Established 1961 7 Wednesday, August 26, 2020 International Hong Kong: The first ‘proven’ case of COVID-19 reinfection Immunity for coronavirus infection ‘not lifelong’ PARIS: Researchers in Hong Kong Monday identified clades. The first closely resembled strains collected what they said was the first confirmed case world- in March and April, and the second strain matched wide of COVID-19 reinfection, raising questions the virus found in Europe-where the patient had about the durability of immunity, whether acquired just been visiting-in July and August. “The virus naturally or with a vaccine. “Our study proves that mutates all the time,” said To. “It is very unlikely that immunity for COVID infection is not lifelong-in fact, the patient would have gotten the second virus dur- reinfection can occur quite quickly,” said Kelvin Kai- ing the first infection.” Wang To, a microbiologist at Hong Kong University’s The fact that a blood sample-taken shortly after Faculty of Medicine and lead author of a forthcoming the positive test at the airport-showed no antibodies study that details the findings. is a further indication that the second virus had not “COVID-19 patients should not assume after been lingering unnoticed for months. “This is cer- they recover that they won’t get infected again,” he tainly stronger evidence of reinfection than some of told AFP in an interview. Even people who have the previous reports because it uses the genome shaken off the virus should practice social distanc- sequence of the virus to separate the two infec- ing, wear masks and practice hand washing, he tions,” said Jeffrey Barret, a senior scientific consult- advised. They should also get tested if suspect ant for the COVID-19 Genome Project at the symptoms appear. The case came to light when a Welcome Sanger Institute, commenting on the study. 33-year old resident of Hong Kong passed through mandatory screening earlier this month at the Hong Broader implications Kong airport on his way back from Europe. The so- Up to now, there have been many cases of sus- called PCR swab test was positive. pected re-infection, but none were able to rule out This came as a surprise because the man had the possibility that the virus has remained latent and HONG KONG: Medical staff wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) as a precautionary measure contracted-and recovered from-a COVID infection reemerged after weeks or months. But experts dif- against the COVID-19 coronavirus approach Lei Muk Shue care home in Hong Kong. — AFP four-and-a-half months earlier, and was assumed to fered as to how alarmed the world should be by the have immunity, especially after such a brief time new findings, which will be published in the peer- tions may not provide the hope that we have been from infection. But other researchers suggested that since the infection. To find out whether he had suf- reviewed medical journal Clinical Infectious waiting for.” If antibodies don’t provide lasting pro- the case uncovered was far more likely to be fered a relapse or had been infected anew, To and Diseases. “This is a worrying finding for two rea- tection, “we will need to revert to a strategy of viral extremely rare. his team sequenced the two virus strains and com- sons,” said David Strain, a clinical senior lecturer at near-elimination in order to return to a normal life”, “It is to be expected that the virus will naturally pared their genomes, or genetic coding. The two the University of Exeter Medical School. he added. In the same vein, To said that scientists mutate over time,” said microbiologist Brendan viral signatures were “completely different”, and “It suggests that previous infections are not pro- developing vaccines should look not just at the Wren of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical belonged to different coronavirus lineages, or tective. It also raises the possibility that vaccina- immune response, but at the duration of protection Medicine. — AFP

News in brief After UAE-Israel deal, Oman also quickly welcomed the UAE-Israel deal but said it was committed to “the legitimate rights of Madagascar prison break the Palestinian people who aspire to an independent which Arab nation will state” with East Jerusalem as its capital. The country ANTANANARIVO: Madagascar police have is a close US ally but also has good relations with recaptured 11 out of 31 escaped prisoners one day next forge ties? Iran. It maintains a policy of neutrality and has over after a breakout that ended in a deadly shootout, the years played a mediating role in regional con- the justice ministry said Monday. Police opened flicts. There have been several contacts between fire on scores of inmates trying to flee Farafanga DUBAI: The UAE’s decision to normalize ties with Oman and Israel, including in 2018, when the late sul- prison on Sunday, capturing 37 but killing 20 and Israel has been welcomed by some Arab countries, tan Qaboos received Netanyahu in Muscat. Sultan wounding eight in the process. Thirty-one man- but despite cheerleading from the US, others have Haitham, who was sworn in January after the death of aged to escape the prison, located in the southeast rejected the idea and many approach it with cau- Qaboos, is “already treading lightly due to possible of the Indian Ocean island, and were still on the run tion. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is on a economic-related grievances and would not risk such late on Sunday. The justice ministry said 11 of those Middle East tour that takes in Israel, , MUKHAYYAM ‘ASKAR: A youth peeks from behind a controversial move at this time”, said Bianco. escapees had since been caught and that one had and the UAE, expressed optimism Monday that between the shoulders of armed members of the Fatah been found dead, leaving 19 to account for. “Forty- more Arab nations will sign up. Analysts say that movement, during a rally against the US-brokered eight inmates have been captured (in total) so far Khartoum and Manama are most likely to follow in UAE-Israel deal to normalize relations, at the Askar Qatar has not responded to the surprise camp for Palestinian refugees east of Nablus. — AFP and another death has been recorded, bringing the the footsteps of the UAE, which became only the announcement amid a protracted diplomatic standoff number of fatalities to 21,” the ministry said in a third Arab nation to have diplomatic ties with the with the UAE, , Bahrain and -who statement on Monday. Mass prison escapes are Jewish state. Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, decisions based on its national and Arab principles, accuse it of supporting Islamist movements and con- not uncommon in Madagascar. — AFP while not condemning the deal, has refused to nor- as well as its strategic security interests”. niving with Iran. Doha, which is also close to the US, malize ties until Israel signs an internationally rec- has an on-again, off-again relationship with Israel, ognized peace accord with the Palestinians. Sudan after hosting an Israeli economic interests office from Sudanese officials have issued contradictory 1996 until 2000. It is also heavily involved in the sit- Crews battle California fires uation in the Gaza Strip, managing and funding wel- Bahrain comments regarding a normalization of ties, but a Contacts between Bahrain-the first Gulf country fare payments to the Palestinian people of the impov- LOS ANGELES: Thousands of firefighters made number of factors compel it to move in that direc- erished coastal territory with Israel’s blessing. “While to welcome the UAE-Israel deal-and the Jewish small progress on Monday as they battled to tion. Foreign ministry spokesman Haider Badawi Qatar cooperates with Israel in support of the contain historic wildfires in California, with state date back to the 1990s. Bahrain, like most other said he was in favor of such an accord, but foreign Palestinian cause... it will not normalize relations as potentially dangerous lighting storms proving Gulf countries, shares with Israel a common enemy minister Omar Gamaledinne said the issue “has nev- long as the peace process is stalled,” Krieg said. milder than expected and temperatures easing. in Iran, which Manama accuses of instigating er been discussed by the Sudanese government” Governor Gavin Newsom said some 625 fires protests by the nation’s Shiite Muslim community and promptly fired the spokesman. were burning throughout the state and had against the ruling Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty. Manama General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, who heads Kuwait, another close US ally, has also been scorched more than 1.2 million acres - nearly the is a close Saudi ally and is unlikely to establish offi- Sudan’s transitional sovereign council, met with silent on the Israel deal. The rich emirate is the only size of the Grand Canyon. Of those fires, 17 were cial relations without Riyadh’s blessing. But it could Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in country in the Gulf with a genuine political and par- considered major, he said, including the LNU play an important intermediary role. “While Saudi Uganda in February. Sudan, grappling with an acute liamentary life, and permits sometimes lively public Lightning Complex and the SCU Lightning Arabia cannot directly normalize relations amid a economic crisis, seeks to be removed from a US debate. Some political groups and civil society Complex — which comprise several fires each stalemate in the peace process, Bahrain could blacklist as a state sponsor of terrorism, and nor- organizations have condemned the UAE’s decision and have become two of the largest blazes in the become a hub for Saudi-Israeli exchange,” said malization of ties with close US ally Israel could to normalize ties with the Jewish state, while others state’s history as far as acreage burned. The Andreas Krieg of King’s College London. A Bahraini help. “They are extremely keen to have US sanc- have defended it. But formalization of ties with LNU Lightning Complex which erupted north of government spokesperson echoed Saudi sentiment tions lifted and they are under heavy UAE influ- Israel is unlikely, as the National Assembly has capi- San Francisco on August 8 was 22 percent con- this week about the country’s commitment to the ence,” said Cinzia Bianco, a research fellow at the talized “on hostility towards Israel to claim its place tained Monday afternoon. The SCU Lightning Palestinian cause but added that Manama “makes its European Council on Foreign Relations. as the voice of the people”, Bianco said. — AFP Complex, which also erupted August 8 and is burning southeast of San Francisco, was 10 per- cent contained early in the day. — AFP Coronavirus keeping

