The Asian Star - May 23, 2020

www.theasianstar.com

Vol 19 - Issue 17

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Andrew Scheer accuses Trudeau of letting COVID-19 money go to ‘fraudsters’ and ‘criminals’ Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is accusing the Liberal government of allowing “fraudsters” and “criminals” to abuse federal aid meant to support unemployed Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The outgoing opposition leader is once again calling on the Liberals to hold more frequent meetings in the House of Commons as COVID-19 continues to spread. Scheer suggested the current arrangement — two virtual meetings and one in-person session each week — is not sufficient for the opposition to hold the government to account. “Taxpayers deserve to know how the government is spending their money,” Scheer told reporters at a press conference in Ottawa Tuesday. “Especially since we recently learned that Justin Trudeau is allowing the (Canada Emergency Response Benefit) to be paid out to fraudsters each month. That money should be going to help Canadians who are legitimately struggling, not criminals and the people who are intentionally gaming the system.”

Continued on page 6

BC Health Minister warns US border to be closed for ‘significant period of time’ As the federal government extends the ban on non-essential travel with the U.S. by another 30 days, British Columbia’s health minister has made it clear he doesn’t expect it to be reopened next month — likely even longer. Adrian Dix told reporters Tuesday that while he’s pleased with the federal government’s decision as they have jurisdiction over borders, he wouldn’t support reopening the borders to leisure travel on June 21 unless the United States makes great strides in its COVID-19

Tel:604-591-5423

COVID-19 update

BC confirms new outbreak at federal prison and 3 more deaths from COVID-19 Another 12 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in B.C., and three more people have died. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced Thursday that B.C. has now confirmed 2,479 total cases of the novel coronavirus, including 152 people who have died. A total of 2,020 patients have recovered from their illness, which means there are now 307 active cases in the province. As of Thursday, there are 43 COVID-19 patients in hospital, including eight in intensive care.

Henry said health officials have confirmed a new community outbreak at Matsqui Institution, a federal prison in Abbotsford, where one person has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, the outbreak at the United Poultry processing plant in Vancouver has

Continued on page 6

South Asian man covers first two months rent for Aldergrove food bank in new digs Volunteers arrived early, and by the dozen – all wearing masks – they hauled rooms full of food and supplies to their new unit at Countryside Shopping centre. Little did they know, an Aldergrove resident was going to pay them a surprise visit. Sunny Sharma, a realtor who owns several storefront units on the 27000-block of Fraser Highway and Alder Inn’s liquor store, brought the group a housewarming gift. With him was Sukh Mahil – Sharma’s friend since he was 10 years old and current co-worker.

The two grew up together in Abbotsford, but now both live locally. Food bank managers Mary van Zuuk and Tannis Percival were elated to receive a $1,000 cheque from the pair. “This will cover two month’s rent for us,” Percival exclaimed, through the sounds of boxes being carried and shelving units being set-up in their new digs.

Continued on page 9

Continued on page 9

Sikh kitchens feed Delhi’s masses amid COVID-19 lockdown At first, the kitchen at the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara cooked 40,000 meals each day for the hungry who live on the streets of India’s capital city, or who have lost their livelihoods to the coronavirus lockdown. But the need was greater than that. So workers at the golden-domed temple in central New Delhi made 80,000

meals daily. Then 100,000. Soon, they expect to be making 300,000 -- all provided free to the growing ranks of the unfortunate. For centuries the faithful have flocked to the temple for its healing waters and a free meal at the community kitchen, the symbol of equality found at every Sikh temple complex and open to all visitors.

The Bangla Sahib Gurdwara has remained open through wars and plagues, serving millions of people simple vegetarian food on the cool marble floor of its enormous dining hall. But during India’s ongoing lockdown among the world’s most stringent religious congregations are banned.

Toronto based South Asian scientist believes he has found a cure for COVID-19 Sachdev Sidhu like to talk about what his team has accomplished in their lab at the University of Toronto’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research.

A cure. For the coronavirus. For SARSCoV-2. For the COVID-19 disease that has

killed upwards of 320,000 people around the planet.

“Yes, I believe ‘cure’ is the proper word,’’ the molecular engineer says, almost blandly. “They would no

longer be ill. They would no longer have the virus in their system. That’s a cure.’’

“Yes, I believe ‘cure’ is the proper word,’’ the molecular engineer says, almost blandly.

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www.theasianstar.com

Vol 19 - Issue 17

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Number of CERB claimants topped number of jobless by a million last month, statistics show When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked about the possibility of widespread fraud in the government’s emergency benefits program, he made a compelling suggestion: just look at the unemployment numbers.

The vast swath of Canadians rendered jobless by the pandemic made it imperative to dispense money quickly and with few questions asked, he said last Thursday.

Yet those figures raise questions about who exactly is getting the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

Statistics Canada’s labour-force survey for last month, completed April 18, points to three million people having lost their jobs and another 2.5 million working less than half their normal hours since the pandemic started — 5.5 million in total.

PM shrugs off ‘few’ CERB fraudsters, saying Ottawa didn’t want to ‘paralyze’ payments program with checks Exclusive: New memo tells staff to make CERB payment even if claimant quit job voluntarily or was fired for cause ‘Do not impose a stop pay’: Federal workers

ordered to ignore cheating in CERB and EI claims But by April 19, the government had received CERB claims from 6.7 million people, a difference of more than a million people.

Economists are divided about what that means. Some suggest it’s simply a statistical anomaly, the employment numbers not lining up chronologically with CERB stats.

“It’s close enough that it’s likely a timing issue,” said David Macdonald, a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Others believe it’s at least partly explained

by Canadians taking advantage of a wideopen benefits scheme, legally or not.

“The capacity for abuse or opportunistic behaviour in this program is enormous,” said Philip Cross, a former Statistics Canada economist and fellow at the MacdonaldLaurier Institute. “If you advertise that you’re going to be approved — no questions asked — you’re going to get pensioners applying for it.”

A spokeswoman for Ahmed Hussen, the Families, children and social development

minister, said late Tuesday there are several factors explaining the discrepancy in figures, including the fact that the CERB number is cumulative and includes people who no longer receive the benefit because they’ve returned to work.

Tel:604-591-5423 At the very least, the statistics gap suggests there is still much to learn about one of the priciest government aid programs ever unfolded in Canada, which has dispensed $35 billion in a little over a month.

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OPINION

Saturday, May 23, 2020

You’re raising your carbon tax during a global pandemic, Canadian govt asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has chosen to make life more expensive for Canadians by raising the federal carbon tax by 50 per cent amidst the COVID-19 economic and health crisis. Meanwhile, governments around the world are moving in the opposite direction.

Why? Because hiking taxes during a global pandemic is a bad idea. Provinces have already

tapped the brakes on their own carbon tax hikes. British Columbia Premier John Horgan announced he would not be going forward with his planned April 1 carbon tax hike. Instead of mirroring the federal increase, Newfoundland and Labrador is maintaining its tax at $20 per tonne. The price of carbon allowances in the

Quebec-California cap-and-trade system has also fallen due to COVID-19 and current macroeconomic realities. The European Union’s cap-and-trade scheme, which applies to 30 countries, has also seen its carbon tax rate drop significantly. For most of 2019 and early 2020, EU carbon prices traded around €25 per tonne before nosediving to around €15 per tonne in March. The EU’s cap-and-trade carbon tax rate, which varies according to market conditions, has fallen 32 per cent below its 2020 peak, according to the most recent data available. Although the tax rate has increased since bottoming out, S&P Global Platts Analytics forecasts the COVID-19 shock will continue to exert downward pressure in the cap-and-trade market. Other counties are also providing carbon tax relief. The Norwegian government reduced its carbon tax rates on natural gas and liquified petroleum gas to zero and will keep them below pre-coronavirus levels until 2024. Norway also deferred payments on various fuel taxes until June 18.

Estonia’s finance minister, Martin Helme, formally called for his country to consider leaving the EU’s cap-and-trade carbon tax system to provide relief for taxpayers.

The prime minister later announced that Estonia would not seek to leave the EU’s carbon tax system but lowered the excise tax on electricity to the minimum allowed by the EU and also reduced its excise taxes on diesel, light and heavy fuel oil, shale oil and natural gas. Helme explained: “Due to the economic downturn, both people’s incomes and the revenue of companies are declining, but daily household expenses such as electricity or gas bills still need to be paid.

To better cope with them, we are reducing excise duty rates on gas and electricity for two years.”

Outside the EU: the United Kingdom is saving its taxpayers between £15 million and £20 million per year by walking back its plan to increase its carbon tax topup; New Zealand’s cap-and-trade tax rate has fallen by more than 20 per cent this year; and South Africa pushed back carbon tax payments by three months.

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From page 1

Saturday, May 23, 2020

BC confirms new outbreak at federal prison and 3 more deaths from COVID-19 has been declared over There are currently 14 active outbreaks in long-term care and assisted living, along with three in hospital acute care units. Henry also addressed recent media reports that show women account for the majority of people who’ve died of COVID-19 in Canada. She said the opposite is true in B.C. While male patients make up 48 per cent of confirmed cases to date, 60 per cent of those hospitalized and 62 per cent of those who have died are men.

Henry said there are studies under way around the world attempting to determine the reason for gender imbalances in deaths and hospitalizations.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Adrian Dix provided an update on the provincial order stating that long-term care

staff can only work at a single facility. He said that of the 545 facilities that have employed people who work in multiple sites, 499 have completed their single-site plan. Dix described the process of implementing this order as complex but necessary to control the spread of the virus. Camping in provincial parks limited to B.C. residents Earlier Thursday, the province announced B.C. Parks campsites will be closed to non-B.C. residents this summer.

Non-B.C. residents with existing reservations must contact the B.C. Parks call centre before June 15 to cancel and receive a full refund.

Also Thursday, TransLink announced it was beginning to restore service to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. It is recommending commuters wear masks while riding on public transit.

Andrew Scheer accuses Trudeau of letting COVID-19 money go to ‘fraudsters’ and ‘criminals’ Scheer was referring to recent reports in the National Post and CBC that suggested bureaucrats were being asked to ignore potentially fraudulent claims for the emergency benefit, which provides $500 a week to Canadians unable to work while the economy remains in shutdown.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stood by the decision to move the money out quickly during the crisis, even at the risk that some would try to take advantage of the situation. The Liberal government has repeatedly said it will attempt to recoup improperly claimed benefits after the immediate crisis passes. “The choice we made was to get the money out to people immediately when they needed

it so we could do the social (distancing), so we could stay home the way we needed to and make sure that the fraudsters get caught as we move forward,� Trudeau recently told reporters.A spokesperson for Scheer said the Conservatives don’t buy that argument, and held the Liberals could have processed millions of claims while investigating the “red-flagged cases.�Scheer has been focused on securing a return for inperson House of Commons meetings for weeks, arguing that the Liberals’ emergency efforts to manage the COVID-19 outbreak have been improved by opposition scrutiny.But Trudeau noted Tuesday the twice-weekly virtual sittings allow MPs who represent communities far from Ottawa to participate in the debate.

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New Zealand’s PM is most popular leader in a century as country goes days with no COVID-19 cases

N

ew Zealand has found no new Covid-19 cases in the past two days, just as a new poll named Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern the country’s most popular leader in 100 years thanks to her pandemic response.

Key facts: Tuesday was the second day in a row that no new Covid-19 cases were counted in New Zealand, following weeks of a consistent drop in the country’s daily infection rate, with only 19 new Covid-19 registered in all of May. Ardern, the country’s youngest prime minister, is also the most popular in a century according to a Newshub-Reid Research poll released Monday, with nearly 60% of those surveyed calling her their preferred leader. Ardern’s popularity has surged since she ordered the country’s strict lockdown, her approval rate

jumping about 20 points since the last poll and as almost 92% of respondents say they support the measures she implemented.

Though no new cases have been found since a single new confirmed case Sunday, the number of total cases increased by four Tuesday to account for four New Zealand nationals who tested positive after being stuck on a cruise ship in Uruguay who have since recovered and returned home.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a press conference that the country still has “a long way to go,” before New Zealand will declare the virus contained and continue with the final

phase of their reopening plan. Testing efforts are still ongoing, as 3,125 Covid-19 tests were performed on Monday with nearly 234,000 having been done to date nationwide.

