Officials in Australia’s Victoria state, once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, began loosening lockdown restrictions Monday as new and active cases continued to decline.As of Monday, residents of the state — which includes Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city — will no longer face limits on the time they can spend away from their homes for education or recreation and will be allowed to travel up to 25 kilometers from their homes. Parks, golf courses and beauty salons are also open, but are subject to mask and social distancing requirements.  Outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people from two households will be allowed and golf and tennis games can resume.Residents and some lawmakers said they felt the region waited too long to loosen the restrictions, but State Premier Daniel Andrews defended them, saying every one of them was about safety and keeping virus case numbers low.  Regulations will be further loosened on Nov. 2 with the partial reopening of shops, bars and restaurants.Victoria state reported only four new cases of the coronavirus on Monday and one death.
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After circling an ancient asteroid hundreds of millions of miles away for almost two years, a NASA spacecraft this week will attempt to descend to the treacherous, boulder-packed surface and snatch a handful of rubble.  The drama unfolds Tuesday as the U.S. takes its first crack at collecting asteroid samples for return to Earth, a feat accomplished so far only by Japan.Brimming with names inspired by Egyptian mythology, the Osiris-Rex mission is looking to bring back at least 2 ounces (60 grams) worth of asteroid Bennu, the biggest otherworldly haul from beyond the moon.  NASA Plans to Land First Woman on the Moon in 2024Lunar landing will be America’s first since 1972The van-sized spacecraft is aiming for the relatively flat middle of a tennis court-sized crater named Nightingale — a spot comparable to a few parking places here on Earth. Boulders as big as buildings loom over the targeted touchdown zone.  “So for some perspective, the next time you park your car in front of your house or in front of a coffee shop and walk inside, think about the challenge of navigating Osiris-Rex into one of these spots from 200 million miles away,” said NASA’s deputy project manager Mike Moreau.Once it drops out of its half-mile-high (0.75 kilometer-high) orbit around Bennu, the spacecraft will take a deliberate four hours to make it all the way down, to just above the surface.Then the action cranks up when Osiris-Rex’s 11-foot (3.4-meter) arm reaches out and touches Bennu. Contact should last five to 10 seconds, just long enough to shoot out pressurized nitrogen gas and suck up the churned dirt and gravel. Programmed in advance, the spacecraft will operate autonomously during the unprecedented touch-and-go maneuver. With an 18-minute lag in radio communication each way, ground controllers for spacecraft builder Lockheed Martin near Denver can’t intervene.If the first attempt doesn’t work, Osiris-Rex can try again. Any collected samples won’t reach Earth until 2023.  While NASA has brought back comet dust and solar wind particles, it’s never attempted to sample one of the nearly 1 million known asteroids lurking in our solar system until now. Japan, meanwhile, expects to get samples from asteroid Ryugu in December — in the milligrams at most — 10 years after bringing back specks from asteroid Itokawa.  Bennu is an asteroid picker’s paradise.The big, black, roundish, carbon-rich space rock — taller than New York’s Empire State Building — was around when our solar system was forming 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists consider it a time capsule full of pristine building blocks that could help explain how life formed on Earth and possibly elsewhere.”This is all about understanding our origins,” said the mission’s principal scientist, Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona.  There also are selfish reasons for getting to know Bennu better.  The solar-orbiting asteroid, which swings by Earth every six years, could take aim at us late in the next century. NASA puts the odds of an impact at 1-in-2,700. The more scientists know about potentially menacing asteroids like Bennu, the safer Earth will be.When Osiris-Rex blasted off in 2016 on the more than $800 million mission, scientists envisioned sandy stretches at Bennu. So the spacecraft was designed to ingest small pebbles less than an inch (2 centimeters) across.Scientists were stunned to find massive rocks and chunky gravel all over the place when the spacecraft arrived in 2018. And pebbles were occasionally seen shooting off the asteroid, falling back and sometimes ricocheting off again in a cosmic game of ping-pong.  With so much rough terrain, engineers scrambled to aim for a tighter spot than originally anticipated. Nightingale Crater, the prime target, appears to have the biggest abundance of fine grains, but boulders still abound, including one dubbed Mount Doom.  Then COVID-19 struck.The team fell behind and bumped the second and final touch-and-go dress rehearsal for the spacecraft to August. That pushed the sample grab to October.  “Returning a sample is hard,” said NASA’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen. “The COVID made it even harder.”Osiris-Rex has three bottles of nitrogen gas, which means it can touch down three times — no more.  The spacecraft automatically will back away if it encounters unexpected hazards like big rocks that could cause it to tip over. And there’s a chance it will touch down safely but fail to collect enough rubble.  In either case, the spacecraft would return to orbit around Bennu and try again in January at another location.With the first try finally here, Lauretta is worried, nervous, excited “and confident we have done everything possible to ensure a safe sampling.”
