AUSTRALIA WORLD USA US Hits Vaccine Milestone NHS Faces High Expectations Emotions High As Bubble Opens High-Ranked Iranian Gene
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APRIL 19 (GMT) – APRIL 20 (AEST), 2021 YOUR DAILY TOP 12 STORIES FROM FRANK NEWS FULL STORIES START ON PAGE 3 USA WORLD AUSTRALIA US hits vaccine milestone High-ranked Iranian general dies Emotions high as bubble opens Half of all adults in the US have A high-ranking general key to Iran’s Airports in Australia and New Zealand received at least one COVID-19 shot, security apparatus has died, the Islamic have been scenes of celebration and the government announced, marking Revolutionary Guard Corps announced. reunification after the long-awaited another milestone in the nation’s largest- Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hosseinzadeh opening of the trans-Tasman travel ever vaccination campaign but leaving Hejazi, who died at 65, served as deputy bubble. For the first time in more than a more work to do to convince skeptical commander of the Quds, or Jerusalem, year, Australian travellers have begun to Americans to roll up their sleeves. force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary enter New Zealand without the need to Guard. The unit is an elite and influential quarantine for a fortnight. group that oversees foreign operations, and Hejazi helped lead its expeditionary forces and frequently shuttled between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. UK UK NEW ZEALAND NHS faces high expectations Trial to study reinfection Ardern cautious over bubble Politicians may be “raising unrealistic Healthy, young volunteers who have While the trans-Tasman bubble is “a public expectations” about the amount previously had COVID-19 will be significant day” for New Zealanders, any of work the NHS in Scotland can do deliberately exposed to the virus for a moves to open the borders to other after the coronavirus pandemic, leading second time to see how the immune countries will need to be be based on doctors have warned. system reacts as part of a new UK study. hard evidence, Prime Minister Jacinda Researchers at the University of Oxford Ardern says. have launched what is known as a “human challenge” trial to look at what happens when someone who has recovered from COVID-19 infection is then re-exposed to the virus. 1 APRIL 19 (GMT) – APRIL 20 (AEST), 2021 YOUR DAILY TOP 12 STORIES FROM FRANK NEWS FULL STORIES START ON PAGE 6 WORLD EUROPE AUSTRALIA Cape Town fire spreads Taoiseach’s Brexit warning Over-50s may join rollout soon A wildfire raging on the slopes of Cape The Taoiseach has warned “very serious People aged 50 and over could be Town’s Table Mountain spread to the harm” can come if people keep trying to brought forward in the coronavirus University of Cape Town, burning the use Brexit as an issue to create dispute. vaccine rollout as Australia tries to ramp historic campus library and forcing the Micheal Martin said it had become clear up its spluttering immunisation program. evacuation of students. in recent weeks what can happen “when The next phase of the rollout will expand sectarian tensions are left to grow and jabs to people aged between 50 and 70 are then encouraged by political events”. but is yet to start with some of the most vulnerable people still waiting. USA WORLD NEW ZEALAND ‘No one was driving before crash’ Navalny to be taken to hospital Two new cases in MIQ Two people were killed in the fiery crash The Russian state penitentiary service There are two new cases of Covid-19 of a Tesla and authorities say there was said a decision has been made to in MIQ to report today, both of whom no one in the driver’s seat, although it is transfer imprisoned Russian opposition arrived from India before travel from not clear whether the car’s driver-assist leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third there was suspended, the Ministry of system was being used. A Harris County week of a hunger strike, to a hospital. Health says. constable said there was a person in the front passenger seat and another in a rear passenger seat after the wreck in the Houston suburb of Spring. 2 APRIL 19 (GMT) – APRIL 20 (AEST), 2021 - AP A person walks passed an advertising board in Glasgow showing a Thank You NHS poster. - PA USA UK US hits vaccine Warning over ‘unrealistic milestone expectations’ for NHS Half of all adults in the US have received at least Politicians may be “raising unrealistic public one COVID-19 shot, the government announced, expectations” about the amount of work the NHS in marking another milestone in the nation’s largest-ever Scotland can do after the coronavirus pandemic, leading vaccination campaign but leaving more work to do to doctors have warned. convince skeptical Americans to roll up their sleeves. While the future of the health service is a key battleground in Almost 130 million people 