HOUSTON (Xinhua) – The Joe Biden administration is reluctant to declare a national emergency in the face of a surge of respiratory illness among children stemming from seasonal flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses, The Hill has reported. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association last week urged the federal government to take action, arguing that an emergency declaration would grant more resources to help the health system. “We need emergency funding support and flexibilities along the same lines of what was provided to respond to COVID surges,” the organizations wrote in a letter to Biden and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra, noting RSV infections have risen to “unprecedented levels.” However, the HHS has indicated a national emergency is not needed at the time, said the report. “We have offered jurisdictions support confronting the impact of RSV and influenza and stand ready to provide assistance to communities who are in need of help on a case-by-case basis,” an HHS spokeswoman said. Across Texas, a lot of kids were getting sick ahead of the Thanksgiving Day as the RSV surge was still overwhelming regional hospitals, the latest data from the Texas Department of State Health Services showed. Doctors at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, the largest city of the southern U.S. state Louisiana, said last week that half of the children hospitalized have some types of respiratory infection, brought on by viruses like the flu, RSV, adenovirus and rhinovirus.

 

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UNITED NATIONS (Xinhua) – An estimated 9.4 million people - an increase of 500,000 - will need assistance and protection in South Sudan next year, UN humanitarians says. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that endemic violence, conflict, access constraints, operational interference, public health challenges, and climatic shocks such as flooding and localized drought worsen deteriorating humanitarian conditions. The OCHA reported that it appealed to the government for leadership in increasing investments in peace and development to reduce humanitarian needs. Based on UN data, the country of an estimated 11.5 million people has been in crisis since it became independent of Sudan in 2011. The two countries are locked in a dispute, sometimes violent, over the Abiye Area along their mutual demarcation line. 

 

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MILAN (AP) – Heavy rainfall triggered landslides early Saturday on the southern Italian island of Ischia that collapsed buildings and left as many as 12 people missing. Italy’s interior minister said no deaths had yet been confirmed, appearing to contradict an early announcement by another senior politician. “At the moment there are no confirmed deaths,” said Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, speaking from the firefighters emergency coordination center. Italian Vice Premier Matteo Salvini, who is also the infrastructure minister, earlier had said that eight deaths had been confirmed, speaking to reporters at the opening of a subway extension in Milan. The prefecture for the Naples region, which includes Ischia, said at least 12 people were missing. Video from the island shows paths that the landslides had cut down slopes, leaving behind traces of mud. Streets were impassable and mayors on the island urged people to stay at home. At least 100 people were reported stranded.

 

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MINSK (Reuters) – Belarus Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei has died at the age of 64, state news agency Belta reported on Saturday. “Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei has passed away suddenly,” Belta reported. Makei had held his post since 2012. He had attended a conference of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) - a military alliance of several post soviet states - in Yerevan earlier this week and was due to meet Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Monday. Before the presidential elections and anti-government protests in Belarus in 2020, Makei had been one of the initiators of efforts to improve Belarus’ relations with the West and had criticized Russia. However, he abruptly changed his stance after the start of the protests, claiming they were inspired by agents of the West. “We are shocked by the reports of the death of the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Makei,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted in her Telegram channel. “Official condolences will be published soon.”

 

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NEW YORK (Al Jazeera) – Aid deliveries into Tigray are “not matching the needs” of the stricken region, the United Nations food agency has said, even as a ceasefire takes hold in war-torn northern Ethiopia. The World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners “urgently need access to all parts of the region to deliver food and nutrition assistance to 2.3 million vulnerable people,” the WFP said in a statement. Restoring aid deliveries to Tigray was a key part of an agreement signed on November 2 to end a two-year war that has killed untold numbers of people and unleashed a humanitarian crisis. The WFP said all four road corridors into Tigray had reopened since the ceasefire and humanitarian flights were flying into main cities, allowing a significant increase in aid supplies to reach the region. However, it added that “access into some parts of eastern and central zones of Tigray remain constrained – affecting up to 170,000 mothers and children in need of food assistance.” Aid into the region ground to a halt in late August when fighting resumed between the Ethiopian government and its allies, and fighters loyal to Tigray’s rebellious authorities. Even before the suspension of aid, the UN had warned many in Tigray already faced starvation, with some 90 percent of its six million people dependent on food assistance. The region was isolated from the world for more than a year and faced severe shortages of medicines and limited access to electricity, banking and communications.