https://arab.news/rkgk6
BEIJING: Half a million people in a single Chinese city are being infected with COVID-19 every day, a senior health official has said, in a rare and quickly censored acknowledgement that the country’s wave of infections is not being reflected in official statistics.
China this month has rapidly dismantled key pillars of its zero-COVID-19 strategy, doing away with snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and travel curbs in a jarring reversal of its hallmark containment strategy.
Cities across the country have struggled to cope as surging infections have emptied pharmacy shelves, filled hospital wards and appeared to cause backlogs at crematoriums and funeral homes.
But the end of strict testing mandates has made caseloads virtually impossible to track, while authorities have narrowed the medical definition of a COVID-19 death in a move experts have said will suppress the number of fatalities attributable to the virus.
A news outlet operated by the ruling Communist Party in Qingdao on Friday reported the municipal health chief as saying that the eastern city was seeing “between 490,000 and 530,000” new COVID-19 cases a day.
The coastal city of around 10 million people was “in a period of rapid transmission ahead of an approaching peak,” Bo Tao reportedly said, adding that the infection rate would accelerate by another 10 percent over the weekend.
The report was shared by several other news outlets but appeared to have been edited by Saturday morning to remove the case figures.
China’s National Health Commission said Saturday that 4,103 new domestic infections were recorded nationwide the previous day, with no new deaths.
In Shandong, the province where Qingdao is located, authorities officially logged just 31 new domestic cases.
China’s government keeps a tight leash on the country’s media, with legions of online censors on hand to scrub out content deemed politically sensitive.
Most government-run publications have downplayed the severity of the country’s exit wave, instead depicting the policy reversal as logical and controlled.
But some outlets have hinted at shortages of medicine and hospitals under strain, though estimates of actual case numbers remain rare.
The government of eastern Jiangxi province said in a Friday social media post that 80 percent of its population — equivalent to around 36 million people — would be infected by March.
More than 18,000 COVID-19 patients had been admitted to major medical institutions in the province in the two weeks up to Thursday, including nearly 500 severe cases but no deaths, the statement said.
KABUL: An explosion near a police station in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province killed at least three people on Monday, including the provincial police chief, and injured two others, an official has said.
The blast occurred near police headquarters in the provincial capital Faizabad, Abdul Nafi Takoor, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior Affairs, told Arab News.
He said: “As a result of the blast, three people — including Maulvi Abdul Haq Abu Omar, the provincial police chief — were martyred and another two wounded.
“Police have arrested two suspects in connection with the blast.”
Takoor added the explosive material used in the incident had been placed in a rickshaw.
A Faizabad resident, who requested anonymity due to safety concerns, told Arab News the blast had “hit the Badakhshan police chief’s vehicle.”
Police have begun an investigation into the attack, but there has been no claim of responsibility for the blast that took place in the mountainous and remote Afghan province, which shares borders with Tajikistan, Pakistan, and China.
Monday’s incident came a day after an attack close to a petrol station in the Afghan capital Kabul.
Police spokesman Khalid Zadran said: “The explosion occurred near a petrol station on Sunday evening but there were no casualties.”
Former Gen. Abdul Wahid Taqat said: “The bloody Badakhshan attack is not the first nor the last, due to the existence of the Islamic Emirate’s enemies there (and) the presence of militants.”
Resistance movements have in the past claimed activity in Badakhshan.
There has been an increased presence of resistance groups following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year, according to reports.
LONDON: A cross-party group of British MPs warned on Monday that former British Council staff and their families in Afghanistan are at risk because of a “blockage of red tape” preventing them from returning to the UK.
Conservative MP John Baron spearheaded the appeal to British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to ensure the country repays the “debt of gratitude and honor” to the 200 British Council contractors and their families.
“People’s lives are at risk,” said Baron. “For more than 16 months since Operation Pitting and the fall of Kabul, there remain around 200 British Council contractors and their families stuck in Afghanistan.”
Referring to the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, Baron claimed that “not a single contractor has been assisted out of Afghanistan via this scheme.”
ACRS is one of two resettlement plans available to Afghan citizens who worked for the British government. The second one is known as the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy.
In a letter signed by more than two dozen MPs and peers, Cleverly was told that GardaWorld contractors who offered protection to the British Embassy in Kabul were treated similarly.
“Until this blockage of red tape is solved, the contractors and their families will remain in danger,” the letter reads.
