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theSUN ON THURSDAY | FEBRUARY 24, 2022

NEWS WITHOUT BORDERS

Parents decry child separation move
oHong Kong health professionals urge
authorities to be ‘rational and compassionate’
HONG KONG: Parents here are being
separated from children and babies
who test positive for the coronavirus,
compounding public anger over the
financial hub’s lack of readiness for a
major outbreak.
Hong Kong is in the throes of its
worst-ever Covid wave, registering
thousands of cases every day as
hospitals and isolation units run out
of space.
A strict China-style zero-Covid
policy kept the virus mostly at bay the
last two years at the expense of
marooning the city internationally.
But when the highly contagious
Omicron variant eventually broke
through earlier this year, authorities
were caught flat-footed.
Hong Kong has been ordered by
China to stick to its zero-Covid policy
and aim to isolate anyone who tests
positive even though the number of
daily cases has soared far beyond
capacity.
Some parents have complained of
being unable to accompany children
in hospital while others have flocked
to social media to voice fears of
separation if they seek treatment for
themselves or sick young ones.
The revelation has sparked
dismay, including among health
professionals.
“If a child requires hospitalisation
due to Covid, it should be made
possible for one parent to stay in the
same room unless the child’s
condition is very serious,” University
of Hong Kong microbiologist
Siddharth Sridhar wrote on Twitter.
“In times like these, staying
rational and compassionate is more
important than ever.”
Laura, a 32-year-old British-born
permanent resident, said her
daughter Ava tested positive after she
was admitted to hospital on Sunday
with a fever and laboured breathing.
Ava is now stable in the intensive
care unit and will soon be moved to
an isolation ward but she will have to
recover without her parents for at
least seven days.
“I’ve said I’ll sleep in the corridor,
on the floor, anywhere,” Laura said,
fighting back tears.
She and her husband Nick
managed to share a quick video call
with Ava on Tuesday.
“It was devastating,” Laura said,
asking to use just her first name.
“She’s 11 months, she’s aware of
her surroundings, separation anxiety
is at an all-time high at this age, she
was inconsolable, just crying
‘Mamma, Mamma’.”
Online parent groups have filled
with angst, fear and confusion this
week.
Kunj Gandhi, the administrator of
a popular Facebook support group
for people going through quarantine,
wrote that many hospitals had
stopped letting parents stay with
children as wards filled beyond
capacity.
“Many (parents) tried to fight or
rationalise it but in the end had to
make the heartbreaking decision of
leaving their child in hospital so the
child could get the treatment he/she
needs,” she wrote.
On a 17,000-strong mostly
Cantonese-speaking Facebook group
for mothers looking for coronavirus
treatment, many said they had sick
children but feared going to hospital.
“My son is two and a half years old
and has been feverish since early
Monday morning,” one member
called Shan Hor wrote.
“I don’t know what to do. I am so
scared.”
Some health experts are worried
Hong Kong’s harsh isolation rules
may in fact fuel the spread of the virus.
“My real fear now is parents
delaying treatment due to fear of
separation,” David Owens, a local
doctor, wrote on Twitter. – AFP

Call to send vaccines to North Korea One dead, 10 missing

PYONGYANG: The world should provide
millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines to
North Korea, where “draconian”
anti-pandemic measures are worsening an
already-severe food crisis, a United Nations
(UN) human rights expert said yesterday.
The impoverished nation has been behind
a rigid self-imposed coronavirus blockade
since early 2020 to protect itself from the
pandemic, with the economy suffering and
trade all but stopped.
The country’s “draconian” anti-Covid
measures, including border closures and
further limits on domestic freedom of
movement, have worsened the food crisis,
said UN special rapporteur on human rights
Tomas Ojea Quintana.
Crucial domestic market activity has been
cut off, and international aid workers have been
forced to depart, with humanitarian operations
all but halted, he said, adding vulnerable
populations were at risk of starvation.
He said the international community
should “agree on a strategy to provide the
DPRK with 60 million doses of vaccination to
cover two shots for the entire population”.
Vaccinations are “the key to opening the
DPRK’s border and bringing it out of
isolation”, he added, using the acronym for
North Korea’s official name.
North Korea has yet to confirm a single
case of the novel coronavirus.
According to the World Health
Organisation, North Korea had by the end of
2020 conducted 13,259 Covid-19 tests, which
all came back negative.
It had been due to receive 1.7 million doses
of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the Covax
programme last year, but reportedly rejected
them due to concerns over side effects.
It has also rejected offers of vaccines from
allies Russia and China, reports said. – AFP
BRIEFS
in Australia floods
CANBERRA: One person was found dead in a
submerged car and 10 others were missing
yesterday after heavy rain caused flash flooding in
eastern Australia and set off a string of emergency
warnings up and down the Pacific coast.
The body of the drowned 60-year-old was
found early yesterday in the state of Queensland,
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told parliament,
describing the incident as a “tragedy”.
Almost 500mm of rain has fallen on some
parts of her state in the last 24 hours, causing
multiple road closures and transport chaos.
Emergency services received more than a
hundred calls for help and swift water rescue
crews have been despatched to assist dozens of
stranded residents.
Sunshine Coast Police District Supt Craig
Hawkins said 10 people were missing.
Fifteen Queensland dams are at capacity and
more rain is expected in the coming days.
“Since many catchments are now saturated
there is an increased risk of dangerous and
life-threatening flash flooding over the coming
days,” said Palaszczuk.
Heavy rain has also pelted the state of New
South Wales, where parts of Sydney were briefly
submerged on Tuesday. – AFP