If new, tech-savvy contact tracing efforts will help further curb the spread of Covid-19. New Zealand will release a contact tracing mobile phone app Wednesday, to act as a “digital diary,” Ardern said. New Zealanders will be encouraged to scan QR codes at establishments they visit to record where they have been in case they, or someone they may have been exposed to tests positive for the virus. The Ministry of Health will save the information for about a month before deleting it and will not share

the data, according to the government.

Key background: New Zealand has reported just more than 1,500 people infected—including both confirmed and probable cases—and only 21 deaths, a relatively low figure for its population of 5 million. Experts believe this is largely thanks to the strict lockdown Ardern put into place in March, once the country counted more than 100 Covid-19 cases. The country’s daily infection rate has dropped consistently since the first part of April, believed to have been New Zealand’s Covid-19 peak.

Of all the country’s cases recorded, 96% have been registered as recovered, with only two patients being treated in hospitals for Covid-19 nationwide on Tuesday. New Zealand continued to slowly roll back its nationwide lockdown last week as cafes, retail shops and restaurants were permitted to open their doors as long as they enforced social distancing guidelines.

Another day of no new COVID-19 cases in New Zealand (Newshub). New Zealand reports no new coronavirus cases for second straight day.

Toronto based South Asian scientist believes he has found the cure for COVID 19 From page 1 “They would no longer be ill. They would no longer have the virus in their system.

That’s a cure.’’ He’s certain he has invented a synthetic antibody to eliminate the symptoms — from mild to severe — that has sickened five million people worldwide.

At the very least, he says he’s kept pace with such multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical giants as Regeneron, which is fast-tracking clinical trials of its own therapeutic antibody as a potential remedy for COVID-19. “We both would eliminate the symptoms,’’ Sidhu explains in his office on College Street. “Our antibody keeps the virus from getting into a cell.’’ The paradox of frantic research amidst a pandemic is that urgency still demands patience, trial and error. Most potential breakthroughs fail. Yet Sidhu insists that his antibody — taken from E. coli bacteria and then grown in a Chinese hamster’s ovary cells and formally called 15033 because it’s literally the 15,033rd antibody his lab has concocted over many years — could be mass-produced within a month, maybe two, if federal health and research gatekeepers sign off. “We’re already talking to a few pharmaceutical companies. We’re trying to figure out, what’s the best way to scale it up? We’re also talking to the government. If they want to kick in some more money, we can keep it more Canadian and independent. Because now the question is, how do you make literally tons of it? “It’s kind of like making beer in vats. Clean out the tanks and do it again a few weeks later.

Give us millions of dollars and we’ll give you kilograms of the drug.’’To hit his aggressive time-line, Sidhu needs government support.

And, indeed, scientists at a National Research Council of Canada facility in Montreal are in discussion about potentially working with him, an NRC spokesperson confirmed. An early step. Skip the animal testing stage, Sidhu all but pleads. No reason to kill a bunch of monkeys. Because he’s “99 per cent sure” 15033 will work. To be clear, this is not a vaccine. Even if it works, it won’t prevent infection. Moderna Inc. on Monday announced that its potential COVID-19 vaccine, the first to be tested in USA.

Saturday, May 23, 2020

BC’s minimum wage increase of 75 cents will go ahead as planned, minister says British Columbia businesses devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic will still have to pay a scheduled increase in the minimum wage next month just as many are struggling to get back in operation. Labour Minister Harry Bains says the province will push ahead with the planned minimum wage increase on June 1 to $14.60 an hour from $13.85 an hour. He says the lowest paid workers need money in their pockets to help them support their livelihoods and contribute more dollars to local businesses.

Bains says B.C.’s economic restart plan launched this week after steady declines in COVID-19 cases aims to restore business confidence for employees, employers and customers during the ongoing pandemic.

From page 1

BC Health Minister warns US border to be closed for ‘significant period of time’

containment efforts. “We think it’s going to be almost certainly needed after one month from now and it’s going to be a significant period of time,” he said. “We are very hopeful, of course, that everyone in the United States to a maximum degree stays safe from this and recovers from this as quickly as possible but the situation is much less clear there — I’m not convinced that it will clear sufficiently in the next month to change at least my mind about whether we should open the border. I think it’s going to be significantly longer than that for visitors.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first restricted cross-border travel to essential goods and services on March 21, and it has been extended every 30 days since then. Tuesday morning, Trudeau announced the latest extension to “keep people in both of our countries safe.” The Canada Border Services Agency says last week, land crossing were down 88 per cent (95 per cent for non-truckers) while U.S. air travel was down 99 per cent; they say those figures are consistent with the week before.

In response to questions about how keen they are to visit the U.S. for shopping or vacations, British Columbians expressed hesitation due to high infection numbers and a reluctance by many Americans to wear masks or observe physical distancing measures in public. In

From page 1

He says the easing of some health restrictions allows for the full reopening of restaurants, hair salons, dental offices and other personal services, but employers and employees must follow WorkSafeBC guidelines to prevent a serious second wave of the novel coronavirus.

Bains says businesses can expect random inspections from officials who will be looking to enforce physical distancing requirements and the public posting of safety plans.

Washington state, where the population is 7.6 million compared to B.C.’s 5.1 million residents, they’ve seen roughly five times as many confirmed infections (18,611) compared to B.C. (2,446), with a similar comparison of deaths (1,002 in Wash., 146 in B.C.) The mayor of Bellingham, where many Metro Vancouver residents will go for cheap gas and groceries, describes the border shutdown as having “a huge impact” on local businesses.

“Nearly seven million Canadians come across the border and into Whatcom County every single year spending $138 million in our local economy,” said Seth Fleetwood, emphasizing that his county has significantly lower infections and deaths than the rest of the state. “We have a local health department task force that’s working right now with merchants from a variety of different economic sectors and they’re essentially putting together a series of recipes for health protocols for each sector and expectations that need to be in place before they can open up.” Whereas B.C. began Phase 2 of its economic recovery on Tuesday, Fleetwood said Bellingham is still a couple weeks away from doing so; the state has laid out eligibility requirements for counties to apply for Phase 2 based on infection numbers.

South Asian man covers first two months rent for Aldergrove food bank in new digs

“Knowing how [his] tenants are unable to pay rent right now,” Sharma explained that he wanted to make sure the non-profit was able to settle in successfully. “I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps,” he added. Sharma said his father Dave, landlord of the 27000-block of Fraser Highway storefronts, has specifically put money aside for a time such as this. Admittedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has strained the Sharmas’ tenants when it comes to covering the cost of rent this spring.

“My dad’s telling our tenants ‘I understand’,” not immediately pressuring them to take out loans or strain themselves otherwise in order to pay, the son said.

On Saturday, the Aldergrove Food Bank relocated from a hall at 27309 Fraser Hwy. – which is currently owned by the Janda Group of developers.

The building will be converted into a sales centre for the Aldergrove Town Centre redevelopment during May.

LOCAL

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LOCAL / NATIONAL

Saturday, May 23, 2020

‘Shadow-brokering’ leads to lifetime ban for South Asian mortgage pro A B.C. man has accepted a lifetime ban on registration as a mortgage or submortgage broker for submitting fake income and tax documents to banks on behalf of clients.

As part of a consent order reached last month with B.C.’s Registrar of Mortgage Brokers, Ricky Kanwal also admitted to allowing two unlicensed dealmakers to use him to get financing for people who would likely otherwise never have been able to get a loan.

It’s the latest in a series of orders connected to a crackdown on so-called “shadow brokering” — where unregistered individuals direct deals fronted by licensed brokers.

The maximum fine for shadow brokering appears to be $50,000. In recent years, the

provincial regulator has opened more than a dozen investigations into people accused of fronting for unlicensed brokers. The cases represent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of mortgages handed out during the B.C. real estate boom of the last decade. One case alone was estimated to have involved half a billion dollars worth of financing.

‘Found not to be genuine’ Although the regulator says it works with other authorities, few investigations — if any — appear to result in criminal fraud charges, despite the use of false tax and banking documents. Kanwal’s name previously arose in connection with an investigation into Vinita Devi Lal, a woman who was accused of giving instructions and directions to several Lower Mainland mortgage brokers.

At least one of those brokers has also been barred from the profession for 10 years.

Chris Carter, deputy registrar of mortgage brokers and vice-president of the B.C. Financial Services Authority, says the lifetime ban against Kanwal is a sign of how seriously the regulator takes the issue. “It is in many ways the ultimate regulatory sanction,” he said.

“When it comes to facilitating unregistered activity, at the end of the day, you’re undermining the integrity of the regulatory program, you’re undermining the integrity of industry and you’re placing the public at risk. The consent order doesn’t give an idea of the money involved. Kanwal admitted to acting on behalf of the two shadow brokers in connection with 41 mortgage applications submitted on behalf of 17 borrowers from

November 2015 to December 2016. According to the order, Kanwal’s files revealed three different versions of one client’s 2013 tax form “with an income ranging from $18,861 to $92,969.” He also had two different versions of the borrower’s 2014 tax documents where the total income ranged from $15,602 to $92,969.

In several applications, income statements and bank history statements “were found not to be genuine, and employment and income information were found to be inaccurate.”

‘It’s happening now as well’ The name of one of the two unlicensed people Kanwal worked with is redacted from the consent order. But other documents related to the case have identified her as Vinita Devi Lal, also known as Anita Gomes. The bulk of the files associated with Kanwal allegedly came from Lal.

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Saturday, May 23, 2020

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LOCAL / NATIONAL

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Vancouver officials ‘extremely disappointed’ by racist graffiti at famed Chinatown gate Vancouver’s Chinese-Canadian community has been targeted in yet another racist incident linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this week, the lions at the famed Millennium Gate in Chinatown were defaced with graffiti promoting anti-Asian sentiments in connection with the novel coronavirus.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for the city said officials are “extremely disappointed and saddened” by the vandalism.

“Racism, xenophobia and hate speech have no place in Vancouver and the city is appalled by the recent increase in anti-Asian discrimination that has occurred during the current pandemic,” the statement says.

ThegraffitiattheMillenniumGatelinkedantiAsian sentiments to COVID-19. (Sarah Ling)

City contractors with Goodbye Graffiti began removing the defacement Wednesday morning. According to the city, the company offers free removal of any hateful or racist graffiti from private property.

Vancouver is providing the Chinatown Business Improvement Association with funding to support extra security services during the pandemic, the statement says.

Indigenous woman says she was punched, told to ‘go back to Asia’ while walking in East Vancouver Recent weeks have seen an uptick in reports of anti-Asian racism in B.C. In a press conference Wednesday, Premier John Horgan addressed that trend, saying “Hate has no place in British Columbia.”

Psychiatric patient who didn’t return to hospital might pose risk to himself or public, police warn Coquitlam RCMP is asking the public for help in finding a patient they say is unlawfully at large after he failed to return to the city’s Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.

Ajia Richardson, 36, was reported missing from the facility on Colony Farm Road on Wednesday around 7 p.m. PT, and is now wanted on a warrant of committal, according to a police statement Thursday.

Richardson is described as an Indigenous

man, with short brown hair and brown eyes.

He is about six feet two inches tall and weighs 194 pounds.

Police said Richardson was last seen wearing a black jacket, white sneakers, beige pants and a white T-shirt.

RCMP are warning he might behave in a way that presents a risk to himself or the public, so if anyone sees him they are asked to stay clear and call 911 immediately.

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BC’s top doctor Bonnie Henry says 2nd wave of COVID-19 inevitable, but current lessons will guide response British Columbia’s top doctor says that a second wave of COVID-19 caused by the novel coronavirus is inevitable in Canada, but that the lessons learned over the past few months will help inform future responses.

“The optimist in me would like to think that maybe it will go away, and the virus will mutate and won’t become worse,” said Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry in an interview with Matt Galloway, host of CBC Radio’s The Current.

“Butyouknowwhat?We’veneverhadapandemic in recorded history that has not had a second wave.”

Henry, who was on the front lines of the country’s SARS outbreak from 2002 to 2003, has led B.C.’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. She has been praised for her response to the pandemic that successfully flattened the curve ahead of many other regions.

Dr. Bonnie Henry brings wealth of global experience to B.C.’s COVID-19 response Top doctor acknowledges B.C. faces ‘anxietyinducing’ week as province transitions to Phase 2 B.C. was the second province with a confirmed case of COVID-19, and with strict physical distancing measures, new infections and hospitalizations have steadily decreased.