Tunisia announces new govt Rohingya indoors on TUNIS: ’s prime minister-designate yes- genocide anniversary terday unveiled the country’s second government in six months, which must now seek approval from lawmakers incensed by how the administra- KUTUPALONG: Almost a million Rohingya tion was formed. Hichem Mechichi had previously refugees stuck in Bangladesh mark three years declared his intention to form a cabinet dominat- since escaping from Myanmar yesterday, with coro- ed by independent technocrats able to “present navirus forcing them to hold a day-long “silent urgent solutions” for a country where a sluggish protest” inside their flimsy, leaky huts. An August economy has been further battered by the coron- 2017 military operation - that has triggered geno- avirus pandemic. The former interior minister’s cide charges at the UN’s top court - drove 750,000 decision to bypass consultations with political Rohingya out of Myanmar’s Rakhine state into factions had angered, among others, the powerful neighboring Bangladesh, to join 200,000 who fled Islamist party Ennahdha, which has demanded a CHRISTCHURCH: A man demonstrates to support the Christchurch mosque attacks victims outside the earlier. Three years later and with no work or “political” government reflecting the balance of Christchurch High Court in Christchurch. — AFP decent education for their children, there is little forces in parliament. But Ennahdha and other par- prospect of a return to the country, where members ties have also spoken of the need to approve the shame in the eyes of this terrorist and he does not of the mostly Muslim minority have long been treat- government to avoid dragging the already crisis- Victims vent fury at regret anything, so I decided not to read my impact ed as inferior intruders. hit country into disruptive early elections. — AFP statement but to show him the pain I suffered,” an Myanmar’s military “killed more than 10,000 of ‘devil’ New Zealand incensed Mirwais Waziri told judge Cameron our people. They carried out mass murders and Mander on day two of Tarrant’s sentencing. rapes and drove our people from their home”, Peru forces, traffickers clash White supremacist Tarrant did not flinch as the Mohib Ullah, a Rohingya leader in the camps said. mosque shooter gallery applauded when Waziri turned to him and For the second anniversary last year, Ullah led a ral- LIMA: Two Peruvian security force members said: “Today you are a terrorist and us as Muslims ly of about 200,000 protesters at Kutupalong, the were killed Monday in an armed clash with rem- largest of the network of camps in southeast CHRISTCHURCH: Two survivors of the New are not terrorists.” Zuhair Darwish, whose brother nants of the Shining Path guerrilla movement in a died in the attacks, told Tarrant: “You act like a cow- Bangladesh, where 600,000 people live in cramped Zealand mosque massacre abandoned prepared and unsanitary conditions. But the Bangladeshi key coca-growing region, the government said. A statements to vent their anger directly at gunman ard and you are a coward. You live like a rat and you soldier and police officer were killed along with deserve that. You’re going to die alone, like a virus authorities, increasingly impatient with the Brenton Tarrant in a Christchurch court yesterday, Rohingya and who a year ago cut internet access in four guerrillas “during security activities against drawing applause from fellow victims as they called everybody avoids being with. “The fair punishment drug trafficking,” in the southern Ayacucho for him would be the death penalty. I know under the camps, have banned gatherings because of the him a terrorist who deserved to die. Tarrant-coming coronavirus pandemic. The sprawling camps have region, Peru’s defense and interior ministries said face-to-face with his victims for the first time-has New Zealand law they removed the death penalty been cut off from the rest of Bangladesh, with the mil- in a joint statement. The combined military and admitted 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted for humans, but unfortunately he’s not a human, he itary erecting barbed-wire fences around the perime- police unit was patrolling in the valley of the murder and one of terrorism over the attacks at two doesn’t deserve to be judged like a human.” ters. Inside, movement has been restricted. Fears the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro rivers - collectively Christchurch mosques on March 15, 2019. A witness whose name has been suppressed by deadly virus could spread like wildfire - because known as the Vraem river valley - when the vio- The 29-year-old-who is expected to be the first the court appealed to the judge to give Tarrant “the physical distancing is almost impossible - have not lence broke out. The valley is one of Peru’s person jailed for life without parole in New Zealand- highest punishment that you can. been borne out, with just 84 infections confirmed and largest coca growing areas and the scene of peri- has maintained an impassive demeanor throughout I want you not to let this man see the sun, never, six deaths. The Rohingya will mark “Genocide odic clashes between the military and drug traf- the hearing, which began Monday, as the grief- ever. “This man has to stay in prison forever. As his Remembrance Day” with silence and prayers in their ficking gangs. The statement said the man lead- stricken survivors unleashed their anger in an out- mother said, something in his head, he is a sick man, rickety homes all day, Ullah said. — AFP ing the rebel contingent was also killed. — AFP pouring of emotion. “I did not see any regrets and he is not a human being.” — AFP