18 or older have received at least the run up to next month’s Holyrood election, doctors said one dose of a vaccine, or 50.4 per cent of the total adult they had a “real concern” about some of the promises parties population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are making. reported. Almost 84 million adults, or about 32.5 per cent of Dr Lewis Morrison, the chair of the British Medical the population, have been fully vaccinated. Association (BMA) Scotland spoke out along with Dr Miles The US cleared the 50 per cent mark just a day after the Mack, the chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and reported global death toll from the coronavirus topped a Faculties in Scotland, also known as the Scottish Academy. staggering three million, according to totals compiled by Johns Noting that many health workers were “suffering the physical Hopkins University, though the actual number is believed to be and mental impact” of working throughout the pandemic, they significantly higher. also called for an increased in staffing. The country’s vaccination rate, at 61.6 doses administered Their comments come as the Scottish Conservatives per 100 people, currently falls behind Israel, which leads promised a one-off £600 million boost to to help the NHS among countries with at least five million people with a rate of tackle the “treatment log-jam” that has built up during the 119.2. The US also trails the United Arab Emirates, Chile and pandemic. the United Kingdom, which is vaccinating at a rate of 62 doses Meanwhile, if the SNP is re-elected its leader Nicola Sturgeon per 100 people, according to Our World in Data, an online has promised work to raise NHS in-patient, day-case and out- research site. patient activity to 10% above pre-pandemic levels within one The vaccine campaign offered hope in places like Nashville, year. Tennessee, where the Music City Center bustled with vaccine But in a joint statement Dr Morrison and Dr Mack said: seekers. High demand for appointment-only shots at the “There is real concern that political parties are raising convention center has leveled off enough that walk-ins will be unrealistic public expectations of the potential activity of NHS welcome starting this week. in Scotland in the run up to the Holyrood election, without Amanda Grimsley, who received her second shot, said establishing how to create the capacity to deliver on these she’s ready to see her 96-year-old grandmother, who lives in promises, especially in the timescales being talked about.” Alabama and has been nervous about getting the vaccine after The medical experts said they both fully supported “the need having a bad reaction to a flu shot. to urgently address the healthcare needs of patients whose “It’s a little emotional. I haven’t been able to see my assessment, investigation or treatment may have been paused grandmother in a year and a half almost,” said Grimsley, 35. or delayed as a result of the pandemic”, insisting the health “And that’s the longest my entire family has ever gone without service would be “continuing to do our very best to do this”. ■ seeing her. And we’ll be seeing her in mid-May now.” ■ 3 APRIL 19 (GMT) – APRIL 20 (AEST), 2021 General Hejazi, deputy commander of the Quds, or Jerusalem, force of Iran’s paramilitary - PA Revolutionary Guard, has died. - AP WORLD UK High-ranking Iranian Trial to study COVID general dies reinfection A high-ranking general key to Iran's security apparatus Healthy, young volunteers who have previously had has died, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps COVID-19 will be deliberately exposed to the virus for a announced. second time to see how the immune system reacts as part of a new UK study. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hosseinzadeh Hejazi, who died at 65, served as deputy commander of the Quds, or Jerusalem, force Researchers at the University of Oxford have launched what of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The unit is an elite is known as a “human challenge” trial to look at what happens and influential group that oversees foreign operations, and when someone who has recovered from COVID-19 infection is Hejazi helped lead its expeditionary forces and frequently then re-exposed to the virus. shuttled between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. They will aim to determine what dose of virus is needed Born in 1956 in the city of Isfahan, Hejazi joined the Guard to re-infect after natural infection, how the immune system after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and came to lead the responds, and what this may mean for developing protective paramilitary Basij volunteer corps for a decade — a tenure that immunity against the disease. saw the force transform into a pillar of the country's security The study, which is funded by the Wellcome Trust and is and political apparatus.