Tag Lockdown

Thousands stuck on China’s Sanya city as lockdown expands

Lockdown

Beijing, Aug. 8, 2022 (dpa/NAN) The Chinese authorities have extended a lockdown on the tropical Hainan Island beyond the beach resort city of Sanya in a bid to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic from spreading.

State media reported on Monday that four more cities on the Island: Wanning, Danzhou, Qionghai and Lingshui had been affected by the lockdown.

Tens of thousands of Chinese tourists  had been stranded at Sanya, known as “China’s Hawaii’’, as flights, rail services and other public transport were halted in the city over the weekend.

The authorities launched the measures after more than 1,100 cases were detected in Hainan, a southern island city with a population of 10 million, state media said on Monday.

The trouble is that a lack of testing capacity makes it difficult to establish the full extent of the outbreak.

Multiple rounds of regular mass testing may be needed to reduce the risk, health experts said, according to a report that cited the rapid spread of the Omicron BA5.1.3 variant.

It said that in Sanya alone, some 30,000 tourists were stuck in hotels, while no fewer than 50,000 more were told to stay in their holiday flats.

The authorities ordered hotels to half their rates for the stranded tourists but there had been isolated cases where hotels refused to comply, or suddenly doubled their prices.

The party-affiliated Global Times reported, adding that these problems would be addressed.

While the rest of the world has opted to coexist with the Coronavirus, Beijing continues to pursue a strict zero-COVID policy, imposing sweeping lockdowns on any outbreak, which has significantly dampened economic growth. (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Cecilia Odey/Peter Dada

Lockdown

Bamako/Berlin, July 15, 2022 (dpa/NAN) Malian authorities prevented the departure of eight German soldiers from the West African State, German defence ministry sources said on Friday.

The Bundeswehr members were unable to board a flight on Thursday, which had been previously booked with a civilian airline.

Malian authorities allegedly said there were difficulties with missing documents, according to the German ministry sources, who said the move was considered harassment.

Earlier this week, the military government of Mali prompted outrage by having close to 50 soldiers from neighbouring Ivory Coast, who had been involved in the UN Mali mission, detained.

Bamako suspended all transfers of international forces on Thursday.

With immediate effect, there would be no exchange of personnel military or police within the framework of the UN mission.

This also affected routine rotations that had already been planned and approved.

Mali, with a population of some 20 million, had experienced three military coups since 2012.

Since the last one in May 2021, the country had been led by a military transitional government, which had been criticised for close relations with Russia.

The military junta had promised elections by the end of March 2024.

For years, Islamist terror groups had been causing unrest in the country.

The German army was  still involved in the MINUSMA mission in Mali, but the EU training mission EUTM was  to be largely stopped. (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Cecilia Odey/Chioma Ugboma

Lockdown

Moscow, Feb. 1, 2022 (Sputnik/NAN) The U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) introduced a temporary lockdown on federal jails nationwide, following mass brawl at a high-security penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas that left two people dead.

Earlier in the day, a fight broke out between several inmates at the U.S. Penitentiary Beaumont in Texas, resulting in four prisoners being hospitalised.

The clashes left two inmates dead after they were brought in for medical care.

“The bureau is securing our facilities as a temporary measure to ensure the good order of our institutions,’’ BOP spokesman Emery Nelson was cited as saying by NBC News.

The lockdown, which would apply to 120 federal penitentiary facilities, would force prisoners to be generally confined to their cells without the opportunity for walkouts.

“For safety and security reasons, the BOP does not elaborate on specific security procedures,’’ Nelson added.

He stressed that the lockdown was expected to be a short-lived measure. (Sputnik/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Cecilia Odey/Chioma Ugboma

Australia extends Coronavirus lockdown in capital

Lockdown

Sydney, Sept. 14, 2021 (dpa/NAN) A Coronavirus lockdown in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), home to the capital Canberra, would be extended for another four weeks, officials said Tuesday.

“Lockdown extended until 11:59 pm, Friday  Oct. 15,’’ ACT Health said on Twitter.

It was the third extension of the current lockdown in place in the territory.

The ACT recorded 22 new Coronavirus cases, taking active infections to 252, Chief Minister Andrew Barr told reporters at a daily COVID-19 briefing in Canberra on Tuesday.

He said the ACT will focus on vaccinations in the next four weeks in the ACT and the neighbouring states of New South Wales and Victoria.

Barr said the strong progress of vaccinations in those areas would help achieve the national goal of a 70 per cent national vaccination rate in mid-October.

“A highly vaccinated Canberra is a safer Canberra,’’ the chief minister asserted, but cautioned that the next few weeks would be challenging.

Barr said that 50 per cent of the ACT population aged 12 and older have received two doses of the vaccine.

The ACT initially imposed a seven-day lockdown last month after it recorded its first COVID-19 case in the community since July 2020.

Around 430,000 people live in the territory. COVID-19 restrictions were to be relaxed when at least 70 per cent of citizens have received two doses of vaccine.

Australia, with a population of 25 million, long sought to eradicate the virus completely by shutting its borders and imposing strict rules.

However, numbers have been rising in several parts of the country due to the highly transmissible Delta strain, sending large swathes of the country into lockdown. (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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edited by Cecilia Odey/Maharazu Ahmed

Auckland remains under lockdown after 33 Coronavirus cases recorded

Lockdown

Wellington, Sept. 13, 2021 (dpa/NAN) New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland, will stay under Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown until Sept. 21, after 33 new cases were recorded in the area in the past day, the prime minister said on Monday.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said three clusters were continuing to produce cases of community transmission in Auckland, compelling the extension of the hard Alert Level 4 lockdown for another week.

“Level 4 remains our best option to beat Delta and contain the virus at this stage of the outbreak,’’ Ardern said during a news conference after a cabinet meeting.