On Tuesday, the province entered the second phase of its pandemic response with many businesses and public spaces, including restaurants and beaches reopening with restrictions.

“Now is our time to regroup, learn as much as we can over the coming weeks and months, and prepare,” Henry said.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says there might be some confusion about Phase 2 of B.C.’s reopening and it will take some time and patience to iron out.. 1:25 Testing, contact tracing crucial As the country slowly reopens, Henry said that testing will continue to be crucial, particularly when the flu returns in the fall.

“We need to be able to understand the

difference between influenza and COVID, and we’ll need to have testing in place to rapidly expand our testing if needed,” she said, adding that contact tracing for diagnosed cases will also play a role.

However, Henry pushed back at the idea of COVID-19 surveillance systems, such as those launched in China and Hong Kong, arguing they’re “probably not that helpful.”

“That one-on-one public health investigation is incredibly important, so if there [are] some applications that help us do that more efficiently, then that’s what we’re looking for.”

An inside look at Canada’s contact-tracing COVID-19 detectives With the potential for a second wave, Henry said B.C. is already considering what measures may return — without delivering another blow to the economy.

“What I hope we can do is create a level of safety so that we can get our economy going, our schools going, work going — but not to the level that we were in December [before the virus],” she said.

“We’ll be looking at what were the measures that worked best to prevent transmission, and if we start to see increases in COVID, those are the things that we can put in place rather than the blanket shut everything down as we did before.”

B.C. schools to reopen in June The most effective measures will be tested as the provincial economy reopens, and starting on June 1, students can voluntarily return to classrooms.

“We want to make sure that there’s not a long period of time where [students] don’t have that direct contact, but we need to do it in a way that’s safe,” Henry said.

While schools have remained open throughout the pandemic for some students, including children of essential workers, they will now be open to all.

BC’s minimum wage increase of 75 cents will go ahead as planned, minister says British Columbia businesses devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic will still have to pay a scheduled increase in the minimum wage next month just as many are struggling to get back in operation.

Labour Minister Harry Bains says the province will push ahead with the planned minimum wage increase on June 1 to $14.60 an hour from $13.85 an hour.

He says the lowest paid workers need money in their pockets to help them support their livelihoods and contribute more dollars to local businesses.

Bains says B.C.’s economic restart plan launched this week after steady declines in

COVID-19 cases aims to restore business confidence for employees, employers and customers during the ongoing pandemic.

He says the easing of some health restrictions allows for the full reopening of restaurants, hair salons, dental offices and other personal services, but employers and employees must follow WorkSafeBC guidelines to prevent a serious second wave of the novel coronavirus.

Bains says businesses can expect random inspections from officials who will be looking to enforce physical distancing requirements and the public posting of safety plans.

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BC closes its provincial camping sites to non-residents amid COVID-19 Campsites in B.C. provincial parks will be closed to people from outside the province this summer, as officials continue to adjust the rules to the coronavirus pandemic.

BC Parks said in a statement on Thursday that non-B.C. residents who already have reservations should call before June 15 to cancel and receive a full refund.

Reservations made after next Monday by non-residents will be subject to immediate cancellation without refund.

“The health and safety of our BC Parks staff, park operators and visitors continue to be our top priority. We are all in this together,” the agency said in the statement.

BC Parks did not say how it will determine who is a resident.

The province started reopening some provincial parks ahead of the May long weekend, roughly a month after they were shuttered amid concerns over COVID-19.

Body found in Stanley Park not suspicious, Vancouver police say Vancouver police and the B.C. Coroners Service have both launched investigations after a body was found in Stanley Park on Wednesday night.

VPD spokesman Sgt. Aaron Roed says officers responded to a report of a “sudden

death” on one of the park’s trails around 6 p.m.

Roed says, although it’s still early in the investigation, the death doesn’t appear to be suspicious.

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BC govt plans for wildfire season during COVID-19 pandemic The provincial government is calling on people to be vigilant about not starting wildfires, especially this year as firefighters implement new measures to prevent exposure to the COVID-19 virus.

Those measures include heightened cleaning of all vehicles and planes, and changes to the way firefighters stay in camps.

“We are ready,” said B.C. Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson at a news conference in Kamloops on Thursday.

“We have the funding, the expertise, the equipment and the people to deal with whatever is in store.”

He noted that the budget for wildfires increased this year by $35 million to $136 million, while air tanker and skimmer capacity have been increased. This year, 20 new air tankers have been added to the fleet to provide 15 per cent more fire-retardant capacity, while six skimmer planes have been added to provide 150 per cent more capacity.

Donaldson also urged British Columbians to be extra cautious and to push down the number of human-caused wildfires.

Figures from the B.C. Wildfire Service show people caused more than 54 per cent of the wildfires in the province last year “Although the start to the 2020 wildfire season has been relatively normal so far we must remain vigilant. In light

of the COVID-19 pandemic we must take extra precautions to minimize the number of human-caused wildfires. These types of fires are entirely preventable and divert valuable firefighting resources from naturally occurring fires,” said Donaldson.

Since April 1, there have been 139 wildfires in B.C., which is slightly below the average of about 172 by this time of year, according to the B.C. Wildfire Service.

Jody Lucius, a spokesperson for the B.C. Wildfire Service, says it has implemented new measures to avoid exposure to the virus, including new sanitization protocols in vehicles, helicopters and planes.

Service staff have new protective masks, and will be moving away from using multiperson tents at fire camps. New hand-washing stations will be set up at the camps, and there will be new camp kits that allow firefighters to stay in camps for longer periods of time.

There will also be no face-toface media interviews or media allowed in helicopters this year.

The service says it will also have protocol in place for any staff member in a camp who shows signs of illness.

Right now, the wildfire service will not be implementing COVID-19

70 charges against accused burglars actually just 30, Vancouver police admit A haul of charges against people accused of burglarizing storefronts during the pandemic isn’t what it appeared, Vancouver police admitted after questions from CTV News.

Instead of the 70 charges the department announced last week, two men actually face just 30 charges – an admission that comes as the force faces a tough budget fight with Vancouver city hall.

Last week, police said Jesse Palanio and Shane Duhamel faced a combined 70 counts of burglaries, many of which were at retail stores, pubs and restaurants during the pandemic But court files showed the count of charges was significantly fewer, at 45.

And some of those charges were related to incidents that happened before March 15, when

many of the social distancing measures that made businesses so vulnerable were in place.

Excluding those cases from before the pandemic began leaves just 30 charges – less than half the original number.

In a correction issued Wednesday, police said they recommended 70 counts but that only 30 were approved.

“This is a sensitive and important issue.

Real and reliable numbers matter so that council and the police board can make informed decisions and so that public trust and public safety can both be maintained,” said city councillor Christine Boyle.

Last week, Vancouver city council voted to reduce the budget of the Vancouver

TransLink recommends masks on public transit, as it begins to restore pre-COVID-19 service levels As B.C. continues to gradually reopen, TransLink is restoring service to levels similar to what commuters could expect before the COVID-19 pandemic and is recommending commuters wear masks while riding on public transit.

In a written statement, TransLink said that over the next several weeks, customers will notice changes at transit stations and on vehicles designed to improve sanitization, create space where possible and enhance personal safety.

“TransLink’s initiatives, many of which have been taken since the beginning of the pandemic, are now part

of a Safe Operating Action Plan. This plan will be implemented in phases to meet the needs of our customers as B.C.’s economy restarts,” the statement reads in part.

TransLink will also be monitoring passenger loads in order to deploy additional service at times and on routes where physical distancing is more difficult.

Commuters are recommended to travel outside of peak times, allow for more time in their commute and stay off transit entirely when sick.

Translink workers sanitize a Skytrain at VCC-Clark station as it prepares to return to pre-COVID service levels.

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Canada’s Coronavirus face mask rules announced he recommendations around wearing face masks in Canada to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have changed, but they’re still not mandatory.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he will start wearing a mask in public when he can’t physically distance from others, including to his appearances at parliament, to coincide with new recommendations from chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam. Wearing non-medical face coverings in public in Canada was no longer simply suggested, Tam said, but recommended to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“That is my personal choice. That is aligned, I think, with what public health is

recommending,” Trudeau said. “I think we all need to adjust to what works in our c i rc u mst an c e s and keep safety at the forefront of what we are doing.”

So what do you need to know about this new “personal choice” public health is recommending? And how will it impact you? What changed in Canada’s stance on mask-wearing? Wednesday’s announcement is a shifting of the language around the federal government’s stance on

UBC expert says COVID-19 vaccine possible in 12 to 18 months While Phase 2 of B.C.’s reopening plan has eased some restrictions related to COVID-19, other things like large gatherings won’t be able to happen again until a vaccine or treatment is available. So how long could that take?

According to UBC pharmaceutical sciences professor Dr. Fawziah Lalji, while it’s difficult to predict an exact timeline, if things go well with clinical trials, she anticipates we might be looking at a vaccine in 12 to 18 months.

“I feel that there is so much collaboration going on and (it’s the) first time I’ve seen so much funding into a vaccine program,” Lalji said, and added there are currently 169 vaccine candidates worldwide. One is being tested in Canada’s first clinical trial, a joint effort between Dalhousie University and a Chinese company, which is already in phase two.

“It seems to be the furthest along and it hasn’t had any safety issues so far, so I’m kind of keeping my eye on that,” Lalji said.

Antibody testing, like the kind that was recently approved by Health Canada, will also help researchers understand what immunity may look like.

“Individuals who had SARS-COVID-1, who had a severe infection, immunity lasted about three years for them. But we know from a common cold, which is also a coronavirus, it only lasts a month,” Lalji said. “We kind of have to do long-term studies in those patients to see how fast is it waning over time, and whether we are going to need another booster dose, or every year dose like the flu vaccine, or whether it’s going to be forever like measles.”

BC Liberals reaffirm call for PPE funding to protect workers Press release Over a week since Official Opposition Leader Andrew Wilkinson called on the provincial government to help with funding to provide access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for small businesses, the BC Liberals are again pushing John Horgan for action.

“Last Tuesday I wrote to Premier Horgan hoping to get his support for funding PPE access for small businesses and non-profits looking to safely reopen but we have yet to see any action on this important requirement for safely restarting our economy,” said Wilkinson.

“Without help to buy required PPE and safety upgrades, local businesses and organizations might be unable to reopen and many British Columbians could remain jobless.”

Since the request was sent to the Premier last week, other jurisdictions have adopted similar policies of helping secure PPE for businesses and are taking steps to prevent price gouging. Manitoba created B2B

Manitoba, an online marketplace to connect non-medical grade personal protective equipment suppliers with businesses who may need PPE to open and operate safely.

“Last week we called attention to the over $2 billion surplus at WorkSafeBC, which businesses across the province have paid into for years and could now be utilized to reimburse employers for the cost of PPE and safety infrastructure upgrades,” added MLA John Martin, the BC Liberal Labour Critic. “With hundreds of thousands of people out of work and businesses on the edge of shutting down for good, this government needs to help small businesses secure PPE to protect the safety of workers and help rebuild our economy.”

Wilkinson’s May 11th letter also called for clarity on WorkSafeBC guidelines for the reopening of businesses and organizations as well as a retroactive rebate or credit on WorkSafeBC premiums and payroll taxes.

mask-wearing. Tam called her previous language on the matter “permissive,” while Wednesday’s update is a “specific recommendation.”

“Where COVID-19 activity is occurring, use of non-medical masks or face coverings is recommended as an added layer of protection when physical distancing is difficult to maintain,” Tam said. “And staying home when

sick is a must, always and everywhere.”

Previously, Tam’s advice has shifted with scientific opinion on mask-wearing. Early on, officials recommended masks for people showing symptoms who needed to go out.

But since further research has been done on asymptomatic transmission — people with no symptoms passing the virus on — the stance shifted to be more firm over time.

“We need to flexibly change our measures as we get more information,” Tam said.

16 Xiaoning Sui avoided additional jail time after admitting she paid $400K to secure her son’s entry to UCLA A U.S. judge ordered a Chinese citizen who lives in B.C. to pay a $250,000 US fine after she admitted to paying $400,000 US to secure her son’s admission to the University of California, Los Angeles, through bribery as a purported soccer recruit.

