The Latest: Bosnian capital begins virus lockdown measures

The sun rises behind the buildings of the banking district in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, March 19, 2021, as numbers of Coronavirus restrictions continue to rise. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
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The Associated Press
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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Authorities in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo have implemented lockdown measures to counter soaring coronavirus infections.

The Sarajevo government said a nighttime curfew will start on Friday, from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m.

All bars and restaurants will shut down starting Saturday, except for food deliveries.

Authorities say the measures are necessary because of a “drastically worsened” epidemiological situation in the city.

Bosnia has seen a huge spike in daily new infections which have soared to over 1,700 from just a few hundred a few weeks ago. This has put pressure on the already weak health system and caused a spike in deaths from COVID-19.

The Balkan nation of 3.3 million is yet to start mass vaccination of its citizens. The country has kept relaxed measures and ski resorts open throughout the winter season.

Many parts of Central and Eastern Europe are also seeing surges in new infections, which experts blame on more transmissible virus variants like the one first found in Britain.

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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

BERLIN — Germany is resuming vaccinations with the coronavirus vaccine made by AstraZeneca, following a recommendation by European regulators that the benefits of the shot outweigh the risks.

The European Medicines Agency had said Thursday that it can’t rule out a link between the vaccine and a small number of rare blood clots reported on the continent, and patients should be told to look out for any warning signs.

The move paved the way for more than a dozen European countries, which had suspended use of the shot over the past week, to begin using it again.

Authorities in Berlin said two large vaccination centers that offer the AstraZeneca shot to people in the German capital will reopen Friday, and people whose appointments were canceled this week will be able to get the vaccine over the weekend without making a new appointment.

The suspension of the AstraZeneca shot further slowed Germany’s already sluggish vaccine campaign this week. So far, about 10 million doses have been administered in the country, with 8.4% of the population receiving at least one shot and 3.7% getting both doses.

Germany’s disease control agency reported 17,482 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 overnight, and 226 deaths.

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SEOUL, South Korea — Following complaints about discrimination, South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission says it’s reviewing decisions by health officials to mandate coronavirus tests for all foreign workers in the capital of Seoul and a nearby province.

The commission’s chairperson, Choi Young-ae, said in a statement Friday it plans to issue “swift judgment” on whether the measures are discriminatory and infringing rights.

If the commission concludes the measures are discriminatory, it could recommend government officials to change related policies or laws. But its proposals are non-binding.

The testing campaigns came in response to outbreaks among low-skilled foreign workers employed at Gyeonggi factories, who often face hash working and living conditions.

Critics question why authorities are mandating broad tests based on nationality instead of specifically targeting people with vulnerable working conditions.

Lim Sun-young, an official from the commission, said more than 20 individuals, including foreigners, have submitted complaints to the commission over the tests.

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CANBERRA, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he is working with U.S., Indian and Japanese partners to provide emergency coronavirus vaccine to Papua New Guinea.

Australia has provided 8,000 AstraZeneca doses from its own stockpile to its nearest neighbor after an explosion of infections in the South Pacific island nation in recent weeks.

Morrison said Friday that the European Union has yet to respond to his recent request for 1 million AstraZeneca doses contracted by Australia to be sent to Papua New Guinea as soon as possible.

He says that “it’s not right for advanced countries in Europe to deny the supply of vaccines to developing countries who need it desperately like Papua New Guinea.”

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WASHINGTON — A new analysis suggests the coronavirus pandemic likely began in China’s Hubei province a month or two earlier than late December 2019, when a cluster of cases tied to a seafood market was first detected.

Scientists traced mutations back in time to estimate when a common ancestral virus first emerged, did modeling exercises on how the new coronavirus spread, and reported their findings Thursday in the journal Science.

Evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey says the study is “pointing pretty strongly to that market not being the original source of the virus but the first place where it encountered sort of one of these superspreading events.”

Public health expert William Hanage, who had no role in the study, says the conclusions are “very, very plausible” and the work “pushes back in time” estimates of the origins of the outbreak.

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MADRID — Spain’s health minister says the country will resume vaccinating with AstraZeneca doses next Wednesday but officials will revise over the weekend which groups to exclude to minimize risks.

Carolina Darias said authorities at the national and regional level will assess the jab’s updated technical sheet and give new guidelines to doctors.

The minister spoke after an urgent meeting with health officials from the country’s regions following the European Union’s drug regulatory announcement that the vaccine is safe.

The head of Spain’s drug agency says resuming now after assessing a series of rare blood clots in a dozen patients who had received the AstraZeneca jab “should strengthen trust in the vaccines.”

After weeks of falling contagion rates, Spain’s coronavirus pandemic incidence is on the rise again, prompting fears that the country could soon join the uptick that the rest of Europe is experiencing.

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PRAGUE — With infection and death rates remaining at high levels, the Czech government has extended the country’s tight lockdown until after Easter.

Health Minister Jan Blatny says his country is still not in a position to relax the measures.

Among the restrictions in one of the hardest-hit countries in the European Union, people have been banned from traveling to other counties unless they go to work or have to take care of relatives.

It’s part of a series of step as the Central European nation has been seeking to slow down the spread of a highly contagious virus variant first found in Britain and prevent the country’s hospitals from collapsing.

Of the 8,910 COVID-19 patients in Czech hospitals on Wednesday, 1,989 needed intensive care. Both the numbers are close to the records set earlier this week.

Blatny said the situation in should start to improve after by the end of this week and the number of hospitalized to drop to some 5,000 in April.

The nation of 10.7 million has over 1.4 million confirmed cases with more than almost 24,100 deaths.

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. is finalizing plans to send a combined 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and Canada in its first export of shots.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki says the Biden administration is planning to send 2.5 million doses to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada as a “loan.”

The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been authorized for use in the U.S. but has been authorized by the World Health Organization. The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, thanked Biden for his willingness to share the vaccines.

Canadian regulators have approved the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, but acquiring them has proven difficult. Canada ranks about 20th in the number of doses administered, with about 8% of the adult population getting at least one shot. That compares with about 38% in the U.K. and 22% in the U.S.

Mexico has fully vaccinated more than 600,000 people and more than 4 million have received a single dose in a country of 126 million.

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JOHANNESBURG — Africa’s ability to produce COVID-19 vaccines got a boost Thursday with the announcement that Biovac has signed a full manufacturing partnership with U.S.-based ImmunityBio.

Biovac is a laboratory partly owned by the South African state. It has an agreement with ImmunityBio, which has a COVID-19 vaccine in clinical trials, to produce the vaccine sometime next year.

Biovac, based in Cape Town, has the capacity to produce between 20 million and 30 million vaccines in a year.

Africa’s 54 countries have limited capacity to make vaccines, with only two laboratories on the continent able to fully manufacture vaccines. Those are Biovac and the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, which produces yellow fever vaccines. Three other African countries can partially manufacture vaccines.

South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare is awaiting approval to assemble the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a process of blending the ingredients sent in large batches and putting the vaccine into vials – the filling and finishing. Aspen said it has the capacity to produce 300 million doses annually of the J&J vaccine.

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NEW YORK — It’s showtime! AMC Theatres says it will have 98% of its U.S. movie theaters open on Friday. Even more theaters are expected to open by March 26.

AMC says more than 40 of its locations in California are reopening on Friday and will open 52 of its 54 locations by Monday. The company is preparing to resume operations at the rest of its California locations once the proper local approvals are in place. AMC previously opened more than 500 of its theaters elsewhere around the country.

Some movie theaters have opened over the past few months with limited capacity and enhanced safety protocols.

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