the exact cause of his death.

Results of an initial autopsy have not yet been released. Local media said his family had planned to cremate the body yesterday.

He was a key witness in the police investigation into Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya, who was accused of killing a police officer in 2012, according to deputy gov-ernment spokeswoman Trai-sulee Traisoranakul.

Police said last week that all charges against Vorayuth had been dropped, stirring public anger about the country’s entrenched culture of impunity for the rich and well-connected.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha wants to ensure justice and clear public sus-picion over the case, Traisulee said in a statement yesterday.

“The prime minister reit-erates that the government will help create justice in the case. Any wrongdoers will be punished. This case will not be unresolved in the public’s mind,” she said.

Police said Jaruchart had died at hospital after crashing with another motorcycle driver, who was also injured but had left hospital.

Prayuth previously said a committee had been formed to look at what led to the case being dropped but it would not interfere in the work of the attorney-general, police and court. The committee has 30 days to complete its task.

Vorayuth had missed eight summonses to appear in court. He was accused of crashing his black Ferrari into policeman Wichien Klanprasert and dragging his body for dozens of metres before fleeing the scene. He was 27 at the time.

Authorities issued a warrant for his arrest five years after the incident and Vorayuth later left the country. His current where-abouts are unknown.

Philippine virus cases top 100,000 in ‘losing battle’AP — MANILA

Coronavirus infections in the Philippines surged past 100,000 yesterday in a trou-bling milestone after medical groups declared that the country was waging “a losing battle” against the virus and asked the president to reimpose a lockdown in the capital.

The Department of Health reported a record-high daily tally of 5,032, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 103,185, including more than 2,000 deaths. The Philippines has the second-most cases in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, and has had more infections

than China, where the pan-demic began late last year.

President Rodrigo Duterte eased a tough virus lockdown in the capital, Manila — a city of more than 12 million people - on June 1 after the economy shrank slightly in the first quarter, its first contraction in more than two decades. After shopping malls and workplaces were partially reopened and limited public transport was allowed, infections spiked sharply with increased virus testing.

More than 50,000 infec-tions were reported in less than four weeks and leading hos-pitals began warning that their

coronavirus wards were fast being overwhelmed to capacity again, as they were when cases soared alarmingly in April.

After Duterte further relaxed quarantine restrictions and allowed more businesses, including gyms, Internet cafes and tattoo shops, to reopen, leaders of nearly 100 medical organisations held an online news conference on Saturday and warned that the health system may collapse as many medical personnel fall ill or resign out of fear, fatigue or poor working conditions.

“Our health care workers are burnt out with the seem-ingly endless number of

patients trooping to our hos-pitals,” the medical groups said in a letter to Duterte that they read at the news conference.

They pleaded for the pres-ident to reimpose a lockdown in Manila from August 1 to 15 to give health workers “a time out” and allow the government to recalibrate its response to the monthslong pandemic.

“We are waging a losing battle against COVID-19 and we need to draw up a consolidated, definitive plan of action,” said the groups, which represent more than a million nurses, doctors and other medical personnel.

The groups said the gradual

easing of coronavirus restrictions “has inadvertently fueled public misperception that the pandemic is getting better. It is not.”

They expressed fears to Duterte that the Philippine coronavirus crisis may worsen like in the US. “The progressive decline in compliance will push us to the brink to become the next New York City, where COVID-19 patients die at home or in stretchers, unable to find vacancies.”

The US has had more than 4.6 million confirmed infections and more than 154,000 deaths, by far the highest tolls in the world, based on Johns Hopkins University tallies.

Pro-democracy district councillors protest outside the Hospital Authority headquarters in Hong Kong yesterday, against the governments decision to have mainland inspectors carry out coronavirus testing in Hong Kong, fearing quality control issues and the possibility DNA samples could be sent back to the mailand.

China sends team to Hong Kong to do widespread coronavirus testingREUTERS — HONG KONG

Seven Chinese health officials were due to arrive in Hong Kong yesterday, the first members of a 60-person team that will carry out widespread testing for COVID-19 in the territory as the global financial hub races to halt a third wave of illness.

China’s National Health Commission on Saturday announced their scheduled arrival.

Members of the team are from public hospitals in Guangdong province while a spe-cialist team of six from Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus first

appeared, will help prepare part of the AsiaWorld Expo convention centre as a facility for COVID-19 patients.

The initiative is the first time mainland health officials have assisted Hong Kong in its battle to control the coronavirus.

Some local residents fear China may use this as an excuse to collect DNA samples for sur-veillance purposes.

Leader Carrie Lam said on Saturday the former British colony asked for help from the central government due to the resurgence in cases. She said the government was studying

whether everyone in Hong Kong could be tested, local broadcaster RTHK reported on Saturday.

The Chinese territory saw a surge in locally transmitted coronavirus cases in July and introduced a raft of tightening measures including restricting gatherings to two people and mandating face masks in all outdoor public spaces.

Hong Kong has reported around 3,400 coronavirus cases and 33 deaths since January, far lower than other major cities around the world. But the daily number of new infections has been in the triple-digits for the past 11 days.

Pakistan records lowest single-day virus death tollINTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan recorded the lowest single-day death toll yesterday since April with six patients succumbing to the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the number of fatalities to 5,976, according to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

Three of the deaths were reported in Sindh, two in Punjab and one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, read the NCOC update. The pre-vious lowest death toll in the country was recorded on April 17 when eight people lost the battle against the virus.

While in the span of 24 hours, 553 people have tested positive for the virus while the number of recoveries totals to 248,577 patients. Over 14,003 tests were conducted on August 1.

Furthermore, out of 1859 ventilators allocated for COVID-19 patients, 225 ventilators are occupied across the country.

It is pertinent to mention that there is no patient on ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan.

So far a total of 279,699 cases have been detected in Pakistan, 2,086 in AJK, 11,762 in Balochistan, 2,157 in GB, 15,052 in Islamabad, 34,160 in Khyber Paktunkhwa, 93,173 in Punjab and 12,1309 in Sindh.

One dead, 4 missing after ferry sinks off Thai island

AP — BANGKOK

A ferry sank off the Thai island of Koh Samui, leaving at least one person dead and four others missing, officials said yesterday.

