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Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Tuesday called for the public to adhere to strict social distancing rules despite a downward trend in the number of new daily coronavirus cases nationwide.

“We seem to have recovered a small level of normalcy of our daily lives, but COVID-19 still continues to threaten us from unseeable places,” Chung said during an interagency meeting on the COVID-19 response held at the government complex in Seoul. The current third wave of COVID-19 here reached its peak on Dec. 25, with the daily tally reaching 1,240, but has been showing signs of a slowdown since.

The daily figure stayed in the 500s over the past week before it dropped to a nearly two-month low of 389 on Monday. The nation reported 386 new cases on Tuesday.

Amid signs of a letup in new virus cases, health authorities decided to ease tough restrictions on previously shuttered or scaled back businesses that have suffered revenue losses.

Chung highlighted that while the number of cluster outbreaks has dropped during the past week, the number of transmissions from personal contacts with infected patients, within families, personal gatherings and workplaces, has surged 45 percent.

“The infection figure could soar again any time when such transmissions within our daily lives increase. If the situation gets worse before the Lunar New Year holiday, we may end up finding ourselves again on the defense,” Chung said.

The prime minister reiterated the importance of adhering to “air tight” antivirus measures and avoiding contact and seeking immediate medical help when suspicious symptoms are discovered.

Jan 19, 2021 South Korea’s agricultural ministry said Monday it has completed destroying 18.8 million poultry to prevent the spread of highly pathogenic bird flu among local farms, with the number set to further rise down the road on the piling up of new cases.

The country has confirmed 66 cases of the malign H5N8 strain of avian influenza since late November, including the latest case from a duck farm in Gimje, about 260 kilometers southwest of Seoul, the previous day, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Authorities are required to cull all poultry within a 3-kilometer radius of infected farms.

Later in the day, the ministry said another suspected case was reported from an egg farm in Eumseong, North Chungcheong Province. The farm was raising 400,000 chickens.

Gyeonngi Province surrounding the capital city accounted for 17 cases, and North Jeolla Province took up 14 infections.

Amid growing concerns over virus transmission from migratory birds to poultry, the country has so far confirmed 74 cases of highly pathogenic bird flu from wild bird habitats. Some 20 suspected cases are also under investigation.

With millions of birds being culled, the local price of eggs and chicken products also rose sharply.

The local price of fresh eggs increased 25.9 percent over the past week from a year earlier, while that of chicken shot up 10.6 percent, according to the latest data provided by the ministry on Monday.

“Vaksin adalah kunci dan senjata ampuh yang akan membuat kita sehat,” kata juru bicara kementerian Dr. Mohammed Al-Abd Al-Aly.

Dia mengatakan warga dan penduduk yang memiliki nomor identitas nasional atau nomor kependudukan yang valid berhak untuk menerima vaksin melalui aplikasi “Sehaty”.

Al-Abd Al-Aly juga mengatakan bahwa sejauh ini tidak ada efek samping dari vaksin yang terdeteksi. “Indikator pencatatan kasus yang dikonfirmasi, pemulihan dan kasus kritis di Kerajaan bergerak menuju kepositifan dan penurunan,” katanya kepada wartawan.

Arab Saudi memulai kampanye inokulasi pada 17 Desember dan merupakan negara Arab pertama yang menggunakan vaksin Pfizer-BioNTech.

Arab Saudi mengkonfirmasi 176 kasus baru pada hari Minggu, meningkatkan total menjadi 364.929 kasus, di mana 1.919 kasus aktif masih menerima perawatan medis, dan 319 kasus kritis.

Kerajaan juga mengonfirmasi lima kematian terkait virus dalam 24 jam sebelumnya dan 146 orang telah pulih.

Al-Abd Al-Aly menambahkan bahwa pusat dan fasilitas yang berafiliasi dengan Kementerian Kesehatan terus memberikan layanan kesehatan, termasuk melakukan tes dan pemeriksaan, di seluruh Kerajaan.

挪威药品管理局在书面回应中表示，该国已经评估了13例死亡病例，另外16例还在评估中，所有死亡病例都是涉及”患有严重前期病史的老年人”，”大部分对这款疫苗产生了预期中的副作用，例如恶心、呕吐、发烧、注射部位的局部不良反应以及身体基本状况的恶化”。

这些情况让挪威当局担心，这款新冠疫苗对于高龄者、身患绝症者而言可能过于危险。

挪威公共卫生研究所指出：”对于那些身体极为脆弱的人，即便是相对轻度的疫苗副作用也可能造成严重的后果。对于那些来日无多的人而言，疫苗的益处可能是非常有限或者无关紧要的。”

挪威药品管理局称：”我们了解到其他国家也有死亡报告，但还没有完整的细节。”该机构表示，不同国家对于优先接种疫苗群体的安排不同，这也会给这些关于疫苗副作用（其中也包括死亡）的报告带来影响。”在接种疫苗前，挪威药品管理局已经告知，在对高龄以及重病患者进行接种时，可能在接种一段时间后出现死亡现象。这并不意味着，疫苗接种与死亡存在因果联系。针对已知的死亡事件，我们认为，疫苗的常见和已知副作用可能对严重的病情、致命后果起到了推波助澜的作用。”

路透社报道，谭德塞在世卫组织年度会议开幕式上以虚拟形式说，疫苗公平分配的前景处于“严重风险”，而冠病疫苗全球获取机制（简称COVAX）将于下个月开始分发疫苗。

谭德塞指出，去年全球共签署了44项疫苗双边协议，今年至少已经签署了12项协议。他说，这可能会延迟COVAX的运送，并造成囤积混乱的市场、不协调的反应以及持续的社会和经济中断的情况。

他指出，此类的“以我为先”的做法使全球最贫穷和最脆弱的国家处于危险之中。“最终，这种做法只会延长大流行。”他呼吁各国避免再次犯下2010年甲型H1N1流感（猪流感）和爱之病毒大流行的错误。

谭德塞说，49个收入较高的国家已经接种了3900多万剂疫苗，而一个贫穷国家只接种了25剂疫苗。布基纳法索的一位代表代表非洲集团对会议表示关切，认为少数国家“清走”了大部分供应品。

观察人士说，这次会议将持续到下周二，这是世界卫生组织70多年历史中最重要的会议之一，可能会在大流行结束后很长一段时间影响其在全球卫生中的作用。