Nigerian doctors strike again over benefits amid coronavirus

Nigerian resident doctors began their second strike of the year over pay and working conditions amid the spread of the new coronavirus, the doctors' union told Reuters on Tuesday.

The strike began on Monday, and includes 16 000 resident doctors out of a total of 42 000 doctors in the country, Dr Aliyu Sokomba, President of the National Association of Resident Doctors, told Reuters.

"It is an indefinite strike until issues are resolved," he said. "All resident doctors at the Covid-19 centres have joined the strike."

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, has a total of 55 160 confirmed coronavirus infections and 1 061 deaths.

Resident doctors are medical school graduates training as specialists. They are pivotal to frontline healthcare in Nigeria as they dominate the emergency wards in its hospitals.

The group last went on strike in June, demanding better benefits and more protective equipment for battling the coronavirus. They are still demanding, among other things, life insurance and hazard allowance.

In a statement, Minister of Labour Chris Ngige called on the doctors to suspend the strike.

"All parties are enjoined not to employ arm-twisting methods to intimidate or foist a state of helplessness on the other party," he said.

The statement said the government had spent 20 billion naira ($52.56 million) on hazard allowances for healthcare workers in April, May and June, and had met the bulk of the doctors' demands. Sokomba said the union planned to meet Ngige on Wednesday and hoped they could resolve issues and call off the strike.

-Reuters

US , European Covid vaccine developers pledge to uphold testing rigour

Nine leading US and European vaccine developers pledged on Tuesday to uphold the scientific standards their experimental immunisations will be held against in the global race to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The companies, including Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, issued what they called a "historic pledge" after a rise in concern that safety and efficacy standards might slip in the rush to find a vaccine.

The companies said in a statement they would "uphold the integrity of the scientific process as they work towards potential global regulatory filings and approvals of the first Covid-19 vaccines".

The other signatories were Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co, Moderna, Novavax, Sanofi and BioNTech.

The promise to play by established rules underlines a highly politicised debate over what action is needed to rein in Covid-19 quickly and to jumpstart global business and trade.

The head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said last month Covid-19 vaccines may not necessarily need to complete Phase Three clinical trials - large-scale testing intended to demonstrate safety and efficacy - as long as officials are convinced the benefits outweigh the risks.

This prompted a call for caution from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Developers globally have yet to produce large-scale trial data showing actual infections in participants, yet Russia granted approval to a Covid-19 vaccine last month, prompting some Western experts to criticise a lack of testing.

The head of China's Sinovac Biotech has said most of its employees and their families have already taken an experimental vaccine developed by the Chinese firm under the country's emergency-use programme.

Chinese companies or institutions, which are involved in several leading vaccine projects, did not sign the statement.

Promise on safety and efficacy

"We want it to be known that also in the current situation we are not willing to compromise safety and efficacy," said co-signatory Ugur Sahin, chief executive of Pfizer's German partner BioNTech.

"Apart from the pressure and the hope for a vaccine to be available as fast as possible, there is also a lot of uncertainty among people that some development steps may be omitted here."

BioNTech and Pfizer could unveil pivotal trial data as early as October, potentially placing them at the centre of bitter US politics before the 3 November presidential election.

President Donald Trump has said it is possible the United States will have a vaccine before the election. His Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, has said she would not take his word alone on any potential coronavirus vaccine.

The nine companies said they would follow established guidance from expert regulatory authorities such as the FDA.

Among other hurdles, approval must be based on large, diverse clinical trials with comparative groups that do not receive the vaccine in question. Participants and those working on the trial must not know which group they belong to, according to the pledge.

BioNTech's Sahin said there must be statistical certainty of 95%, in some cases higher, and that a positive reading on efficacy does not come just from random variations but reflects the underlying workings of the compound.

The development race has intensified safety concerns about an inoculation, polls have shown.

Western regulators have said they would not cut corners but rather prioritise the review workload and allow for development steps in parallel that would normally be handled consecutively.

Sahin declined to comment on regulators specifically or on what events prompted the joint statement.

The chief executive of German vaccine developer Leukocare, which did not sign the pledge, was more forthright.

"What Russia did - and maybe also there are tendencies in the US to push the approval of a vaccine which has not been sufficiently developed in clinic – bears a huge risk," said CEO Michael Scholl.

"My biggest fear is that we will approve vaccines that are not safe and that will have a negative impact on the concept of vaccinations in general."

Leukocare is working with Italy’s ReiThera and Belgium’s Univercells to produce a Covid-19 vaccine currently in phase I testing.