The ferry was carrying 12 crew members and four passengers when it sank in stormy conditions Saturday night after leaving Koh Samui’s port, according to a statement on the Surat Thani Public Affairs Department Facebook page.

Nine people were rescued near the sunken vessel by rescue workers. Two more were found hours later near a nearby deserted island.

One person was found dead and four others were missing, the statement said.

Patchara Thiparat, one of the two found near the deserted island, said when everyone on the ferry realized what was going to happen, they put on lifejackets. But he got separated from the rest of the group because he was on the other side of the boat when it was sinking.

“The water (current) was very strong. It swept me away from the ship very quickly. Later I saw the island and then tried to swim toward it,” Patchara said.

In another development, a suicide car bomb and multiple gunmen attacked a prison in eastern Jalalabad yesterday, Afghan officials said, killing at least one person and injuring 20 others. The gunbattle between Afghan security forces and insurgents was still ongoing yesterday evening.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic’s effects would be long-lasting. “The pandemic is a once-in-a-century health crisis, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come.”

07MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2020 EUROPE

Expect ‘lengthy’ virus pandemic, warns WHOAFP — GENEVA

The World Health Organization warned the coronavirus pan-demic was likely to be “lengthy” after its emergency committee met to evaluate the crisis six months after sounding the international alarm.

The committee “highlighted the anticipated lengthy duration of this COVID-19 pandemic”, the WHO said in a statement, and warned of the risk of “response fatigue” given the socio-economic pressures on countries.

The panel gathered on Friday for the fourth time over the coronavirus crisis, half a year on from its January 30 declaration of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) — the WHO’s highest level of alarm.

“WHO continues to assess the global risk level of COVID-19 to be very high,” it said following the meeting.

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 680,000 people and infected at least 17.6 million since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

Unsurprisingly, the panel, comprising 17 members and 12 advisers, unanimously agreed that the pandemic still consti-tuted a PHEIC.

Several countries around the world have imposed strict lockdowns in a bid to control the spread of the respiratory disease, plunging economies

into sharp contraction.The committee urged the

WHO to provide nuanced, prag-matic guidance on COVID-19 management “to reduce the risk of response fatigue in the context of socio-economic pressures”.

The panel urged the WHO to support countries in pre-paring for the rollout of proven therapeutics and vaccines.

The committee also urged the agency to accelerate research into the remaining “critical unknowns” of the virus, such as the animal source of the disease and potential animal reservoirs. It called for improved understanding of the epidemiology and severity of COVID-19, including its long-term health effects.

And the committee wanted more light shed on the dynamics of the virus, such as “modes of transmission, shedding, potential mutations; immunity and corre-lates of protection”.

The near six-hour gath-ering was hosted at the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, with some participants joining via video-link. The committee will reconvene within the next three months.

Going into the meeting, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pan-demic’s effects would be long-lasting.

“It’s sobering to think that six months ago, when you rec-ommended I declare a PHEIC, there were less than 100 cases and no deaths outside China,” he said on Friday.

“The pandemic is a once-in-a-century health crisis, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come.” The com-mittee warned countries to prepare their health systems to cope with seasonal influenza and other disease outbreaks alongside the new coronavirus.

They were also urged to “encourage global solidarity” on COVID-19 and address “mis/disinformation” about the virus.

The WHO has been sharply criticised for the length of time it took to declare an interna-tional emergency.

The United States, which accused it of being too close to China, officially began its with-drawal from the organisation in July.

The agency has also been criticised for recommendations deemed to be late or contra-dictory, in particular on wearing masks, or the modes of transmission of the virus.

Protesters carry an umbrella inscribed with the words: “COVID-19 is here to stay, we have to learn to live with it, viruses have always been around, and death has always been a part of life” during a demonstration against restrictions imposed by the government to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, in front of Brandenburg Gate, in Berlin, yesterday. A demonstration of the same nature numbering over 20,000 protesters was broken up by police in Berlin on August 1, 2020.

45 cops injured in Berlin protestsAFP — BERLIN

Some 45 police officers were injured in a wave of weekend demonstrations in Berlin including protests against coro-navirus restrictions, police said as protesters gathered again in smaller numbers yesterday.

The unruly protests, in which many demonstrators failed to wear masks or respect social distancing rules, have sparked a chorus of condem-nation including calls for tougher penalties against those who violate restrictions aimed at curbing transmission of the deadly virus.

A total of 133 people were arrested during Saturday’s

protests, which included a huge “day of freedom” demo against coronavirus restrictions, police said in a statement yesterday.

The arrests were for offences including resisting police officers, breach of the peace and the use of unconsti-tutional symbols. Three officers required hospital treatment.

Around 20,000 people took part in the “day of freedom” demonstration, the majority not covering their nose and mouth or respecting 1.5-metre social distancing requirement.

The crowd, a mixture of hard left and right, and con-spiracy theorists, shouted “We are the second wave” as they converged on the Brandenburg

Gate, demanding “resistance” and dubbing the pandemic “the biggest conspiracy theory”.

Police began dispersing the crowds in the late afternoon, but hundreds of protesters remained at the Brandenburg Gate late into the evening.

Police have launched legal proceedings against organisers for not respecting virus hygiene rules.

In a separate anti-fascist demonstration in the southern Neukoelln district, protesters threw stones at police officers, let off fireworks and damaged two police vehicles and a local party office. Several officers were injured while dispersing the crowd.

Paratroopers' Day in RussiaRussian airborne veterans entertain a child with a parachute as they celebrate the 90th anniversary of the establishment of Russia’s airborne forces during the Paratroopers’ Day at Gorky park in Moscow yesterday.

Italian PM to reopen Genoa bridge 2 years after fatal collapseAFP — ROME

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte yesterday described the opening of the new Genoa bridge, which replaces one that collapsed two years ago killing 43 people, as a “symbol of a new Italy” on the eve of its inauguration.

On August 14, 2018, the Morandi motorway bridge, named after the engineer who designed it, gave way during heavy rain, hurling dozens of cars and several trucks onto railway tracks below.

The replacement bridge, a high-tech structure with advanced safety mechanisms designed by famed Italian architect Renzo Piano, is due to open to traffic on Tuesday or Wednesday.

