Thousands of Japanese companies began the rollout of their workplace vaccine programs Monday, inoculating company workers and their families.  Some of the companies had been critical of what they said was the government’s slow pace of Japan’s COVID-19 inoculation campaign.   Toyota and Suntory are among the companies participating in the workplace program with vaccines provided by the government.   Thousands of people are expected to receive shots through the initiative, which is beginning just weeks before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics.   Organizers of the Olympics announced Monday that they will allow a limited number of spectators into venues holding Olympic events, capping the number at 10,000 people, or 50% of a venue’s capacity. The decision comes just days after health experts told the government that banning all spectators was the “least risky” option for holding the games in light of a surge of new COVID-19 infections in the Japanese capital and across the country.    Record in IndiaIn India, the government announced it had given 7.5 million coronavirus vaccine doses Monday — a new single day record for inoculations. The country also saw its lowest daily number of new COVID-19 cases in about three months — 53,256 new infections.  FILE – A worker handles boxes of COVID-19 vaccines, delivered as part of the COVAX equitable vaccince distribution program, at Ivato International Airport, in Antananarivo, Madagascar, May 8, 2021.U.S. officials say the deliveries have been delayed due to legal, logistical and regulatory requirements in both the United States and the recipient countries. “What we’ve found to be the biggest challenge is not actually the supply — we have plenty of doses to share with the world — but this is a Herculean logistical challenge,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. Global numbersTaiwan recorded its lowest number of new COVID-19 infections since May 15. Health officials announced 75 new infections Monday. On Sunday, Taiwan received 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccines from the United States.  Indonesian health officials said Monday the country has passed 2 million confirmed coronavirus infections. They also announced the country’s largest one-day jump in new coronavirus infections — 14,536. Authorities say they are tightening restrictions to try to stop the spread of the virus for two weeks in 29 “red zones” across the country where infection rates are high. There are more than 178 million global COVID-19 infections as of Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. has the most with 33.6 million, followed by India with 29.9, and Brazil with 17.9. Brazil became the second country, behind the United States, to record more than half a million COVID-19 deaths. 
 
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The White House has laid out its plans for sharing 55 million COVID-19 vaccine doses abroad, with most of the allocations going to countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.The Biden administration said Monday that most of the doses would be shared through the COVAX international vaccine-sharing program, fulfilling a commitment by President Joe Biden to share 80 million U.S.-made vaccines with countries around the world.The Associated Press reported Monday that the administration is likely to fall short of its pledge to share the vaccines by the end of June, because of regulatory and other hurdles. Officials cited by the news agency say the vaccine doses are ready but are being delayed due to legal, logistical and regulatory requirements in both the United States and the recipient countries.Biden laid out his plans for the first 25 million doses earlier this month. On Monday, the White House revealed plans for the 55 million remaining shots, including 14 million for Latin America and the Caribbean, 16 million for Asia, and about 10 million for Africa.Another 14 million doses are being shared with “regional priorities,” including Colombia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, South Africa, the West Bank and Gaza.The United States has already begun delivering vaccine doses to Taiwan, Mexico, Canada and South Korea.“We have plenty of supply to deliver on the 80 million doses,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday’s press briefing. “Our biggest challenge is logistics, is the fact that there is not a playbook for this and there are challenges as it relates to getting these doses out to every country.”FILE – A health worker holds a tray with vials of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 during a priority vaccination program at a community medical center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 6, 2021.In addition, President Biden announced earlier this month that the U.S. would purchase 500 million vaccine doses from drug manufacturer Pfizer and distribute them worldwide over the coming year.The United States has surplus vaccine doses after more than 177 million Americans have received at least one shot and demand for COVID vaccines has begun to fall.The White House said in a statement Monday that the United States “will not use its vaccines to secure favors from other countries.” It said the U.S. goals for the program include increasing global COVID-19 vaccination coverage, preparing for surges and helping “our neighbors and other countries in need.”
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While virtual reality-based simulation is commonly used in medical education, its use in dental education is still limited. Two university professors in the U.S. want to change that. They developed a VR dental clinic that offers the potential to revolutionize dental education. Vina Mubtadi reports.
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The United States says it is sending 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan, substantially increasing its initial promise of 750,000 doses.Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said the increased doses from the U.S. are a “moving gesture of friendship.”  U.S. President Joe Biden has said his administration will distribute 80 million vaccines to countries around the world.  The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday more than 178 million global COVID-19 infections and almost 4 million global deaths. More than 2 billion vaccines have been administered around the world. India’s Health Ministry said Sunday that it had recorded more than 58,000 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hour period. India has recorded close to 30 million COVID-19 cases.  Only the U.S. has more, with 33.5 million.A Ugandan athlete has tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving in Japan ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, according to an Associated Press report. The athlete was not named and has been placed in quarantine in a government facility.  The other eight members of the team tested negative in Japan.  The Ugandan team was fully vaccinated and tested before their flight to Japan, AP said.Brazil became the second country, behind the United States, to record more than half a million COVID-19 deaths, a Health Ministry official said Saturday.Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga tweeted “500,000 lives lost due to the pandemic that affects our Brazil and the world,” according to an Agence France-Presse report.Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist from Espirito Santo University, told AFP, “The third wave is arriving, there’s already in a change in the case and death curves. … Our vaccination [program], which could make a difference, is slow and there are no signs of restrictive measures, quite the contrary.”Britain held its first full music festival since all mass events were canceled in March of last year, the start of the pandemic.About 10,000 fans attended a three-day Download Festival held at Donington Park in central England. The event featured 40 U.K.-based bands. The event ends Sunday.All of those who attended, which was only about a tenth of the festival’s prepandemic audience, were required to take COVID-19 tests before the event. Neither masks nor social distancing protocols were required, event organizers said.Britain has recorded nearly 128,000 COVID-19-related deaths, the fourth most in the world and the worst in Europe. It also ranks seventh in the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 4.6 million.Earlier last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed by four weeks a planned lifting of coronavirus-related restrictions on June 21. Britain is battling the highly contagious delta variant of the virus, which was first identified in India. 
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Tanzania Authorities Warn of Third Wave of COVID-19 A few days after Tanzania expressed its interest in joining the COVAX global vaccine-sharing facility, the government warned citizens of a third wave of COVID-19 and directed that all precautions to be taken, including the wearing of face masks. Authorities say cases are on the rise in all bordering countries, including Uganda, and that there are indicators the disease may again hit the country.Speaking with journalists Saturday, the director of prevention from Tanzania’s Heath Ministry, Leonard Subi, insisted citizens take all necessary precautions to protect themselves from infection. He reminded all citizens not to ignore COVID-19. The ministry has begun to see an indication of the occurrence of the third wave of COVID-19 Subi says. He added this is due to the monitoring reports of the disease being carried out by the ministry and the interaction between Tanzanians and other nations. In April of last year Tanzania stopped publishing COVID-19 data as the then president, the late John Magufuli, declared God had eliminated the infection. FILE – Tanzania’s new President Samia Suluhu Hassan attends the farewell mass for the late Tanzanian President John Magufuli before the burial at Magufuli Stadium in Chato, Tanzania, March 26, 2021.Soon after Magufuli’s death in March of this year, new president Samia Hassan started a change in handling COVID infections, including admitting its presence. Now the country is waiting for vaccines. Opposition politicians such as Yerico Nyerere from the Party of Democracy and Development, or CHADEMA, say the government should emphasize controlling movements particularly in the area bordering Uganda, where the virus has hit strongly. Nyerere says those areas that have interactions with countries such as Uganda, where there is a high wave of the virus, should enforce serious controls, if possible, even closing the border with Uganda. He says Tanzania does not want to enter into the stage that Uganda has reached, lockdown. Tanzanians see the need for the government to enforce nationwide prevention campaigns that will also reach village people.Dar es Salaam resident Imani Henrick says she thinks the government should put in place an inclusive strategy, including encouraging people to wear masks and wash their hands. She says and there should be supervision from the government, not just saying people should take precautions. Henrick says there are people in the villages who know nothing about precautions and they can’t even afford face masks. So, Henrick adds, the government should come with a strategic plan, even including distributing free face masks, particularly for those in the villages and those who mostly meet with large numbers of people. For Ibrahim Chawe, another Dar es Salaam resident, things have changed and he hopes the government will fully implement all the precautions that were recommended by the COVID-19 committee formed by Hassan, including the publication of data. Chawe says publicizing information about COVID-19 and telling people to take precautions is a big step compared to the previous period. Chawe adds that before, wearing of masks was not approved of, but now there are major changes in how the infections are being handled. Since Hassan took office in March she has sought to gradually bring Tanzania in line with global public standards for tackling COVID-19. 
