World Coronavirus Dispatch: Belarus jails packed with critics and virus

Hong Kong's public sceptical of Chinese vaccines, Sri Lanka's anti-burial rules fan minority ire, AstraZeneca chief feels vaccine will work on variant and other pandemic-related news across the globe

More countries find cases of the new virus variant

More and more countries are starting to detect infections of new coronavirus variant, that was first found UK. Canada, Sweden, Japan, France and Spain are the latest countries to report cases of the new strain. The new variant can spread more efficiently, causing more infections than the original one and has the potential to overwhelm hospital systems. There is no evidence as yet to know if it is more dangerous. Countries are stepping up their genomic sequencing surveillance to detect new mutations that might have developed even within their borders. Read more here 

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 80,372,944

Change Over Yesterday: 527,406

Global deaths: 1,757,911

Nations with most cases: US (18,985,155), India (10,187,850), Brazil (7,465,806), Russia (2,992,123), France (2,607,688).

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Sri Lanka stokes Muslim and Christian ire with burial rules

Forced and rushed cremation policy of coronavirus victims in Sri Lanka is fanning anger among minorities and activists alike. Victims are being cremated against the culture of Muslims and Christians, who usually bury their dead. The policy, endorsed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a nationalist, has led to renewed suffering of close kin of victims at a time when they have to grieve for the loss of close ones. It is also seen as violating human rights of the minorities. The reason behind anti-burial rules being given is that if victims are buried, the soil and the water underground gets contaminated due to the likely spread of the virus. Read more here 

AstraZeneca chief believes vaccine will work on variant

AstraZeneca, the firm which is developing a vaccine with the Oxford University, believes the vaccine will work even against the new coronavirus variant. The company's chief executive said, " So far, we think the vaccine should remain effective. But we can’t be sure, so we’re going to test that." Many in the developing world including India have pinned their hopes on the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca as it is cheap and can be stored at bare minimum temperatures unlike the ones developed by Pfizer and Moderna. The Indian government is likely to approve the country's own version of the shot by next week, according to a report. Read more here

Hong Kong faces public scepticism over mainland Chinese jabs

Hong Kong's public is scepitcal of the government procuring vaccines from China, which many feel might affect the immunisation drive in the region. Even after an year of anti-government protests opposing the new security law, the public distrust for China is still visible. Many feel the move to get Chinese vaccines is deeply political, a comment denied the leader Carrie Lam. She said the public would be able to choose which vaccines they could take and urged not to politicise the issue. Hong Kong has sealed deals with China's Sinovac, Germany’s BioNTech and its mainland Chinese partner Fosun Pharma. The government has also ordered vaccines from Oxford-AstraZeneca. The immunisation will likely start from the first quarter of 2021. Read more here

Coronavirus sweeps through Belarus jails packed with President's critics

Jails in Belarus, that have been packed with critics of the hard-line President, were ravaged by coronavirus infections and critics accuse authorities of deliberately ignoring the crisis. The country's jails, often overcrowded, lacked in sanitation drives, basic medical access and proper ventilation. The authorities are accused of cracking down on dissent against the govt policies and protestors are often detained and sent to these prisons. Thousands of protestors tested positive after they were detained. Many activists accuse the government of deliberately ignoring safety of those in prisons and allowing the virus to run riot. Read more here