More birthdays to come Ptr. Fernando Abraham
…the family of Broadcaster and educator, Dean Dorothy Montojo-Agnis who has passed away, hereby extending their gratitude to pious readers for showed sympathy to their bereavement… Good night Ate, see you in the morning!
3 months to EMMANUEL
PACQUIAO 22
March, fire prevention month
Klinpix Janitorial and Pest Control Services is hiring riders with units of college or equivalent in non-formal training, 09438144995, 09916444376
The National Telecommunications Commission warned watching public to withold any information to anyone offering job, it is scam.
Fyi
By Vin Se
Europe COVID-19 rise, due to fewer curbs, subvariant
“The BA.2 version of omicron seems to be behind this uptick in infections, which again shows how quickly situation can change as virus evolves into new forms,” University of Reading cellular microbiology professor Simon Clarke told Science Media Centre COVID-19 is again surging in Western Europe due to “perfect storm” of governments lifting restrictions, waning immunity and more contagious BA.2 omicron subvariant, experts.
After more than a month of falling cases across much of the continent, countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Italy have all seen dramatic resurgence of infections in recent days.
In France, cases have risen by more than third in the week since government ended most COVID restrictions last Monday.
In Germany, despite new daily record of nearly 300,000 infections on Friday, government let national legislation enabling coronavirus restrictions expire over the weekend. Most German states, which have considerable leeway on applying measures, have however maintained restrictions.
Italy government would phase out almost all restrictions by May 1 despite rising cases.
And in Britain, where one in 20 people are currently infected, government removed the last of its international travel restrictions on Friday.
Faced with its own surging cases, Austria announced on the weekend would reimpose rules requiring FFP2 face masks just weeks after lifting the measure.
While some have blamed governments for relaxing restrictions too quickly, epidemiologists also pointed finger at the BA.2 sub-lineage of the omicron variant that has become dominant in many countries.
Sometimes called “stealth omicron” because it is more difficult to detect, BA.2 is estimated to be about 30 percent more contagious than its predecessor BA.1.
Lawrence Young, a virologist at Britain’s University of Warwick, said rising cases in Europe were due to a combination “a perfect storm” of three factors, lifting of restrictions, waning immunity after vaccination and BA.2.
Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva said there were “a couple of hypotheses on the table, which are not mutually exclusive”.
He told AFP that BA.2 was “clearly a relevant suspect in explaining the current rebound”, also mentioning waning immunity and easing of measures.
He also pointed to air pollution in Western Europe during infection resurgence, referring to research that showed “strong correlation” between COVID outbreaks and high levels of fine particulate matter in the air.
Clarke said despite soaring cases in Britain, “concern about virus among public seems to be at an all-time low since start of pandemic.
In a bid to bolster waning immunity, some nations such as France have started rolling out fourth vaccine doses.
In England, a fourth booster shot will be made available to care home residents, people aged over 75 and the immunosuppressed this week, the National Health Service said.
However the World Health Organization has warned that new variants were more likely to continue emerging if wealthy nations continue to boost their own citizens ahead of sharing vaccines with countries where many have not received their first dose.
Jean-Francois Delfraissy, president of the French government’s scientific advisory board, has already warned of potential variants.
“We are at the mercy of a new variant which, if we ask the scientist community, could be expected in the autumn… it could happen before then, will it be more transmissible variant…will it be more severe…will it escape the vaccine…nobody knows,” he said.
ISKUP! 