oh, a lose this is al jazeera ah hello, i'm emily ang, when this is the news, our live from doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes. china locks down a city of 13000000 after arise. in corona virus cases.

russian president vladimir putin tells more people to get vaccinated in his annual marathon finding, with nato ukraine and the economy under scrutiny to the un release and works agencies head says his organization can't meet the needs of palestinian refugees in lebanon, jews, or financial crisis class. these olives are changing lives. i'm with some of the job in northern buckets on. and i'll tell you about the efforts to cultivate more of them. and on be december for the sports premier league managers will meet on thursday to discuss issues around coven maintain, while in the n b a. a food consecutive game is postponed from the brooklyn meds because of corona virus. with we begin in china, where more than it's 13000000 people have been ordered to stay home in the east and city of shyanne. that's after more than $200.00 cove and 19 infections were

recorded since the beginning of the month. the country is on high alert as it goes up to host the winter olympics in february, our correspondent, katrina you. reports from china's capital by g. chinese authorities had imposed them most severe lockdown in almost a year. 13000000 people living in the northern city of she and have been ordered to stay home from midnight on thursday. only one member of each household is allowed out to get food every 2 days. and only certified, essential workers can head out for work. here should have the measures prompted crowd to rush to grocery stores and markets earlier this week. more than $200.00 cases have been reported in the city since the beginning of the month. the outbreak of the delta variant began with just 9 people and quickly spread, hulu. keep the other trajectories of the ny cases were a complex involving transportation services and public places, including hospitals, commercial complexes, restaurants as goes for hundreds of thousands of tourists,

flocked to she an, a former capital and historic hub to see the terror caught a warriors every year now, almost all transport in and out of the area has been cancelled. residence must apply for special permission to leave. the city authorities are currently conducting that 3rd round of mass testing. so far, no cases of the on the con, variance have been locally transmitted in china. but officials here on my alert the beijing winter olympics opens in february and chinese leaders, her plumbers, a safe and secure games. west spectators will be able to attend or receive spectators. however ward be attending. china has maintained it. 0 tolerance approach to the virus and borders has been closed since march last year. the outside during the winter olympics, there will be a large number of olympic affiliated in the reduce from different countries and a regions coming to trainer. there is a high possibility that

a certain number of covey, 90 and positive cases, will arise. more than 80 percent of the country's population have received 2 doses of current of ours vaccines. officials are now encouraging people to get a 3rd shot. but some studies are found that chinese vaccines have lower efficacy and protection rates against the on the chrome strain. beating has not approved the use of some other vaccines such as pfizer or astrazeneca, katrina, you al jazeera, aging, south africa has approved a booster shots of johnson and johnsons, corona virus vaccine. it's one of the most widely used across africa because it's a single dose short and doesn't need to be kept in ultra cold storage. recent data suggests the only current outbreak in south africa may have peaked about a month after it was 1st detected them for more on the story. let's bring in from in a miller who's live for us in that johannesburg. hello there for me to. you've got some news on the health regulator in south africa and this approval of the johnson and johnson booster or as the 2nd jo. oh dos. what more can you tell us?

well, the health regulator had said that indicates that at least earlier in december, that it was looking at both pfizer and j and j as a booster shot. but now is given a cure, a timeline, saying that people who have received at least one dose, probably j and j, qualify. then for a booster shot 2 months after that. while people who have had 2 shots of pfizer would then be eligible in the new year, possibly 6 months after receiving the last dose that they had received. then this is encouraging in terms of what experts are saying is the army con, via variant being wiring. but also not necessarily, perhaps a potentially not as severe as the delta variant, but you know, that hasn't been officially said, but it's the sort of information that's being put out there and then linked to that,

the importance of vaccinations and also previous infections which then brings in the element of further protection, while the booster shots may become available in the coming months who are likely to become available then the concern also though, is that only 44 percent of south africans are fully vaccinated. so while they will want to allow people to get booster shots, there is still their concern that there are people who are entirely hesitant and haven't received one shot at all. for me, they say they say the africa say the say, how to press conference just an hour or so ago. what's the latest with on a con? elsewhere in the continent, cdc has said that about 22 countries in africa have detected that they have that variant in those countries. but they also happy with some of the vaccination rates in africa, with countries like morocco, south africa, and algeria leading the pack in terms of vaccinating the populations in those

countries. they're focused also on southern africa. where because south africa had detected that particular variant coming from botswana and also spreading to neighboring countries. saying that that in fictions in southern africa, in south africa in particular at this point, are driven by that variant. and that's why we've seen an increase or an average increase of 82 percent infection rate in the last 4 weeks alone. and this again is why they bringing in the importance of vaccinations. the one concern, though, from the cdc, is just africa's lack of capacity to produce its own vaccinations and relying on western nations and donations. we do know that south africa will be manufacturing $2000000.00 doses of vaccines for distribution in the new year. but it is a slow process. this week alone, nigeria destroyed 1000000 doses of the astrazeneca vaccine due to an expiring date