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The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday more than 178 million global COVID-19 infections and almost 4 million global deaths. More than 2 billion vaccines have been administered around the world.The U.S. says it is sending 23.5 million COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan, substantially increasing its initial promise of 750,000 doses. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said the increased doses from the U.S. are a “moving gesture of friendship.”  U.S. President Joe Biden has said his administration will distribute 80 million vaccines to countries around the world.India’s health ministry said Sunday that it had recorded more than 58,000 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hour period. India has recorded close to 30 million COVID-19 cases.  Only the U.S. has more, with 33.5 million.A Ugandan athlete has tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving in Japan ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, according to an Associated Press report. The athlete was not named and has been placed in quarantine in a government facility.  The other eight members of the team tested negative in Japan.  The Ugandan team was fully vaccinated and tested before their flight to Japan, AP said.Brazil became the second country, behind the United States, to record more than half a million COVID-19 deaths, a Health Ministry official said Saturday.Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga tweeted “500,000 lives lost due to the pandemic that affects our Brazil and the world,” according to an Agence France-Presse report.Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist from Espirito Santo University, told AFP, “The third wave is arriving, there’s already in a change in the case and death curves. … Our vaccination (program), which could make a difference, is slow and there are no signs of restrictive measures, quite the contrary.”Britain held its first full music festival since all mass events were canceled in March of last year, the start of the pandemic.About 10,000 fans attended a three-day Download Festival held at Donington Park in central England. The event featured 40 U.K.-based bands. The event ends Sunday.All of those who attended, which was only about a tenth of the festival’s prepandemic audience, were required to take COVID-19 tests before the event. Neither masks nor social distancing protocols were required, event organizers said.Britain has recorded nearly 128,000 COVID-19-related deaths, the fourth most in the world and the worst in Europe. It also ranks seventh in the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 4.6 million.Earlier last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed by four weeks a planned lifting of coronavirus-related restrictions on June 21. Britain is battling the highly contagious delta variant of the virus, which was first identified in India. 
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The World Health Organization officially announced Saturday the end of Guinea’s second Ebola outbreak, which was declared in February and claimed 12 lives.At 16 confirmed cases and seven probable infections, according to WHO figures, the limited size of the flare-up has been credited to experience from the 2013-16 epidemic, which killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.”I have the honor of declaring the end of Ebola” in Guinea, WHO official Alfred Ki-Zerbo said at a ceremony in the southeastern Nzerekore region, where the disease surfaced at the end of January.International rules meant that Guinea had to wait 42 days — twice the virus’s incubation period — without a new case before declaring the epidemic over.That wait was over Friday, weeks after the last person was declared cured on May 8, a senior health ministry official told AFP.Health Minister Remy Lamah also declared the outbreak finished “in the name of the head of state,” President Alpha Conde.Saturday’s event in a health ministry building was attended by around 200 people, including local religious and community leaders.”We must also thank the communities who pitched in to overcome the disease,” the WHO’s Ki-Zerbo said.Previous resistanceDuring last decade’s outbreak, reluctance and outright hostility toward anti-Ebola infection control measures led some people in Guinea’s forested southeast to attack and even kill government employees.”Community engagement, effective public health measures and the equitable use of vaccines” had this time been key to overcoming Ebola, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.The U.N. body said it had delivered about 24,000 vaccine doses to Guinea and that 11,000 people at high risk had received shots, including more than 2,800 frontline workers.”We’ve beaten Ebola but let’s remain vigilant” read a banner unfurled at Saturday’s ceremony.”We must stay alert for a possible resurgence and ensure the expertise in Ebola expands to other health threats such as COVID-19,” WHO Africa director Matshidiso Moeti said.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement that genetic sequencing showed links between the previous outbreak and the latest epidemic.This year’s outbreak could have been caused by “persistent infection in a survivor from the West Africa outbreak” back then, the CDC said, emphasizing “the necessity for strong and ongoing survivor programs,” as well as more research.Ebola causes severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding. It is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids, and people who live with or care for patients are most at risk.