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Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday that there are nearly 39.7 million COVID-19 infections worldwide and 1.1 million deaths from the virus.  The U.S. continues to lead the world in COVID cases, with 8.1 million infections. India said Sunday it had recorded more than 61,000 COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hour period. India has almost 7.5 million COVID-19 cases, with more than 114,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins statistics.In Italy, where a new record for daily cases – 11,705 – was set Sunday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has given mayors the power to close public squares and other places people gather after 9 p.m.”The situation is critical. The government is there but everyone must do their part,” he told a news conference. Conte’s government is trying to avoid another shutdown like the one imposed in March.Italy was one of the hardest hit countries in Europe, and as a second wave of the coronavirus has hit, it has ordered such measures as mandatory mask wearing in public, restricting the hours when restaurants can offer table service and banning festivals. Paris streets were deserted Saturday night as the city began a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, designed to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.At least seven other French cities, including Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lille, Rouen and Saint-Étienne are also under the nighttime curfew, scheduled to be in place for four weeks. Belgium will be placed under a 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. nationwide curfew Monday to combat the country’s rising COVID-19 caseload. In addition, Belgium has ordered all cafes, bars, and restaurants shuttered, starting Monday.Two European foreign ministers – Austria’s Alexander Schallenberg and Belgium’s Sophie Wilmès – have been infected with the coronavirus.  Both attended a European Union meeting in Luxembourg on Oct. 12.  The Dutch king and queen cut their vacation to Greece short amid criticism that they were doing the opposite of what the Dutch people have been advised to do during the pandemic – stay home as much as possible to flatten the spread of the virus.  King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima left The Hague Friday but returned Saturday. “We do not want to leave any doubts about it: in order to get the Covid-19 virus under control, it is necessary that the guidelines are followed,” the couple said in a royal statement.  “The debate over our holiday does not contribute to that.”
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Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday that there are nearly 39.7 million COVID-19 infections worldwide and 1.1 million deaths from the virus.The U.S. continues to lead the world in COVID cases, with 8.1 million infections.India said Sunday it had recorded more than 61,000 COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hour period. India has almost 7.5 million COVID-19 cases, with more than 114,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins statistics.Paris streets were deserted Saturday night as the city began a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, designed to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.At least seven other French cities, including Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lille, Rouen and Saint-Étienne are also under the nighttime curfew, scheduled to be in place for four weeks.Belgium will be placed under a midnight to 5 a.m. nationwide curfew Monday to combat the country’s rising COVID-19 caseload. In addition, Belgium has ordered all cafes, bars, and restaurants shuttered, starting Monday.Two European foreign ministers — Austria’s Alexander Schallenberg and Belgium’s Sophie Wilmès — have been infected with the coronavirus. Both attended a European Union meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.The Dutch king and queen cut their vacation to Greece short amid criticism that they were doing the opposite of what the Dutch people have been advised to do during the pandemic – stay home as much as possible to flatten the spread of the virus.King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima left The Hague on Friday but returned Saturday.”We do not want to leave any doubts about it: in order to get the COVID-19 virus under control, it is necessary that the guidelines are followed,” the couple said in a royal statement. “The debate over our holiday does not contribute to that.”
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Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday that there are nearly 39.7 million COVID-19 infections worldwide and 1.1 million deaths from the virus.The U.S. continues to lead the world in COVID cases, with 8.1 million infections.India said Sunday it had recorded more than 61,000 COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hour period. India has almost 7.5 million COVID-19 cases, with more than 114,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins statistics.Paris streets were deserted Saturday night as the city began a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, designed to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.At least seven other French cities, including Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lille, Rouen and Saint-Étienne are also under the nighttime curfew, scheduled to be in place for four weeks.Belgium will be placed under a midnight to 5 a.m. nationwide curfew Monday to combat the country’s rising COVID-19 caseload. In addition, Belgium has ordered all cafes, bars, and restaurants shuttered, starting Monday.Two European foreign ministers — Austria’s Alexander Schallenberg and Belgium’s Sophie Wilmès — have been infected with the coronavirus. Both attended a European Union meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.The Dutch king and queen cut their vacation to Greece short amid criticism that they were doing the opposite of what the Dutch people have been advised to do during the pandemic – stay home as much as possible to flatten the spread of the virus.King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima left The Hague on Friday but returned Saturday.”We do not want to leave any doubts about it: in order to get the COVID-19 virus under control, it is necessary that the guidelines are followed,” the couple said in a royal statement. “The debate over our holiday does not contribute to that.”