KNOWLEDGE ON TRACK ... Student volunteers riding on a makeshift trolley that serves as a mobile library for children in the Philippine
municipality of Tagkawayan. – REUTERSPIX
World must brace for more extreme wildfires: UN
PARIS: The number of major wildfires
worldwide will rise sharply in coming
decades due to global warming, and
governments are ill-prepared for the death
and destruction such mega-blazes trail in
their wake, the United Nations (UN) warned
yesterday.
Even the most ambitious efforts to curb
greenhouse gas emissions will not prevent a
dramatic surge in the frequency of extreme
fire conditions, a report commissioned by the
UN Environment Programme concluded.
“By the end of the century, the probability
of wildfire events similar to Australia’s 2019 to
2020 Black Summer or the huge Arctic fires in
2020 occurring in a given year is likely to
increase by 31% to 57%,” it said.
The heating of the planet is turning
landscapes into tinderboxes, and more
extreme weather means stronger, hotter and
drier winds to fan the flames.
Such wildfires are burning where they have
always occurred, and are flaring up in
unexpected places such as drying peatlands
and thawing permafrost.
Large wildfires, which can rage
uncontrolled for days or weeks, cause
respiratory and heart problems, especially for
the elderly and very young.
A study in The Lancet concluded that
exposure to wildfire smoke results, on average,
in more than 30,000 deaths each year across 43
nations for which data was available.
Major blazes can also be devastating for
wildlife, pushing some endangered species
closer to the brink of extinction.
Nearly three billion mammals, reptiles,
birds and frogs were killed or harmed during
Australia’s Black Summer, scientists said.
Wildfires are made worse by climate
change.
Heatwaves, drought conditions and
reduced soil moisture amplified by global
warming have contributed to unprecedented
fires in the western US, Australia and the
Mediterranean basin in the last three years.
Even the Arctic has seen a dramatic
increase in blazes, including so-called
“zombie fires” that smoulder underground
throughout winter before bursting into flames
anew. – AFP
CYCLONE LASHES
MADAGASCAR
ANTANANARIVO: Cyclone Emnati overnight
lashed the island nation of Madagascar, still
reeling from the impact of another cyclone
earlier this month, local authorities said
yesterday. The cyclone “made landfall at
2300 GMT (7am yesterday in Malaysia) just
north of the southeastern district of
Manakara”, said National Risk Management
Office official Faly Aritiana Fabien. No
casualties have been reported yet. Weather
forecaster Meteo-Madagascar warned of
strong gusts, heavy rain and widespread
flooding around the southern and
southeastern districts. The storm is packing
winds of 100kph and gusts of 140kph.
United Nations agencies said on Tuesday
they were preparing “for the worst”. – AFP
AMERICAN MATERNAL
MORTALITY SOARS
WASHINGTON: The US maternal mortality
rate – already the worst in the industrialised
world – rose in 2020 to its highest level in
half a century, with black women three
times more likely to die than white women,
data showed yesterday. A National Centre
for Health Statistics report showed the rate
was 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births, far
higher than comparable countries, such as
Canada where it was 7.5 per 100,000.
Overall, 861 women were identified as
having died of maternal causes, which the
World Health Organisation defined as a
death while pregnant or within 42 days of
the end of pregnancy, from any cause
related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its
management. In 2019, the number of
deaths per 100,000 live US births was 20.1,
while in 2018 it was 17.4. – AFP