Submit your Article

The International Monetary Fund said on Saturday it held "fruitful technical discussions" with Sri Lanka on its loan request, while the World Bank said it was preparing an emergency aid package for the crisis-stricken country, Reuters reported.

Sri Lanka, an island country of 22 million people, is struggling to pay for imports amid a crushing debt crisis and sharp drop in foreign exchange reserves that has fueled soaring inflation. Prolonged power cuts and shortages of fuel, food and medicines have sparked nationwide protests.

Sri Lankan Finance Minister Ali Sabry has been in Washington this week talking to the IMF, the World Bank, India and others about financing help for his country, which has suspended payments on portions of its $51 billion in external debt.

The World Bank's emergency response package includes $10 million to be made immediately available for the purchase of essential medicines, funds shifted from its ongoing COVID-19 health preparedness project, a World Bank spokesperson said.

The global lender, which along with the IMF held its spring meetings this week, did not provide a total value for its package, but Sabry said on Friday that about $500 million in aid was being considered, according to Reuters.

The World Bank spokesperson said the package would leverage existing bank-financed projects and repurpose funds to quickly provide medicines, meals for school children and cash transfers for poor and vulnerable households.

Support to provide cooking gas, basic food supplies, seeds and fertilizers and other essentials is also under discussion, the spokesperson said, adding that the World Bank was "deeply concerned" about the situation in Sri Lanka.

The IMF said in a statement on Saturday that talks between its staff focused on the need for Sri Lanka to implement "a credible and coherent strategy" to restore macroeconomic stability, and to strengthen its social safety net and protect the poor and vulnerable during the current crisis.

"The IMF team welcomed the authorities' plan to engage in a collaborative dialogue with their creditors," IMF Sri Lanka mission chief Masahiro Nozaki said in a statement after the country took steps to explore a restructuring of some $12 billion in sovereign bonds, Reuters reported.

Sabry told reporters on Friday that the talks with the IMF were focused on a more traditional Extended Fund Facility program, but that $3 billion to $4 billion in bridge financing was needed while this could be finalized. 

The IMF has said that Sri Lanka's debt needs to be put on a sustainable path before it could make new loans to Colombo - a process that could require lengthy negotiations with China and the country's other creditors. 

Sabry said on Friday that in addition to the IMF loan and World Bank assistance, Sri Lanka is discussing with India some $1.5 billion in bridge financing to help continue essential imports, and added that he has also approached China, Japan and the Asian Development Bank for help, according to Reuters.

Shanghai authorities battling an outbreak of COVID-19 have erected mesh barriers outside some residential buildings, sparking fresh public outcry over a lockdown that has forced much of the city’s 25 million people to stay home, Reuters reported.

Images of white hazmat suit-clad workers sealing entrances of housing blocks and even closing off entire streets with roughly two metre-tall green fencing went viral on social media on Saturday, prompting questions and complaints from residents.

“Isn’t this a fire hazard?,” said one user on social media platform Weibo.

“This is so disrespectful of the rights of the people inside, using metal barriers to enclose them like domestic animals,” said another.

The Shanghai government did not respond to a request for comment.

Most of the barriers appeared to have been erected around compounds designated as “sealed areas”, which are buildings where at least one person has tested positive for COVID-19 and so whose residents are forbidden from leaving their front doors.

Reuters was not able to verify the authenticity of all of the photos and videos.

Shanghai, China’s largest city and most important economic hub, is battling the country’s biggest-ever COVID-19 outbreak with a policy that forces all positive cases into central quarantine facilities, according to Reuters.

The lockdown, which for many residents has lasted over three weeks, has fuelled frustration over difficulties accessing food and medical care as well as over lost wages, family separation, conditions at quarantine centres, and censorship of efforts to vent online.

It has also exacted a toll on the world’s second-largest economy, with factory efforts to resume production disrupted by snarled supply chains and difficulties faced by locked-down residents returning to work.

The city reported 39 new deaths from COVID-19 for April 23, versus 12 the previous day and by far the most during the current outbreak.

It did not report any deaths from COVID-19 during the first few weeks of its latest case surge, fuelling doubt among residents about the figures. It has since reported 87 fatalities from COVID-19, all in the past seven days.

New case numbers ticked down slightly for Saturday, but remained in the tens of thousands. Shanghai recorded 19,657 new local asymptomatic cases, versus 20,634 a day earlier, and 1,401 symptomatic cases, down from 2,736, Reuters reported.