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Rural Jerauld County in South Dakota didn’t see a single case of the coronavirus for more than two months stretching from June to August. But over the last two weeks, its rate of new cases per person soared to one of the highest in the nation.”All of a sudden it hit, and as it does, it just exploded,” said Dr. Tom Dean, one of three doctors who work in the county.As the brunt of the virus has blown into the Upper Midwest and northern Plains, the severity of outbreaks in rural communities has come into focus. Doctors and health officials in small towns worry that infections may overwhelm communities with limited medical resources. And many say they are still running up against attitudes on wearing masks that have hardened along political lines and a false notion that rural areas are immune to widespread infections.Dean started writing a column in the local weekly newspaper, the True Dakotan, to offer his guidance. In recent weeks, he’s watched as one in roughly every 37 people in his county has tested positive for the virus.It ripped through the nursing home in Wessington Springs where both his parents lived, killing his father. The community’s six deaths may appear minimal compared with thousands who have died in cities, but they have propelled the county of about 2,000 people to a death rate roughly four times higher than the nationwide rate.High per capita toll Rural counties across Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana sit among the top in the nation for new cases per capita over the last two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers. In counties with just a few thousand people, the number of cases per capita can soar with even a small outbreak — and the toll hits close to home in tight-knit towns.”One or two people with infections can really cause a large impact when you have one grocery store or gas station,” said Misty Rudebusch, the medical director at a network of rural health clinics in South Dakota called Horizon Health Care. “There is such a ripple effect.”Wessington Springs is a hub for the generations of farmers and ranchers that work the surrounding land. Residents send their children to the same school they attended and have preserved cultural offerings like a Shakespeare garden and opera house.Dr. Tom Dean is pictured at his clinic in Wessington Springs, S.D., Oct. 16, 2020. Dean is one of three doctors in the county, which has seen one of the nation’s highest rates of coronavirus cases per person.They trust Dean, who for 42 years has tended to everything from broken bones to high blood pressure. When a patient needs a higher level of care, the family physician usually depends on a transfer to a hospital 130 miles (209 kilometers) away.As cases surge, hospitals in rural communities are having trouble finding beds. A recent request to transfer a “not desperately ill, but pretty” sick COVID-19 patient was denied for several days, until the patient’s condition had worsened, Dean said.’A struggle'”We’re proud of what we got, but it’s been a struggle,” he said of the 16-bed hospital.The outbreak that killed Dean’s dad forced Wessington Springs’ only nursing home to put out a statewide request for nurses.Thin resources and high death rates have plagued other small communities. Blair Tomsheck, interim director of the health department in Toole County, Montana, worried that the region’s small hospitals would need to start caring for serious COVID-19 patients after cases spiked to the nation’s highest per capita. One out of every 28 people in the county has tested positive in the last two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.”It’s very, very challenging when your resources are poor — living in a small, rural county,” she said.Children scramble for candy during a homecoming parade, Oct. 16, 2020, in Wessington Springs, S.D. The parade had to be postponed because of a coronavirus outbreak that killed five residents of the local nursing home.Infections can also spread quickly in places like Toole County, where most everyone shops at the same grocery store, attends the same school or worships at a handful of churches.”The Sunday family dinners are killing us,” Tomsheck said.Even as outbreaks threaten to spiral out of control, doctors and health officials said they are struggling to convince people of the seriousness of a virus that took months to arrive in force.”It’s kind of like getting a blizzard warning and then the blizzard doesn’t hit that week, so then the next time, people say they are not going to worry about it,” said Kathleen Taylor, a 67-year-old author who lives in Redfield, South Dakota.Mask dilemmaIn swaths of the country decorated by flags supporting President Donald Trump, people took their cues on wearing masks from his often-cavalier attitude toward the virus. Dean draws a direct connection between Trump’s approach and the lack of precautions in his town of 956 people.”There’s the foolish idea that mask-wearing or refusal is some kind of a political statement,” Dean said. “It has seriously interfered with our ability to get it under control.”Even amid the surge, Republican governors in the region have been reluctant to act. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said recently, “We are caught in the middle of a COVID storm,” as he raised advisory risk levels in counties across the state. But he has refused to issue a mask mandate.FILE – South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks in Pierre, S.D., in January 2019.South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who has carved out a reputation among conservatives by forgoing lockdowns, blamed the surge in cases on testing increases, even though the state has had the highest positivity rate in the nation over the last two weeks, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Positivity rates are an indication of how widespread infections are.In Wisconsin, conservative groups have sued over Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ mask mandate.A mask doubterWhether the requirement survives doesn’t matter to Jody Bierhals, a resident of Gillett who doubts the efficacy of wearing a mask. Her home county of Oconto, which stretches from the northern border of Green Bay into forests and farmland, has the state’s second-highest growth in coronavirus cases per person.Bierhals, a single mother with three kids, is more worried about the drop in business at her small salon. The region depends on tourists, but many have stayed away during the pandemic.”Do I want to keep the water on, or do I want to be able to put food on the table?” she asked. “It’s a difficult situation.”Bierhals said she thought the virus couldn’t be stopped and it would be best to let it run its course. But local attitudes like that have left the county’s health officer, Debra Koniter, desperate.Koniter warned that the uncontrolled spread of infections has overwhelmed the county’s health systems.”I’m just waiting to see if our community can change our behavior,” she said. “Otherwise, I don’t see the end in sight.” 
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Daily cases of COVID-19 have reached record highs around the world, particularly in Europe and the Americas, the World Health Organization said Friday.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a briefing in Geneva that record-high numbers of cases were reported in each of the last four days.“We must remember that this is an uneven pandemic,” said Ghebreyesus. “Countries have responded differently, and countries have been affected differently. Almost 70% of all cases reported globally last week were from 10 countries, and almost half of all cases were from just three countries.”The United States had more new infections over a 24-hour period than any other country, with 63,610, increasing the country’s total Friday to a world-leading 8.03 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.The U.S. also maintained its global lead in COVID-19 fatalities, with Hopkins reporting 820 new deaths, increasing the country’s total Friday to at least 218,000 dead.White plastic tombstone-shaped pieces are lined up as a temporary memorial to some of Miami’s victims of the coronavirus at Simonhoff Floral Park, Oct. 14, 2020, in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami.Surges in five statesUpticks in the U.S. were led by surging infection rates in the states of Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Florida and California, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins.India recorded 63,371 new cases Friday, according to Hopkins, while there were also sharp increases in the number of infections in France, Brazil and Britain.The WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove told reporters Friday that 80% of the countries in Europe were experiencing spikes in COVID-19 cases.In Britain, where Johns Hopkins University reported nearly 19,000 new cases Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson threatened to force Greater Manchester to impose the country’s most stringent level of coronavirus restrictions after local officials refused to place restrictions on areas with high infection rates.On Saturday, France will begin a 9 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew for the region of Paris and at least seven other cities: Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lille, Rouen and Saint-Etienne. The curfew will remain in effect for at least four weeks.German restrictionsGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel and governors of the country’s 16 states have agreed to impose a new round of nationwide restrictions after seeing record-high new COVID-19 cases.  The restrictions include closing bars and restaurants early and limiting the number of people allowed to gather in public.Police with face masks control the coronavirus orders at the train station in Cologne, Germany, Oct. 15, 2020. The city exceeded the important warning level of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days.Merkel said Friday that a planned European Union summit on the 27-nation bloc’s China policy in Berlin next month had been canceled because of the resurgent pandemic.Italy reported more than 10,000 new infections over the past 24 hours Friday, the highest daily number since the beginning of the country’s outbreak. Italy has the second-highest death toll in Europe after Britain, reporting more than 36,400 deaths since the beginning of the outbreak in February.As of midafternoon Friday, there were more than 39 million COVID-19 cases worldwide and more than 1.1 million global COVID-19 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Friday that a sixth-month randomized trial of COVID-19 treatments found “conclusive evidence” that remdesivir, a drug used to treat U.S. President Donald Trump when he fell ill, has little or no effect on severe cases of the virus.
 
