San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Clashes erupt as Australians rally over restrictions
More than 250 people who were protesting coronavirus lockdowns in Australia were arrested Saturday, and many faced fines for defying health orders, authorities said.
At least seven police officers were treated for injuries after skirmishes broke out at some of the protests, which took place in several cities nationwide. The largest and most violent protest was in Melbourne. Many were organized by people in encrypted online chat groups.
Sydney has been in lockdown for two months, while Melbourne and the capital, Canberra, went into lockdown this month. Under the rules of the lockdown, people are mostly confined to their homes and have limits placed on their social interactions.
Despite those measures, Sydney’s New South Wales state reported a record 825 new infections Saturday. Several cities are battling outbreaks of the highly contagious delta variant.
Protesters say the lockdowns should end, but authorities say they are necessary to suppress the spread of the virus and save lives.
In Melbourne, a crowd of about 4,000 mostly unmasked protesters ignited flares, yelled and blasted music in the central city. Victoria state police arrested 218 people and issued more than 200 fines, each for more than 5,400 Australian dollars ($3,850). Six officers were hospitalized, and three people remained in custody for allegedly assaulting police.
In New South Wales state, police said they arrested 47 people and fined more than 260 in relation to protests across the state. A 32-year-old man who allegedly assaulted an officer was arrested. The officer was hospitalized with head and neck injuries.
VIETNAM Troops deployed ahead of lockdown
Soldiers are deploying to Ho Chi Minh City to help deliver food and aid to households as Vietnam further tightens restrictions on people’s movements amid a worsening surge of the virus.
The army personnel will help with logistics as the city of 10 million people asks residents to “stay put” for two weeks starting Monday, a report on the government website said.
The move comes as Vietnam, which weathered much the pandemic with very few cases, recorded more than 10,000 new infections and 390 deaths on Friday. Ho Chi Minh City accounted for 3,500 of those infections.
“People must absolutely stay put, isolate from each other, from house to house, from community to community,” Prime Minsiter Pham Minh Chinh said.
Ho Chi Minh City has had strict coronavirus measures in place since June, including banning gatherings of more than two people in public and only allowing people to leave home for essential matters including buying food or going to work in certain permitted businesses.
Under the new measures, people in high-risk areas cannot leave home at all.
The city has set up more than a dozen of temporary hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients, but the high number of active cases means thousands of patients are not able to be hospitalized. According to the Health Ministry, some 19,000 patients with mild symptoms have been asked to stay at home using medical assistance from teams of mobile doctors in their communities.
NETHERLANDS Protesters assail ban on festivals
Dutch music fans have been banned for months from going to large-scale festivals due to coronavirus restrictions. On Saturday, the festivals came to them.
Hundreds of performers and festival organizers held marches through six Dutch cities on
Saturday to protest what they argue are unfair restrictions that have forced the cancellation of summer music festivals and other events.
Thousands of people attended one of the “Unmute Us” marches in Amsterdam, walking and dancing behind a convoy of trucks carrying DJs and sound systems pumping out music.
Leonie der Verkleij, a freelancer who works in hospitality services at events, was among those marching in Amsterdam.
“The festival industry feels like an unwanted child,” she said. “It feels like all sectors are important except ours.” The Dutch government has banned large-scale events such as festivals until at least Sept. 19 amid fears over the spread of the delta variant. One-day events with a maximum of 750 visitors are allowed for people with a COVID-19 app showing they have been vaccinated, have recently tested negative or have recovered from a case in the past six months.
Marchers carried banners reading: “Music = Medicine” and “Don’t Cancel Culture.”
ALABAMA
A federal team of health care workers has been deployed to a coastal Alabama hospital that is being hit with a surge of COVID-19 patients, the state health officer says.
State Health Officer Scott Harris says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is sending a task force team that includes nurses, a doctor and others to help at South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Foley. Similar assistance has been sent to help in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Coastal areas have been particularly hard hit by the recent COVID-19 surge, and the team was sent to the area having the greatest need, state health officials said.
ALASKA Federal team aids hard-hit hospital Agents seize fake vaccination cards
More than 3,000 fake COVID-19 vaccination cards have been confiscated at cargo freight facilities at the Anchorage airport as they were being
shipped from China.
Officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized the cards after they arrived in small packages sent by the same person in China.
A high volume of counterfeit vaccination cards have been detected nationwide. An additional other 3,600 fake cards were found at cargo facilities in Memphis. Federal law enforcement officers are investigating.
ILLINOIS Jesse Jackson, wife infected with virus
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, 79, and his wife, Jacqueline, 77, have been hospitalized after testing positive for the coronavirus, according to a statement Saturday.
The prominent civil rights leader was vaccinated against the virus and received his first dose in January during a publicized event as he urged others to be vaccinated as soon as possible. The two are being treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
“Doctors are currently monitoring the condition of both,” said a statement authorized by their son, Jonathan Jackson. “We will provide updates as they become available.”
A protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson was key in guiding the modern civil rights movement on numerous issues, including voting rights. Jackson has remained active, most recently advocating for COVID-19 vaccines for Black people.