President Emmerson Mnangagwa has relaxed Zimbabwe’s coronavirus lockdown, saying new infections continue to decrease. Vendors welcome the move but say they need help buying protective equipment so they can safely operate. Meanwhile, the main opposition party says more needs to be done to help the country bounce back from the pandemic.In a nationally televised address late Monday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe was with immediate effect relaxing most lockdown regulations – which the country reimposed early January following a spike in cases.“It is noteworthy that the number of COVID-19 positive cases, fatalities and hospitalizations continue to steadily decrease. We must, however, remain alert and on guard to maintain this positive momentum attained so far. The government has rolled out the first phase of the national COVID-19 vaccination program which targets the front-line workers, security sector, and members of the media, the elderly and those with underlying conditions. More vaccines are coming and people will have the opportunity to be vaccinated,” said the president.The country started a vaccination drive last month after receiving 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine donated by Chinese government.Samuel Wadzai welcomes, March 2, 2021, the government’s decision to allow informal traders to resume operating.(Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)Samuel Wadzai leads the activist group Vendors Initiative Social and Economic Transformation in Zimbabwe. He welcomed the government’s decision to allow informal traders to resume operating.“This is going to significantly help us to survive. The lockdown itself was causing a lot of suffering. The informal sector was heavily affected,” he said.But Wadzi wants the government to help vendors obtain personal protective equipment to avoid a new surge in cases.“The majority of informal traders are unable to buy those PPEs given that they have been out of business a long time. We really need to go back to work and cover for the lost revenue during the lockdown,” he said.Fadzayi Mahere is the spokeswoman for the country’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, and has just recovered from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. She said the government has been using lockdowns to restrict freedoms.Fadzayi Mahere says March 2, 2021, Zimbabwe needs a plan to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)She also said Zimbabwe needs a plan to bounce back from the pandemic.“There is no post-COVID economic revival plan. There is no post-COVID social support plan. Both big and small businesses are facing closure and there is no policy plan to ease the pressure. The question of social safety nets remains wholly unanswered. We have ordinary people in rural areas, townships and vendors, more vulnerable than ever. Nothing has been done to address their plight,” said Mahere.The government has offered small monthly grants to ease people’s suffering, but the money is not enough to buy a dozen loaves of bread.Zimbabwe currently has about 36,000 confirmed infections and close to 1,470 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak. 
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One in four of the world’s population will suffer from hearing problems by 2050, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday, calling for extra investment in prevention and treatment. The first-ever global report on hearing said that the causes of many of the problems — such as infections, diseases, birth defects, noise exposure and lifestyle choices — could be prevented.  The report proposed a package of measures, which it calculated would cost $1.33 per person per year. Against that, it set the figure of nearly $1 trillion lost every year because the issue was not being properly addressed. “Failure to act will be costly in terms of the health and well-being of those affected, and the financial losses arising from their exclusion from communication, education and employment,” said the report. One in five people worldwide have hearing problems currently, it said. But the report warned: “The number of people with hearing loss may increase more than 1.5-fold during the next three decades” to 2.5 billion people — up from 1.6 billion in 2019. Of the 2.5 billion, 700 million would in 2050 have a serious enough condition to require some kind of treatment, it added — up from 430 million in 2019. Much of the expected rise is the result of demographic and population trends, it added. Poor access to treatment A major contributor to hearing problems is a lack of access to care, which is particularly striking in low-income countries where there are far fewer professionals available to treat them. Since nearly 80% of people with hearing loss live in such countries, most are not getting the help they need. Even in richer countries with better facilities, access to care is often uneven, the report said. And a lack of accurate information and the stigma surrounding ear disease and hearing loss also prevents people getting the care they need. “Even among health-care providers, knowledge relevant to prevention, early identification and management of hearing loss and ear diseases is commonly lacking,” it noted. The report proposed a package of measures, including public health initiatives from reducing noise in public spaces to increasing vaccinations for diseases such as meningitis that can cause hearing loss. It also recommended systematic screening to identify the problem at key points in people’s lives. Among children, it said, hearing loss could be prevented in 60% of cases. “An estimated 1 trillion U.S. dollars is lost each year due to our collective failure to adequately address hearing loss,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the report. “While the financial burden is enormous, what cannot be quantified is the distress caused by the loss of communication, education and social interaction that accompanies unaddressed hearing loss.” 
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A third COVID-19 vaccine is heading to clinics and pharmacies across the United States. But U.S. health officials are warning that another surge in cases could be on the horizon.Regulators authorized the vaccine from pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson over the weekend. Nearly 4 million doses are expected to be available at vaccination sites beginning as soon as Tuesday.But after a sharp fall over the past several weeks, the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths has increased again. Experts are concerned that newer, more infectious variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 may be taking over.The reversal comes as most states are easing restrictions that contain the disease.”Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can stop the spread of COVID-19,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press briefing of the White House COVID-19 Response Team.Though the numbers have declined, the National Guard personnel check in people as they wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, Feb. 26, 2021, in Shelbyville, Tennessee.”Please hear me clearly,” Walensky said. “At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained. These variants are a very real threat to our people and our progress.”Effective against severe diseaseThe Johnson & Johnson vaccine was about 85% effective in preventing severe illness in a clinical trial spanning eight countries on three continents.That includes South Africa, where a more transmissible coronavirus variant dominates cases.”Even though the vaccine itself was not specifically directed against [that variant], it did extremely well when it came to preventing severe critical disease,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, noted at the briefing.Though three vaccines are now available, experts are urging people not to try to pick and choose.”All three vaccines are safe and highly effective at preventing what we care about most, and that’s very serious illness and death,” Marcella Nunez-Smith, the Biden administration’s COVID-19 health equity task force chair, told reporters at the briefing.”As a physician, I strongly urge everyone in America to get the first vaccine that is available to you when it is your turn,” she said. “If people want to opt for one vaccine over another, they may have to wait. Time is of the essence. Getting vaccinated saves lives.”Easier to useUnlike the shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one shot and does not need to be frozen.A pharmacist prepares a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a COVID-19 vaccination site at NYC Health + Hospitals Metropolitan, in New York, Feb. 18, 2021.This easier-to-use vaccine could be distributed in pop-up vaccination sites, mobile clinics or other places without freezers.Immediately after regulators gave the go-ahead, Johnson & Johnson began shipping its entire 3.9 million dose inventory of the vaccine. The company expects to deliver another 16 million doses by the end of March.But COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said supplies will be “uneven” for the next couple of weeks. He said most of the doses will arrive in late March.He urged people to continue wearing masks and social distancing, and to get vaccinated when their turn comes.”There is a path out of this pandemic,” he said, “but how quickly we exit this crisis depends on all of us.” 
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More than 86,000 people died from drug overdoses last year in the U.S. – a massive increase of just over 24 percent. It is an epidemic that as VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports, has been shoved in the shadows by the pandemic – but is no less serious a public health issue.Camera: Veronica Balderas Iglesias  Produced by: Veronica Balderas Iglesias  
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Scientists with the British Antarctica Survey (BAS) say a huge iceberg — larger than New York City — has broken off from the northwestern Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica, almost 10 years after scientists discovered the first cracks. In a statement on its website, the BAS says the iceberg broke away Friday and that it covers about 1,270 square kilometers. The BAS says the mass is about 150 meters thick.  The agency said Halley Research Station, also situated on Brunt Ice Shelf, is not expected to be impacted as it is located on an area of the ice shelf still connected to the continent. The BAS took the precaution of moving the station in 2016 to avoid the paths of cracks in the ice its staff had been observing. In the statement, the BAS director, Professor Dame Jane Francis, said agency scientists were expecting the break, known as calving, to happen, after daily monitoring of the area with GPS instruments and satellite imagery. Francis said the iceberg is expected to either move away or run aground not far from the Brunt Ice Self. 
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An international study shows an upward trend in support for receiving COVID-19 vaccines in several countries compared to the end of 2020, with the biggest increase in Britain and Sweden.  Multinational communication firm Kekst CNC Monday published the results of the survey conducted in six countries – Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and United States. The poll indicated 89% of Britons were in favor of getting vaccinated now, compared to 65% last September.The AstraZeneca vaccine is prepared in the COVID-19 vaccination center at the Odeon Luxe Cinema in Maidstone, Britain, Feb. 10, 2021.In Sweden, 76% of those interviewed were in favor of inoculation, compared to 51% in September 2020.  The study shows that 68% of men worldwide support vaccination, the ratio is lower among women at 55%. Older and middle-aged people have become more likely to get a vaccine since September, the survey found.   The study also shows that 75% of Britons are pleased with the pace of the vaccination campaign in the country, but the ratio drops in the other countries surveyed, to 32% in U.S., 22% in France and 20% in Sweden. Kekst CNC conducted the survey in mid-February over ten days, with samples of 1,000 adults in each country and margin of error of 3.3 percent for all participating counties.   Sunday, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel endorsed the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, voting overwhelmingly to recommend the shot for adults older than 18.  CDC recommendations are not binding but are widely respected by medical institutions and professionals. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky later approved the panel’s recommendations.FILE – Vials of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine candidate are seen in an undated photograph.Sunday’s CDC endorsement came one day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally authorized the use of the one-dose vaccine. Nearly 4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be distributed and available as early as Tuesday morning, according to a senior administration official. This vaccine, the third to be approved for use in the United States, will be distributed to states, tribes and territories proportional to their populations – the same way the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been distributed. Health officials in the U.S. welcomed the third vaccine, which has been eagerly awaited largely because it requires only one shot, but officials urged Americans to receive whichever vaccine is first available to them, reiterating that all three have proved to be safe and effective. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is 85% effective against serious illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to data from a study that spanned three continents. The shot kept its protection even in the countries where the South African variant is spreading. Johnson & Johnson is also seeking authorization for emergency use of its vaccine in Europe and from the World Health Organization. As of Sunday evening, about 28.6 million Americans have had COVID-19 and more than 513,000 have died from the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center. The U.S. continues to lead the world in the number of coronavirus infections, followed by India with more than 11 million infections and Brazil with more than 10.5 million.
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The Philippines launched its national coronavirus vaccination campaign Monday amid widespread public skepticism and a struggle to procure vaccines.   Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, the director of the state-run Philippine General Hospital in Manila, received the first dose of the CoronaVac vaccine developed by China-based Sinovac Biotech Limited.  The doctor’s inoculation came just hours after President Rodrigo Duterte greeted the arrival of 600,000 doses of Sinovac donated by Beijing. The Philippines is the last Southeast Asian nation to receive a COVID-19 vaccine supply.  The Duterte administration is aiming to vaccinate 70 million of its citizens, but some public opinion polls have revealed a resistance among a majority of people due to uncertainty over the safety and efficacy of the CoronaVac vaccine.Used vials of China’s Sinovac vaccine are shown during the first batch of vaccination at the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon city, Philippines on March 1, 2021.But Carlito Galvez, who is leading the Philippines’ vaccine procurement efforts, urged his compatriots to get the first vaccine that becomes available.  “Let’s not wait for the best vaccine. There’s no such thing,” Galvez said in a speech at the Philippine General Hospital.  “The best vaccine is the one that’s safe and effective, and arrives early.” But just receiving vaccines has been an issue.  An expected shipment of  525,600 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine that was due Monday has been postponed due to supply problems.  The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the Pacific archipelago, sickening more than 576,000 people, including 12,318 deaths, the second-highest in the region.  President Duterte has vowed to ease some of the restrictions imposed in an effort to boost the Philippine economy once more vaccines are available.   
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