Harris has new offer to consider
Drive to inoculate poorer nations lags wealthy countries
The Warriors have tabled star forward Tohu Harris a three-year extension as the club continues to re-work its roster ahead of Roger Tuivasasheck’s shift to rugby.
Nrl.com understands that talks between the Warriors and Harris are progressing well with a long-term deal tabled and the Kiwi international indicating he is keen to stay at the club.
The Warriors are still waiting on an answer from Storm star Jahrome Hughes on their bid to lure him away from the premiers, but the club is pushing ahead talks with Harris, their unabashed retention priority this season.
Having turned 29 in January, Harris is regarded as one of the game’s elite backrowers as he prepares to shift from the edge to a middleforward role under new coach Nathan Brown.
A three-year extension would keep the 16-test New Zealand international at the Warriors until the end of 2024 and leave him well positioned to finish his career with the club.
Harris also shapes as a likely captaincy replacement for Tuivasasheck when he goes at the end of the season, with the Kiwi forward now boasting 167 NRL games, 117 of which were played under Craig Bellamy at Melbourne.
Tuivasa-sheck’s decision to pursue his All Blacks dream, taking up a two-year deal with Blues in 2022, was first broached late last year.
The early confirmation of his exit has given Brown and the Warriors hierarchy plenty of time to canvas their replacement options in the market.
The club is also considering rebalancing their salary cap distribution somewhat with Tuivasasheck’s exit as both the Warriors’ highest paid player and one of the
biggest earners in the NRL.
For Tuivasa-sheck the early decision on his future also eases what has been an ongoing narrative throughout his rugby league career, with the star fullback often questioned about a move back to the 15-man code.
Tuivasa-sheck addressed Warriors players three weeks ago in Tamworth, a day after news of his impending rugby move broke.
“This time it’s real” was the simple message he gave his team-mates and staff, before both he and Brown spoke of making the most of their last campaign together.
“It was tough to tell the boys but I’m glad they respected [my decision] and now we’re ready to rip in,” Tuivasa-sheck said from the club’s new camp in Terrigal.
“I had to get up in front of the group and let them know what the plan was and what I was doing. And they respected it.
“We all realise it’s professional sport and we’ve got these games together.
“Once I made a decision and made a call, I wanted to do it nice and early out of respect for my team and our players.
“I didn’t want to be constantly brushing rumours or have gossip around me. I got it done nice and early so we can focus on our season and we’ve got a trial this weekend. I’m excited about our group and what we can do.
“It’s my last time with the club and these players. But I’m excited for it. There’s nothing extra that I need to do or want to do. I’ve just got to go out there and put my best foot forward for the boys to follow.”
Tuivasa-sheck will be among the 23 or 24-man squad Brown takes to Lismore for tomorrow’s trial match against the Titans. Top squad members who don’t make the trip to Lismore will play for feeder club Redcliffe against Brisbane Norths in Queensland on the weekend.
The Warriors had been scheduled to play Melbourne last week before that game was scrapped due to Victoria’s Covid-19 lockdown.
Backrower Eliesa Katoa’s recovery from a fractured eye-socket is progressing well and he is on track to play the Gold Coast in round one.
Ghana received the world’s first delivery of coronavirus vaccines from the United Nations-backed Covax initiative yesterday — the long-awaited start for a programme that has thus far fallen short of hopes that it would ensure shots were given quickly to the world’s most vulnerable people.
The arrival of 600,000 doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine in the West African country marks the beginning of the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history, according to the World Health Organisation and Unicef. It is a linchpin of efforts to bring the pandemic to an end and has been hailed as the first time the world has delivered a highly sought-after vaccine to poor countries during an outbreak.
“Today marks the historic moment for which we have been planning and working so hard. With the first shipment of doses, we can make good on the promise of the Covax facility to ensure people from less wealthy countries are not left behind in the race for life-saving vaccines,” said Henrietta Fore, executive director of Unicef, which delivered the vaccines.
But the initiative, formed to ensure fair access to vaccines by low- and middle-income countries, has been hampered by the severely limited global supply of doses and logistical problems. Although it aims to deliver two billion shots this year, it currently has legally binding agreements only for several hundred million shots.
It already missed its own goal of beginning vaccinations in poor countries at the same time immunisations were rolled out in rich ones.
The overall campaign thus far has been extremely uneven: 80 per cent of the 210 million doses administered worldwide thus far were given in just 10 countries, WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week.
That delay led numerous poorer countries to rush to sign their own deals, potentially undermining Covax’s efforts to get shots to the neediest people. And some countries can’t afford to go it alone.
Ghana is among 92 countries that will receive vaccines for free through the initiative, which is led by the WHO; Gavi, a vaccine group; and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Another 90 countries and eight territories have agreed to pay. Ghana, a nation of 30 million people that has recorded 81,245 cases and 584 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, plans to begin vaccinations on March 2. Neighbouring Ivory Coast will be the next to receive vaccines, and also will roll them out starting next week.
Even as it celebrated receiving the first doses, Ghana noted the long road ahead.
“The Government of Ghana remains resolute at ensuring the welfare of all Ghanaians and is making frantic efforts to acquire adequate vaccines to cover the entire population through bilateral and multilateral agencies,” Ghana’s acting minister of information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said in a statement.
That freneticism has been echoed across the continent of 1.3 billion people, as deliveries have fallen behind schedule and African nations have scrambled to secure vaccines from various sources. Only about seven of 54 have begun vaccination campaigns.
Experts have noted that even if richer countries reach some level of herd immunity, everyone will remain vulnerable as long as there are pockets of Covid-19 anywhere in the world.
The vaccines delivered yesterday are the first of about seven million doses being produced by the Serum Institute in India for about 20 countries, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says.
—AP