“Tomorrow, I will be in Genoa for the inauguration of the new bridge,” Conte wrote on his Facebook account yesterday. “From a wound that is slow to heal to the symbol of a new Italy which is recovering.”

The inauguration ceremony will be a bitter-sweet occasion with the families of the victims who are refusing to take part, and meeting 10 days later to mark the second anniversary of the tragedy.

The speed with which the new bridge has been erected has been impressive.

Italy, often criticised for the slow pace of the execution of

public works, worked hard to complete the bridge at the end of April since when finishing touches and safety tests have been carried out.

Many personalities will be present at the inauguration which will proceed under the threat of heavy rains which are expected on Monday in Liguria, the region of Genoa.

President Sergio Mattarella will be the first to officially cross the new bridge. The architect Piano will also be present. The collapse of the bridge gave rise to a bitter legal battle, which is still ongoing.

The Morandi was hailed a marvel of engineering when it opened in 1967, but an investi-gation into the disaster found it was neglected.

Autostrade, which runs almost half of Italy’s motorway network, has been accused of failing to maintain it properly, with allegations of falsified safety reports and in-house pressure to slash maintenance costs.

Atlantia, the parent group of Autostrade, is controlled by the wealthy Benetton family, which finally bowed to pressure last month to relin-quish control of its besmirched toll-road operator, which will be nationalised.

Autostrade is under inves-tigation, along with several transport ministry officials, for culpable homicide.

Merkel’s Bavarian ally rules out chancellery bidBLOOMBERG — FRANKFURT

Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder ruled out running to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor, saying he wants to focus on leading the southern German state despite a surge in his popularity on the national stage.

Soeder’s standing among voters has been burnished by what is widely perceived as an impressive performance during the coronavirus crisis, and the 53-year-old from Nuremberg is the second-most popular German politician behind Merkel. He is well ahead of other

challengers to succeed her when her term ends in the fall of 2021, according to recent polls.

Soeder heads the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s Christian Dem-ocratic Union. Traditionally, the CDU has fielded the conservative group’s chancellor candidate, and both times a CSU member ran — Franz Josef Strauss in 1980 and Edmund Stoiber in 2002 — they were unsuccessful.

“There are good reasons why the CSU has never pro-vided the chancellor,” Soeder said in an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “I will help with all my strength to

make sure things go well for Germany but my task is in Bavaria.”

Soeder reiterated his intention of staying put in com-ments to broadcaster ARD later. Asked directly whether he would rule out running, he said: “My place is in Bavaria and so that is clear. There was a recent poll in Bavaria in which a majority of Bavarians believed I could do a job like that in Berlin but the same majority wants me to stay in Bavaria.

“And for me that’s really a very, very strong indication, a powerful argument. In addition, the CDU always has first rights

on nominating a candidate.” Possible Merkel successors

from the CDU include North Rhine-Westphalia Premier Armin Laschet and former caucus leader Friedrich Merz. Social Democratic Finance Min-ister Olaf Scholz, who is the vice chancellor in the ruling coa-lition, and Greens co-leader Robert Habeck, are also in the running for the top job.

In a direct vote for chancellor, Soeder would win 41% of the vote, Habeck 20% and Scholz 14%, according to a Forsa poll for RTL/n-tv published on Saturday. If Laschet were the conservative candidate, he would get only 19%,

compared with 20% for Habeck and 19% for Scholz, the poll showed. Soeder told Bild that there is no need for Merkel’s con-servative bloc to rush to select its candidate. The CDU must first choose a new leader at a party meeting in early December after Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer decided to step aside.

“We’ll think about the timing of choosing the chan-cellor candidate after the CDU congress,” Soeder said. “It doesn’t have to be January, it also may not happen until March. A drawn-out election campaign with an active chancellor doesn’t make much sense.”

100th Salzburg festival beginsAFP — VIENNA

While many theatres, opera houses and concert halls across the globe remain closed, one of the world’s most prestigious summer music festivals opened in Austria — with strict anti-coronavirus measures in place.

Organisers of the annual Salzburg Festival had originally planned a glittering array of 200 events for its star-studded 100th edition.

But they were forced to

shelve many of the concerts, operas and theatre performances as a result of the pandemic and drew up a much slimmed-down programme instead.

The month-long festival kicked off on Saturday with a performance of Richard Strauss’s blood-curdling opera “Elektra” in a brand-new staging by Poland’s Krzysztof Warlikowski. The curtain also rose on a new production of the “Everyman” play, written by one of the festival’s original

founders Hugo von Hof-mannsthal and staged every year here since.

But a thunderstorm forced that performance indoors — it is traditionally held on Salz-burg’s Cathedral Square.

Organisers are imposing strict safety measures on the 110 shows that are still going ahead. All 80,000 tickets on sale — down from the usual 230,000 — are personalised to enable contact-tracing in case of an infection.

British music stars resurrect Rock Against RacismREUTERS — LONDON

More than 700 figures from Britain’s music world, including popstar Rita Ora, One Direction singer Niall Horan and producer Nile Rodgers, united to “wipe out racism” declaring “silence is not an option” in response to discrimination and abuse.

The pledge made in a letter published in Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper comes four decades after British musicians banded together for Rock Against Racism — a cultural movement that emerged in 1976 in response to rising xenophobia.

The letter comes amid a growing global movement to tackle racism following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, in police custody in the United States.

“All forms of racism have the same roots — ignorance, lack of education and scape-goating,” the musicians and other industry figures wrote in the letter.

“We, the British music industry, are proudly uniting to amplify our voices, to take responsibility, to speak out and stand together in solidarity. Silence is not an option.”

The letter comes after British grime artist Wiley was banned from social media following a string of antise-mitic posts. Wiley apologised on Wednesday and said he was not racist.

Other signatories included girl group Little Mix, singer-songwriters Lewis Capaldi, Olly Murs and Jess Glynne, rock band the 1975, Blur bassist Alex James and musician Goldie.

“In recent months through a series of events and incidents, the anti-black racists and antisemites, plus those who advocate Islamo-phobia, xenophobia, and others have repeatedly dem-onstrated that they clearly want us all to fail,” they said.

