Kim rebukes North Korean officials for COVID lapse

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said failures by senior party and government officials during the pandemic led to a "huge crisis" for the country.

State news agency KCNA said Kim berated "the lack of ability and irresponsibility of cadres and called for conducting a more fierce party-wide campaign against ideological faults and all sorts of negative elements being exposed among the cadres."

The report stated a "grave incident" that threatened the safety of the people but did not specify any details. South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun said officials in Seoul were aware of the report and had offered help. "During this pandemic era, we have publicly expressed our willingness to help, ranging from PCR tests to whatever you can imagine," he said.

North Korea has not officially recorded a single case of the virus, but stepped up protection measures towards the end of last year. 

Here's a wrap of other major coronavirus developments around the world.

Europe

Germany's confirmed cases rose by 808 to 3,728,141, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's public health agency for infectious diseases. The death toll rose by 56, arriving at a total of 90,875. 

Germany also caught up with the US in terms of its vaccination rate on Wednesday, Health Minister Jens Spahn said. A total of 45.3 million people in Germany have received at least one shot, which is 54.4% of the population.

Romania has announced plans to sell 1.17 million doses of excess BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines to Denmark. "Romania is experiencing low vaccination backing and therefore wants to sell excess vaccines which they won't be able to use," Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said in a statement.

Vaccine hesitancy, misinformation and distrust in state authorities has led to Romania missing its vaccination goals, with just over a fifth of the population inoculated.

Russia added 669 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, a record number for the second day in a row. Infections due to the delta variant have caused the recent spike in the country. 

The UK's education minister said on Wednesday that he expects to lift restrictions in schools in England as the country moves ahead with the final phasing out of lockdown restrictions in July. Currently, a whole class can be asked to self-isolate if one classmate tests positive for COVID-19.

Thousands of people who were contagious with COVID-19 traveled from Scotland to London for the Scottish national team's game against England during the European Championship soccer tournament. Almost 2,000 people attended events and nearly 400 were allowed into Wembley Stadium.

The Swiss government said it will donate 4 million AstraZeneca vaccines to the global vaccine sharing program COVAX. The non-EU country had reserved 5.4 million doses but its medical regulator has not yet authorized it for use.

The Dutch government announced  it plans to start vaccinating all 12 to 17-year-olds with the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, in line with the EU's authorization.

Finland said it would start vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds who are at risk of contracting severe infections, such as those with organ transplants or suffering from cancer.

Portugal reported 2,362 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the biggest jump in cases since February when the country was in the middle of a strict lockdown.

Officials blamed the delta variant for the surge. Almost a third of the country's 10 million people have been fully vaccinated.

The European Union agreed to lift travel restrictions on people from 11 countries, including Canada and Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday. The safe travel list allows people from those countries to enter the EU for non-essential reasons without having to go into quarantine.

The UK — where the highly contagious delta variant is rampant — was not on the list.

Asia Pacific 

The top health official in Australia's Queensland state has advised people under 40 against taking the AstraZeneca vaccine due to risk of a rare blood clotting disorder.

The Australian government has made those shots available for all adults, but Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said younger adults should wait for the more scarce BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine to become available. 

Japan is considering extending coronavirus curbs in Tokyo and other areas from two to four weeks, with the Olympics less than a month away. A recent uptick in cases has made officials wary of lifting the state of emergency in those areas on July 12.

Under the state of emergency, spectators at Olympic events would be limited to 5,000. Organizers had ruled that spectators will be allowed at up to 50% of the venue capacity, or a maximum of 10,000.

Indonesia is considering restricting travel and gastronomy as well as possibly shutting down non-essential offices as a means to curb the current coronavirus crisis in the country. The Red Cross said that the country is on the edge of a "catastrophe" and urged action.

Americas

The United States Supreme Court has left a nationwide ban on evictions in place, rejecting a plea by landlords to end the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) moratorium on evicting millions of tenants who were unable to pay rent during the pandemic. 

The head of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, said separately that it will be up to local officials to decide on mask-wearing guidelines as the highly contagious delta variant continues to spread through communities with low vaccination rates.

An analysis of US government data by the Associated Press showed that nearly all coronavirus-related deaths in the country are now among the category of people who were not vaccinated. 

"Breakthrough'' infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1.1% of COVID-19 hospitalizations. Only 0.8% of deaths in May were among fully vaccinated people. 

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of turning a blind eye to possible corruption in a deal to purchase coronavirus vaccines. This has led to an increase in calls for impeachment for Bolsonaro, against whom protests have been taking place in recent weeks. 

However, the president fired a health ministry official on Wednesday after claims that he had asked for bribes in a vaccine deal came to light.

Guatemala has asked Russia to return money already paid for doses of the Sputnik V vaccine since they were never delivered. The Central American country had paid $80 million in early April for a supply of 8 million doses of the vaccine. So far, it has received just 150,000 of those. The Russian Direct Investment Fund said doses will reach Guatemala soon. 

Global

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was supporting Burundi, Eritrea, Haiti, North Korea and Tanzania in starting their COVID-19 vaccination programs. These are the only five countries among the WHO's 194 member states yet to begin inoculation in the coronavirus pandemic.

The global tourism economy could face a loss of more than $4 trillion (€3.3 trillion), a United Nations report said Wednesday. The joint report by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said a slow pace of vaccination in developing countries was contributing to the losses. Many developing nations' economies are dependent on tourism.

tg/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters)