Chinese officials moved to give swine flu vaccinations to thousands of Muslims making a pilgrimage to Mecca in the coming days as health authorities reported the nation’s third death from the illness.
China has acted aggressively to detect and contain swine flu cases after being accused of failing to move quickly enough to stop the 2003 outbreak of SARS. Despite earlier measures such as strict quarantines, authorities say the virus is spreading from cities into the countryside.
A patient died from swine flu on Sunday in the far western region of Xinjiang, the health ministry said on Monday in a regular update, without providing details. The previous two deaths also occurred in the west, in Qinghai Province and Tibet.
FLU TALLY
The ministry said a total of 35,664 cases of swine flu had been reported on the mainland by Monday, with 2,600 new cases since Friday.
It said it was training health workers to respond to the surge in swine flu cases in autumn and the coming winter.
In northwestern Ningxia, home to China’s largest community of the Hui Muslim minority group, more than 2,000 Muslim pilgrims were vaccinated against swine flu, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Each person paid 5 yuan (US$0.73) to cover “equipment cost,” the report said, citing Ma Shouyu, head of religious affairs in Haiyuan, a county in southern Ningxia.
The pilgrims were scheduled to depart on chartered flights from Saturday to Nov. 12 for the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the report said.
All of China’s 12,700 Muslims making pilgrimage to Mecca this year will be inoculated against swine flu, Xinhua said, citing an earlier announcement by the China Islamic Association.
PRODUCERS
The government has licensed eight manufacturers in China to produce swine flu vaccines. Health authorities say they are expected to produce enough to inoculate 5 percent of China’s population of 1.3 billion people by the end of the year.
Priority groups include students, health workers and people suffering chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to