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At least nine persons died when a commuter bus met with an accident near Lubhughat in Khandadevi Rural Municipality-1, Ramechhap district on Tuesday.

The identities of the deceased are yet to be established.

DSP Raj Kumar Thing said that the bus (Ba 3 Kha 8396) belonging to the Araniko Travels was heading towards Kathmandu from Bethan, Ramechhap when the tragedy occurred.

Police are carrying out rescue operations and preparations are being made to take the injured to the Dhulikhel Hospital.

Approximately 2.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered to children 5-12 age group have arrived in Nepal.

Surendra Chaurasiya, chief of the Logistic Management Section, the Department of Health Services confirmed the arrival of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine under the COVAX Facility.

The received vaccine will be administered to the children aged 5 to 12 who have already been administered the first dose, he said.

A total of 3.9 million children in the age group will be administered the vaccine. In the first phase, the vaccination campaign launched from June 23 to 29 in 27 districts. The same group will receive a second dose from July 18 to 24.

In the second phase, children between the age group will get the vaccine from August 21 to 27 and the second dose will be administered from September 12 to 17.

Macau reported 89 new coronavirus instances on Tuesday, taking the entire to greater than 900 infections since mid-June, as authorities on this planet’s largest playing hub race to comprise its largest outbreak because the pandemic started, Reuters reported.

More than 13,000 individuals are underneath quarantine within the Chinese language particular administrative area, which has successfully shut all the way down to restrict the unfold of coronavirus.

The town’s greater than 600,000 residents are topic to a few citywide COVID-19 checks this week, with individuals additionally required to take fast antigen checks in between.

Whereas the previous Portuguese colony has not launched a full scale lockdown seen in mainland Chinese language cities like Shanghai, most amenities are shut and eating places can solely present takeaway.

Solely Macau’s casinos have been allowed to remain open in a transfer to make sure job safety. The federal government depends on the business for over 80% of its tax income with a lot of the inhabitants employed immediately or not directly by the on line casino resorts.

Whereas casinos are bodily open, there are hardly any gamblers inside and only a few employees working, with many staff requested to remain at dwelling, as per the federal government’s request.

The stringent measures come after Macau has been largely COVID-free since an outbreak in October 2021. It nonetheless has an open border with mainland China, with its economic system firmly hinged to the influx of Chinese language guests, according to BBC.

Macau adheres to China’s “zero-COVID” coverage which goals to eradicate all outbreaks, at nearly any value, working counter to a world development of making an attempt to co-exist with the virus.

Its instances are nonetheless far under day by day infections somewhere else, together with neighbouring Hong Kong the place instances have jumped to greater than 2,000 a day this month.

Nonetheless, Macau solely has one public hospital, whose companies are already stretched each day. Officers have put up a makeshift hospital subsequent to the town’s Las Vegas type Cotai strip to assist address the rise in instances, BBC reported.

The smell hits you first - freshly cooked rice, lentils and spinach, served in ladles from steaming pots. 

Dozens of families - including mothers with babies - are lined up with plates to get a serving of what will likely be their only meal for the day, BBC reported.

"We are here because we are hungry," says Chandrika Manel, a mother of four. 

As she kneads a ball of rice with her hands, mixing it with the lentils and spinach before feeding it to one of her children, she explains that even buying bread is a struggle.

"There are times I [give them] milk and rice, but we don't cook any vegetables. They're too expensive."

Depleted foreign reserves and soaring inflation have devastated Sri Lanka's economy in recent months. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa - who pushed through tax cuts that shrunk the state's coffers and borrowed heavily from China to fund ambitious infrastructure projects - has been blamed for the crisis. The pandemic, which hit tourism, and the war in Ukraine, which sent oil prices rocketing, has only made the situation worse. 

But now Sri Lanka is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has told the BBC. 

The organisation found that 70% of the country's families have cut down on food since the start of the year, and stocks of fuel and essential medicines are also fast running out. 

'My children are miserable'

This is Ms Manel's first visit to a community kitchen as she found her options disappearing: "The cost of living is so high, we are taking loans to survive."

The kitchen is a month old - Pastor Moses Akash started it in a church hall in Colombo after meeting a single mother who lived off a jackfruit for three days.

"We get people who haven't had a second plate of rice for the last four months," Pastor Moses says. 

By his estimate, the number of people queuing up for food has grown from 50 to well over 250 a day. It's not surprising given that food prices in Sri Lanka went up by 80% in June alone. 

"I see a lot of children especially, most of them are malnourished," he says.

Sahna, a pregnant 34-year-old who goes by her first name only, is also in the queue with her three young children. She is due in September and anxious about the future. 

"My children are miserable. They're suffering in every possible way. I can't even afford a packet of biscuits or milk for my babies."

Sahna's husband, who is a labourer, earns just $10 (£8.20) a week to support the entire family. 

"Our leaders are living better lives. If their children are living happily, why can't my children?" she asks. 

A looming humanitarian crisis 

By the time Sahna's child is born, things are expected to get worse. 

The mayor of Colombo recently said that the capital has enough food only until September, BBC reported.

With shortages of fuel and cooking gas, and daily power cuts, families are unable to travel to buy fresh food or prepare hot meals.

"Families can't buy what they used to buy. They are cutting down on meals, they are cutting down on nutritious food. So we are definitely getting into a situation where malnutrition is a major concern," said Christian Skoog, Unicef's representative in Sri Lanka. 

"We're trying to avoid a humanitarian crisis. We're not yet at children dying, which is good, but we need to get the support very urgently to avoid that."

Unicef has appealed for urgent financial aid to treat thousands of children with acute malnutrition, and to support a million others with primary healthcare.

Acute malnutrition rates could rise from 13% to 20%, with the number of severely malnourished children - currently 35,000 - doubling, says Dr Renuka Jayatissa, president of the Sri Lanka Medical Nutrition Association.

The crisis has brought forth a sense of solidarity, with people often relying on the kindness of strangers. But even kindness and hope are becoming precious commodities. 

Dr Saman Kumara at Colombo's Castle Street hospital says that if not for the goodwill of donors, his patients - tiny newborns - would have been at great risk. 

He says his hospital is now "completely dependent on donations" for essential medicines and equipment, and urged more donors to come forward as patients' lives are in danger.