Xiaoning Sui, 48, appeared before a federal judge in Boston via a Zoom videoconference, in the second sentencing to take place remotely in the U.S. college admissions scandal because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sui pleaded guilty in February to federal programs bribery under a plea agreement that would spare her from further time behind bars after she spent five months in jail in Spain, where she was arrested in September while travelling in Europe.

Prosecutors said the five months was comparable to the sentences imposed on other parents charged in the scandal. Sui’s lawyer, Martin Weinberg, argued his client was “deeply regretful” and had been punished enough.

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Surrey mom fined $250K in USA college admissions bribe But while U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock agreed in sentencing her to time served that Sui had spent enough time in prison, he said she deserved the maximum fine possible.

“It’s a money crime,” he said.

“And it seems to me that it ought to be paid for in money, too.”

Sui is among 53 people charged with participating in a scheme in which wealthy parents conspired with a California college admissions consultant to use bribery and other forms of fraud to secure the admission of their children to top schools.

William “Rick” Singer, the consultant, pleaded guilty last year and admitted he facilitated cheating on college entrance exams and bribed university sports coaches to secure the admission of his clients’ children as fake athletic recruits.

The 36 parents charged since March 2019 include Full House star Lori Loughlin, who

is

fighting the charges.

David Sidoo, another parent from British Columbia, after a federal court hearing in Boston on March 15. Sidoo has also pleaded guilty in the scandal.

(Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via The Associated Press) David Sidoo, a noted businessman and philanthropist from Vancouver, pleaded guilty in March to a mail fraud conspiracy charge. The former CFL athlete said he paid the admissions consultant $200,000 to have someone pose as his sons using fake ID to secure higher scores on their SATs, prosecutors said. $400K to secure admission Prosecutors said that in August 2018, Singer told Sui on a call recorded through a wiretap that it would cost $400,000 to secure her son’s admission to U.S. universities, including UCLA. To obtain his admission, Singer turned to Jorge

Salcedo, a UCLA soccer coach, who had already accepted $100,000 to facilitate the admission of the daughter of another of Singer’s clients to the school as a soccer recruit, prosecutors said.

Mother who paid $6.5M US to college scammer says she was duped After Singer began co-operating with investigators, he called Sui and told her he planned to use $100,000 of the $400,000 to pay the coach, and she wired him the money, prosecutors said.

In April, Salcedo agreed to plead guilty.

RCMP believe they’ve identified mother abandoned her baby in Port Coquitlam

The RCMP believe they have identified the mother of a baby found abandoned at Port Coquitlam townhouse complex on Saturday.

The infant was discovered around 1 pm on the doorsteps of a home in the 2300-block of Ranger Lane.

“As with all newborn infants, the child required medical care and supervision, and was taken to hospital immediately. The baby is now recovering well,” PoCo RCMP said in a news release.

Mounties said Tuesday that investigators found a woman believed to be the baby’s mom and that she is also receiving medical care. RCMP investigators say the woman, whose name wasn’t released, doesn’t have a past history with police.

No charges have been laid.

“With the immediate medical needs of everyone involved now taken care of, major crime investigators will continue to gather statements and review physical and forensic evidence,” the RCMP said.

WestJet seeks exemption to section of Canada Labour Code covering group terminations WestJet is asking for an exemption to the section of the Canada Labour Code covering group terminations. In a letter to federal Labour Minister Filomena Tassi, the airline says it finds itself in “unprecedented circumstances with regards to the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent decline in air travel prompted by containment measures worldwide.”

WestJet says abiding by group termination provisions in the Labour Code would be “unduly prejudicial to the interests of the company’s employees and to the company, and are seriously detrimental to the operations of the company’s industrial establishments.” The airline also said “measures are already in place to assist redundant employees which have substantially the same or the same effect” as the measures in the applicable section of the code.

Division IX of the Canada Labour Code is applicable if a federally regulated company plans to terminate more than 50 employees during a four-week period. Under those circumstances, certain provisions kick in designed to protect the employees and prevent a flood of people entering the labour market all at once.

Instead of the two weeks’ notice required for individuals, Division IX states employees who lose their job during a group termination are entitled to 16 weeks’ notice or pay in lieu of that notice.

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COVID-19 financial aid programs should have mechanisms to identify fraud and recoup money, says new AG nominee into CERB. The OAG has already been tasked

Financial aid programs like CERB should have mechanisms that allow the government to identify fraud and recoup the money, says the Trudeau government’s nominee for the role of Canada’s auditor general.

“I very much understand that many organizations were forced to make very quick decisions. And when we have to make decisions quickly, there is a chance that there are mistakes. When we’ll arrive to audit the (financial aid) programs, what we’d expect to find is a mechanism to identify mistakes,” said Karen Hogan, who was nominated to be the next Auditor General of Canada last week.

“And if there were mistakes, that there be a mechanism to rectify those mistakes, which includes having that money reimbursed if necessary,” she added.

Hogan was responding a question from Bloc

Québécois MP Maxime Blanchette-Joncas during a meeting of the Committee on Public Accounts. The MP asked for her thoughts on reports of Canadians who, mistakenly or intentionally, received COVID-19 aid payments to which they were not entitled.

Number of CERB claimants topped number of jobless by a million last month, statistics show PM shrugs off ‘few’ CERB fraudsters, saying Ottawa didn’t want to ‘paralyze’ payments program with checks New memo tells staff to make CERB payment even if claimant quit job voluntarily or was fired for cause Last week, the National Post reported on a

Inflation falls below zero in Canada for first time since 2009 Canadian inflation went negative for the first time since the 2009 recession after the coronavirus lockdown put the brakes on the world economy.

Consumer prices dropped 0.2 per cent in April from the same month a year earlier, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday from Ottawa. That’s down from a 0.9 per cent annual rate in March and 2.2 per cent in February.

The report adds inflation to the list of economic indicators showing an historic impact from the coronavirus pandemic. Collapsing gasoline prices have pulled inflation lower over the past two months, but weak demand should keep inflation at extremely low levels for an extended period, and could even spur worries about deflation. That will keep pressure off the

Bank of Canada to ease up on accommodation efforts any time soon.

Core inflation readings, which factor out volatile items like energy prices and are often seen as a better measure of underlying price pressure, declined to 1.8 per cent, from 1.83 per cent in the prior month, the lowest since January 2019.

From March, prices fell 0.7 per cent per cent, matching the largest one-month drop since 2008.

Statistics Canada also said it was unable to gather as much data as usual because inperson collection was suspended and some establishments were temporarily closed.

series of internal government memos that told civil servants to process Canada Emergency R e s p o n s e Benefit (CERB) even if they suspected fraud in some cases.

One said Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) staff should approve payments and not refer cases to the Employment Insurance integrity branch if they detect potential abuse.

Another set of instructions told ESDC staff Canadians should still receive CERB even if records indicate the applicant quit voluntarily or was fired for possible misconduct — seemingly in contradiction to the legislation.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded that “getting that help to the 99 per cent of Canadians who needed it quickly and rapidly — even if it meant accepting that one or two per cent might make fraudulent claims — was the choice that we gladly made” over rigorously checking every application.

But Hogan says those reports of fraud means it will likely expand the scope of the Office of the Auditor General’s (OAG) audit

by Parliament to audit the government’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When we have to make decisions quickly, there is a chance that there are mistakes “Making payments properly to Canadians is important. When we approach any audit, you have to look at the risk of fraud. As soon as we suspect an incidence of fraud, or we suspect fraud, it increases risk. In that case, it means it will increase our sample size or the work we will do,” Hogan told committee members.

Hogan, the current assistant auditor general whose nomination as AG has to be approved

by Parliament, warns that a lack of funding has severely hampered her office’s ability to fulfill all the audits asked of it in a timely manner.

“Having resource constraints puts a strain on our ability to deliver our mandate to the degree we would like to,” Hogan told the committee.

“One of the first things I will have to do is to continue the work of (predecessors) Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Ricard to ensure that we have adequate funding, both in the short term and in the long term,” she said.

The nominee stopped short of saying how much money her office requires, but her predecessor Sylvain Ricard has told parliamentarians over the last year that the OAG needs a $10.8 million top-up to its $88 million annual budget.

Bank of Canada warns of excess business, household debt from COVID-19 The Bank of Canada says there are signs in the country’s financial markets that suggest concern about the ability of companies to weather the COVID-19 economic crisis.

The central bank has spent the last two months making a flurry of policy decisions that has seen it slash its target interest rate and embark on an unprecedented bondbuying program to ease the flow of credit.

The report suggests these measures have helped ease liquidity strains and provide easy access to short-term credit for companies and households.

But it is warning this morning that a cash-flow problem for businesses seeing

sharp revenue declines during the crisis could soon develop into a solvency issue.

The Bank of Canada’s review of the country’s financial system says market prices point to a concern that defaults are likely to rise.

The report also raises concerns that household debt levels are likely to rise and become acute for households whose incomes don’t fully recover from the pandemic.

“We entered this global health crisis with a strong economy and resilient financial system.

This will support the recovery,” bank governor Stephen Poloz is quoted as saying in the review.

Housing prices could plummet 18% in a year as a mortgage ‘deferral cliff’ looms Cracks are finally appearing in Canada’s safe-as-houses property market. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation expects average home prices in the country to decline as much as 18 per cent in the next 12 months. “Looking at debt multiples of disposable income, that measure will climb from 176 per cent in late 2019 to well over 200 per cent through 2021,” Evan Siddall, chief executive officer told a parliamentary committee yesterday. “Moreover, CMHC is now forecasting a decline in average house prices of 9 – 18 per cent in the coming 12 months. The resulting combination of higher mortgage debt, declining house prices and increased unemployment is cause for concern for Canada’s longer-term financial stability.” Canadians’ ratio of gross debt to GDP was already at elevated levels at 99 per cent before COVID-19 struck earlier this year. That number is expected to climb to 130 per cent by the third quarter in Q3, before declining, according to CMHC estimates.

Siddall said that his agency was working to help manage a growing debt “deferral cliff ” that looms in the fall, when some unemployed people will need to start paying their mortgages again. “As much as one fifth of all mortgages could be in arrears if our economy has not recovered sufficiently.”

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Canada waited too long to close borders: Tam Canada’s top doc admits authorities were slow to act in closing the borders in response to COVID-19.

Dr. Theresa Tam, the country’s chief public health officer, said that quicker action could have been taken in responding to the global pandemic.

“The virus itself (was) travelling across the world very fast,” she told the standing Commons committee on health on Tuesday.

Noting that the virus’ epicentre was in China early in the pandemic, it wasn’t until cases started appearing in Europe and the United States that she says sparked real concern in public health circles over it spreading to Canada.

“At that time, because of a very few cases, we were doing incremental measures.”

Critics have argued that Canada’s reaction to COVID-19 was haphazardly slow, full of contradictory messaging and following the lead of both the World Health Organization and the Chinese government. China has come under fire for allegedly downplaying the dangers while the rest of the world scrambled to contain its spread.

On March 5, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended the decision to keep the borders open, dismissing calls to close them as “knee-jerk reactions” that were not required to keep people safe.

Two days after the U.S. declared a national emergency on March 13, Health Minister Patty Hajdu criticized calls to close the border, calling such measures “ineffective” against a global pandemic.

“Border measures are highly ineffective and, in some cases, can create harm,” she insisted, repeating her prior claims that closing borders could actually

harm attempts to mitigate the spread.

Trudeau also said on March 13 that Canada was effectively managing coronavirus without closing borders.

Days later, Canada did an aboutface and closed the borders, banning all foreign nationals for all but essential travel.

When asked by Bloc Quebecois MP Luc Theriault if Tam should’ve acted sooner, she said she wouldn’t have second-guessed policy makers advising against a shutdown.

Interrupted by Theriault who accused her of dodging his question, Tam relented.

“Could we have done it faster? Possibly,” she said.

“That is definitely something that could have happened faster.”

Saying the virus was travelling in “invisible ways,” Tam said a lot happened very quickly between March 13-18.

“In hindsight, yes, I think people could act faster and maybe in the future we would take different decisions and that remains to be looked at in lessons learned.”

While debate rages on when COVID-19 first emerged, Chinese government data suggests patient zero was a 55-year-old man from China’s Hubei province, diagnosed Nov. 17.

Hubei’s capital city Wuhan proved the pandemic’s epicentre, with 79,112 reported infections and 5,912 deaths — although actual figures may be much higher.

