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Tuesday, May 11, 2021

MCO for whole of Malaysia will begin 12until June 7, 2021

 

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PETALING JAYA: All of Malaysia will come under the movement control order from tomorrow until June 7 in view of a “more critical and vicious third wave” of Covid-19 infections.

“With daily cases exceeding 4,000 cases, and with 37,396 active cases and 1,700 deaths as at May 10, Malaysia is facing a third wave that could break into a national crisis, ” said Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (pic).

“Data and science show gatherings make social distancing difficult and that the presence of large groups in closed spaces is the main cause of Covid-19 spreading.

“The chain of infection can only be broken with the public staying home by enforcing stricter movement control, ” he said in a statement yesterday.

The rules and restrictions include:

> No mass gatherings such as weddings, dinners and tahlil, nor government and private events;

> No face-to-face seminars or meetings;

> No inter-district and interstate travel except for work and economic purposes, health matters, emergencies, vaccination appointments and long-distance couples;

> All educational institutions to be closed with exceptions for students sitting for international examinations;

> Childcare centres, nurseries and kindergartens allowed to operate;

> A three-person limit, including the driver, in personal vehicles, taxis and e-hailing rides;

> Employers to enforce a work-from-home order with no more than 30% of its management in office at any one time; and

> Akad nikah allowed based on the standard operating procedure (SOP) by the state Islamic agencies for Muslims, and by the National Registration Department for non-Muslims.

Muhyiddin said the restriction on inter-district and interstate travel, as well as social, sports and education activities, started yesterday and would go on until June 6 as previously announced.

The start for the rest of the instructions will begin May 12 and be in effect until June 7, ” he added.

Throughout this period, all economic sectors would remain operational, he said.

“The government will continue using the HIDE (Hotspot Identification for Dynamic Engagement) system to monitor premises and hotspots, as well as take follow-up actions.

“I hope the public will remain disciplined and continue to abide by the SOP to break the chain of infections, ” he said.

Muhyiddin reminded all Malaysians that the best course of action was to stay at home.

“We flattened the curve during the first and second wave. I wish to remind all that the third wave we are currently facing is more fierce and critical.

“We have not won. God willing, we will beat this virus, ” he added.

Prior to yesterday’s announcement, which underscored the growing severity of the situation, the MCO had been enforced in certain “red” districts.

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Saturday, May 8, 2021

WHO approval of Chinese vaccine will largely accelerate COVAX supply; Chinese vaccines top safety ranking

 

China's Sinopharm vaccine approved by WHO for global use https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-07/Sinopharm-vaccine-approved-by-WHO-for-global-use-104LK27VVcc/index.html via @cgtnofficial 
 
 

The WHO's emergency approval of China's COVID-19 vaccine will boost global vaccine supply amid shortfall as China's overall yearly production capacity is approaching five billion doses, observers said.

The WHO gave Emergency Use Listing (EUL) to Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine on Friday afternoon, making it the sixth vaccine and the first made by a non-Western country to receive WHO validation for its safety, efficacy and quality. This will send a statement to Western media's doubts and questions over the vaccine's authenticity, observers noted.

The other five COVID-19 vaccines previously approved by the WHO were made by Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.

The approval allows Sinopharm to become a qualified supplier to the COVAX platform that aims to provide two billion doses to developing countries and regions by the end of 2021. As of Friday, 54 million doses had been delivered to 121 participants of the program.

India was supposed to deliver one billion shots through COVAX, but the plan has been halted due to the ongoing severe outbreak in the country.

With a huge supply-demand gap, the world is in urgent need for Chinese vaccines. In most low-income regions, Chinese vaccines are the only choice they have. This comes as the US and Europe are busy grabbing and overbuying shots for themselves, experts said.

The emergency approval for Chinese vaccines will largely expand COVAX supply as China's production is likely to reach five billion doses by the end of this year, Tao Lina, a Shanghai-based vaccine expert, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Chinese manufacturers are already providing vaccines to about 80 countries. The Global Times learned from Sinovac, another Chinese manufacturer whose COVID-19 vaccine is undergoing WHO review for EUL and the result is scheduled to come out next week, that they had produced 300 million doses as of April 28 with about 60 percent being delivered overseas.

On Thursday, Sinopharm announced the completion of phase-three construction of its production factory for the Beijing institute vaccine. It is the world's largest COVID-19 vaccine production factory and will ramp up the group's production capacity to three billion per year.

Sinovac has said that their production capacity will reach two billion doses per year after their production factory is completed in June.

Some experts have expressed concerns over challenges in delivery and application. Especially due to the underdeveloped infrastructure in most developing regions, but Chinese manufacturers are making efforts to tackle these challenges.

The Sinopharm product is an inactivated vaccine called SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cell) that can be delivered through common cold chain with temperatures between 2 C and 8 C. While Moderna vaccine has to be stored in a temperature of at least -20 C, while the Pfizer vaccine at -70 C.

Sinopharm vaccine's easy storage requirements make it highly suitable for low-resource settings, WHO said in a statement on Friday.

It is also the first vaccine that will carry a vaccine vial monitor. The vial monitor is a small sticker on the vaccine vial that change color when the vaccine is exposed to heat, letting health workers know whether the vaccine can be safely used, according to the statement.

The sticker clearly shows the degree of over exposure to high temperatures and ensure the safety of the vaccine's application in different environments, Tao said.