The letter was also signed by music managers, agents and labels including EMI, Sony Music UK and Warner Music UK. “Music brings joy and hope and connects us all. We stand together to wipe out racism,” they said.

08 MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

EDITORIAL

FOOTBALL resumed in Qatar last week with an exciting Round 18 of the QNB Stars League, signalling the return of full-fledged sports action in the country. As Qatar started the third phase of the gradual lifting of COVID-19 restrictions on July 28, the prestigious league resumed in accordance with the precautionary measures as per the general plan and protocol developed by the QSL in co-operation with Ministry of Public Health on July 24, bringing an end to over four months of wait.

It was a memorable occasion as the season-resuming round was dedicated to the front-line workers. A special logo was placed on all players’ jerseys as they paid tribute to healthcare workers and all those com-bating the pandemic for their tireless efforts.

A doctor performed the honorary kick-off before the week’s opening match between Al Gharafa and Al Arabi at Al Janoub Stadium – a FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 venue . The same day, reigning champions Al Sadd came out in health sector uniform in a show of appreciation to the medical staff for their great services.

Currently, the league is in its second week since return, entertaining the citizens and expatriates during the Eid Al Adha holidays with thrilling matches. It is still a three-way fight for the QSL title among Al Duhail, Al Rayyan and Al Sadd, with the battle expected to go down to the wire. In another pleasant development recently, Al Sadd coach Xavi Hernandez – the Bar-celona legend – recovered after contracting the coro-navirus and resumed his duty. The 40-year-old announced last Saturday that he had tested positive following routine screening of players and staff in Qatar’s top-flight, missing Al Sadd’s 2-1 victory over Al Khor. Xavi thanked all the authorities for an early detection that avoided more spreading of the virus. The QSL is continuing the test process periodically, twice a week, for all those involved.

While football has made a successful return, events in other sports disciplines are also expected to resume in the coming weeks as the Qatar Olympic Committee is taking several measures, which includes tests process of the athletes.

The situation is getting back to normalcy gradually in Qatar as the cases have decreased significantly due to effective policies of the authorities. However, it is also the responsibility of the people to combat the disease by strictly adhering to the precautionary measures. All stakeholders in country’s sports circle must also follow the same preventive steps to help the federations in bringing back the much-awaited world-class events for which Qatar is popular all over the globe.

Football makes successful return

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Quote of the day

We hope the Taliban will not resume violence.

The Afghan government's actions and

steps taken in the peace process must be

reciprocated by the Taliban.

Sediq Sediqqi, Spokesman to Afghan President

In the all-important search for a COVID-19 vaccine, the news seems promising. Several candidates have been found that increase antibodies with tolerable side effects. Worldwide, six have reached the final stage of testing and are now being administered to thousands of subjects to assess the vaccines’ effec-tiveness and safety.

But once a vaccine is found, the process of pack-aging, distributing and administering it to achieve herd immunity also presents significant challenges. Many months will pass between proving a vaccine is effective and being able to offer injec-tions to 300 million Amer-icans. Given the country’s COVID-19 response so far, it’s not surprising that we are already behind.

Projections are that we will need to administer two vaccine doses, one month apart. And if the vaccine’s effectiveness is temporary, which seems likely, we may have to repeat this every 12 months. What does our gov-ernment have to do to make that happen? In a report for the Center for American Progress,”A Comprehensive COVID-19 Vaccine Plan,” we

identify four major potential bottlenecks - and solutions.

First, “fill and finish.” Vac-cines must be put into spe-cialized glass vials, and so far, the government has only con-tracted for 164 million glass vials, with the timing unknown. Corning, the major U.S. manufacturer, is expanding capacity, but it is likely to be able to produce only an additional 14 million or so vials a month with current funding.

The plants necessary to put vaccine into the vials are also highly specialized; they must be 100 times more sterile than a hospital operating room. Worldwide, these fill-finish plants are collectively oper-ating at near-capacity. It is unclear precisely how much capacity there is in the United States, but in October 2018, a government assessment con-cluded “operational capability has not been adequately developed.”

It takes up to five years to build one fill-finish plant from scratch, but we can expand existing plants by installing new lines faster. Pfizer is ret-rofitting existing facilities for about $40 million per facility, and other companies are expanding or could expand their facilities.

We recommend that the government invest in retro-fitting existing facilities, at an estimated cost of $400 million, and expanding the production of glass vials, as well as building new fill-finish facilities for 100 million doses, for $1.4 billion. Criti-cally, the Defense Production

Act must be invoked to free up and coordinate the nation’s existing manufac-turing capabilities.

Second, syringes and needles. Once the vaccine is made and shipped, it has to be injected, requiring 650 million to 850 million syringes and needles. These are also in short supply. The five existing manufacturers produce 663 million injection devices per year, but most are already earmarked for many other medical purposes. The government has entered into contracts with BD, the largest manufacturer, to build pro-duction lines for an additional 320 million units. But this will take 12 months - and further production capacity is needed. The government needs to quickly invest at least $70 million to build two new manufacturing lines. It should also look into alter-native delivery devices.

Third, payment. Paying for vaccines is a complex system involving physicians, phar-macies, insurers, Medicare and Medicaid, with lots of Americans falling through the cracks. In the early 1990s, Congress established the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccines for Children program for unin-sured and low-income fam-ilies. In 2009, the federal gov-ernment provided free H1N1 vaccines.

The same has to occur for COVID-19, and it will be com-paratively cheap. The gov-ernment should pay a maximum of $20 per dose - well within the range of

existing CDC vaccine prices - meaning it would cost less than $20 billion to vaccinate the whole country.

Fourth, delivery. Tradi-tionally, we administer vac-cines through a patchwork of physician offices, pharmacies and public health clinics, with mixed success. Only about 45% of adults get an annual flu shot. To quell COVID-19, we need to get 70% immunity, which probably means about 90% of Americans need to be vaccinated. To reach this goal, we calculate that we will need at least 7,300 community vaccination clinics, each pro-viding nearly 30,000 doses per month. Some could be run by community health centers, CVS, Walmart and other existing vaccination or testing sites. But many new sites would also be needed. Collec-tively, we estimate these clinics would cost about $10 billion.