During the week of Dec. 15, Wuhan’s medical community became concerned about exponential increases of the mysterious illness, particularly after health-care workers at two separate hospitals fell ill Dec. 25.

Canada’s new climate targets, plastics ban likely to be delayed due to pandemic Canada’s national environment agenda is the latest thing to be upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, as plans for both beefing up national climate targets and banning some plastics are likely to be delayed.

Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told The Canadian Press late last week that the government remains firmly committed to its environmental promises, which were a key part of the Liberal 2019 re-election campaign.

However, he acknowledged that the efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in Canada will also slow the government’s ability to move on some of its environment goals.

“We’ve continued to work on a number of elements but there are some where we’ve had to delay,” Wilkinson said.

The clean fuel standard to require fuels like gasoline and diesel to burn more cleanly is being pushed back at least several months because of COVID-19.

Last month, the government moved the implementation date for new standards on liquid fuels like gasoline from Jan. 1, 2022, to just sometime in 2022. The proposed regulations that were to be published this spring are not coming now until the fall.

Last month, the government moved the implementation date for new standards on liquid fuels like gasoline from Jan. 1, 2022, to sometime in 2022. The proposed regulations that were to be published this spring are not coming now until the fall.

(Rick Bowmer/The Associated Press) The standard is expected to contribute about 15 per cent of the more than 200 million tonnes of greenhouse gases Canada committed to eliminate by 2030 under the Paris climate change agreement.

But during the election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Canada would go further than that and Wilkinson told the world in December that Canada’s new climate plan would be ready in time for the fall 2020 United Nations climate meetings

in Scotland. That meeting, which was to be held in November, has also been a casualty of COVID-19 — it has been postponed into 2021.

Under the Paris agreement, all countries were supposed to upgrade their emissions targets this year, to bring the world more in line with what scientists say must be done to slow climate change.

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Calgary’s usually booming Indian wedding industry put on hold by COVID-19 People who make their living from Calgary’s usually booming Indian wedding industry are facing a huge financial hit while they wait out COVID-19 for what could be the rest of 2020.

The large and lavish events can run for several days and can involve up to 500 guests travelling from India, the U.S. and Europe. Weddings without those families in attendance are simply not an option for most brides and grooms.

The weddings, which usually run from March through October, mean big money for a long line of Calgary businesses from planners, venues, hair and makeup artists, DJs, caterers, performers, dancers, photographers and many more, who all now face an uncertain future.

“Typically we’d do two to three weddings every weekend, around 10 weddings per month,” said Ramandeep Sabharwal, who runs the Calgary-based wedding planning company Fusion Bollywood.

That number has now dropped to zero.

“We probably have lost all the revenue now.

Everything is cancelled until the end of August and I don’t see a very promising time for September and October also,” said Sabharwal.

“It’s a multi-million dollar industry in our province so we really need to have these businesses up and going,” she said. “Waiting for the next season in 2021, a lot of businesses are going to have locks on their doors.”

The events typically run for three or four days with many customs, prayers, traditions and ceremonies taking place before the wedding itself, with hundreds of guests attending every day.

Calgary’s Magnolia Banquet Hall is a popular venue for big, lavish Indian weddings, but COVID-19 has left the venue facing a bumpy financial ride in 2020. It’s owner says 80 events have been cancelled this summer. Indian weddings can last a week and involve hundreds of guests. (Jimmy Gill) The sheer scale of the weddings makes meeting safety guidelines around COVID-19 an impossible task.

In Calgary, weddings take place in

a handful of huge banquet halls whose owners are also worried about the future.

“The impact has been heavy. We are feeling a huge hit right now. It’s scary,” said Jimmy Gill, owner of the Magnolia Banquet Hall in northeast Calgary.

Gill has cancelled 80 events planned to take place between March and August.

One solution being suggested by wedding planners and venues is to try to hold weddings over the winter season, which is a tough sell in Calgary.

“People want to do it in the summer time. Schools are off, there’s better weather and relatives can travel,” said Gill.

Gill thinks the ethnic wedding industry will be impacted for much longer than mainstream weddings.

He says he’s now running into problems with people postponing until 2021, creating a backlog and frustration for families hoping to book for next year, whose plans might now have to be pushed to 2022.

But many businesses that make their money through Indian weddings might not make it until then. Gill is hoping for some form of extended financial aid for those business who face having to wait it out for almost a full year.

Hair and makeup artist Rupi Boyal says she’s been busy helping stressed-out Indian brides reschedule their weddings for 2021 while her business and the industry has ground to halt. (Rupi Boyal) “There are bartenders, DJs, security companies, caterers, decorators.

It’s a chain effect with a lot of businesses attached to just one wedding,” said Gill.

Hair and makeup artist Rupi Boyal has been making Indian brides look their best on their wedding day for 10 years.

She says 2021 will be a hectic year for those businesses who can survive.

“We’re telling our stressed-out brides ‘it’s going to be OK’ and basically there’ll be no vacations for us next year,” said Boyal.

Boyal says Alberta vendors have come up with an agreement that sees them honouring deposits until March 2021.

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Saturday, May 23, 2020

Saturday, May 23, 2020

US-Canada border to be closed until June 21 Closure of the U.S. Canadian border to non-essential travel, which is set to expire Thursday, will likely be renewed for another month to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, media in Canada report.

Non-critical travel between the neighboring countries was initially restricted for a 30day period that started on March 21. It was renewed for another 30 days on April 20. The Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto reports that Canada wants another 30 day roll-over, which would close the border until June 21.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his paramount concern is protecting the health of Canadians, and he wants to ensure his country doesn’t get new infections from foreign travelers. As of Monday, Canada had reported 5,805 coronavirus deaths compared with 89,407 in the United States.

“Right now we’re making decisions for right now, obviously, there are reflections on what next steps could be,” the National Post reported that Trudeau said. “Every step of the way, in this unprecedented situation we’re reacting to, and responding to the realities we see now and that’s

where we will stay focused. We’re focused on keeping Canadians safe every step of the way.”

During a trip to San Diego last week, acting U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary Chad Wolf told reporters that restrictions across the borders with Canada and Mexico would likely be extended. According to a report from Reuters, he said officials from Canada and Mexico were willing to continue the measures “at least in the short term.”

Spokespeople for Trudeau and Wolf did not respond to requests for comment on the issue on Monday.

According to statistics kept by the Canadian government, Canadian firms employ more than 24,000 workers in Ohio, Ohio sells more goods to Canada than to its next eight largest foreign markets combined, and 697,000 Canadian travelers spent $104 million in Ohio in 2017.

House passes coronavirus package along party lines; Senate Republicans say they won’t consider it House approves proxy voting during coronavirus over objections from Ohio Republicans including Rep. Jim Jordan

Federal parties negotiate ‘Hybrid’ model parliament Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is suggesting the House of Commons could resume business during the COVID-19 pandemic using a “hybrid” model, in which some MPs are physically in the chamber while others participate virtually.

Trudeau suggested he is open to the idea Wednesday as the governing Liberals were in the midst of negotiations with the four main opposition parties to determine in what form Parliament may or may not return next week. “I think there’s a lot of interest in a hybrid Parliament model where some people will be there in person, where others will call in via videoconferencing screens,” Trudeau said.

“I think there are ways of making it work and ensuring that MPs from every corner of the country get to participate and make sure their citizens are reflected in the debates that go on in Parliament and not just those who live in the National Capital Region.

“Obviously, these are discussions that continue but there are models that are

effective out there that we should look at adapting for Canadian use.”

He noted that the United Kingdom has adopted a hybrid model to keep its parliament functioning during the pandemic.

Both the Conservatives and NDP are also promoting the idea of a hybrid Parliament.

As the Liberal government expands the financial supports designed to blunt the impact of the pandemic, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said his party wants more transparency on where those dollars are going.

He said that’s what is driving his party’s point of view in the talks about Monday’s scheduled return of the House of Commons, which has been largely adjourned since mid-March.

“We want to make sure that money that is being put out by the government goes directly to workers, that it is tied to jobs, that it is tied to employment,” Singh said.

“To do that we need to get back to a more normal operation of Parliament.”

Ottawa announces another $75M in pandemic funding for Indigenous people living off-reserve The federal government says it will provide $75 million to organizations that address the “critical needs” of Indigenous people living in urban centres and off-reserve.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the additional funding today, which is going to community groups that give Indigenous people access to everything from groceries and mental health services to computers so their kids can keep up with school work.

It comes on top of $15 million announced in March for these groups.

“Indigenous community organizations in our cities and off-reserve do crucial work year-round, but these days, their services are in high demand because of the pandemic,” Trudeau said. “We need to make sure they have the resources to adapt and grow their services so they can fulfil their important mission.”

Community-based programs that could be in line for funding include those providing sanitation and protective equipment and transportation and educational materials

for Indigenous children and youth.

Funding is expected to begin rolling out over the coming weeks.

The additional funding comes as critics accuse the Trudeau government of largely ignoring the plight of thousands of Indigenous people who live off-reserve and in urban centres.

Many of them were already among Canada’s most vulnerable people before the pandemic hit in mid-March — people struggling with poverty, homelessness, food insecurity and mental health and addiction issues.

The Congress of Aboriginal People (CAP), which represents some 90,000 off-reserve and non-status Indigenous people, has gone to court to protest funding it claims is “inadequate and discriminatory” compared to what other Indigenous groups have received.

In mid-March, the government created the $305-million Indigenous Community Support Fund, most of which went to organizations representing First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities to help them prepare for and cope with the pandemic.

NATIONAL

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INDIA

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Franklin Templeton India may take over 5 years to return investor money Investors in some of the credit funds run by Franklin Templeton’s India unit may have to wait over five years to fully recoup their money, the asset manager said in an email to investors.

The email and attached documents, which were seen by Bloomberg and confirmed by the company, laid out the latest timeline for scheduled cash flows. The timing could wind up being sooner, as any sale of the underlying assets in the frozen funds in the secondary market and prepayments or accelerated payments made by issuers of debt in the funds would quicken the payout, according to the documents.

The development is the latest turn after the company shut six debt schemes last month in

the country’s biggest-ever fund freeze, which triggered shock waves in local credit markets.

It may take more than five years for the company to return the entire amount invested in four of the funds, according to the documents.

Investments in the two remaining funds may be returned within five years, they showed.

The fund manager had previously said it is seeking investor approval to liquidate the six debt schemes. Read more about that here.

“The schemes will explore all opportunities to monetize the underlying assets in the portfolio, without resorting to any distress sales, such that it can return investor monies at the earliest possible time,” Franklin’s India spokesman said in an emailed comment.

Trump’s use of malaria drug to prevent COVID-19 will likely be welcomed in India President Trump‘s declaration that he was taking an antimalarial drug of dubious effectiveness to help fend off the coronavirus will likely be welcomed in India.

Trump’s previous endorsement of hydroxychloroquine catalyzed a tremendous shift in the South Asian country, spurring the world’s largest producer of the drug to make much more of it, prescribe it for front-line health workers treating the virus and deploy it as a diplomatic tool, despite mounting evidence against using the drug for COVID-19.

Trump said Monday that he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a measure of protection against the virus. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, however, has cautioned against using it outside of hospitals

because of the risk of serious heart problems.

2:53 Coronavirus outbreak: Trump reveals he’s been taking Hydroxychloroquine as preventative measure against COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak: Trump reveals he’s been taking Hydroxychloroquine as preventative measure against COVID-19 Suhhil Gupta, a pharmacist in New Delhi, said Tuesday that Trump’s announcement shouldn’t carry any weight in India.

“He’s not a pharmacist. His statements are not relevant to the field,” Gupta said.

Still, India’s policy on the decades-old drug, used to prevent malaria and treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, drastically changed after Trump tweeted in March that the drug, used together with an antibiotic, could be “game changers” in the fight against the

Millions hunker down in India & Bangladesh as Cyclone Amphan wreaks deadly havoc Cyclone Amphan has made violent landfall in eastern India and Bangladesh, lashing communities along the coast with ferocious wind and rain.

It uprooted trees and toppled dwellings in both countries, including in the Indian city of Kolkata in West Bengal.

Nearly three million people were evacuated - most of them in Bangladesh - before the severe storm hit. At least five deaths have been reported.

Coronavirus restrictions have been hampering emergency and relief efforts.

Covid-19 and social-distancing measures have made mass evacuations more difficult for authorities, with shelters unable to be used to full capacity.

