Monitoring Desk
The artistic swimming event was scheduled to take place from March 4-7 in Tokyo, but is now postponed to May. Meanwhile, Australia has extended a suspension of its travel bubble with New Zealand. Follow DW for latest.
The first event of the Tokyo Olympics has been postponed because of travel restrictions in Japan, the event’s organizers said on Thursday. Japan is currently in a state of emergency until at least February 7 following rising cases of the coronavirus.
The artistic swimming event was scheduled to take place from March 4-7 in Tokyo, but is now postponed to May. The organizers said the decision was taken to ensure the “fairest possible conditions for athletes to participate.”
They added that other qualifying events such as a Diving World Cup in April and marathon swimming in May were on schedule. Public support for the Olympics is low, with 80% of Japanese saying they either thought the Games would not or should not go ahead as currently planned in a recent poll.
Here’s a rundown of some of the other most notable pandemic-related stories around the world at present.
Asia
The Philippines Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given emergency authorization to AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine. This is the second vaccine after the BioNTech-Pfizer version to receive approval in the Philippines.
The head of the FDA said that the potential benefits of the vaccine outweighed its known risks.
South Korea will start COVID-19 vaccinations for the general public in the
third quarter of this year, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a news briefing. The country aims to reach “herd immunity” through mass vaccinations by November.
Just hours after confirming the first two infections in nearly two months, Vietnam reported 82 new coronavirus cases. Seventy-two came from an electronic company in Hai Duong province.
Oceania
New Zealand’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been rated the best in the world, in a new study by the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. The think tank came to the result by comparing publicly available data on the pandemic response in 98 countries in the 36 weeks that followed their 100th confirmed case.
New Zealand was closely followed by Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand. According to the report, countries in the Asia-Pacific were most successful in containing the pandemic. The institute did not include China in its list, citing a lack of data.
Australia has extended the suspension of a so-called “travel bubble” with New Zealand until Sunday. The bubble was originally suspended on Monday after a positive case of the South African strain of the coronavirus was detected in New Zealand.
Europe
Car output in the UK has fallen to the lowest level since 1984, according to data realeased by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, an industry body, on Thursday. It cited low demand for vehicles owing to the coronavirus pandemic as the key reason for the dramatic fall.
The UK produced 920,928 cars in 2020, down 29% year-on-year. EU-wide figures published this month showed a drop of 23.7%, also the highest percentage decline since records began.
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People in Poland long appeared hesitant to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Then they saw celebrities and politicians scandalously jump the line for the jab. Now there’s not enough vaccine to go around. Read the full story here
The coronavirus has raged for a year now and there seems to be no end in sight. Germany is no longer considered as an example of good pandemic management. But the worst could still be to come, says Rosalia Romaniec. Read the full story here
And catch up with all the developments in Wednesday’s coronavirus digest.
Courtesy: DW
