Vaccination rates across the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia are dangerously low and the pandemic is not over despite the prevalence of the Omicron strain of Covid-19, which has a lower fatality rate than the previously dominant Delta strain, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.
WHO officials said the emergence of new, more deadly variants of the disease was still possible, although that was only one scenario for the pandemic.
Just 42 per cent of the Eastern Mediterranean region is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, allowing continued transmission of the virus despite the decline in cases and deaths in recent weeks.
The region stretching from Morocco to Pakistan includes 22 countries and territories.
This is not yet the time to drop our guard
Ahmed Al Mandhari,
WHO Emro regional director
“The pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern. This is not yet the time to drop our guard,” Ahmed Al Mandhari, WHO's regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean (Emro), said at a briefing in Cairo.
The region has reported almost 21.7 million confirmed cases and nearly 342,000 deaths.
The number of weekly newly-reported Covid-19 cases in the region has decreased by 21 per cent and deaths by 24 per cent, compared with last week, in line with global trends.
However, two countries in the region saw an increase in new cases and six saw an increase in deaths.
“Even though deaths are decreasing to some of the lowest numbers since the start of the pandemic, transmission remains high, vaccination coverage remains low in several countries and the relaxation of public health and social measures is still being widely observed, allowing continued transmission and the risk of new variants emerging,” Dr Al Mandhari said.
The WHO had set a global vaccination coverage target of 40 per cent by the end of last year and 70 per cent by the end of June.
About 60 per cent of the global population has been fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data, an Oxford-based data research service.
In the Eastern Mediterranean region, the coverage varies widely. A handful of countries, such as Syria and Yemen, have vaccinated less than 10 per cent of their populations. At the same time, five countries — the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia — have already achieved the 70 per cent target.
“These are the countries that started their vaccination programmes early on,” said Rana Hajjeh, director of programme management at WHO Emro.
It is important to enhance vaccination rates in the region to reach “if not 70 per cent, at least 40 per cent”, with a focus on vulnerable and high-risk groups, she said.
There is adequate vaccine supply, but there are access challenges due to instability and conflicts and the problem of “vaccine hesitancy”, Dr Al Mandhari said.
The region will host a few major mass gathering events this year, including the Umrah and Hajj pilgrimages in Saudi Arabia and the Fifa World Cup in Qatar, which will require increased vigilance and systems in place to avoid Covid-19 transmission, he said.
Saudi Arabia announced it will allow one million pilgrims to perform Hajj this year, which takes place in July, after reducing numbers in the past two years due to the pandemic. All pilgrims must be fully immunised against Covid-19 and those arriving from abroad must submit a negative PCR test.
Dr Al Mandhari also encouraged countries to scale up surveillance, testing and genome sequencing to identify new variants early.
Twenty countries in the region have reported the Delta variant and 17 have reported Omicron, which remains the dominant variant circulating regionally and globally.
New variant concerns
Globally, new versions of the Omicron variant have fuelled a rise in infections in some countries, including the US and UK.
“The mutation of viruses is very common and it’s not unexpected,” said Dr Abdinasir Abubakar, manager for infectious hazards prevention at WHO Emro.
The WHO has identified three main scenarios for the future of the coronavirus, said Richard Brennan, regional emergency director at WHO Emro.
The first is that the virus continues to evolve and “we’ll be likely to see further spikes in cases … that will require periodic boosters and seasonal vaccinations”, Dr Brennan said.
The second is the best-case scenario that the virus becomes less severe and the third is the worst-case scenario where it becomes more severe and more transmissible.
“Currently it is very difficult to foresee when this pandemic will come to an end,” Dr Hajjeh said.
“We are desperately hopeful that it will come to an end soon, but currently we have to focus on how to eradicate the pandemic — not when.”
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
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The past Palme d'Or winners
2018 Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda
2017 The Square, Ruben Ostlund
2016 I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
2015 Dheepan, Jacques Audiard
2014 Winter Sleep (Kış Uykusu), Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2013 Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2), Abdellatif Kechiche, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux
2012 Amour, Michael Haneke
2011 The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick
2010 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat), Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2009 The White Ribbon (Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte), Michael Haneke
2008 The Class (Entre les murs), Laurent Cantet
HWJN
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MATCH INFO
Wales 1 (Bale 45 3')
Croatia 1 (Vlasic 09')
PRIMERA LIGA FIXTURES
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Saturday
Atletico Madrid v Sevilla (3pm)
Alaves v Real Madrid (6.15pm)
Malaga v Athletic Bilbao (8.30pm)
Girona v Barcelona (10.45pm)
Sunday
Espanyol v Deportivo la Coruna (2pm)
Getafe v Villarreal (6.15pm)
Eibar v Celta Vigo (8.30pm)
Las Palmas v Leganes (8.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Valencia (10.45pm)
Monday
Real Betis v Levante (11.pm)
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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MATCH INFO
Norwich City 0 Southampton 3 (Ings 49', Armstrong 54', Redmond 79')