The WHO, in what they said was the world’s largest randomized control trial on COVID-19 therapeutics, tested remdesivir and three other drugs – hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon – as part the agency’s research to determine if existing drugs might be effective in treating COVID-19.
 
At a news briefing at WHO headquarters in Geneva Friday, a WHO spokesman said the results of the study, which was not peer-reviewed, “indicate that remdesivir hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon regimens appear to have little or no effect on 28-day mortality, or the in-hospital course of COVID-19 among hospitalized patients.”
 
The WHO said the study, which covered more than 30 countries, looked at the effects of the treatments on overall death rates, whether patients need breathing machines, and how much time patients spent recovering in hospitals.
 
Previous studies had already ruled out three of the drugs. But the findings run counter to a clinical trial of remdesivir by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in April which indicated the drug accelerated the recovery rates of people with severe cases of COVID-19.
 
The company that makes remdesivir, Gilead Sciences, Inc., saw the price of its stock begin to fall as the news of the WHO study broke Friday. The company issued a statement saying data appeared inconsistent, the findings were premature and referenced the other studies, such as the one by the NIH, which had validated the drug’s benefits.
 
Remdesivir was among an array of drugs used to treat U.S. President Donald Trump when he contracted COVID-19 earlier this month.
 
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Finland’s prime minister Friday became the second European Union leader to leave a two-day summit as a precautionary measure, after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.  On Twitter, Sanna Marin wrote she was leaving the European Council meeting in Brussels and asked Sweden’s prime minister, Stefan Lofven, to represent Finland at the talks, where leaders were wearing face masks and keeping their distance amid a spike in COVID-19 infections across Europe. Marin had participated in a meeting Wednesday at the Finnish parliament in Helsinki with lawmaker Tom Packalen, who later tested positive for COVID-19 and had mild symptoms. Marin’s early departure follows a similar decision by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who left the meeting Thursday to self-isolate after learning one of her support staff members had tested positive.  FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Oct. 15, 2020.It was the second time this month Von der Leyen had to take such a precaution. She went into isolation Oct. 5 after a meeting in Portugal that included someone who later tested positive. It is unclear why the European Union chose to hold its October summit in person rather than virtually while the continent is facing a surge in new COVID-19 cases.  Marin gave a speech at the summit supporting videoconferences for meeting between EU leaders, saying there should be a higher threshold for holding in-person meetings during the pandemic. 
 
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A predicted increase in COVID-19 cases as cold weather approaches in the Northern Hemisphere seems to be underway.  
 
New global cases have climbed to 330,000 per day, with Europe and the U.S. experiencing a worrying uptick.  
 
The U.S. recorded more than 64,000 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, the highest daily tally since July.  
 
The World Health Organization’s European director says 1,000 people a day are dying from COVID-19 on the continent and more than a million new COVID-19 cases have been identified in the last ten days.   
 
Hans Kluge also said the impact of the coronavirus-caused disease this winter could be minimized in Europe if mask wearing increased from the current 60% to 95% of the population and if social distancing were strictly observed.    
 