China can assist regions with unsatisfactory infrastructure conditions with cold-chain vehicles as well as training for health workers on vaccination, experts noted.

Some foreign news medias had long been questioning the efficacy and safety of the Sinopharm vaccine due to fewer data on its clinical trials. The data had not been released until the latest document uploaded by the WHO on the assessment of Sinopharm's vaccine.

The WHO document confirms experts have an "overall confidence" in its ability to prevent COVID-19, while having "low confidence" on the risk of side effects for older patients.

WHO said in the Friday statement that they are not recommending an upper age limit for the vaccine because preliminary data and supportive immunogenicity data suggest the vaccine is likely to have a protective effect in older people. "There is no theoretical reason to believe that the vaccine has a different safety profile in older and younger populations."

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In the safety ranking, the top four are all Chinese vaccines

 -  reported by The New York Times on Feb 5, 2021.

 
 1. Sinopharm (China)
 2. Sinovac (China)
 3. Kexing (China)
 4. Can Sino (China)
 5. AstraZeneca (UK)
 6. Pfizer (United States and Germany)
 7. Modena (United States)
 8. Johnson & Johnson (United States)
 9. Novavax (United States)
 10. Satellite 5 (Russia)
 Sinopharm has two vaccines, ranking first and second respectively.
 
China has exported more than 500 million doses of vaccines to more than 50 countries around the world, and it is estimated that hundreds of millions of people have been vaccinated. And China's vaccine accident rate is lower and safer.
 
 As reported by Western media, many wealthy people in Britain fly to the UAE to vaccinate Chinese national medicine.

 
 
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Thursday, May 6, 2021

We Chinese will have a home in space!: netizens applaud Tianhe space station core module launch

 





People gather near the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in South China's Hainan Province to watch the launching of Tianhe space station core module. (Photo:web)

People gather near the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in South China's Hainan Province to watch the launching of Tianhe space station core module. (Photo:web)


China's successful space mission  which involved sending into space the core module of its Tianhe space station lit up Chinese social media on Thursday, with netizens cheering the launch, expressing their patriotism and best wishes to the development of China's deep space exploration.

The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, carrying the Tianhe module, blasted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in South China's Hainan Province around 11 am on Thursday. Video clips of the launch soon went viral on Chinese social media and received more than 2 million views within one hour on China's Twitter-like Weibo, the Global Times found.

Weibo was flooded with excitement and national pride. "I burst into tears watching the launch video - We Chinese will have a 'home' in space!" one user wrote. "I hope my motherland can rise and skyrocket like Tianhe," he added.

More users forwarded videos with the popular sentence "Our (conquest) journey is the sea of stars!" to express their love and ambitious expectations for China's space industry.

"In the past we missed the Age of Discovery, which was the beginning of evil colonization," a user said. "Now, we begin our own peaceful 'age of space discovery.'"

People gather near the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in South China's Hainan Province to watch the launching of Tianhe space station core module. (Photo:web)

People gather near the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in South China's Hainan Province to watch the launching of Tianhe space station core module. (Photo:web)

Before Tianhe's launch, audio of a collection of pulsar signals recently captured by the 500-meter aperture spherical radio telescope (FAST)—also known as China's Tianyan or "Sky Eye"—was seen spread widely on social media earlier on Thursday by exhilarated Chinese netizens.

Weibo users paid tribute to the deceased former chief engineer of FAST Nan Rendong, and said the pulsar signals were "rhythmic" and sounded like a music tempo or Morse codes.



"The pulsars must be very talented DJs," a user wrote. "I almost danced with the beats." Another user mentioned the signals that FAST seized at Hercules sounded much faster than pulsars. "Hercules seems very excited," she joked. "The signals there are like the sound of firecrackers — is Hercules celebrating Chinese New Year?"

Impressed by faraway sounds and the wonder of the universe that Chinese technology has shown to them, many netizens shared with great interest their expectations on China's further deep space exploration in the near future.

"China is building a 'villa' in space; I hope that one day we ordinary people can also travel into space and live in the Chinese-made 'villas,'" a Weibo user wrote. "I'm looking forward to that day."

It is possible that China's space station will be  the only working station after 2024, when the International Space Station (ISS) is expected to retire, Chinese experts earlier predicted. "Considering the lack of funds of the ISS members, now it's a good time for China to catch up with and surpass them," said another Weibo user.

The launching of Tianhe and the pulsar signals captured by FAST gave Chinese people a strong impetus, on Thursday said user with the ID "youjinshaojiang."

"In today's world filled with epidemics, disasters and hostility, those who insist on looking up at the stars and exploring the universe are definitely the light of hope and civilization to mankind," she wrote on Weibo.

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China’s Space Station expected to be operational by around 2022

It will take 11 rocket launches in 2 years to complete the building of China’s first space station.

China successfully launches core module for its space station ...

China's Space Station expected to be operational by around ...

https://www.globaltimes.cn › page › 202104 › 1222446
China's Space Station expected to be operational by around 2022. By: Global Times | Published: Apr 29, 2021 01:47 PM. It will take 11 rocket launches in 2 years to complete the building of China's first space station.
 
China is continuously creating legends in space: Global Times editorial

China on Thursday successfully sent into space Tianhe core module of space station. This marks China's space construction entering the full implementation stage. It's a crucial step forward for China's manned space program. Hundreds of millions of Chinese people felt inspired by the success.