The storm, which was the first super cyclone to form in the Bay of Bengal since 1999, is expected to have caused deadly storm surges. Its winds have now weakened but it is still classified as a very severe cyclone.

Image copyright EPA Heavy rain bends palm trees on the Orissa coast Image caption Fierce winds bend palm trees on the Orissa coast “Our estimate is that some areas 10-

15 kilometres from the coast could be inundated,” said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the head of India’s meteorological department.

Amphan began hitting the Sundarbans, a mangrove area around the India-Bangladesh border home to four million people on Wednesday afternoon, before carving north and north-eastwards towards Kolkata, a historic city that was the capital of the British Raj. It was moving with winds gusting up to 185km/h (115mph). Amphan is expected to move further into Bangladesh on Thursday, and later Bhutan.

Satya Narayan Pradhan, director general of India’s National Disaster Response Force, told the BBC it already looked like the impact had been “fairly devastating”, especially in poor areas.

He said reports were coming in of “a lot of fallen trees, fallen houses, uprooted telephone lines, electricity poles”.

Although it had been hard to keep people apart during evacuations, social distancing is being enforced at cyclone shelters, along with hygiene protocols, he said.

With more than 1 lakh cases, India’s Coronavirus infections are rising at the fastest speed in Asia India’s coronavirus infections crossed the 100,000 mark and are escalating at the fastest pace in Asia, just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi further relaxed the country’s nationwide lockdown to boost economic activities.

Infections in the South Asian nation of 1.3 billion people were at 100,328, including 3,156 deaths, as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. As many as 5,242 new cases were added on Tuesday, according to the health ministry. India is now among the nations worst hit by the epidemic, with a 28% increase in cases since last week according to Bloomberg’s Coronavirus Tracker. Neighbor and nuclear rival Pakistan has 42,125 cases including 903 deaths. Its cases increased by 19% over the same period, the tracker showed.

“The challenges are huge, but a two-fold strategy would help reduce infections and flatten the curve,” said Rajmohan Panda, additional professor at the Public Health Foundation of India, adding the rise in infections is expected with the opening of the economy. “The focus should now be prioritized

in low income settlements, with an emphasis of sub district level containment measures.”

Since Monday, states have further eased restrictions for industries, shops and offices and reopened public transport, while the lockdown in the worst affected areas of the country — including a ban on interstate and international air travel — has been extended until May 31. The government is hoping to ease the economic impact of the world’s biggest lockdown, which has crippled business activity and left millions jobless.

Still, companies are facing difficulties reopening factories — primarily because of travel restrictions, conflicting rules, broken supply chains and a shortage of workers. The movement of millions of migrant workers from the cities where they had jobs to their homes in rural villages — and their reluctance to return — is one of the key challenges for the economy, which could be heading for its first full-year contraction in more than four decade. –

PUNJAB

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Punjab brings private hospitals with over 50 beds into Coronavirus battle frontline Intensifying its frontline battle against Coronavirus Punjab govt notifiedanordinance to bring private clinical establishments into the ambit of its fight against the pandemic.

The notification, under sub section (3) of section 1 of the Punjab Clinical Establishments (Registration & Regulation) Ordinance, 2020, brings all clinical establishments having capacity of more than 50 beds under the provisions of the said ordinance, a press release said.

This is in line with the decision taken by the Council of Ministers at its meeting on April 10.

A spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said the Ordinance would provide a mechanism for registration and regulation of clinical establishments in a professional manner, to ensure compliance of minimum standards of facilities and services, as well as transparency in the functioning of these establishments for fair and proper delivery of health services to the common man.

To implement the provisions of the Ordinance, a Punjab State Council for Clinical Establishments will be set up under the chairmanship of Administrative Secretary,

Health & Family Welfare with Director, Health & Family Welfare as Member Secretary.

Members will include Director, Health Service (Family Welfare); Director, Health Service (Social Insurance), along with Directors of various recognised systems of medicine of the State Government, including but not limited to the Director Ayurveda, Head of Homeopathic Department; President of Punjab Medical Council; President of Punjab Dental Council; Registrar of Punjab Nurses Registration Council; and Registrar Punjab State Pharmacy Council.

Other members of the Council will include one representative each is elected by the executive of the Board of Ayurvedic and Unani Systems of Medicine, one representative from State Branch of Indian Medical Association, one from field of paramedical systems to be nominated by the state government, two representatives from amongst the state level consumer groups or reputed Non-Government Organisations working in the field of healthcare, to be nominated by the state government, and one Law Officer to be nominated by the state government as its Members.

Pregnant women test positive for Coronavirus, tally rises to 2,028 in Punjab Four pregnant women in Gurdaspur district were among 23 fresh coronavirus cases that were reported on Thursday, taking Punjab’s case tally to 2,028.

The women tested positive in Batala, taking Gurdaspur district’s case tally to 129.

On Wednesday, the state health authorities discharged another 152 Covid-19 patients and three new cases were reported in the state. With this, the total number of people who have been cured of the infection had reached 1,794 in the state.

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Punjab farmers see labour shortage amid Covid-19 crisis The recent exodus of workers due to the lockdown has put paddy growers in a difficult situation.

They are now looking at local labour and direct seeding of paddy for less labourintensive farm operations.

In many villages, rich landlords who usually depended on migrant labour to transplant paddy are already looking for alternatives to sow paddy on 29.30 lakh hectares.

Additionally, this year, the number of mechanised paddy transplantation machines has doubled to about 1,100 and farm unions are also advocating the use of these machines to help farmers reduce labour pangs.

“I have tried getting in touch with many of my labour contractors who have been coming

year after year. However, none of them is willing to come this season. So, I have decided to go for direct seeding which has greater accuracy as compared to conventional transplanted rice. It gives the best yield and quality when sowing is done in June,” said Jagdish Singh Garcha, a landlord.

“Paddy was grown on 29.30 lakh hectares in Punjab last year. The state has decided to shift 2.50 lakh hectares from paddy to other crops this year.

In addition, a new method of paddy sowing called the direct seeding of rice has been recommended by the Punjab Agricultural University and the government proposes to bring 5 lakh hectares under this system that does not require intensive labour,” said Secretary, Agriculture, Kahan Singh Pannu.

Singer Sidhu Moosewala to be arrested by police In more trouble for Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala and suspended policemen, the Sangrur police have started conducting raids to arrest them.

“After the addition of Sections 25 and 30 of the Arms Act to the FIR against Moosewala and others, their act has now become a non-bailable offence. We have formed special teams and started conducting raids to arrest the accused,” said Gurmeet Singh, SP, Punjab Bureau of Investigation.

On the directions of Patiala IG Jatinder Singh Aulakh last week, the Sangrur and Barnala SSPs had deputed SP-rank officers for an investigation into the matter. “Our seniors are supervising the investigation. No one will

#106 - 7565 132 St. Surrey, BC 604.572.3005

be spared for violation of law,” the SP said.

On May 4, after a video showing the singer shooting at a firing range in Badbar went viral on social media, the police, on the directions of DGP Dinkar Gupta, had registered a case under Section 188 of the IPC and Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act against Moosewala and five policemen.

Within 24 hours, another FIR was registered against all under the same sections at Dhuri Sadar police station after another video showing Moosewala firing from his private pistol at Laddai Kothi shooting range surfaced. “We are conducting a thorough investigation,” said Sandeep Goel, SSP, Barnala.

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INDIA

Saturday, May 23, 2020

No bar for birth dose vaccination in health centres: Govt With immunization services hit hard due to COVID-19 lockdown, the government on Thursday clarified that there was no bar on administration of birth dose vaccinations at facilities where deliveries are taking place and this service must continue irrespective of the designation of a district in red, orange or green zone.

India has a birth rate of around 270 lakh children annually who get a fixed birth dose vaccination.

Routine immunization services at health centres across villages, districts and communities would however be barred

in containment and buffer zones in hotspot districts designated as red zones.

Immunization services will, however, be permitted at health facilities in green zones and in areas beyond buffer zones in even the hotspot/red districts.

While birth dose vaccines are given at delivery points, immunization services are gives via two modes – health facilitybased sessions and outreach sessions in the community as part of urban or village health sanitation and nutrition days.

21 babies born onboard train Mamta Yadav boarded a Shramik Special train on May 8 at Gujarat’s Jamnagar. She was travelling single. But, by the time her destination station in Bihar arrived she had a companion in her arms.

Since Shramik Special trains started operating, they have witnessed births of 21 babies onboard, officials say.

Mamta had decided to board the train in very difficult times: everybody was battling a coronavirus outbreak, her husband had lost his job as a factory worker in Jamnagar due to the lockdown, she was in advance stage of pregnancy and the home was hundreds of kilometres away.

But she made the tough choice, and on May 8 decided to take the JamnagarMuzaffarpur Shramik Special train to be with her mother at her village in Chhapra district of Bihar for the birth of the baby.

Officials say the train left the Jamnagar stations at 8 pm. Mamta, 35, began to experience the labour pain around the midnight.

Though the Railways had said that Shramik Special would be non-stop, this train was stopped at the Agra Fort station so that she could get the medical attention she needed.

Officials said doctors were alerted by the on board staff as the train approached Agra Fort station around 4.30 am.

Modi must get India out of COVID mess to make foreign policy work It is now impossible to assess how Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policy has fared in the first year of his second term, without factoring in the COVID-19 global pandemic. There cannot but be a permanent question mark over what it may have been, and what it is and will be.

There are, of course, many metrics to measure the Modi foreign policy of the past year. How we fared with friends, enemies and neighbours, whether we attracted foreign investors, and, in the specific case of India of the past year — how we dealt with the fallout of controversial domestic policy decisions like abrogating Article 370 in Kashmir and the controversy surrounding the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.

Indian foreign policy had to face considerable headwinds, first with the Kashmir issue. The bifurcation of the state and indeed, its demotion to Union Territory status in August 2019, met with adverse response across the world, especially on account of the large scale detentions and the crackdown on information.

New Delhi undertook a major diplomatic outreach which met with, at best, mixed results.

There was an unprecedented closed door meeting of the UN Security Council, and the European Parliament also discussed the issue.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar traveled to China, Europe and the US, other ministers traveled to West Asia, and the PM personally spoke to President Trump, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel termed the situation ‘unsustainable’ during a visit to New Delhi.

In the past year, we have seen the US Congress Committees get active on the issue and the US President repeatedly offer to mediate between India and Pakistan.

Mediation offers came from other friends as well — UAE, Saudi Arabia, Norway and Russia.

The CAA, which was passed in December 2019, led to widespread protests across the country as it was seen as a deliberate move to target Muslims in the subsequent NRC. The protests led to a brutal police crackdown in UP and several university campuses, and the arrests of hundreds of people.

Beyond the violence, the issue was now being seen as a matter of religious freedom. To top it all, serious riots broke out in Delhi, even as President Trump was in the process of winding up his visit. He obliquely referred to this when he deflected a question on the CAA at a press briefing, even while implying he did raise the question of religious freedom in India with Modi.

India rejects China’s allegations that Indian troops trespassed across the LAC India on Thursday rejected China’s allegations that Indian troops crossed over to the Chinese side of the frontier in Ladakh and Sikkim, asserting that New Delhi has been taking responsible approach towards border management.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said it was the Chinese side that recently undertook activities hindering India’s normal patrols in the areas.

“Any suggestion that Indian troops had undertaken activity across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Sector or the Sikkim sector is not accurate,” Srivastava said.

“Indian troops are fully familiar with the alignment of the Line of Actual Control in the India-China border areas and abide by it scrupulously. All Indian activities are entirely on the Indian side of the LAC,” he said.

The LAC is the de-facto border between the two countries.

“In fact, it is the Chinese side that has recently undertaken activity hindering India’s normal patrolling patterns. Indian side has always taken a very responsible approach towards border management.

Punjab’s COVID-19 death toll rises to 39; tally 2,028 A two-month-old boy died of coronavirus in Punjab, taking the death toll to 39, while 23 fresh infections pushed the total number of cases in the state to 2,028, officials said on Thursday.

The infant, who was suffering from pneumonia, died at a hospital in Amritsar on Wednesday, a health official said in Amritsar.

His test report came back positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, the official said.

Four pregnant women in Gurdaspur district were among 23 fresh coronavirus cases that were reported on Thursday.