America’s top infectious disease expert told Americans to rethink their Thanksgiving plans for late November when many people traditionally travel through teeming transportation centers, such as bus depots, train stations, and airports to be with their families.  
 
“If you have vulnerable people, the elderly or people that have underlying conditions, you better consider whether you want to do that now,” Fauci told ABC News.  He suggested people perhaps delay plans and “just …  wait” until the pandemic is under control.   
 
“We really have to be careful this time that each individual family evaluates the risk-benefit,” Fauci added.Stacked chairs are seen in front of a cafe in Lille, northern France, Oct. 12, 2020. Lille has been placed under maximum virus alert. On Saturday, France will begin a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the region of Paris and at least seven other cities, including Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lille, Rouen and Saint-Étienne.  The curfew will remain in effect for at least four weeks.
 
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and governors of the country’s 16 states have agreed to impose a new round of nationwide restrictions after seeing record-high new COVID-19 cases.  The restrictions include the early closure of bars and restaurants and limiting the number of people allowed to gather in public.   
 
Northern Ireland has announced a nationwide four-week lockdown, with schools closed for two weeks and all pubs and restaurants closed for the full month, except for pickup and delivery of food.    
 
London is about to be put under the second level of the government’s new three-tiered coronavirus alert system, which designates areas as medium, high and very high risk. The city of Liverpool has been placed under the highest tier, leading officials to close all restaurants and bars.  
 
There are now nearly 39 million worldwide COVID-19 cases and more than a million people have died from the virus, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.  
 
