Malaysia mandates shots for federal workers – KIRO 7 News Seattle

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia will make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for all federal government employees.

Vaccination is voluntary in the country, but the Civil Service Department says all federal employees must be vaccinated to keep public services running smoothly.

It is in line with plans to resume full operations after a lockdown since June. The ministry says nearly 98% of federal workers have been vaccinated. Around 1,700 workers, 1.6% of the total, are unvaccinated.

There it says that all employees must have their vaccination completed by the end of October, unless they are exempt from it for medical reasons.

Almost 62% of the country’s 33 million people are fully vaccinated. Daily new infections are down almost in half from their high of more than 24,000 last month. Malaysia has registered 2.23 million confirmed infections and more than 26,000 confirmed deaths.

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MORE ABOUT PANDEMIC:

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– WHO: 15 out of 54 African nations vaccinated with 10%

– Am I fully vaccinated against COVID-19 without a booster?

– The sudden 50 percent surge in COVID-19 cases in the Australian state is attributed to sports fans

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– Check out all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

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WHAT ELSE HAPPENS:

HELSINKI – Finland will ease coronavirus restrictions on bars and restaurants in select areas, including extending alcohol service hours to midnight from Friday.

The Minister for Family and Social Affairs, Krista Kiuru, tweeted on Thursday that the ban on singing and dancing in bars and restaurants will be lifted on Friday.

However, bars and pubs in Finland are still subject to certain coronavirus restrictions, including using half of the seating capacity and restaurants at 75% of maximum capacity.

Last week, regional authorities in southern Finland announced that remaining gathering restrictions in the southern Uusimaa region, including the capital Helsinki, will end on Friday.

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NAIROBI, Kenya – The World Health Organization says only 15 out of 54 African countries have met the global goal of fully vaccinating 10% of their population by the end of this month.

Half of African countries have fully vaccinated 2% or less of their population. WHO says nearly 90% of high-income countries have met the 10% target set by the World Health Assembly this year.

While vaccine deliveries to African countries have increased tenfold since June, WHO’s vaccinations for Africa, Richard Mihigo, will have to more than double by the end of the year to meet the WHO’s goal of fully vaccinating 40% of the population.

Mihigo says it will take about 900 million doses. He says African countries have received more than 200 million vaccine doses to date, and given over 70% of them. Only 4% of Africa’s 1.3 billion people are fully vaccinated.

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NEW YORK – A poll of Americans on President Joe Biden’s plan to either vaccinate most workers or have them regularly tested for COVID-19 reveals a deep and well-known divide: Democrats are overwhelmingly in favor while most Republicans are against .

As the highly contagious Delta variant increases the number of deaths up to 2,000 per day, the poll published Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed a total of 51% say they support the Biden requirement , 34% reject this and 14% do not have an opinion.

64 percent of Americans vaccinated say they agree to the mandate, while 23 percent oppose it. Among unvaccinated Americans, only 14% are in favor, while 67% are against. Most remote workers agree, but in-person workers are roughly evenly distributed.

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MOSCOW – Coronavirus deaths in Russia hit a record Thursday for the third straight year, and health officials reported the highest number of new infections since late July.

Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 867 deaths, the highest in the pandemic. The previous record on Wednesday was 857 dead.

Officials reported 23,888 new infections on Thursday, the highest daily number since late July.

Despite the surge, the Kremlin has declared that nationwide restrictions will not be discussed, stressing that it is up to regional governments to take local action.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Denmark appears to have missed its target of 90% of people over the age of 12 being vaccinated twice by October 1st, as the latest official figures show that 84.9% received both vaccinations.

The latest official figures from the Danish health authorities show that 4,366,235 people have received both syringes.

Those who got the first injection – 4,453,321 people – make up 86.6% of those over 12.

The vaccine is voluntary and free in Denmark, which declared on September 10th that it no longer considers COVID-19 a “socially critical disease” due to the large number of vaccinations. All restrictions have since been lifted.

The Scandinavian country has a total population of 5.8 million.

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VUNG TAU, Vietnam – Vietnam will lift the lockdown in its largest city on Friday, ending movement restrictions for nearly three months to contain a surge in the coronavirus.

People of Ho Chi Minh City can leave their homes, but the government will continue to enforce social distancing and controls will be kept on entering and leaving the city.

The Delta variant infected 770,000 people and killed over 19,000 in three months, with Ho Chi Minh City accounting for the majority of the deaths.

Vietnam is speeding up vaccinations by giving big cities priority and pushing vaccinations to a shorter timeframe to hit both doses in more people.

Almost half of the adults in Ho Chi Minh City have received both vaccinations, while the overall vaccination rate in Vietnam is low.

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SANTA FE, NM – County prisons across New Mexico are grappling with a high-risk environment for COVID-19 infection while many more beds are being filled with inmates.

Advocate for the county governments’ association, Grace Philips, warned lawmakers Wednesday that overall vaccination rates for staff in the county’s detention centers are below the national average – 61% versus about 71% for adults in general.

The likelihood that inmates will be vaccinated is much lower as the number of them arrives at the county detention centers.

The number of nationwide county prisons has increased by more than a quarter since May 2020.

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A second Alaska hospital begins rationing health care as the state handles a surge in coronavirus cases.

Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp. Bethel announced the move on Wednesday as it reported that it was busy.

The Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, the state’s largest hospital, has already rationed care.

Coronavirus infections in Alaska have increased 42% in the past week.

The president of the Bethel region hospital says it has done everything it can to delay rationing but must take the risk.

Dan Winkelman, CEO of the hospital, calls on “every resident of the Yukon-Kuskokwim region to be vaccinated, to wear a mask in public indoor areas and to maintain social distance”. He warns: “This is our last fight against this virus”.

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MELBOURNE, Australia – The Australian state of Victoria has reported 1,438 new coronavirus cases – nearly 500 more than the previous high the day before.

Australia’s second most populous state also reported five more deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours on Thursday. Victoria reported 950 new infections and a daily record of seven deaths on Wednesday.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the national government remains determined to end lockdowns in Australia despite the deteriorating situation in Victoria’s capital, Melbourne.

Frydenberg, a Melbourne resident, says the city has become despondent after being in lockdown for 242 days.

The government has announced that its payments to workers who have lost hours due to lockdowns will end two weeks after 80% of people in a state or territory are fully vaccinated.

The government says 49% of Victoria’s target population is fully vaccinated

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HONOLULU – In the weeks since Honolulu introduced new pandemic safety rules, over 160 Oahu companies have been cited, warned or arrested. The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports that most of the cases involved warnings.

The Liquor Commission issued six violations, including three for serving alcohol after 10 p.m., two for failing to check vaccination status, and one for lack of contact tracing.

The police also issued subpoenas or arrested people who were not wearing masks and who did not keep the required physical distances.

Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu says city officials were unable to immediately break down the number of arrests against the subpoenas because they are grouped under the same category for the record.

City spokesman Tim Sakahara says the vast majority of companies obey the rules.

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