- Reuters

Dutch coronavirus infections jump to highest level since April

The number of new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands jumped 51% last week to their highest level since the end of April, Dutch health authorities said on Tuesday.

Newly confirmed infections increased to 5 427 in the week to Tuesday, up from 3 597 in the previous week, while the total number of tests rose 10% to little over 180 000.

Coronavirus cases in the Netherlands had been stable at about 3 500 per week in recent weeks, after the easing of lockdown measures in July was followed by a steady rise to over 4 000 in early August.

The largest increase of infections last week was among people aged 20 to 24, the health authorities said, while most of the newly infected were found to have contracted the virus at home.

The new rise coincided with the reopening of schools throughout the country, but health authorities said they had not found a significant increase of cases related to schools.

Infections known to have occurred at schools were mainly among adults, they said.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose to 76 548, with 6 244 deaths.

-Reuters

UK may have paid out billions in error in virus support scheme: official

The British government may have paid out billions of pounds in erroneous or fraudulent applications for its ongoing wages support scheme, aimed at safeguarding jobs in the coronavirus pandemic, a top official has revealed.

The top civil servant at Britain's tax department, Jim Harra, told a parliamentary committee on Monday that between five and 10 percent of cash used for the government's furlough scheme - equivalent to 3.5 billion ($4.5 billion, 3.7 billion euros) - might have ended up in the wrong hands.

The government has paid out 35.4 billion to finance the bulk of wages for around 10 million workers placed on furlough under a scheme set to end next month.

The amount wrongly paid out "will range from deliberate fraud through to error", Harra told the panel.

-AFP

Coronavirus: Latest global developments

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:

'China hails virus success'

President Xi Jinping says China has passed "an extraordinary and historic test" and is "leading the world in economic recovery and in the fight against Covid-19."

In China, where the virus first broke out late last year, it has been all but banished through a combination of lockdowns and travel restrictions earlier in the year. However, the United States of President Donald Trump has criticised Beijing for its initial response to the epidemic.

'World sports disrupted'

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme tests positive for Covid-19 and will have to go into quarantine, but all the race riders are negative. French footballer Kylian Mbappe is also positive and out of France's Nations League game against Croatia on Tuesday.

World Tennis women's number one Ashleigh Barty of Australia also announces she will not defend her French Open crown, citing coronavirus fears.

'More than 893 000 dead'

The pandemic has killed at least 893 524 people worldwide since surfacing in China late last year, according to an AFP count on Tuesday based on official sources.

More than 27.3 million cases have been confirmed.

The United States has the most deaths with 189 221, followed by Brazil with 126 960, India with 72 775, Mexico 67 781 and Britain 41 554.

'South African economy shrinks by half'

Gross domestic product in South Africa shrank by 51 percent in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, battered by the impact of the coronavirus lockdown, the country's statistics agency says.

'UN staff stricken in Syria'

More than 40 members of UN staff and their families have caught the coronavirus in Syria, a UN official tells AFP, warning the illness is spreading in the war-torn country.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says three people had to be medically evacuated, but most of the others had only "mild" symptoms.

-AFP

Teachers in Bosnian village build open-air classroom to protect children from Covid-19

Teachers at an elementary school in the village of Kacuni in central Bosnia have used their summer holiday to build an open-air classroom outside their school to the joy of their students and local community.

"Our model offers a breath of fresh air both for teachers and students. It allows us to breathe, speak and work freely. I am so proud of it," said Mirza Begovic, a language teacher at the Kacuni school, which has 1 000 students.

The idea of an open-air classroom had been in teachers' minds for a while, but the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated their project - which began with minimum funds but quickly attracted help and donations. The mayor gave construction material.

The classroom was completed within a month, in time to welcome children returning to school after months of online learning. It will be used as long as the weather allows.

Teachers have assembled dozens of red wooden benches in an amphitheatre formation that can also host school plays, and have planted trees. A large blackboard hangs from a brick wall at the front.

The school, like others in the country, has split classes into smaller groups so pupils can keep a safe distance from each other. Some attend classes and others learn at home in rotation to prevent overcrowding.

Mask wearing is obligatory when arriving and leaving school, but not during lessons if distancing is observed.

"I am so thrilled to be back at school and see my classmates at last, and to have this new summer classroom," said 14-year-old Anel Hodzic.

Bosnia has registered 21 961 cases of Covid-19 and 669 deaths.

-Reuters

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