 
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Doctors and nurses in Zimbabwe are challenging a Ministry of Health rule they say impedes their ability to leave the country.  The ministry said last month that health care workers must get official signatures to receive a “Certificate of Good Standing” – a needed reference to get work abroad.  A doctors group says it’s an attempt to stop a mass exodus after poor treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.  After more than 10 years of working in government hospitals, a 36-year-old doctor – who did not want to be identified told VOA countless protests have not resulted in a decent salary or better working conditions. He applied to work in England.  But for nearly three months now, he says he can’t go, because he is still waiting for a “Certificate of Good Standing” from the government that foreign employers require.  ” I want to leave this country to work where I can treat people properly with all equipment and medicines,” the doctor told VOA.  He says he also wants a salary so he can look after his children and his parents, who paid for his education.  The Senior Hospital Doctors Association of Zimbabwe says its members are frustrated by delays they attribute to the government trying to curtail a brain drain among health workers.    Its leader, Dr. Aaron Musara, says the government is misusing the certificate of good standing.   “Normally the certificate of good standing talks about the integrity of a colleague, how the colleague does not have pending cases or issues of discipline involving issues with patients or with colleagues,” Dr. Musara told VOA. “It will now cease to be about that, the moment we allow it to be used by the government in this manner. It can be abused as a way of handling labour issues rather than being a professional issue.”He says in some cases doctors just want to go abroad to further their education, then return to Zimbabwe.  Health personnel in Zimbabwe have long protested about poor working conditions – including inadequate personal protective equipment (PPEs) during the COVID-19 pandemic.  But the cash-strapped nation has been unable to improve salaries or provide needed supplies.  Zimbabwe’s vice president, Constantino Chiwenga, who is the country’s new health minister, told doctors this week that he would address all their problems.   “I promise that I will do my best in creating the much-needed conducive environment for your work. Your work will not go unnoticed,” he said. “Do your best and I will do my part. And together we can avoid the ongoing unnecessary loss of life.”Chiwenga did not talk about preventing health care workers from leaving Zimbabwe. Health officials said they would not comment on the issue after the vice president’s promise to resolve the doctors’ problems.     
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A predicted spike in COVID-19 cases as the cold weather months approach in the Northern Hemisphere seems to be occurring.Daily global cases have climbed to 330,000 per day, with Europe and the U.S. experiencing a worrying uptick.In the U.S., the nation’s top infectious disease expert told Americans to rethink their Thanksgiving plans for late November when many people traditionally travel through teeming transportation centers, such as bus depots, train stations, and airports to be with their families.“If you have vulnerable people, the elderly or people that have underlying conditions, you better consider whether you want to do that now,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News. He suggested people perhaps delay plans and “just … wait” until the pandemic is under control.“We really have to be careful this time that each individual family evaluates the risk-benefit,” Fauci added.On Saturday, France will begin a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the region of Paris and at least seven other cities, including Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lille, Rouen and Saint-Étienne. The curfew will remain in effect for at least four weeks.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and governors of the country’s 16 states have agreed to impose a new round of nationwide restrictions after seeing record-high new COVID-19 cases. The restrictions include the early closure of bars and restaurants and limiting the number of people allowed to gather in public.Northern Ireland has announced a nationwide four-week lockdown, with schools closed for two weeks and all pubs and restaurants closed for the full month, except for pickup and delivery of food.London is about to be put under the second level of the government’s new three-tiered coronavirus alert system, which designates areas as medium, high and very high risk. The city of Liverpool has been placed under the highest tier, leading officials to close all restaurants and bars.There are now nearly 39 million worldwide COVID-19 cases and more than a million people have died from the virus, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
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Little Kurt looks like any other baby horse as he frolics playfully in his pen. He isn’t afraid to kick or head-butt an intruder who gets in his way and, when he’s hungry, he dashes over to his mother for milk.But 2-month-old Kurt differs from every other foal of his kind in one distinct way: He’s a clone.The rare, endangered Przewalski’s horse was created from cells taken from a stallion in 1980. They sat frozen at the San Diego Zoo for 40 years before they were fused with an egg from a domestic horse.With the egg’s nucleus removed, ensuring Kurt would be basically all Przewalski’s horse, they were implanted in the mare who would become his mom on Aug. 6.The result, officials say, was the world’s first cloned Przewalski’s horse.Scientists have cloned nearly two dozen kinds of mammals, including dogs, cats, pigs, cows and polo ponies. In 2018, researchers in China created monkeys for the first time using the cloning techniques that produced Dolly the sheep.The zoo sees Kurt’s birth as a milestone in efforts to restore the population of the horse also known as the Asiatic Wild Horse or Mongolian Wild Horse. The small, stocky animals (they stand only about 1.2 to 1.5 meters tall at the withers) are believed extinct in the wild and number only about 2,000 in zoos and wildlife habitats. Their limited gene pool puts them at a reproductive disadvantage.“This colt is expected to be one of the most genetically important individuals of his species,” Bob Wiese, chief life sciences officer at San Diego Zoo Global, which operates the zoo, said in a statement. “We are hopeful that he will bring back genetic variation important for the future of the Przewalski’s horse population.”Although only 2 months old, Kurt’s birth was made possible in 1980 when cells were taken from a 5-year-old stallion and put in deep freeze at San Diego’s Frozen Zoo facility. His father died in 1998.Kurt was named for Kurt Benirschke, who played a key role in founding the Frozen Zoo with its extensive research program and cell cultures.