“We don’t want to risk the sacrifices everyone has made, and all the hard work put in, by moving to Alert Level 3 too quickly,’’ she added.

The rest of the country would stay at Level 2 until Sept. 21.

At that point Auckland was expected to move down a notch to Level 3, although this was dependent on the course of the city’s outbreak, Ardern said.

He added that the cabinet would review the Coronavirus situation in the coming days.

Over the course of the pandemic New Zealand has been pursuing an ambitious, but contentious, strategy to totally stamp out COVID-19 transmissions, relying on border closures, lockdowns, and testing.

On Aug. 17, all of New Zealand was moved to Level 4 the highest level within hours of a single case being detected, with all schools and non-essential businesses closed.

The outbreak has produced 955 cases so far, local media reported.

But last week, as numbers declined, all of the country except Auckland moved out of the hard lockdown. (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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(Edited by Cecilia Odey/Emmanuel Yashim)

New Zealand eases COVID-19 lockdown as number of Delta cases falls

Lockdown

Wellington, Sept. 6, 2021 (dpa/NAN) Large parts of New Zealand will move out of lockdown as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country continues to fall, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday.

New Zealand reported 20 new cases of community transmitted COVID-19 on Monday, taking a cluster discovered in Auckland to 821 in total.

The country was put in a hard lockdown within hours of a single case being detected on Aug. 18, with all schools and non-essential businesses closed.

Ardern said most of the country would see restrictions eased from Wednesday.

“This is testament to everybody’s hard work,’’ she said.

However, there are new rules the country must follow, including mandatory mask wearing indoors, and limits on gatherings of 50 people indoors and up to 100 outdoors.

“Delta has changed the game so in order to beat it, we have to change our game plan too.

“We have done so well to get this outbreak under control, we are in sight of elimination but we cannot drop the ball,’’ Ardern said.

The Auckland region, the epicentre of the outbreak, would remain under strict lockdown, with the city’s restrictions due to be reviewed on Sept. 13.

It was the first nationwide lockdown in New Zealand since March 2020, where the entire country was at the highest level of restrictions for six weeks.

“The country, with a population of five million, has reported about 3,400 cases of COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic with 27 deaths,’’ the prime minister Ardern stated. (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Cecilia Odey/Nyisom Fiyigon Dore

Lockdown

Wellington, Aug. 17, 2021 (dpa/NAN) New Zealand will go into a hard lockdown within hours as it deals with its first community case of COVID-19 in almost six months.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a case was detected in Auckland on Tuesday.

As a result, the entire country would be placed in a hard lockdown at 11.59 GMT for at least three days meaning all schools and non-essential businesses must close.

People were only able to leave their homes to visit the supermarket for solo exercise, or for medical care.

“We have seen the dire consequences of taking too long to act.’’

Ardern said genome sequencing of the case was under way, and there was no known link to the border as yet.

“Every case in managed isolation and quarantine recently has been the Delta variant and Delta is surging around the world. While we can’t confirm it yet, we need to assume our case will be too.’’

Ardern said it was a situation nobody wanted to be in.

“Going hard and early has worked for us before. We know that Delta is a more dangerous enemy to combat, the same actions we applied in 2020 can work again.’’

The last case in the community was reported on Feb. 28, since then, all COVID cases in New Zealand have been caught at the border.

“A hard and early response is the best tool to stamp out any potential spread and everyone in New Zealand is asked to stay calm, be kind and play their parts while we gather more information on the potential case,’ the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

New Zealand, with a population of some five million people, recorded a total of 2,570 cases and 26 deaths during the pandemic. (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Cecilia Odey/Ese E. Eniola Williams

Lockdown

Vientiane, Aug. 3, 2021 (Xinhua/NAN) The Lao Government has extended the current nationwide lockdown to Aug. 18, as the COVID-19 cases continued to rise.

Deputy Head of the Prime Minister’s Office, Thipphakone Chanthavongsa, announced the extension at a news conference on Tuesday in Lao capital Vientiane.

He said that the lockdown would be extended as the COVID-19 situation in Laos is not yet fully under control and the situation in neighbouring countries remained risky.

The current nationwide lockdown, imposed on July 19, was set to expire on Tuesday.

The National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Tuesday reported 237 new imported cases and 13 locally transmitted cases.

Among the imported cases, 78 were reported in Lao capital Vientiane, 63 in Savannakhet, 48 in Champasak, 30 in Khammuan, 16 in Saravan and two in Vientiane province.

As of Tuesday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Laos reached 7,015 with seven deaths.

A total of 3,616 COVID-19 patients had recovered and discharged from hospitals. (Xinhua/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Cecilia Odey/Abdulfatah Babatunde

COVID-19: Sydney lockdown extended as Delta variant spreads

Lockdown

Sydney, July 7, 2021 (dpa/NAN) A two-week lockdown in Australia’s Sydney would be extended in a bid to crack down on a growing cluster of Coronavirus cases.

Ongoing cases of community transmission and updated health advice had forced the New South Wales Government to extend restrictions for another week, state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said at a news conference on Wednesday.

A total of 27 new locally acquired cases were reported on Wednesday, with a number of those in the community while infectious.

All of greater Sydney, as well as the nearby Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong, was placed under COVID-19 restrictions on June 26.

The public would now be under stay-at-home orders except for essential outings such as work, medical appointments, care and compassionate grounds, shopping and outdoor exercise until at least July 16.

“Our first and foremost priority is to protect the health and safety of the community.

“The Delta strain requires a different response to previous outbreaks, and until the majority of our population is vaccinated, we cannot live as freely as we will like to,’’ Berejiklian said.

The country, with a population of some 25 million people, has recorded 30,800 cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic began. (dpa/NAN)

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Edited by Cecilia Odey/Sadiya Hamza