China largely succeeded in keeping COVID-19 at bay following the initial outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019, with a “dynamic zero” policy aimed at stamping out all chains of infection.

That approach has been increasingly challenged by the spread of the highly infectious but less deadly Omicron variant, which has led numerous cities to impose various levels of movement restrictions that have been a further drag on the economy.

Nationwide, China reported 20,285 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases for April 23, versus 21,423 a day earlier, with 1,580 symptomatic cases, down from 2,988.

The capital Beijing recorded 22 new COVID-19 cases - all locally transmitted - compared to six the day before, according to Reuters.

Two persons died when a motorbike they were riding on met with an accident at Kandaghari of Kathmandu on Sunday.

The deceased have been identified as Kamal Ale Magar (32) and Gopal Ale Magar (22) of Sunkoshi Rural Municipality-6, Okhaldhunga.

The incident occurred when the two wheeler (Ba 50 Pa 9936) hit an electricity pole at around 5: 30 am today.

Metropolitan Police Circle, Kandaghari said that the duo died during the course of treatment at the Mahankal-based Trauma Center at around 6 am.

China’s main financial hub in Shanghai reported more new deaths linked to COVID-19 on April 22, as residents expressed anger at the harsh lockdown and strict internet censorship, Reuters reported.

The full lockdown of Shanghai began at the beginning of April, although many people have been confined to their homes for longer, and tension is beginning to tell residents.

The city, which is battling the largest outbreak of the coronavirus in China so far, reported 12 new COVID-19 deaths on Friday, up from 11 the day before.

The Shanghai government said the average age of the patients who died is 88. All of them had underlying health conditions, and none had been vaccinated.

On social media, netizens battled against censors overnight to share a six-minute video called “The Voice of April,” a montage of sounds recorded over the course of the outbreak in Shanghai.

Walking through Shanghai’s silent skyscrapers, the video consists of residents complaining about the lack of food and medicine, as well as the harsh tactics of the city authorities, according to Reuters.

All direct references to the film have been removed from micro-blogging service Weibo by Saturday morning, although some comments critical of censorship remain.

One of them said, “I can only say that if you don’t want to even hear a small amount of real voices, it’s really hopeless.”

Many were reminded of the outrage that erupted on social media two years ago after the death of Li Wenliang, a doctor who was reprimanded by police for spreading “false” information about a new SARS-like infectious disease in Wuhan in late 2019.

“Dr. Lee, nothing has changed after two years,” another Weibo user said. “We still can’t open our mouths, and we still can’t speak.”

Despite anger and frustration among residents in closed apartment complexes in Shanghai, local officials stress that there will be no lull until all new cases are removed outside the quarantine areas, Reuters reported.

“The more critical the period becomes, the more we need to grit our teeth and concentrate our strength,” Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng was quoted as saying on the official Shanghai government channel WeChat late Friday.

The number of cases outside quarantine areas was 218 on Friday, down from 250 the day before.

And 20,634 new asymptomatic local infections were recorded in the city, recovering from 15,698 on Thursday. Official data showed that the total number of new cases of symptoms reached 2,736, up from 1,931 cases on April 21.

“One strategy that needs immediate implementation is to increase the booster vaccination dose rates for the elderly and other vulnerable groups and see if mRNA vaccines can be used,” said Jaya Dantas, a public health expert at the Curtin School of Population Health in Curtin. Australia, which is monitoring the Shanghai outbreak.

China has yet to provide its own mRNA vaccines, and has opted not to import developed ones abroad, according to Reuters.

In a study published by China’s Center for Disease Prevention and Control on Friday, medical experts in the northeastern city of Jilin, the site of another recent outbreak, said Chinese vaccines have been effective so far, even though new emerging variants of COVID-19 are unpredictable. .

“The data are strong enough to indicate the overall importance of a full and booster vaccination strategy, particularly for the elderly,” they said.

Liang Wanyan, head of an expert advisory body on COVID-19 with the National Health Commission, told state TV late Friday that China’s current “dynamic” virus-free policies have given the country “time to prepare,” allowing it to strengthen vaccination levels. .

Tang Jiafu, a city official, acknowledged Saturday that the unrest is putting environmental health in Shanghai under pressure, with less than half of sanitation workers currently employed, affecting garbage collection rates.

Even after closing for more than 30 days, some pools are still reporting new cases, casting doubt on the effectiveness of China’s approach.

“This is a long time coming and it has mental health implications: People are stressed and frustrated,” Dantas said, Reuters reported.