“No one questions that security checks are necessary, but they must be urgently completed so that the work of getting the contractors, to whom we owe a debt of gratitude and honor, can begin the active work of leaving Afghanistan and traveling to the UK.”
In response to the letter, a British government spokesperson said: “We have brought around 23,000 people to safety, including over 6,300 vulnerable Afghan nationals through the first pathway of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, and a further 1,500 eligible people are due to be offered resettlement places under pathway 3.
“Supporting the resettlement of eligible Afghans remains a top priority and we continue to work with like-minded partners and countries neighboring Afghanistan to support their safe passage.”
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Police said on Monday authorities had beefed up security in the Pakistani capital, deploying additional troops in sensitive areas and increasing patrolling operations across the city following a suicide bombing last week in which a police officer and a taxi driver were killed.
A powerful car bomb detonated in a residential area in Islamabad on Friday, raising fears that militants had established a presence in one of the country’s safest cities.
The Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks on security forces since November, when they unilaterally ended a months-long ceasefire with the country’s government.
On Monday, police said they had received intelligence reports that militants could try to hit “high-value” targets in the capital.
“We have put security on high alert to deal with any terror threat,” Taqi Jawad, a spokesperson for Islamabad Police, told Arab News. “We cannot identify any specific terror threat at the moment, but we are ready to deal with any situation.”
Jawad said Islamabad Police had enhanced checking at all entry and exit points to the city’s Red Zone, which houses important government buildings, including the Parliament House, the Supreme Court, the Prime Minister’s Office and the President House. The Red Zone also leads into the Diplomatic Enclave where important embassies and ambassadors’ residences are located.
“Citizens are advised to carry their identity cards during travel and cooperate with the security personnel at checkpoints,” the spokesperson said, adding that police would avoid creating any “unnecessary panic” among the public but would remain vigilant.
Additional troops had been appointed in the city and patrolling had been enhanced, Jawad said.
On Sunday, the US embassy in Islamabad directed its staff to refrain from visiting a top hotel in the capital due to fears of a terror attack.
“The US government is aware of information that unknown individuals are possibly plotting to attack Americans at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad sometime during the holidays,” the embassy said in a statement.
“Effective immediately, the Embassy in Islamabad is prohibiting all American staff from visiting Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel.”
The Islamabad Police spokesperson declined to comment on the embassy’s security alert, saying: “We should not focus on the speculations and should instead believe in the capabilities of the security personnel to defeat all the nefarious designs of our detractors.”
NEW DELHI: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said he sought India’s help with implementing a “peace formula” in a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The conversation comes at a time when India is seeking to strengthen trade relations with Moscow while Western nations introduce new measures to limit Russia’s funding of the war.
“I had a phone call with PM Narendra Modi and wished a successful G20 presidency,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter. “It was on this platform that I announced the peace formula and now I count on India’s participation in its implementation.”
Zelensky asked the Group of 20 (G20) major economies last month to adopt Ukraine’s 10-point peace formula and to end the war. India holds the G20 presidency for a year.
The Indian government said in statement late on Monday that the two leaders discussed opportunities for strengthening bilateral cooperation.
“The Prime Minister explained the main priorities of India’s G20 Presidency, including giving a voice to the concerns of developing nations on issues like food and energy security.”
Modi also “strongly reiterated” his call for an immediate end to hostilities in Ukraine and conveyed India’s support for any peace efforts.
India, which has not explicitly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has emerged as the largest buyer of Russian oil after China, this month taking barrels of Urals crude at well below a $60 price cap agreed by Western nations.
The country’s foreign minister has said that as the world’s third-largest consumer of oil and gas, where income levels are not high, India had to look after its own interests and called Russia “a steady and time-tested partner.”
Reuters also reported last month that Moscow had sent India a list of more than 500 products for potential delivery, including parts for cars, aircraft and trains, as sanctions squeeze Russia’s ability to keep vital industries running.
India, too, has sent Russia a list of Indian products for access to Russian markets, according to the foreign minister, as it seeks to balance bilateral trade that is now tilted toward Russia.
MOSCOW: Russia’s FSB security service said on Monday that a four-person Ukrainian “sabotage group” had been “liquidated” while trying to enter Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported.
“As a result of a clash on December 25, four saboteurs who attempted to penetrate the territory of the Bryansk region from Ukraine were destroyed,” state-owned RIA news agency quoted an FSB statement as saying.
The FSB said the alleged saboteurs were armed with foreign-made guns and four improvised explosive devices.
There was no immediate comment on the incident from Ukraine.