issue and its shelf life. so these are the kind of challenges that african countries are facing in terms of procuring vaccines, distributing them a retreat, for example. the cdc says they have very little information at all about whether or not there is any sort of vaccine rollout. so there is a very different picture in different parts of the continent, the cdc saying a number of challenges and quite concerned about the spreads, the quick spread of this army con variant. thank you very much for that update from in a miller live for us in johannesburg to south korea now, which has recording its highest number of corona virus deaths in a single day. 109. people died in a 24 hour period. hospitals are overwhelmed with patients in critical condition. the delta variance is the dominant strain in south korea, but authority say only crohn could soon take over. you restrictions were introduced on saturday. astronomy is recorded,

its biggest evidently jump in cases day after prime minister scott morrison, bad to not return to lockdown. testing sites across the country have been swamped with an 8000 cases. have been confirmed. most of them in the country's most popular states, new south wales, that's where mosque mandates being re introduced. for the 1st time since the pandemic began, the u. k. has reported more than 100000 new infections in just one day. while scotland and whiles have both tied and restrictions to slow the spread of chrome, british prime minister barak johnson has chosen not to impose similar measures in england yet, where we challenge has more from london. it's one of london's best known restaurant chains, but you'll have no problem getting a table at the author lengthy and special fields right now. it's normally the busiest time of the year, but like hospitality businesses, up and down the country. auto lanky, if desperate customers in the last week we had like over

a 1000 cancellations for lunch and dinner were days. we do 100 for lines, roughly 100 for lunch, and then 120 for dinner. we're doing about $44.00 boys or micron has made is a brutal time for restaurants, cafes, hotels, clubs, and theaters. the government ended speculation on tuesday promising no new restrictions in england decide of christmas at least. but people have been heating advice to limit social contact, and responding to alarm calls from hospitality. $1300000000.00 has been pledged to help the industry. it doesn't seem nearly enough from his math to be con, says that while any government support is welcome, what's on offer really does not cost. he says that a wet m show closed for a week and cost $330000.00. an average night club se is expecting to leave the house $34000.00 over the christmas period. so the government's offer of just

a $1010.00 per business. he says is just a drop in the ocean layer agrees and says they also need more guidance. tell us what to do, what is actually happening if we're going to close and if restaurants are going to close, they need to let us know or so that we can plan as well rather than just saying, okay, we're going to make an announcement on the 27th, because it's, it's been a lot of rumors while england tries to boost its way out on the crones clutches, changes are being made to weiss elation rules, the ease, crippling star shortages across many businesses and services. most vaccinated and vaccinated people can now enter the 10 day isolation. 3 is early. if they test negative, today's running as long as they test the negative for lateral flow tests on day 6 and they 7 take 24 hours apart. they can leave isolation if you are someone that works at home or the at a chest even. you can return to work. but of course, those people will also be following the rules that are set by their workplaces

where they test regulate. meanwhile, the u. k. is infection rate push $3100000.00 a day? for the 1st time on wednesday, the country is in tacit. velma crowns clutches yet by any means will reach helen's out there at london. more than a 1000000 cause. 19 vaccines had been destroyed in nigeria, health officials say that i says, had a short shelf life and had expired and were donated through the international kovacs program and delivered within wakes of expiring. the dallas bar reports from avvo, just not one of health officials and journalists watched as more than a 1000000 doses of expired astrazeneca vaccine were crushed. he destroyed vaccines, were part of a massive shipment of more than 2000000 doses received in october. it to mission from developed nations. by november, many of them had expired before been put into people's homes. the government was

came to show people that know expired vaccines would be given out in a bead to post confidence. in the vaccine program, the head of nigeria is primary health care agency says the procure, the vaccines under very difficult circumstances. adding that the step was taking to protect the public. we accepted in vaccine in an environment where, despite the interest, despite consorted effort by the federal government to procure these vaccines, this vaccines were not available in the open market a few months ago because they had largely be mobbed by the wealthier nations. and we had no choice, huh. to accept this vaccines with short self life because we're interested in protecting our citizens from could, with 90. the government has made repeated efforts to get more people vaccinated,

including restricting access for the on proximate it to some public buildings. and events, but so far that made limited progress. the government has set a target to vaccinate more than half the population. by next year, we're less than 5 percent of the country's population of about $200000000.00 have been fully vaccinated according to health officials. authorities have blamed the law turn out of immediate will citizens to take the shocks for the spread of the coroner virus. at this vaccination center in the missions capital, some residents, i tried to encourage orders to get their shots. i think the best i can do it also as a parent, it's not the only 2. i will baby could be 19 basic rules, but also coming out to sing my sin. because our missions are trying the best i can to compact b could be 19 despite of 90 and i've seen a lot of people love their loved ones. so the best i can do is come on. i think the

lesson we just got got out of the full year if you did it because of the vaccination doctrines taken place. so this, deborah, do i employ people to come and take this ticket? is that fair? let the country has witnessed a spike in coffee mountain cases in recent weeks. and harold officials, c b, a prepared to handle the fort we've, and we are the 3 products available. now. we have the python, we have them, we're dana, and we have a stroke. lenika all get back to for you, so we don't have any sharpie. talk on my jury has recorded more than 2 100000 cases of coven maintain, and nearly 3000 dips says the outbreak of the pump debbie. last year. fidelis member olga 0. a butcher. british pharmaceutical giant, astrazeneca is claiming