The women tested positive in Batala, taking Gurdaspur district’s case tally to 129.

Of the 23 fresh cases, seven were reported in Hoshiarpur; five in Amritsar; four in Gurdaspur; two each in Ludhiana and Pathankot; and one each in Barnala, Kapurthala and Patiala, a medical bulletin said.

Batala senior medical officer Sanjiv Bhalla said two pregnant women are among the four who tested positive for COVID-19 in the city.

The pregnant women have been admitted to an isolation ward, he said.

The other two women gave birth on May 19, Bhalla said.

Blood samples of the two newborns would also be taken for testing, he added.

According to the bulletin, 25 coronaviruspatients--13fromJalandhar; eight from Muktsar; two each from Fazilka and Mohali—were discharged after recovering from the infection.

With this, the total number of cured persons in the state has reached 1,819.

There are 170 active COVID-19 cases in the state, the bulletin said.

Amritsar has the maximum number of COVID-19 cases in the state at 313, followed by 210 in Jalandhar, 171 in Ludhiana, 155 in Tarn Taran, 129 in Gurdaspur, 105 in SBS Nagar, 104 in Patiala and 102 each in Mohali and Hoshiarpur.

Sangrur has reported 88 cases, Muktsar 65, Faridkot 61, Rupnagar 60, Moga 59, Fatehgarh Sahib 56, Fazilka and Ferozepur 44 each, Bathinda 41, Kapurthala 34, Mansa 32, Pathankot 31, and Barnala 22.

A total of 59,618 samples have been taken for COVID-19 testing so far in the state. Of these 53,871 samples are negative and reports of 3,719 are still awaited, the bulletin said. —

SOUTH ASIA

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Cyclone Amphan leaves trail of destruction in India & Bangladesh Amphan, the most powerful cyclone to strike eastern India & Bangladesh in 20 years, has killed at least 88 people, officials said, as rescue teams scoured devastated coastal villages, hampered by torn down power lines and flooding over large tracts of land. In the Indian state of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday that at least 72 people had perished most of them either electrocuted or killed by trees uprooted by winds that gusted up to 185km per hour (115 miles/h). In neighbouring Bangladesh, the official toll was put at 16.

Mass evacuations organised by authorities before Cyclone Amphan made landfall undoubtedly saved countless lives, but the full extent of the casualties and damage to property would only be known once communications were restored, officials said.

Millions across India and Bangladesh were left without power.

Residents in the Indian city of Kolkata, the capital of the hard-hit West Bengal state, awoke to flooded streets with some cars window-deep in water. Television footage showed the airport inundated.

“The impact of Amphan is worse than coronavirus,” Banerjee told local media.

‘Everything is destroyed’ In neighbouring

Bangladesh, officials said 16 people had died, including a five-year-old boy and a 75-yearold man who were hit by falling trees, and a cyclone emergency volunteer who drowned. The United Nations office in Bangladesh estimates 10 million people were affected, and some 500,000 people may have lost their homes.

“I have never seen such a cyclone in my life. It seemed like the end of the world. All I could do was to pray ... Almighty Allah saved us,” Azgar Ali, 49, a resident of Satkhira district on the Bangladesh coast said.

Cyclone one of the most intense in a decadeto hit Bangladesh, with authorities expecting losses of more than $1bn. More than five million people are without power. There has been heavy damage, especially in southwestern Bangladesh thousands of houses have been washed away due to the tidal surge.

72 dead in West Bengal, additional NDRF teams being sent The death toll has been revised by the state after it initially reported the loss of around 12 lives in the mayhem caused by the cyclone, one of the strongest to have hit Bengal in the recent memory. CM Mamata Banerjee is meeting with the state task force to make a preliminary assessment of the damage. She had earlier said that it would take at least three to four days to completely assess the destruction caused as several areas in the state are totally cut off. The storm began its landfall at 2:30 pm on Wednesday with sustained wind speeds of 155-165 kmph spiralling up to 185 kmph, causing widespread damage to people, cultivation and structures.

The cylone has now crossed Bengal and is stationed over Bangladesh, however, it is expected to cause mild to heavy rains in the northeastern states of the country.

The cabinet secretary held a meeting of National Crisis Management Committee

to review the post-cyclone situation on Thursday. Chief secretaries of West Bengal and Odisha were present. The NCMC decided to send additional teams of the NDRF to Bengal for restoration and relief work. The Director General of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) said that soon after Cyclone Amphan hit the state of Bengal, NDRF teams fanned out and started rescue work in the evening He added that the situation in Odisha was under control and there was hope that life in the state will b e back t o

Former Lankan PM Wickremesinghe lauds Kerala health minister for Former Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has praised Kerala’’s Health Minister K K Shailaja’’s proactive and bold leadership in curbing the spread of the coronavirus in her state. Kerala, which reported India’’s first coronavirus case in January, has recorded an impressive recovery rate and flattening of the COVID-19 curve. Of all 642 confirmed cases in the state, only three lives have been lost and 497 people have been discharged from hospitals after full recovery. In a letter to Shailaja dated May 18, Wickremesinghe said, “As the minister of health you have demonstrated that effective disease control is possible even if resources are limited.” “Your leadership in responding proactively and boldly has made this possible,” he said. The 63-year-old minister has won international acclaim for her leadership during the Nipah and coronavirus outbreaks in Kerala. Wickremesinghe pointed out that intensive testing was the key to success in Kerala’’s fight against the coronavirus. The former prime minister, in early March, told an all-party meeting in Sri Lanka that intense testing was the solution to check the virus spread.

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Sri Lankan pepper harvest worries Indian growers The start of Sri Lankan pepper harvest season has put Indian growers on tenterhooks, as they fear slippage of the commodity into the domestic market. According to traders, it is not officially permitted to sell Sri Lankan pepper into the domestic market below the MIP (minimum import price) of ₹500 per kg.

However, with the harvest, the island nation is under pressure to sell the commodity in the wake of a price drop to $3000 per tonne from $4000 for 550 gl pepper. Kishore Shamji of Kishor Spices said that there could be selling pressure from Sri Lanka for re-exports to India by export-oriented units. Due to the price drop, many extraction companies from India opt for Sri Lankan pepper. Earlier, they used to buy Vietnam pepper at $2000, when Sri Lankan price was at $4000.

Meanwhile, the Kochi pepper market on Monday remained steady at ₹307 per kg for ungarbled varieties and the quantity offered was 10 tonnes. However,

the removal of APMC cess of 1.5 per cent in Karnataka is likely to witness improved arrivals, as was witnessed in the previous day with 32 tonnes, he said.

According to Shamji, the domestic demand from Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar was a bit slow, as the trade is anticipating the influx of smuggled Vietnam pepper from Bangla border. However, the major markets in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan are yet to normalise and big processors are still not in a position to start operations in full swing. The buying is also slow in Delhi, which is also a big market supplying to nearby states.

Moreover, the terminal market in Kochi may witness more arrivals in the coming days, as farmers would come forward to part with their stock to meet the school admission expenses of their wards. However, it is to be seen that they would be ready to sell their produce at the declining prices, Shamji said.

Singapore sentences drug suspect to death on Zoom Singapore has sentenced a drug suspect to death on the popular videoconferencing app Zoom because of the city-state’s coronavirus lockdown, in a move slammed by a human rights group as callous and inhumane.

Defense lawyer Peter Fernando said the Supreme Court announced the penalty to his client, Punithan Genasan from Malaysia, in a virtual hearing Friday. Genasan was in jail, while Fernando and prosecutors participated in the hearing from different locations.

A Supreme Court spokesperson said courts have been conducting hearings and delivering judgments remotely to minimize the spread of the virus. The spokesperson, who declined to be identified under court policy, confirmed Genasan’s case was the first “where a death sentence was pronounced by remote hearing in Singapore.” “This has been the arrangement made by the court ... with essential hearings conducted via Zoom. We have no complaints,” Fernando said Wednesday. He said he will meet Genasan on Friday to discuss an appeal. The Singapore court ruled that Genasan, 37, was involved in drug trafficking in October 2011.

Court documents said the judge found he recruited two drug couriers and directed them to transport and deliver 28.5 grams of heroin.

Singapore applies the death penalty to a range of offenses including drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping, waging war against the government and use of firearms. It has defended capital punishment as a deterrent for the most serious crimes. Most of the cases are drug-related. The city-state imposed a partial lockdown in early April after it was hit by a second wave of virus infections sparked by foreign workers living in crowded dormitories.

It has reported more than 29,000 virus cases, among the highest in Asia, but only 22 deaths.

It plans to gradually lift restrictions next month.

Human Rights Watch said the death penalty is already cruel and inhumane, and the use of Zoom to announce it made it worse.

“It’s shocking the prosecutors and the court are so callous that they fail to see that a man facing capital punishment should have the right to be present in court to confront his accusers,” said the group’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson. He said it raised concerns about why Singapore is rushing to conclude

26

INDIA

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Deportation of ‘terror convict’ sends security agencies into a tizzy Security and intelligence agencies in Amritsar are in a tizzy following the deportation of an alleged terror convict with links to Al Qaeda.

Ibrahim Zubair Mohammad is one among the 165 people who arrived at Amritsar airport on Wednesday after being deported from the United States due to unprecedented health crisis.

Zubair (41), who hailed from Hyderabad, was quarantined at Swami Vivekanand isolation ward of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital on arrival.

As per information, he will be interrogated by security agencies after the quarantine period is over.

Civil Surgeon Dr Jugal Kishore confirmed that the person by the name of Ibrahim Zubair Mohammad was among the deportees and was currently in the quarantine centre at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital.

Dr Jugal Kishore though said he was not aware about Zubair’s alleged links with the terrorist outfit.

“I had a talk with Police Commissioner Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill, but the local police do not have his previous history,” he said.

“For us, he is like other passengers who were shifted to quarantine centres on their arrival from the US,” Dr Jugal Kishore added.

India’s COVID-19 tally crosses 1.16 lakh; govt says mortality rate less than half of global average India’s COVID-19 tally crossed 1.16 lakh on Thursday with more than half of it getting reported in just about a fortnight amid largescale movement of migrants in special trains and arrival of stranded Indians and expatriates from abroad. The government, however, stressed that the mortality rate in India has remained less than half of the global average of 6.65 per cent. The nationwide death toll due to the deadly virus infection has neared 3,500 with a mortality rate of about 3 per cent, while more than 47,000 have recovered so far. At least 15 other countries have recorded more

deaths than India so far. However, India’s tally of active cases at over 65,000 is now the fifth largest in the world after the US, Russia, Brazil and France. While India is the 11th worst-hit in terms of the number of overall cases detected so far, some of the 10 most affected countries now have fewer active cases than India and those include Spain, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Iran.

In its morning 8 am update, the Union Health Ministry said the death toll due to COVID-19 has risen to 3,435 and the number of confirmed cases to 1,12,359 in the country, registering an increase of 132 deaths and 5,609 cases in the last 24 hours.

COVID-19 recovery rate 89% in Punjab In the fight against #Covid19, Punjab’s recovery rate now stands at 89% with only 211 active cases. Wish them all a speedy recovery.

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Earlier on Wednesday, the state health authorities discharged another 152 Covid-19 patients. With this, the total number of people who have been cured of the infection had reached 1,794 in the state. At least 88 were discharged in Ludhiana, followed by 30 in SBS Nagar, 15 Patiala, eight Fatehgarh Sahib, four Jalandhar, three Mansa, two each in Gurdaspur and Pathankot. The total number of patients discharged from Ludhiana till date is 117. Dr Rajesh Bagga, Civil Surgeon, said all Nanded pilgrims had already been discharged. Besides,

57 rapid response teams today screened 189 persons and 134 of them have been isolated.

Meanwhile, three new cases were reported in the state, taking the count to 2,005. As per the state media bulletin, one case each was reported from Ludhiana, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar.

A 69-year-old woman died of Covid-19 in Jalandhar on Wednesday. She is the city’s seventh casualty. With two more positive cases, Jalandhar’s tally reached 217. The deceased, a resident of Ishwar Colony, Basti Sheikh, had tested positive on May 13. She was also previously admitted to Kidney Hospital, where many staff members had tested positive. As per the Health Department, so far samples of 57,737 suspected cases were sent for testing. Of these, 51,956 were found negative and reports of 3,776 were awaited.