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Hundreds of sickle cell disease patients in Cameroon are using World Sickle Cell Day, June 19, to teach their neighbors that people with the disease can live longer, contrary to popular beliefs and stigma that label them as witches who must die before the age of 24. Cameroon says 20% of its 25 million people are carriers of the gene primarily seen in people of African descent. The government is also telling hesitant sickle cell patients to accept vaccinations against COVID-19.At least 300 sickle cell patients and their family members turned out at the Cameroon Baptist Convention hospital at Etoug-Ebe, a neighborhood in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé. Hospital officials said hundreds of other sickle cell patients came out in the coastal city Douala and the English-speaking western towns of Buea, Bamenda, Kumba and Kumbo to observe the 2021 World Sickle Cell Day.Fifty-five-year-old Ashu Egbe was diagnosed with sickle cell when he was seven months old. He says he is living proof that people can live long with the disorder, in which red blood cells contain an abnormal type of hemoglobin.  ‘I am a sickle cell sufferer, I usually tell people that I am a sickle cell warrior because we go through the challenges of life, the pains and we think that we are warriors, we are overcomers,” Egbe said. “The younger ones should be courageous, avoid extreme colds or extreme heat and drink plenty of nonalcoholic fluids. You have a normal diet of good vegetables and then you have continuous follow up. You can live a good life.”Egbe said he created Ashu Egbe Foundation to educate sickle cell patients on their rights and encourage people to consider sickle cell patients normal citizens. Gene-editing Treatment Shows Promise for Sickle Cell, Other Blood DiseaseDoctors hope one-time treatment, which involves permanently altering DNA in blood cells with tool called CRISPR, may treat, possibly cure sickle cell disease, beta thalassemiaCameroon’s health ministry reports that 20% of the country’s 25 million people are carriers of the gene primarily seen in people of African descent.Cameroon says patients suffer stigma, including superstitious beliefs that sickle cell is divine punishment for wrongdoing. There are beliefs that people with the disease die before they reach 25 years because they are witches and wizards. Couples with sickle cell children are forced by their families to divorce.Twenty-seven-year-old Somo Francis Glenn lives with sickle cell. He says communities should stop abusing the rights of sickle cell patients. He says the government should ask hospitals to pay more attention to patients.”At times we are sick, but we are afraid to go to the hospital because if you get to the hospital at 7 a.m., you shall be received at 10 [a.m.],” Somo said. “Imagine the pain you go through. Doctors will tell you that you are not the first person to have pain. Those are the things that make us go psychologically mad. I am begging the minister of health to create a hematology center only for sickle cell patients in Cameroon. Our immune system is first of all weak. COVID-19 and sickle cell are a whole lot of problems.”Somo said the government could help eradicate the disease by asking people to have medical consultations before marriage and before having children.Cameroon’s health minister, Manaouda Malachie, said special services exist in all hospitals in the central African state to treat sickle cell patients. He said patients should not fear going to hospitals for fear of being infected by COVID-19.Lydie Ze Meka is president of Cameroon’s National Association for the Protection of Sickle Cell Patients. She says the association she leads is encouraging all sickle cell patients to be vaccinated against COVID-19.She says sickle cell patients are reluctant to be vaccinated against COVID-19. She says the coronavirus attacks lungs and sickle cell patients have fragile lungs which are constantly exposed to pulmonary infections that can cause deaths. She says on this year’s World Sickle Cell Day, she is pleading with reticent patients to voluntarily agree to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to save their lives.  The United Nations reports that sickle cell is common in most of sub-Saharan Africa, affecting close to 3% of births in some African countries.The U.N. recognizes June 19 as World Sickle Cell Day to raise awareness of the disease, which they say has not been eradicated due to ignorance. The U.N. encourages couples to have medical consultations before marriage and before having children. 
