Submit your Article

Over 12 million children in the US have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, according to the latest report of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association. 

A total of 12,042,870 cases of COVID-19 in children had been reported across the country as of February 3, and children represented 18.9 percent of all confirmed cases, according to the report published late Monday. 

COVID-19 cases among children have spiked dramatically across the U.S. during the Omicron variant surge. 

Almost 4.2 million child cases were reported since the beginning of January. For the week ending February 3, nearly 632,000 additional child COVID-19 cases were reported, according to the report. 

Over 1.4 million child cases have been added in the past two weeks. 

This marks the 26th week in a row child COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are above 100,000. Since the first week of September, there have been nearly 7 million additional child cases, according to the AAP.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency

Emmanuel Macron refused a Kremlin request that he take a Russian Covid-19 test when he arrived to see Vladimir Putin this week, and was therefore kept at a distance from the Russian leader, two sources in Macron’s entourage told Reuters, the Guardian reported.

Observers were struck by images of Macron and Putin sitting at opposite ends of 4-metre-long (13 ft) table to discuss the Ukraine crisis on Monday, with some diplomats and others suggesting Putin might have wanted to send a diplomatic message.

But the two sources, who have knowledge of the French president’s health protocol, told Reuters Macron had been given a choice: either he accepted a PCR test done by the Russian authorities and was allowed to get close to Putin, or he refused and had to abide by more stringent social distancing.

“We knew very well that meant no handshake and that long table. But we could not accept that they get their hands on the president’s DNA,” one of the sources told Reuters, referring to security concerns if the French leader was tested by Russian doctors.

A Kremlin spokesperson did not immediately respond to a message from Reuters seeking comment.

The second source in Macron’s entourage confirmed Macron declined to take a Russian PCR test. The source said Macron instead took a French PCR test before departure and an antigen test done by his own doctor once in Russia.

“The Russians told us Putin needed to be kept in a strict health bubble,” the second source said.

On Thursday, three days after Macron and Putin had their socially distanced meeting, the Russian leader received Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The two men shook hands, and sat close to each other, divided only by a small coffee table.

Ruling Nepali Congress has decided to hold convention of 16 remaining districts on February 25.

The Election Committee made such decision on Friday as per the decision of the Executive Committee meeting.

Election Committee Coordinator Gopal Krishna Ghimire said that the party will hold convention in 16 districts including eight districts of Madhesh on February 25.

Similarly, the party has decided to hold convention of various wards and rural municipalities by February 22.

Nepal logged 1, 128 new Covid-19 cases and 14 deaths on Friday. 

With this, the country's active caseload mounted to 1,100,114. Similarly, the death toll has climbed to 11,878. 

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 17,447 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 666 returned positive. Likewise, 3, 542 people underwent antigen tests, of which 1,128 tested positive.

The Ministry said that 2,215 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 932, 822 active cases in the country.

The Ministry said that 27, 441 infected people have recovered from the disease so far.

Meanwhile, 203 cases are reported in Kathmandu, 45 in Lalitpur and 17 in Bhaktapur.

Hong Kong on Friday extended a ban on incoming flights from eight countries, including the United States and Britain, and imposed one on Nepal until March 4, with the government citing concerns over a growing COVID-19 outbreak, Reuters reported.

The other countries are Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan and Philippines.

Flights to Hong Kong are down 90% and hardly any are allowed to transit as the financial hub isolates itself from the world in the hope it can contain a coronavirus outbreak, even though new infections are overwhelmingly local transmissions.

Another case of bird flu, also known as H5N1, is reported in Chitwan.

The virus H5N1 was detected in the chicken from Anita Livestock Agriculture Farm at Rapti Municipality-6 in the district.

According to Chief District Officer Ashman Tamang, the samples were collected from the farm and sent to Kathmandu on February 8. The results received on February 10 confirmed the infection in the chicken here.

The concerned authority has been inspecting the farm and its surrounding. Birds and chickens within 100 metres of the firm will be destroyed to prevent the possible transmission of the infection.

Furthermore, sales of chicken and any other poultry-related edible goods will be forbidden. Samples of the suspected farms will be collected and tested, Tamang said.

With the detection of bird flu, the local authority will take preventive measures as per the Bird Flu Control Regulation-2078 to prevent and control the bird flu.

Earlier on February 1, the cases of bird flu were confirmed at two locations of the Morang district. RSS

The Biden administration urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government Thursday to use its federal powers to end the truck blockade by Canadians protesting the country’s COVID-19 restrictions, as the bumper-to-bumper demonstration forced auto plants on both sides of the border to shut down or scale back production.

For the fourth straight day, scores of truckers taking part in what they dubbed the Freedom Convoy blocked the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, disrupting the flow of auto parts and other products between the two countries.

The White House said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke with their Canadian counterparts and urged them to help resolve the standoff.

Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Royal Canadian Mounted Police reinforcements are being sent to Windsor, Ottawa and Coutts, Alberta where another border blockade is happening.

Trudeau met virtually with leaders of Canada’s opposition late Thursday and said he spoke with Windsor’s mayor. Trudeau’s office said there is a willingness to “respond with whatever it takes” to end the blockades.

Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, moved to cut off funding for the protests by successfully asking a court to freeze millions of dollars in donations to the convoy through crowd-funding site GiveSendGo. Ford has called the protests an occupation.

Canadian officials previously got GoFundMe to cut off funding after protest organizers used the site to raise about 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.8 million). GoFundMe determined that the fundraising effort violated the site’s terms of service due to unlawful activity.

With political and economic pressure mounting, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens announced the city will seek a court injunction to end the occupation.

“The economic harm is not sustainable and it must come to an end,” he said.

In the US, authorities braced for the possibility of similar truck-borne protests inspired by the Canadians, and authorities in Paris and Belgium banned road blockades to head off disruptions there, too.

The US Department of Homeland Security said in a bulletin to local and state law enforcement agencies that it has received reports that truckers are planning to “potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities” in a protest against vaccine mandates and other issues.

The agency said the convoy could begin in Southern California as early as this weekend, possibly disrupting traffic around the Super Bowl, and reach Washington in March in time for the State of the Union address, according to a copy of Tuesday’s bulletin obtained by The Associated Press.

The White House said the department is “surging additional staff” to the Super Bowl just in case.

The ban on road blockades in Europe and the threat of prison and heavy fines were likewise prompted by online chatter from groups calling on drivers to converge on Paris and Brussels over the next few days.

The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest US-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25% of all trade between the two countries, and the effects of the blockade there were felt rapidly.

Ford said its Windsor engine plant reopened Thursday after being shut down on Wednesday because of a lack of parts. But the factory and the company’s assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, near Toronto, were operating at reduced capacity, the automaker said.

On the US side, GM sent the first shift home two hours early Thursday at its Flint, Michigan, heavy-duty pickup truck plant due to parts shortages.

Stellantis cut short the first shift Friday at its Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, due to parts shortages.

Also, Honda will temporarily stop production on one assembly line during the day shift Friday at its plant in Alliston, Ontario. It’s because of border delays. US plants are scheduled to run normally Friday.

Toyota said three of its plants in Ontario closed for the rest of the week because of parts shortages, and production also had to be curtailed in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer urged Canadian authorities to quickly resolve the standoff, saying: “It’s hitting paychecks and production lines. That is unacceptable.”

Hundreds of demonstrators in trucks have also paralyzed the streets of downtown Ottawa for almost two weeks now, and have now closed three border crossings: at Windsor; at Coutts, Alberta, opposite Montana; and at Emerson, Manitoba, across from North Dakota.

The protesters are decrying vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 restrictions and are railing against Trudeau, even though many of Canada’s precautions, such as mask rules and vaccine passports for getting into restaurants, theaters and other places, were enacted by provincial authorities, not the federal government, and are already rapidly being lifted as the omicron surge levels off.

Trudeau continued to stand firm against lifting vaccine mandates, including a requirement that all truck drivers entering the country be fully vaccinated. But because an estimated 90% of the nation’s truckers are already inoculated, some conservatives have called on the prime minister to drop the mandate.

The convoy has been promoted and cheered on by many Fox News personalities and attracted support from the likes of former President Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Associated Press identified more than a dozen Facebook groups encompassing roughly a half-million members that are being used to drum up support for the Canadian protests or plan similar ones in the US and Europe.

To get around the blockade and into Canada, truckers in the Detroit area have had to drive 70 miles north to Port Huron, Michigan, and cross the Blue Water Bridge, where there was a two-hour delay leaving the US

The blockade is happening at a bad time for the US auto industry. Supplies of new vehicles already are low across the nation because of the global shortage of computer chips, which has forced automakers to temporarily close factories.

“The disruptions we are seeing at the US-Canada border — at the Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge and at other crossings — are adding to the significant supply chain strains on manufacturers and other businesses in the United States,” the US Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and Business Roundtable said in a joint statement.

“We respectfully urge the Canadian government to act swiftly to address the disruption to the flow of trade and its impact on manufacturers and other businesses on both sides of the border.”

The main opposition CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli said that Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota should not stop the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) submitted by the government from tabling in the Parliament.

At a time when Speaker Sapkota has been expressing his reluctance to table the MCC without forging national consensus, Oli said that the Speaker should not stop the MCC from tabling in the Parliament.

He further said that the letter sent by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to the MCC headquarters was against diplomatic dignity.

“It is against the protocol to send the letter to the MCC headquarters by the Prime Minister,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman Oli accused the ruling coalition of trying to make the MCC compact a subject of geopolitical conflict.