NIA arrests Hizbul Mujahideen militant involved in RSS activist’s murder in J&K A Hizbul Mujahideen militant allegedly involved in the killing of an RSS functionary and his PSO was arrested by the NIA in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, officials said on Wednesday.

He was apprehended by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from the Hanjala area of the district Tuesday night, they said.

The militant has been identified as Rustam Ali. He was named in a chargesheet filed by the NIA in the killing of RSS activist Chander Kant Sharma and his Personal Security Officer in April last year, the officials said.

Jammu and Kashmir Police had on

September 23 last year arrested Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists — Nissar Ahmed Sheikh, Nishad Ahmed and Azad Hussain — in connection with the murder cases of a senior BJP leader and an RSS functionary in the region.

BJP state secretary Anil Parihar was killed in 2018, while senior RSS functionary Sharma and his PSO were shot dead in April last year. Both the killings had triggered protests in Kishtwar.

The killings were part of a conspiracy to revive militancy in Kishtwar and were hatched by longest surviving Hizbul Mujahideen commander in the area Jahangir Saroori, according to the officials.

Mumbai society forgoes social distancing for samosa party, invites police’s ire Housing society members booked for organising music and samosa celebration throughout lockdown When you assume relaxations of Lockdown 4.zero imply that you may get again to your social life and have events, then assume once more. Members of a housing society in Mumbai have been booked by police for organising a music and samosa celebration within the society’s open space. Regardless of a slew of relaxations, a gathering of greater than 5 individuals in a single place stays prohibited throughout the nation. However, disregarding the norms of lockdown and social distancing, a housing society in

Mumbai organised a get-together. After studying concerning the incident, the Mumbai Police arrested the chairman of the housing society and organiser of the celebration for violating lockdown guidelines. In accordance with a police official, the musical celebration was organised within the premises of Kukreja Palace housing society in Ghatkopar (East).

The arrested individuals have been recognized as Rahul Sanghvi (chairman of the society) and Jethalal Dedhia, who had organised the celebration, the police mentioned. They have been launched on bail later, the police official mentioned, including that additional probe was underway.

Bihar govot finds 26% migrants returting from Delhi had Coronavirus If random testing of returning migrants is any indication, one in four Bihari workers who made it back to their home state from Delhi were infected with the novel coronavirus.

The state government randomly tested 835 returnees from Delhi and found 218, or 26%, had Coronavirus.

The statewise data on tests conducted on migrants in quarantine were tweeted by Manoj Kumar, head of the state’s health mission on Monday. “Most are asymptomatic so we took r a n d o m samples,” he said. In all, the Bihar authorities had until May 17 tested 8,337 migrant workers who returned from north Indian towns where they worked.

Some 651 of them tested positive – an infection rate of 8% that is double the national average of 4%.

Those who had returned from Delhi and adjoining areas were found to have the maximum positivity rate.

The Bihar gover nment said those who had returned from

other states had lower chances of contracting the infection. For example, 12% of the West Bengal returnees tested and a little under 11% of Maharashtra returnees tested were found to have the novel coronavirus. An infection rate of 26% is quite high, but Delhi government officials have defended themselves saying the workers are likely to have been infected when they travelled, and not within the city itself. “It is not possible,” a Delhi health official told Scroll on condition of a n o n y m i t y.

The national capital has reported 10,054 positive cases; according to the same official, the testing conducted on vulnerable groups in Delhi did not indicate such a high percentage of infections. “We conducted tests on low-risk groups, such as pregnant women and other people coming into our hospitals who had no symptoms and were not contacts of confirmed cases, and did not find even a single positive case,” the official said. Delhi has reported a positivity rate of 7% thus far. Two possibilities arise at this juncture: either the workers got the virus in Delhi itself and the Delhi government didn’t know (e.g. because the workers skipped hospitals), or the official is right and the workers got the virus en route to their homes. “A priori [it is] difficult to say,” Manoj Kumar told The Wire when asked about the possibility of the Delhi returnees getting infected along the way.

“Many of them of hitchhiked, and we don’t know whom they have traveled with. We are intently looking at migrants coming from Delhi, Surat, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata.” If the migrants picked up COVID-19 along the way, the prevalence of coronavirus infections in India may be much higher than has been reported because testing is currently restricted to urban centres, and hasn’t yet expanded into rural areas.

27

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Indian-American CEO supports Trump on phased opening of economy The Indian-American CEO of a leading restaurant chain in the US has supported President Donald Trump’s move to open the American economy in a phased manner amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that it is the “right thing to do”.

The US has started opening up after two months of lockdown amid the raging coronavirus pandemic. The US is the worst-hit country with over

1,528,565 COVID-19 cases and more than 91,900 deaths due to the disease.

“I believe that the health crisis is now becoming a financial crisis with 36 million Americans unemployed, and a humanitarian crisis as well, with about 54 million Americans fighting hunger,” Niren Chaudhary, president and CEO of Panera Bread, said during a White House roundtable with restaurant executives and industry leaders on Monday attended by President Trump.

UK extends residency scheme to all COVID-19 overseas healthcare victims The British government has extended a COVID-19 Bereavement Scheme, which grants permanent UK residency to the family members of overseas medics who die after contracting the coronavirus, to all healthcare staff and social care workers.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on Wednesday said the scheme will apply not only to the families

and dependents of foreign doctors and nurses killed on the National Health Service (NHS) frontline during the pandemic, but also to lowerpaid NHS support staff, including from India.

“Every death in this crisis is a tragedy, and sadly some NHS support staff and social care workers have made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of saving the lives of others,”

28

FIJI

Saturday, May 23, 2020

No new COVID-19 cases in 33 days: PM says PM Bainimarama says Fiji is one of the few countries poised to completely eradicate community based transmission of COVID-19.

Fiji has gone 33 days without recording a new case of the Coronavirus.

Bainimarama says Fiji has acted decisively to contain the spread of the virus and the campaign has seen incredible success.

“We locked down in risk regions of the country, banned gatherings, implemented nationwide curfew, closed high risk businesses and have screened hundreds of thousands of Fijians.”

The Prime Minister adds Fiji cannot afford to end health protection measures as quickly as they were first introduced.

“We are currently working with all stakeholders including in the private sector to develop a long term containment strategy

which upholds the health of every Fijian and instils confidence in our citizens. Businesses and international partners have watched Fiji’s responsible return to normalcy.”

C h i n a ’ s Ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo also announced an enormous support package for developing nations affected by the pandemic.

“Chinese President made the announcement that China will provide $USD2b over the next two years to help with COVID response and socio-economic development in affected countries especially developing countries.”

Bainimarama has already indicated that he wants to see more Fijians tested for COVID-19 before any decision on easing health protection measures are made.

14 people arrested amid COVID-19 curfew breach Fourteen people arrested for breaching the curfew hours amid COVID-19 .

One arrest involved a 52-year-old heavy goods truck driver who was arrested in Korovou, Tailevu after 11pm as he was allegedly found driving under the influence of alcohol.

Police say they discovered the driver was drunk when they were checking his documents provided to indicate he had a pass to move around during the curfew hours of 10pm

to 5am. He was arrested and is currently in custody.

There were a total of 11 arrests in the Southern Division, the Eastern, Northern and Central Divisions recorded one case each.

Police Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho warns officers will be coming down hard on those caught misusing authorized documents issued by their employers.

Fiji National Provident Fund pays $49.1 Million to its members amid COVID-19 crisis FNPF has paid out $49.1m for COVID-19 relief The Fiji National Provident Fund has paid out $49.1m to 77, 507 members as part of COVID-19 withdrawals.

Chief Executive Jaoji Koroi says they received 86, 854 applications with close to 4, 600 members to be paid this week.

18, 312 members were subsidized by the Government top-up, receiving more than $6.67m.

Some members are still waiting for their applications to be processed.

Meanwhile, the Fund has received around 722 applications for the Tropical Cyclone Harold withdrawalandpaidout$797,194to606members.

The TC Harold withdrawal scheme only targeted members whose homes were damaged in areas that were declared a natural disaster area.

FNPF has reverted to normal operations today with only 20 people at a time allowed into Fund offices.

Two people arrested over rape & sexual assault in Nadi Two men are currently in police custody for allegedly raping and sexually assaulting two women in Nadi.

Police confirm that the alleged

incident took place last week in Namaka.

Its also understood that the suspects were operating a clinic in the same area.

Prime Minister visits cyclone ravaged communities in Vatulele Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama visited Vatulele Island yesterday to assess damage and distribute relief supplies to those affected by TC Harold.

Relief supplies included shelter and hygiene kits as well as food rations.

81 houses were completely destroyed while 180 were partially damaged in the 4 villages on Vatulele.

The Prime Minister thanked the people of Vatulele for their resilience and for taking the initiative to rebuild their homes after the cyclone.

He assured the people of Vatulele that the Government will assist them to rebuild their lives.

Bainimarama also visited the Vatulele

Health Centre and Vatulele District School.

Four teachers’ quarters were completely destroyed and two partly damaged.

One classroom block was also partly damaged.

Meanwhile, Fiji-born US business tycoon and Fiji’s Honorary Consul in San Francisco Jay Singh also donated $10,000 worth of food rations to the villagers.

His food ration donation is part of a $50,000 relief assistance he has set aside for the villagers of Vatulele.

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PAKISTAN

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Global response needed to combat COVID-19: Prime Minister Imran Khan Addressing the World Economic Forum (WEF) through video link, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that global response required to defeat Coronavirus, saying that “we [countries around the world] are all connected”.

“The upcoming year isn’t just a challenge for Pakistan. It’s a challenge for the entire globe. When this pandemic hit the world, every country looked inside and became insular,” he said.

“But ultimately we are all connected and therefore our response has to be global,” the prime minister reasoned.

Prime Minister Imran said that several countries in the developing world do not possess the

fiscal space to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus o u t b r e a k .

“G20 countries are working on a debt relief [initiative] but we need more details,” said Khan, as he reiterated his call for debt relief for developing countries.

Explaining why developing countries around the world needed the relief, the prime minister said that countries like “ours need fiscal space to divert resources to healthcare and the environment,” adding that healthcare systems all over the world are in “direct line of fire of this pandemic”.

He added that he has spoken to the leaders of Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt and they had informed him that they were facing similar economic issues, such as drops in exports and revenue.

Member of Provincial Assembley dies from Coronavirus Member of Provincial Assembly (M.P.A) Punjab, Shaheen Raza died from Coronavirus at the Mayo Hospital in Lahore.

Raza who was member of the Punjab Assembly, (MPA), is the first parliamentarian

who has died of COVID-19 in Pakistan. She belongs to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Coronavirus cases reach 48,091 The number of coronavirus cases in the country has soared to 48,091with 2,193 reported during the last 24 hours.

According to National Command and Operation Center, 17,382 cases have so far been detected in Punjab, 18,964 in Sindh, 6,815 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2,968 in Balochistan, 1,235 in Islamabad, 579 in Gilgit-Baltistan, and 148 in Azad Kashmir.

14,155 patients have so far recovered from the virus while the death toll stands at 1,017 with 32 new deaths reported during the past twenty-four hours.

The first train Awam Express carrying 456 passengers left Karachi for Peshawar.

In Quetta, Jaffar Express departed for Peshawar via Lahore and Rawalpindi.

All Standard Operating Procedures are being implemented during the train travel.

Prime Minister Imran Khan allowed Pakistan Railways to resume 30 trains after Federal Minister for Railways met met with Prime Minister and apprised him of the growing transport-related issues in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The countrywide passenger train service was suspended on March 25 due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“I had a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan today and finally he allowed us to resume a limited operation of 30 trains from May 20,” Sheikh Rashid confirmed to Dawn.

“During the meeting, I assured the PM that we will run the trains under the standard operating procedures and precautionary measures related to Covid-19.”

He said the PR plan in this regard had also been cleared by a committee on command and control.

Earlier, the minister told a news conference in Islamabad if the situation remained favourable during these next 10 days, all the 142 passenger trains would be in operation.

Online booking only; Rashid seeks Sindh’s cooperation “I may decide myself about the full train service resumption across the country from June 1 if situation remains under control. Countrywide passenger train service was suspended on March 25 due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

condition deteriorated. She was earlier quarantined at a district health hospital after showing symptoms of coronavirus.

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Raza was shifted to the isolation ward of Mayo Hospital, Lahore, on Monday and was put on a ventilator after her

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