We all hope that by early 2021, pharmaceutical com-panies will be manufacturing an effective COVID-19 vaccine. But it will do us no good unless we can package, ship and administer it to 300 million Americans - twice. We estimate that altogether it will cost less than $45 billion - an insignificant amount for a disease that has cost trillions of dollars in economic losses. More of a challenge is the need for a well-coordinated federal government effort to do the job. We need stronger leadership to ensure all Americans can get a vaccine and we can return to nor-malcy by fall 2021.

THOMAS URBAIN & PETER HUTCHISON — AFP

Long associated with narrow, cobbled streets in Europe and congested Asian megacities, scooters are now becoming a common sight in car-loving America as commuters shun public transport because of the coronavirus pandemic.

New Yorkers turned to the turquoise-blue rental mopeds of ride sharing company Revel in huge numbers in recent weeks, while scooter retailers are reporting a big uptick in sales.

“I decided a few months ago during all this craziness to start running a scooter,” said 30-year-old Alan Taledia, who bought a 150 cc Vespa.

“I don’t have to do any public transportation, so it’s better for me. I feel more comfortable,” the insurance worker added.

Sales of motorcycles and electric two-wheelers -- popular amongst the Big Apple’s army of food delivery drivers -- are also booming as residents plump for cheaper alternatives to four wheels.

Andrew Hadjiminas -- president of a Vespa, Piaggio, Aprilia and Moto Guzzi retailer in Brooklyn -- says the store has sold more than 200 vehicles in the last three months.

“We are experiencing a positive sales growth over last year,” he told AFP.

“As people start to think about their commute and mobility during and after this pandemic, they are searching for ways to get around that are safe and fun,” Hadjiminas added.

At Unik Moto in Long Island City, demand has tripled compared to July 2019, with some weeks seeing

about 20 scooters being sold, according to general manager Chris Benson. The shop, which has struggled to keep its inventory stocked, mainly sells models by the Taiwanese manufacturers Sanyang Motor company and Kymco.

“There was a big boom, up to now,” Benson told AFP.

Riding in America’s most populated city, where car ownership is high and traffic can be bumper-to-bumper, comes with risks though.

Revel, which has done much to popularize mopeds, paused its New York services this week following the deaths of two riders, including a 26-year-old CBS reporter, in separate crashes. Revel, founded by two American entrepreneurs, launched a pilot program in 2018 with 68 electric mopeds in Brooklyn.

Before suspending opera-tions on Tuesday, its New

York fleet had grown to 3,000 vehicles, each with a top speed of 30 mph, clocking 100,000 miles a day.

There were just over 4,000 trips on Revel scooters in the two weeks before New York City shut down in March, the company said.

In the last fortnight of June, rides were up to almost 18,000 daily, a spokeswoman for Revel said.

Critics, though, say the near silent vehicles are a safety hazard, pointing out that they are often driven by inexperienced riders.

The company requires that users have a valid driver’s license to book a moped, but doesn’t ask them to take a test. Revel has suspended 2,000 riders in the past six weeks for violating safety guidelines, such as refusing to wear the helmets that are provided with each trip.

How to successfully administer a coronavirus vaccine

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Amid pandemic, mopeds have a moment in car-loving US

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09MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2020 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Mexican army arrests ‘El Marro’ blamed for surge in drug violenceREUTERS — MEXICO CITY

The Mexican Army and state security forces yesterday captured Jose Antonio Yepez, a notorious drug gang leader and fuel thief blamed for fanning a surge in violence that has severely tested the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Widely known as “El Marro” (The Mallet), Yepez was captured early yesterday morning in Guanajuato state, according to the federal gov-ernment and authorities in the central region, one of the prin-cipal flashpoints of gang vio-lence in Mexico.

“This a tremendously suc-cessful blow for the gov-ernment,” said Raul Benitez, a security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Boss of the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, a Guanajuato-based gang, Yepez has been engaged in a bloody struggle for criminal control of the state with the Jalisco New Gener-ation Cartel (CJNG), one of the country’s most powerful and violent groups.

Yepez, 40, is the most high-profile arrest made yet under Lopez Obrador, who pledged to bring down record levels of violence plaguing Mexico when he took office in December 2018.

Instead, homicides have further increased during the Lopez Obrador presidency and last October his government suffered serious embar-rassment when it botched the detention of Ovidio Guzman, a son of jailed kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

The Guanajuato attorney general’s office said soldiers and state security forces cap-tured Yepez with five other

people and rescued a kid-napped local businesswoman during the operation. An “arsenal” of weapons was also secured during the raid.

Mexican news network Milenio broadcast a video of the night-time arrest, which it said took place in the tiny village of Franco Tavera, a few miles north of the municipality of Vil-lagran where the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel was born.

Wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers, and flanked by several soldiers, Yepez gives his full name and age before also identifying himself as “Marro.” Security forces have been gradually closing in on Yepez but he had managed to evade capture thanks to a tight network of informers who allowed him to stay one step ahead of his pur-suers, according to analysts and media reports.

One of Mexico’s most-wanted bosses, El Marro has appeared in expletive-laden videos threatening his enemies, and in June a clip of an emo-tional Yepez lamenting the arrest of his mother and sister was widely broadcast on national media.

The women, who were sus-pected of aiding his operations, were later released when judges picked apart the case against them.

Initially notorious for fuel theft in a state crisscrossed by pipelines and home to a major oil refinery, the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel has become increasingly embroiled in battles with the CJNG, based in the neighbouring state of Jalisco.

Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of fuel were being stolen every year before Lopez Obrador cracked down a few weeks after taking office.

Coronavirus chief in Mexico sidesteps calls to quitAP — MEXICO CITY

The head of Mexico’s efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic has sidestepped calls to resign after Mexico posted a record case increase and the country’s death count rose to overtake the United Kingdom as the third-highest in the world.

Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell said late on Friday that “I express my respect” to the nine of Mexico’s 32 state governors who called for his res-ignation, adding “I hope we can continue to work together.”

On Saturday, Mexico reported yet another new daily high for confirmed cases — 9,556, which raised Mexico’s total cases so far to almost 425,000. The country also posted 784 more confirmed COVID-19 deaths, raising its accumulated total to 47,472.