“A central tenet of the Frozen Zoo, when it was established by Dr. Benirschke, was that it would be used for purposes not possible at the time,” said Oliver Ryder, director of genetics at San Diego Zoo Global.The zoo worked in collaboration with the California conservation group Revive & Restore and the Texas-based company ViaGen Equine in creating Kurt.He was born at a veterinary facility in Texas, where he’ll continue to live with his mother for most likely another year.Eventually he’ll be integrated into the zoo’s Przewalski’s horse population, where it’s hoped that someday he’ll become a father himself.Przewalski’s horses take their official name from Russian explorer Nikolai Przewalski, who found a skull and hide of one and shared it with a Russian museum.At one time they ranged throughout Europe and Asia, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Biology Conservation Institute. Encroaching human population and livestock eventually pushed them out of Europe and east to parts of Asia like the Gobi Desert. Outside of zoos, they exist today only in reintroduction sites in Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan.According to the Smithsonian, they are the only true wild horses left in the world. The institute maintains wild horse herds in North America and Australia don’t count because they are the descendants of escaped domesticated horses.
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Hunger and malnutrition are worsening in parts of the African continent because of the coronavirus pandemic, especially in low-income communities or those already stricken by continued conflict, according to a survey of 2,400 people in 10 African countries by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The survey, conducted from June to August, shows the pandemic has caused job losses and curtailed people’s ability to farm or access markets.
“The risk is that as food prices rise and people’s income plummets, we could see a rise in malnutrition because families can’t afford enough food, or that the foods they can afford are less nutrient-rich,” said ICRC’s economic security analyst for Africa, Pablo Lozano.
Since the start of the pandemic, 94% of respondents reported that prices for food and other essentials in their local markets had increased, while 82% said they had lost income or revenue. Only 7% said they had enough savings to cope with a prolonged crisis.
Lozano said the survey shows people are struggling financially “in the communities in which we work, especially true among those who relied on day labor to get by or small business owners, as well as communities that were already struggling with food insecurity due to conflict or violence.”Students of Rising Sun Children School wear face masks as a preventive measure to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in their classroom in Yaba, Lagos, on Oct. 12, 2020.
In Western Africa, in Nigeria’s conflict-stricken northeast, the number of children treated by the outpatient nutrition program grew by 20%, while the number of severe malnutrition cases grew by 10% compared with the same period last year.
The increase in patients was recorded even though ICRC’s community outreach program has been on hold due to COVID-19. The ICRC said it is worried about the increase and predicts even more patients once work resumes.
“We are very concerned by the trend, especially in Maiduguri,” said Thomas Ndambu, ICRC nutritionist, who is “certain that when Nigerian Red Cross volunteers resume their community outreach, the number of malnutrition cases will surge.”
In nearby Burkina Faso, unabated violence despite the pandemic has displaced about 2.8 million people. These forcibly displaced people are now estimated to face crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, representing an increase of more than 200% from the same period a year ago, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification System.Children sit in their classroom on the first day of the new school year, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on Oct.1, 2020.Mathew Kenyanjui, economic security coordinator of the ICRC in Burkina Faso, cautioned that the level of hunger is “rising dangerously due to violence, lack of access to arable land, fragile adaptation strategies, such as sales of household assets and livestock.” This situation has been compounded by the cyclical droughts and the flooding this year, he added.
UNICEF and the World Food Program reported that a survey conducted in August in 11 municipalities in Burkina Faso found 11% of children under the age of 5, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, to be suffering from moderate acute malnutrition, and 3% suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
The trend is no different in the easternmost part of the continent in Somalia. Seventeen-thousand malnourished children under the age of 5, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, were assisted in the first six months of 2020, compared with 11,900 in all of 2019. Here, too, the number is expected to climb by year-end because of a combination of violence, conflict, floods, locusts and COVID-19 complications.Sudanese refugees children pose for photographs, in the Treguine camp, in Hadjer Hadid, in the Ouaddaï region of eastern Chad, on March 24, 2019.In Chad, the situation has deteriorated dramatically in 2020 because of the highly volatile security situation in parts of the country that has forced people from their homes, often more than once. Exacerbating the situation is COVID-19 and climate shocks including droughts and floods. In the Lake Chad region, 65% of families in the country are estimated to live on just $2 a day.
Flooding also has compounded already staggering food insecurity and malnutrition levels in South Sudan, where more than half of the country’s 11 million people are estimated to face severe food insecurity. That is combined with protracted conflict and armed violence, which has affected livelihoods for decades and forced millions of people to flee their homes and abandon their crops. Additionally, markets often are destroyed in armed clashes, disrupting people’s access to food.
Additionally, the ICRC is concerned that if borders are closed due to COVID-19, South Sudan would face dramatic consequences and the level of food insecurity would rise significantly, given that much of the country’s food is imported.
The ICRC survey was also conducted in countries where the ICRC continues to work, including Mauritania, Niger, Cameroon, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 
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Dozens of European cities have been forced into lockdown amid a surge in coronavirus infections. Hospital intensive care units are filling up fast and there are fears that health systems could become overwhelmed as winter approaches. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, there is growing pressure for a return to the strict nationwide lockdowns that were imposed in the spring — despite concerns over their economic impact. 
Camera: Henry Ridgwell    Produced by: Rob Raffaele 
 
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