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international_peoplesdailyng@yahoo.com

China Covid: More than 88 million people in Henan infected, official says

Nearly 90% of people in Henan, China’s third most populous province, have now been infected with Covid, local health officials say.

Provincial official Kan Quancheng revealed the figure - amounting to about 88.5 million people - at a press conference.

China is battling an unprecedented surge in cases after abandoning zero-Covid policies in December.

The move followed rare protests against lockdowns, quarantines and mass tests.

Mr Kan did not specify a timeline for when all the infections happened - but as China’s previous zero-Covid policy kept cases to a minimum, it’s likely the vast majority of Henan’s infections occurred in the past few weeks.

He said visits to fever clinics in Henan province peaked on 19 December “after which it showed a continuous downward trend”.

The Henan provincial figures are in stark contrast to Covid figures from the central government

According to official data, just 120,000 people in the country of 1.4 billion have been infected and 30 died since the shift in Covid policy.

Meanwhile on Sunday, authorities reported three Covid deaths in mainland China, one more than the day before.

However, with the definition of Covid deaths narrowed and mass testing no longer compulsory, government data is no longer reflective of the true scale of the outbreak.

Other local and provincial officials have also been providing very different data to that from the central government. On Christmas Eve, a senior health official in the port city of Qingdao reported that half a million people were being infected each day. Those case figures were swiftly removed from news reports.

Meanwhile Chinese health officials said they would not include Pfizer’s antiviral Covid medicine Paxlovid in its basic medical insurance schemes as a result of the high price quoted by the US firm.

The drug, temporarily covered by China’s broad healthcare insurance scheme until 31 March, has seen a sharp increase in demand since China’s Covid cases surged last month.

Pfizer would continue to collaborate with the Chinese government and all relevant stakeholders to “secure and adequate supply” of the medicine in China, the company said in a statement.

On Sunday, Beijing also lifted mandatory quarantine for all international arrivals and opened its border with Hong Kong.

In the first wave of pre-holiday travel, official data showed that 34.7 million people travelled domestically on Saturday. This represented an increase of more than a third compared to last year, according to state media.

Infections are expected to soar as the country celebrates Lunar New Year later this month, with millions expected to travel

California weather: State braces for more storms after 12 killed

California is bracing for more severe weather this week, with forecasters warning of an incoming “relentless parade of cyclones”.

The US state has already suffered a week of torrential downpours and damaging winds that killed 12 people in 10 days, Governor Gavin Newsom said.

More than 120,000 people are still without power as of Monday morning.

The governor warned on Sunday that the most brutal weather is due in the next 48 hours.

“We expect to see the worst of it still ahead of us,” Governor Newsom said at a news conference. “Don’t test fate.”

This new round of severe weather will bring heavy rain on already flooded rivers, damaging winds that are expected to topple trees and power lines, and heavy snow in northeast California.

The US National Weather Service (NWS) said the heaviest and most widespread rain will likely occur around Tuesday morning and afternoon, and have issued a flood warning in areas around Los Angeles, including Orange County and the San Bernardino County Mountains.

The Sacramento Valley is also under a flood advisory. Schools in and around Sacramento have cancelled classes on Monday in anticipation of the storm and amidst widespread power outages.

US president Joe Biden declared a state of emergency for California on Monday, which allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also known as FEMA, to provide disaster relief.

In the last week, California has experienced two overlapping weather phenomena - an atmospheric river, where an airborne stream of dense moisture flows in from the ocean, and a bomb cyclone, a storm with a rapid drop in pressure that creates a cyclone effect.

Last week’s storms inflicted widespread damage in northern California and dumped record-breaking rain.

The storm damaged homes and businesses, and killed at least 12 people. Among the victims was a toddler who died after a redwood tree fell onto a mobile home in northern California.

A woman who lived in a homeless encampment along the Sacramento River also died on Saturday when a tree branch fell on her tent.

Much of the area hit by heavy rainfall has been under extreme drought conditions. Last year, California issued caps on how much water residents can use in an effort to conserve its depleting supply.

Despite the rain, much of the state remains under moderate to extreme

California is still reeling from last week’s severe weather, which brought widespread damage in the state’s northern region

Brazil Congress: Mass arrests as Lula condemns ‘terrorist’ riots

About 1,200 people have been arrested in Brazil after supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court.

The rioting came a week after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in.

He condemned the “terrorist acts” and vowed to punish the perpetrators.

Mr Bolsonaro has not admitted defeat and flew to the US before the handover ceremony. Unconfirmed reports say he is in hospital in Florida.

The new president - widely known as Lula - and the heads of Congress and the Supreme Court “reject the terrorist acts and criminal, coup-mongering vandalism that occurred” during the riots.

The dramatic scenes saw thousands of protesters clad in yellow Brazil football shirts and flags overrun police and ransack the heart of the Brazilian state.

Lula was forced to declare emergency powers.

On Monday morning, heavily armed officers started dismantling a camp of Mr Bolsonaro’s supporters in Brasilia - one of a number that have been set up outside army barracks around the country since October’s election.

Brasília’s Civil Police said an additional 300 people were detained on Sunday.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino said some 40 buses which had been used to transport

Soldiers have begun dismantling the camp outside army headquarters

protesters to the capital had been seized.

Mr Bolsonaro condemned the attack and denied responsibility for encouraging the rioters in a post on Twitter some six hours after violence broke out.

Meanwhile, Brasília governor, Ibaneis Rocha, has been removed from his post for 90 days by the Supreme Court.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes accused him of failing to prevent the riot and of being “painfully silent” in the face of the attack. Mr Rocha has apologised for Sunday’s events.

Video shared by the Brazilian outlet O Globo showed some officers laughing and taking photos together as demonstrators