A letter calling for López-Gatell’s “immediate” resignation bore the names of 10 state gov-ernors, all from opposition parties, was made public on Friday, but later one of those governors said he had not approved the letter and distanced himself from it.

The letter blamed the admin-istration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for “an erratic handling of the epidemic and a lack of efficient response” that simultaneously boosted Mexico’s death toll to the third-highest in the world while

suffering an 18.9 percent drop in economic activity in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. Mexico has imposed a very lax and partial lockdown of economic activity that has not stopped high levels of contagion, but has strangled the economy. Rather than testing or contact tracing, the gov-ernment has focused on expanding hospital facilities.

The federal government has

given confusing and mixed mes-sages about whether to wear face masks.

López Obrador himself almost never wears one, and said Friday “I will use a face mask when there is no more cor-ruption,” a reference to his administration’s anti-graft crusade, which he views as the country’s main priority. Many governors have been stung by the federal government’s four-color

“stoplight” scheme indicating whether a state is allowed to reopen businesses gradually.

Criteria like the rate of infection or hospital occupation levels are used to determine the colors, ranging from red for the shutdown of all but essential businesses, to green for near-normality.

But many have disputed the way those criteria are determined.

A couple poses for a photo with their baby from inside a sanitised cabin called “Baby Cabin Parade” to show the newborn to relatives as a social distancing solution during the coronavirus disease outbreak in Monterrey, Mexico.

Switzerland urged to tighten coronavirus restrictions againREUTERS — ZURICH

Switzerland should tighten restrictions to curb the coronavirus again following a recent spike in cases, in order to prevent the need for much harsher lockdown measures in future, the new head of the country’s coronavirus task-force said.

Switzerland has seen the number of new cases of COVID-19 surge to more than 200 a day recently after an average of 35 per day in June.

Martin Ackermann, who heads the body that provides scientific advice to the Swiss government, said the country was on the brink of a big increase in infections and had little room to manoeuvre.

“We should intervene early to prevent exponential growth,” Ack-ermann to ld newspaper

SonntagsZeitung. “Otherwise there’s a risk of drastic and expensive restrictions. This must be prevented under all circumstances.”

Switzerland has lifted a partial lockdown that was imposed in March, when shops, bars and restaurants were ordered to close to prevent the spread of the virus which has infected 35,000 people and killed 1,707 in the country of 8.6 billion people.

Ackermann, who took over as head

of the taskforce on Saturday, said he sup-ported making it mandatory to wear face masks indoors. Face masks are currently only compulsory on public transport and at political demonstrations. The gov-ernment has relaxed restrictions on gath-erings, although it still bans events of more than 1,000 people.

The size of public gatherings should be limited again, said Ackermann, who is an expert in microbiology.

“I also believe that the size of public events should now be reduced to 100 participants, as there is a risk of an expo-nential increase in the number of cases,” Ackermann told the newspaper.

He said it was difficult to say whether large scale events were fuelling the epidemic.

“Initial data...shows that where large numbers of people gather, there are also many infections,” he said.lying blind.”

Runners told to observe social distancing in Moscow half-marathonREUTERS — MOSCOW

More than 9,500 runners competing in Moscow’s annual half-marathon yesterday wore masks and gloves in the starting area, had their temperature checked and were told to observe social distancing rules because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 21.1-km race had been postponed from May, when the Russian capital was in lockdown because of the new

coronavirus. Participants in a separate 5-km run were also asked to follow social dis-tancing rules, though this can be challenging when racing.

Russia reported 5,427 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours yesterday, more than 660 of them in Moscow, bringing the nationwide tally to 850,870. The death toll in Russia rose to 14,128.

Despite the new cases, Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin, who wore a medical mask and

gloves when presenting awards, said the event was a celebration of Russia’s success in combating the virus.

“We overcame the difficult period that was the pandemic and the fact that we are together today... is our common victory,” Matytsin said.

He later told reporters: “We will show the whole world how to carry on with a normal life in these very dif-ficult conditions while

respecting all (safety) requirements.”

The half-marathon pro-vided a chance for some runners finally to compete again. Moscow, a city of nearly 13 million, lifted its more than two-month lockdown in June.

“I’m filled with happiness and emotion because there haven’t been any competitions in almost a year,” said Luiza Dmitrieva, who finished fourth among women and 33rd overall.

Passengers wear protective face masks as they leave a train of Swiss railway operator SBB, at the Hauptbahnhof central station, in Zurich, Switzerland.

Switzerland has seen the number of new cases of COVID-19 surge to more than 200 a day recently after an average of 35 per day in June.

Nasa astronauts splash down after journey home aboard SpaceX capsuleREUTERS — NEW YORK

US astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who flew to the International Space Station in SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon, splashed down in the capsule in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday after a two-month voyage that was Nasa’s first crewed mission from home soil in nine years.

Behnken and Hurley undocked from the station on Saturday and returned home to land in the waves off Florida’s Pensacola coast on schedule at 2.48pm ET following a 21-hour overnight journey aboard Crew Dragon “Endeavour.” The suc-cessful splashdown was a final key test of whether Elon Musk’s spacecraft can transport astro-nauts to and from orbit - a feat no private company has accom-plished before.

“On behalf of the SpaceX and Nasa teams, welcome back to Planet Earth. Thanks for flying

SpaceX,” SpaceX mission control said upon splashdown.

For the return sequence, on-board thrusters and two sets of parachutes worked autono-mously to slow the acorn-shaped capsule, bringing Behnken and Hurley’s speed of 17,500 miles per hour in orbit down to 350mph upon atmospheric reentry, and eventually 15mph at splashdown.

During reentry to Earth’s atmosphere, the capsule’s outer shell withstood temperatures as high as 3,500 Fahrenheit while Behnken and Hurley, wearing SpaceX’s white flight suits strapped inside the cabin, expe-

rienced 85 Fahrenheit.The crew will spend up to an

hour floating inside the capsule before joint recovery teams from SpaceX and Nasa retrieve them for a helicopter trip ashore. There they will undergo medical checks ahead of a flight to Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. Billionaire entrepreneur Musk’s SpaceX became the first private company to send humans to orbit with the launch of Behnken and Hurley, who have spent more than two months on the space station.