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Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has reported 177.8 million global COVID-19 cases and 3.8 million deaths. The U.S. remains the country with the most infections at 33.5 million, followed closely by India with 29.8 million.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron urged European Union countries Friday to be vigilant against the spread of new coronavirus variants and called for the bloc to coordinate its COVID-19 border reopening policies.”Caution is still necessary so that we have a summer of many freedoms, if not all freedoms,” Merkel told a joint news conference in Berlin before the two leaders held a working dinner.”Some countries have reopened their borders earlier for tourist industry reasons, but we must be careful not to reimport new variants,” Macron said.Macron noted the situation in Britain, while Merkel pointed to Portugal to show how things can quickly change.Britain this week delayed a relaxation of pandemic restrictions because of the prevalence of the delta variant, which was first identified in India, while Portuguese authorities on Thursday banned travel in and out of the capital, Lisbon, because of the variant.In other developments Friday, Israel’s new government, which was sworn in Sunday, said it would transfer up to 1.4 million doses of soon-to-expire Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for about the same number of doses the authority anticipates receiving later this year.The authority canceled the deal later Friday, however. Its health minister, Mai Alkaila, told reporters that the expiration date for the vaccine was in June, which would not give the authority enough time to use the doses.Israel has been criticized for not sharing vaccine with the more than 4 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.Uganda announced Friday that it is tightening lockdown measures to stop a rise in coronavirus cases. Public and private vehicles are banned on roads except for those vehicles carrying cargo, essential workers or the sick.In the United States, President Joe Biden announced Friday that 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in the United States since he took office Jan. 20.However, Biden’s plan to have 70% of Americans at least partially vaccinated by Independence Day, July 4, may fall short because of a sharp decline in the number of vaccinations that began about two months ago.Vice President Kamala Harris visited the southeastern city of Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday to encourage people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.About 36% of Georgians have been vaccinated, a rate lower than those of most U.S. states.Canada announced Friday that border restrictions on nonessential travel with the United States will be extended until July 21.Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway show is set to open June 26. Proof of COVID vaccination must be provided, but the venue will not recognize the AstraZeneca shot, which has not been approved for use in the United States but has been accepted in Canada and other countries.Also, children 16 and younger must present proof of a recent negative COVID test and must be accompanied at the Saint James Theater by a fully vaccinated adult.
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Thailand has begun human trials with two of four homegrown vaccine candidates local scientists are developing against COVID-19, as the country scrambles to secure shots from abroad amid its worst wave of infections since the pandemic began.The homegrown vaccines will not be ready for mass production in time to help Thailand fight off the latest wave. Officials and developers are hoping, though, that they will arrive in time to give Thailand — and maybe its neighbors — booster shots tailored to the main variants of the novel coronavirus by next year.“The vaccine will be against the variants like the South African variant and the Indian variant and others, so that will be our strategy,” said Kiat Ruxrungtham, who is spearheading development of one of the most anticipated candidates at Chulalongkorn University’s Vaccine Research Center in Bangkok.A shot in the armFor now, Thailand is relying on a mix of vaccines from foreign drugmakers to reach herd immunity by the end of the year.Having kept infection rates low through 2020 with tight border controls and strict social distancing, Thailand secured relatively few doses early in the pandemic. It bought a few million shots from China’s Sinovac for the most vulnerable and struck a deal with AstraZeneca that lets local drugmaker SiamBioscience manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine in the country.Then came the third wave in April, sending death and infection rates to record highs, and authorities on a vaccine shopping spree, striking deals with Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Sinopharm. The government says it has now locked in 105.5 million doses, enough to cover over 70% of Thailand’s 69 million people, and is looking for more.Thai authorities and developers, though, still see a crucial role for the homegrown vaccines.Tanarak Plipat, deputy director-general of disease control at the Public Health Ministry, said the new vaccines will help keep Thailand safe once the effects of the first full round of doses start wearing off.“There [is] growing evidence that very soon we may need the booster dose of the vaccine, I mean the third or the fourth or the fifth. We don’t exactly know about that, and we don’t know how frequent we need to boost the antibodies,” he said.