Few deaths despite high infection rate
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (AP):
ABOUT 12 MILLION people in South Africa have “probably” been infected with the coronavirus, but that startlingly high number has not caused a similarly high death rate and might indicate a widespread “level of immunity”, the country’s health minister says.
More than 20 per cent of South Africa’s population of 58 million have had the virus at some point, Dr Zweli Mkhize estimated this week. He cited studies that found the presence of coronavirus antibodies in blood samples taken from parts of the population. The findings have prompted the government to launch a national study, he said.
“South Africa has seen the surge receding, and thus raises the question of the level of immunity that may already be existing in society,” he said.
Other studies have indicated that up to 40 per cent of the population might be immune to the virus, Mkhize said. Some South African experts suggest that Africa’s most developed economy may be approaching herd immunity, but scientists believe at least 70-80 per cent of a population needs to be immune before there’s any effect. And with COVID-19 it’s unclear how long that immunity might last.
With confirmed virus cases dropping significantly, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday evening announced that South Africa’s borders will reopen as of October 1, with visitors required to show negative coronavirus test results no older than 72 hours before departure. Visitors will not be permitted from countries deemed at high risk, Ramaphosa said, not naming names.
Ramaphosa also announced further relaxed restrictions on public gatherings, to a maximum of 250 people indoors and 500 outdoors.
SECOND WAVE
The president warned that the second wave of the pandemic in some countries has been worse than the first. “A second wave would be devastating to our country,” he said.
South Africa’s number of confirmed virus cases have dropped in recent weeks after a peak in late July that saw the country recording up to 15,000 cases daily, and raised fears that health services in some major cities might collapse. Official figures showed just 772 new cases on Tuesday.
South Africa is also seeing declines in hospital admissions, people in intensive care units and deaths attributed to COVID-19, health minister Mkhize said.
“Consistency across these indicators reassures us that, indeed, we are in the midst of a trough in the pandemic,” he said.
South Africa has just over 650,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the government’s latest official count, the eighth-highest caseload in the world. At its peak, South Africa was the fifth most affected country, behind the United States, India, Brazil and Russia, which all have much larger populations.
Experts have tried for months to figure out why South Africa’s official death rate from COVID-19 is low – 15,641 people have died, according to government figures. There were fears at the start of the pandemic that poverty, crowded living conditions, restricted access to clean water and the high prevalence of tuberculosis and HIV would put South Africa, and Africa at large, in danger of millions of deaths.
So far, that hasn’t happened. South Africa is by far the worst affected country in Africa with nearly half of the continent’s 1.3 million confirmed cases. There have been 33,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the 54 countries in Africa, which has a population of 1.3 billion people. That death count is less than the number of people who have died in either the UK or Italy, and far less than the United States’ 195,000 confirmed deaths.
GENEVA (AP):
INDEPENDENT EXPERTS for the United Nations’ (UN) top human rights body accused the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Wednesday of crimes against humanity, highlighting grisly cases of torture and killings allegedly carried out by security forces who used techniques like electric shocks, genital mutilation and asphyxiation.
In a scathing, in-depth report commissioned by the Human Rights Council, the experts said the people responsible for extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and other crimes must be held to account to provide justice for untold thousands of victims and to ensure such crimes don’t happen again.
The findings of the report are likely to ratchet up pressure on Maduro’s government, which has overseen a country in tatters with runaway inflation, a violent crackdown and an exodus of millions of Venezuelans who have fled to neighbouring countries to escape the turmoil since he took power in 2013.
The experts delved into nearly 3,000 cases, looked at more than 5,000 killings and concluded that Maduro and his defence and interior ministers were aware of the crimes committed by Venezuelan security forces and intelligence agencies.
They further alleged that highlevel authorities had both power and oversight over the forces and agencies, making the top officials responsible. Venezuelan authorities were not immediately available for comment.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
Critics have already accused Maduro’s government of crimes against humanity. But the 411page report represents one of the most extensive looks at recent rights abuses in Venezuela, drawing upon interviews with victims, relatives, witnesses, police, officials and judges, plus videos, satellite imagery and social media content. The authors said they did not receive responses from the government.
The experts – Marta Valinas of Portugal, Francisco Cox Vial of Chile, and Paul Seils of Britain – worked under a fact-finding mission that the 47-nation Human Rights Council, the UN’s top human rights body, set up in September to investigate alleged acts of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment and other human rights violations in Venezuela since 2014.
“These acts were committed pursuant to two state policies, one to quash opposition to the government and another to combat crime, including by eliminating individuals perceived as criminals,” Valinas told reporters. “We also consider that the documented crimes were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population.”
“For these reasons, the mission has reasonable grounds to believe that they amount to crimes against humanity,” she said, noting the alleged arbitrary killings and systematic use of torture, in particular.
Under Article 7 of the UN treaty that established the International Criminal Court, a crime against humanity is defined as an act committed as part of a “widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population”.
The experts said the violations in Venezuela took place amid a breakdown of democratic institutions, rule of law and judicial independence in the country, often during crackdowns on protesters. They said the “vast majority” of unlawful killings by security forces have not resulted in prosecutions and “at no stage have officials with command responsibility been brought to justice”.
The report found that members of the Special Action Forces, a feared division of the national police service, and another unit were responsible for over half of the thousands of wrongful deaths that the experts examined. Superiors had authority to grant officers a “green light to kill”, the report’s authors wrote, citing a training video that showed officers being encouraged to “kill criminals without compassion”.
“Among the acts of torture we have reasonable grounds to believe were committed are: sexual and gender-based violence, including forced nudity, rape and threats of rape; targeted violence against male genitals; asphyxiation with toxic substances and waterstress positions; prolonged solitary confinement in harsh conditions, cuts and mutilation; electric shocks and threats to family close to those detained,” he told reporters in Geneva, where the council is based, via videoconference.
The experts said they had recorded the names of more than 45 intelligence and counterintelligence officers “who should be investigated and prosecuted” – without making them public. The names could be made available to International Criminal Court prosecutors who in 2018 opened a preliminary investigation into allegations of abuses in Venezuela.
Venezuela is a member of the court, meaning that crimes there could fall under the ICC’s jurisdiction.
Maduro’s government has come under increasing political pressure from the United States and dozens of other countries which consider politician Juan Guaidó the legitimate leader of Venezuela. Maduro has called it a plot to overthrow him so the US can exploit Venezuela’s vast oil wealth.
Venezuela was once wealthy, sitting atop the world’s largest oil reserves, but it has tumbled into economic and political crisis. An estimated five million Venezuelans have fled, escaping dangerous streets, poverty and hunger. Its inability to produce gasolene has forced it to import fuel from Iran amid deep shortages that have sparked frustration among drivers stuck in line to fill up for hours, or even days.