The landmark mission, launched from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre on May 31, marked

the first time the US space agency launched humans from American soil since its shuttle program retired in 2011. Since then the United States has relied on Rus-sia’s space program to launch its astronauts to the space station.

Behnken and Hurley’s home-coming was also the first crewed splashdown in an American capsule in 45 years.

The pair undocked from the space station late on Saturday and began gradually decreasing their orbital altitude overnight,

awaking Sunday morning to recorded wake-up calls from their sons.

“Good morning Dragon Endeavour,” Hurley’s son said in a recorded message sent to the capsule. “I’m happy you went into space but I’m even happier that you’re coming back home.” Nasa officials have said Crew Dragon, a pod with seven astronaut seats, was in a “very healthy” condition while docked at the space station, where astronauts conducted tests and monitored how the space-

craft performs in space.Nasa aiming to galvanize a

commercial space marketplace, awarded nearly $8bn to SpaceX and Boeing Co collectively in 2014 to develop dueling space capsules, experimenting with a contract model that allows the space agency to buy astronaut seats from the two companies.

“Great to have Nasa Astro-nauts return to Earth after very successful two month mission,” President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. “Thank you to all!”

Behnken and Hurley undocked from the station on Saturday and returned home to land in the waves off Florida’s Pensacola coast on schedule at 2.48pm ET following a 21-hour overnight journey aboard Crew Dragon “Endeavour”.

A Nasa video frame grab image shows recovery personnel preparing to open the SpaceX Crew Dragon’s side hatch, yesterday, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the cost of Pensacola, Florida.

As the suspense builds over who Joe Biden will choose to be on the ticket for November’s election, this much is known — it will be a woman. About a dozen names have been bandied about by pundits and the press but the favourite for the vice- president slot appears to be California Senator Kamala Harris.

10 MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2020AMERICAS

US will hold election on November 3:White House Chief of StaffREUTERS — WASHINGTON

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said yesterday that the United States will hold an election on November 3 and that President Donald Trump was raising concerns about mail-in ballots when he floated the idea of delaying the US vote.

“We’re going to hold an election on November 3 and the President is going to win,” Meadows said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Trump on Thursday raised the idea of delaying the November 3 US elections, a proposal that was immediately rejected by both Democrats and his fellow Republicans in Congress - the sole branch of gov-ernment with the authority to make such a change.

Critics and even Trump’s allies dis-missed the notion as an unserious attempt to distract from devastating economic news, but some legal experts warned that his repeated attacks could undermine his supporters’ faith in the election process.

The Republican President has been trying to undermine confidence in mail-in balloting, claiming repeatedly and without evidence that it would lead to widespread voter fraud.

Meadows took up his boss’s cause yesterday, warning that mail-in ballots must be handled properly without pro-viding evidence that they have not been in the past.

Asked if it were irresponsible for Trump to float the idea, Meadows skirted the question, saying “It is respon-sible for him to say that if we try to go to 100% universal mail-in ballots, will we have an election result on November 3? Now I would suggest we wouldn’t even have it on January 1.”

Suspense surrounds Biden’s selection of vice-president

AFP — WASHINGTON

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has promised to soon reveal his running mate.

And as the suspense builds over who Biden will choose to be on the ticket for November’s election, this much is known — it will be a woman. About a dozen names have been bandied about by pundits and the press but the favorite for the vice president slot appears to be California Senator Kamala Harris.

The speculation that the 55-year-old Harris would be the choice was fueled further last week when Biden appeared at an event clutching a notepad with her name on it.

Written on the pad under Harris’s name were several complimentary remarks including “Talented”, “Great help to campaign” and “Great respect for her”. The November 3 election is shaping up to be one of the most con-sequential in recent US history and comes amid a health emergency, an economic crisis and a national reck-oning over racial injustice.

The choice of a running mate is always one of the most important deci-sions a White House hopeful makes but it has added significance this year because of Biden’s age.

Biden turns 78 years old on November 20 and he would be the oldest man ever to assume the office if he defeats President Donald Trump in November. Ronald Reagan was nearly 74 years old when he was inau-gurated in January 1985 for his second term in the White House.

“The vice-presidential pick this year is so much more important than it normally is because people expect Biden to only serve one term,” said David Barker, a professor of gov-ernment at American University.

“And so whomever he picks as vice-president is likely to be the next

Democratic candidate for president in four years,” Barker said.

Besides Harris, three other sen-ators are believed to be under consid-eration — Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Elizabeth Warren of Massa-chusetts and Tammy Baldwin of Wis-consin. Two other lawmakers also appear to be in the running — Florida congresswoman Val Demings and Cal-ifornia representative Karen Bass — and two governors — Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has also been mentioned along with Susan Rice, who served as national security advisor under pres-ident Barack Obama.

Harris challenged Biden for the Democratic nomination but dropped

out of the race in December 2019 and threw her support behind Biden, the former vice president and senator from Delaware, in March. Biden and Harris clashed during an early Dem-ocratic primary debate but he appears not to hold it against her.

The daughter of a Jamaican-born father and Indian-born mother, Harris served as a district attorney in San Francisco before becoming attorney general of California, the first woman to hold the post in the most populous US state. She was elected to the Senate in 2016, just the second black woman elected to the body and the first woman of South Asian heritage.

While Harris would be the first black woman on the ticket of a major party, she failed to excite black voters during the primaries, in part, perhaps, because of her reputation for being a tough prosecutor.

Two other black women — Rice and Bass — have emerged as potential running mates for an election that comes amid a backdrop of nationwide “Black Lives Matter” protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.

Rice, 55, has never run for office but she does have extensive foreign policy experience and worked closely with Biden when he was Obama’s vice president and she was national security advisor.

Bass, 66, heads the Congressional Black Caucus and is the author of a police reform bill named after Floyd.

While Biden said he would make his vice presidential selection this week, he may not actually announce it until the following week.

In any event, he is likely to reveal his choice ahead of the Democratic nomi-nating convention, which is to begin on August 17 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has been scaled down because of the coronavirus outbreak.

This combination of pictures shows California Senator Kamala Harris, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, US Senator Elizabeth Warren, US Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), US Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice-President Joe Biden and Rep Karen Bass (D-CA).