“So in the long run, I think we are going to need a constant supply,” he said.He said some of the vaccines Thailand is developing may also prove better at fending off infection from some of the more contagious variants sweeping the globe. The alpha variant, first identified in Britain, is already the dominant strain in Thailand. The Health Ministry’s medical sciences department recently warned that the even more contagious delta variant, first found in India, could soon take over.Self-relianceTanarak said the difficulties most countries have had securing not just vaccines, but masks and ventilators as well, have taught Thailand that it still needs to try to rely on itself for what it needs when it needs it.“To secure [the] health for our people, we need to be able to rely on ourselves in the time of [the] pandemic,” he said. “No matter how much money you have, we are not going to get the most important supplies of medical device or medicine or vaccines if you are not being able to produce it yourself.”If all goes well, he said Thai laboratories could be producing tens of millions of doses of the country’s own COVID-19 vaccines by around the middle of next year.The Government Pharmaceutical Organization, a state drugmaker, started Phase 1 human trials in March of its candidate using an inactive Newcastle disease virus, which mainly infects birds, and has moved on to Phase 2 with more volunteers.Chulalongkorn’s Vaccine Research Center started Phase 1 human trials on Monday with what could be the first vaccine against COVID-19 developed in Southeast Asia using messenger RNA, the same technique pioneered by U.S. drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna.BioNet-Asia, an established local drugmaker, and Baiya Phytopharm, a startup, have yet to begin human trials with their own vaccine candidates.The Vaccine Research Center had been hoping to start human trials in late 2020. Instead, it says, it had to wait for slots to open at the U.S. labs making their vaccine for the trials, and that government funding — while generous — took longer to arrive than expected.With human trials of their first-generation vaccine now under way, Kiat and his team are already making plans to do the same in a few months with a second-generation candidate targeting the virus’s variants, a relatively simpler feat with the mRNA technique than with others.“The same technology, the same formulation, you just change the [gene] sequence,” he said. “If you have more data [from] the first generation, you can use that data to support your second generation. So, second generation we don’t have to [try] too many doses because we learn from the first generation what dose will be the best.”In the neighborhoodIf and when approved, Kiat said BioNet-Asia was lined up to start making 50 million to 80 million shots per year.Beyond targeting the dominant global variants of the novel coronavirus, mastering the mRNA technique could also let Thailand quickly tailor vaccines to strains, or combinations of strains, specific to the region or the country, said Lorenz von Seidlein, a vaccine expert at Thailand’s Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit.“So, if there’s a combination of strains which is particular to Thailand, there would be probably a niche then for them to say, this new variant — which we don’t know yet but may pop up next year — we quickly can address this in combination with the variants that were here before,” he said.The benefits could spill over to Thailand’s neighbors, some of which are also battling their worst waves of infection since the start of the pandemic, including Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam.Kiat said a few other Southeast Asian countries have expressed interest in joining late-stage Phase 2 human trials of his team’s vaccines if the results from Phase 1 are promising. He said they were especially interested in the second-generation vaccines they are working on and may consider placing orders.“Our intention is that if we have efficient production and good-quality vaccine … we should be able to supply neighborhood countries either through COVAX or whatever,” he said, referring to an international plan for supplying poorer countries with free or subsidized COVID-19 shots.
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A prominent Namibian traditional leader, Vekuii Rukoro, the paramount chief of the OvaHererero people who led international legal battles to bring Germany to pay reparations for its genocide in the southern African country, has died of COVID-19.Rukoro died early Friday, secretary-general of the Ovaherero/OvaMbanderu and Nama Council, Mutjinde Katjiua, told The Associated Press.Rukoro, who was elected Paramount Chief of the OvaHerero in 2014, represented both ethnic groups in the international legal cases.Rukoro and other traditional chiefs have accepted Germany’s offer of compensation but said it should be improved through further negotiations, while some other traditional leaders have rejected it.Last month the German government apologized for the colonial-era massacres and agreed to pay 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to Namibia over a 30-year period.In what is now acknowledged to be the first genocide of the 20th century, the mass killings of the OvaHerero and Nama people were perpetrated by German colonial forces between 1904 and 1908.Namibia is currently experiencing a surge of COVID-19. The country’s seven-day rolling average of daily new cases has more than doubled over the past two weeks from 17.31 new cases per 100,000 people on June 3 to 49.13 new cases per 100,000 people on June 17, according to Johns Hopkins University.Namibia, a country of 2.5 million people, has a cumulative total of just over 70,000 confirmed cases, including 112 deaths, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The current surge has brought the government to restrict movement into and out of the capital, Windhoek, as well as restrict public gatherings to 10 people.Six tourists from South Africa recently died of COVID-19 while on a bus tour of Namibia in which 37 of the 40 people on the tour became ill with the disease. 
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