Threat to Florida eases as Isaias slated to remain tropical stormAFP — MIAMI

Isaias neared the Florida coast yesterday threatening to bring strong winds, flash flooding and storm surges but was no longer expected to regain hurricane strength.

Isaias, downgraded from a category 1 hurricane, was packing sustained winds of 105km per hour early yesterday as it moved slowly toward Flor-ida’s southeast, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

“Little change in strength is expected during the next couple of days,” it said. The Miami-based NHC said the center of Isaias was expected to move “near or over the east coast of Florida today through late tonight,” before moving on Monday and Tuesday off the Georgia coast and into the southern mid-Atlantic.

The storm earlier dumped torrential rain on the Bahamas and claimed at least one life in Puerto Rico.

Florida’s coast was experi-encing heavy gusts of wind, and storm surges of up to four feet were still expected on Florida’s northern coast, around Jack-sonville. President Donald Trump declared an emergency ahead of the storm’s arrival to free up federal funds.

Governor Ron DeSantis

warned Floridians late on Sat-urday to brace for the storm, adding that Palm Beach county had issued a voluntary evacu-ation order.

As the state battened down, it was also battling its corona-virus outbreak, which has com-plicated preparations. Florida has the second highest number of cases of all states except Cal-ifornia — which has double its population. On Saturday, Florida reported 179 deaths — a new state record that pushed its virus death toll to 6,843.

Florida residents had rushed at week’s end to stock

up on essentials as the storm approached. Jason Woodall, 44, was boarding up the Miami Beach store where he works, while others nearby piled sandbags. “You always got to be prepared, just in case, because you never know,” he said.

Florida’s coronavirus testing centers were closed on Thursday and will not reopen until they get the all-clear after the storm.

The state’s emergency man-agement division explained that the centers are housed in tents and could not withstand the high winds.

This RAMMB/NOAA satellite image obtained yesterday shows Tropical storm Isaias off the US southeast coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean.

Pandemic an ‘apocalypse’ for restaurants in USAFP — LOS ANGELES

For Gabriel Gordon and his wife Lena, the small restaurant they opened 14 years ago in the coastal California town of Seal Beach was a dream project and the cornerstone of their future success.

But this weekend, Beachwood BBQ, which had become a staple in the com-munity, permanently shut down — yet another casualty of the carnage the coro-navirus pandemic has unleashed on res-taurants across the United States.

“This restaurant launched everything for us and allowed us to have a nice life,” said Gordon, 43. “This is what allowed us to have a nice life and it’s heartbreaking to see it close.”

According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry — the second largest private sector employer in the US — is among the hardest hit by the

pandemic, with losses projected to reach a staggering $240bn by the end of the year.

As of July 10, according to Yelp, there have been 26,160 total restaurant closures across the United States, of which 60 percent (15,770) have permanently shut down. That represents the highest total business closures in the country, surpassing retail. The impact has especially been felt in major cities and regions that rely on tourism during the summer months in order to stay afloat the rest of the year.

In California alone, the statistics are sobering. There were some 1.4 million people working in a restaurant before the pandemic, and over the past four months some 1 million have either been laid off or furloughed, said Sharokina Shams, vice- president of public affairs for the California Restaurant Association.

“We anticipate that 30 percent of Cal-ifornia restaurants will close permanently

as a result of the pandemic,” Shams said. One of the reasons the sector has been

hammered is the fact that restaurants often operate on very low profit margins and have very thin cash reserves. And although the financial rescue handed out by the gov-ernment helped, restaurant owners say it does not go far enough to allow many to survive.

Madelyn Alfano, 62, owner of Maria’s Italian Kitchen, a restaurant chain in the Los Angeles area, was forced to close two of her outlets and is fighting to keep the remaining ones open. “It’s like losing a family member... it’s my life savings, passion and there is a feeling of defeat,” Alfano said, commenting on the two closures. “I would equate this to someone with an illness and the doctor says ‘we have to cut off your foot so you can live’.” She said as the pandemic hit, her business plummeted 50 percent overnight and, like other restaurateurs, she had to swiftly adapt to a new reality.

Horses graze as flames from the Apple Fire skirt a ridge in a residential area of Banning, California. Crews battled a blaze yesterday that was threatening thousands of people and homes in southern California.

Crews battle fire in southern CaliforniaAFP — LOS ANGELES

Crews battled a blaze yesterday that was threatening thousands of people and homes in southern California east of Los Angeles.

The so-called Apple Fire that broke out on Friday near the city of San Bernardino has so far charred more than 50,000 acres of land, sending up columns of smoke visible from far away. It was so smoky that authorities declared an air

quality alert on Saturday evening.

At least 2,600 homes and nearly 7,800 people were evac-uated, and officials said it was not clear when they might be able to come back.

As of 1530 GMT, more than 1,360 firefighters backed by helicopters, water-dumping planes and trucks were working to put the fire out but it was still only 12 percent extinguished.

There were no reports of casualties and the only damage

so far has been to two buildings and one home. The edges of the fire are burning on rugged hills that are hard for crews to reach, authorities said.

Dense vegetation fueled fire burning near homes, said Fernando Herrera, fire chief in Riverside County. Hot and dry conditions Sunday will help the fire keep burning.

A probe is under way as to the cause of the fire, which offi-cials said may have been set deliberately.

Media barred from Republican National Convention: ReportsAFP — WASHINGTON

Media will be barred from the Republican National Convention in North Carolina later this month, US news outlets reported, when President Donald Trump will formally receive his party’s nomination.

Soaring coronavirus cases have already forced Trump to cancel the part of the con-vention planned for Florida’s Jacksonville in July.

“We are planning for all of the Charlotte activities to be closed press: Friday, August 21-Monday, 24th given the health restrictions and limita-tions in place in the state,” the

convention spokesperson had told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. “We are working within the parameters set before us by state and local guidelines regarding the number of people who can attend events.” The vote to formally nominate Trump will, however, be livestreamed, according to CNN, which cited a Republican official.

“This is an ill-advised decision that the @GOP @GOPconvention should reconsider,” Zeke Miller, president of the White House Cor-respondents’ Association, said. “The nomination of a major party presidential candidate is very much the business of the American people.”