a 3rd dose of its coven. 19 vaccine provides significant protection against the army khan variant. the results have been published in a study by the university of oxford. both madonna and pfizer have also said a 3rd dose of their vaccines were effective against the new variant. julian tang is a clinical var ologist at the university of leicester he joins us live from that city. thanks for being on the news. our julian, firstly, is this the future booster after booster as this virus continues to mutate close. so at the moment, maybe the short term teacher, we understand more about these viruses, but it's taking longer term gear. it looks fine. the car is between war benign, less severe than the previous piece become adults with variance. so studies of sharing this map from edinburgh, imperial college, london, and south africa getting food. you may see the virus has become even more benign despite increased responsibility,

more common calls the next few years. so i suspect, seen be so kind of program may only be short lived, but we have to see how that develops. julian, while the university of oxford published this study, surely astrazeneca and these other pharmaceuticals have a vested interest in the need for these booster shots, vaccines. so of course they do. so of course, the restaurant from those companies are going to be for more boosters, more vaccines, the oxidation, intra team redesigning that current vaccines called last fine. i mean, we do that every year. the flu, of course, flu is slightly different. virus is more mutable, it changes every few days to weeks, to months. the vaccine is not as good as the current covered most of the scenes, i count the immunity, wayne's, which more quickly kevin 19 may go. that way. sort of stand. but i think overall the viruses moving was moving on, feel time. so i'm hoping backs up only folks suspects,

nation for those who in higher speech when we needed in the future. so you talk about it, turning in to perhaps the common cold. when will this happen? to julian, so it's happening pretty quickly and have to to yes, you seen this more, but i think the fact for me out with these multiple s t mutations absent in the next 5 years, you may see and it was even more than 100 thomasville does anybody in hospital as it goes with most one of the best aspect on titus and cancer suppressed conditions . so i'm thinking now maybe in, in the next 5 years we'll see move towards a common cold virus phenotype. but we'll see, i know i'm putting you on the spot but 5 years, so 5 more years of this back and forward bruce draft, bruce de cases after cases. well, ok, let's be a bit more risky here. given that sort of taking 2 years to devote the bars to devote to this and we consider types,

the next thing to talk maybe pi or ro sick about the next 12 to 18 months, maybe even more and more transmitter books, much few people in hospital. so let's, let's narrow that down, say, maybe the next, you know, 12 to 18 months, i'm actually sitting out. but of course, that could be, you know, that could be complete by a more severe type somewhere else in the world. because we seem to be gamma, delta of different parts of the world, different impacts critically on this population. so it's not just one global virus that dominate the world every time you might have lots of more severe phenotypes, variance coming out as well. well, with the greatest respect julie, and i hope that you are wrong about that 5 year timeline. we appreciate your time. julian tang is a clinical biologist at the university of lester. thanks for being on this news. our to plenty more head on his knees, our, including a timely boost for afghanistan as the un security council paid the way for more aid

into the country. more on why a hong kong university has removed a famous statue marking the tenement square massacre and in sport more frustration for p. s g. is there? start offender receives a red card in just his 2nd lay game for the club. ah, president vladimir putin says he hopes russia will achieve collective cove at 19 heard immunity next year. hootin urged citizens to get inoculated during his annual end of year fine in with members of the public, and journalists did this. you could brookwinter 59.4 percent, is the collective immunity level in russia to day meaning recovered, and vaccinated citizens about 70000000 of got the 1st shot and a little over 70000000 have got to sean laguna. but this isn't enough that we

needed a collective community level around 80 percent of what was i hope next year by the end of the 1st quarter or in the 2nd quarter. we will reach social level from club hor brennan has been covering this press conference from london. hello there. paul rushers at the center of a lot of global tension. and so there's plenty of attention on this news conference . one of the main things we're looking out for while there are 5 maintains, i think that splits between sort of domestic and international. and obviously it's an annual events, a real popcorn box office event from international perspective. ukraine and european security will definitely be the top draw as far as what the international community, particularly here in europe, wants to understand a bit more about what president putin is thinking. i came and sat in this chair. actually ukraine hadn't yet been mentioned. other aspects though, which happy mentioned include cove, it the big clamp down that president putin on the kremlin, has had on

n g o z. and what he describes as foreign agents within the media. the economy always ranks very highly in terms of domestic interest as well. and so there is a wide range of topics for president putin to cover. it is a wide ranging and often rambling press conference that goes on for a minimum of 3 hours. we'll expect to hear a lot more from him about all of these topics. certainly is a lengthy agenda. lucky you for listening in rushes, code situation is already featured prominently in that 1st hour. what more to put and say well it was, it was interesting actually, while he was on the one hand, praising the efforts so far and praising russian scientists, that was a cafe and candid acknowledgment that frankly, russian vaccination rates are not where he wants them to be where president putin wants them to be, and he said, i want our health system to be as transparent as possible. he said in the soviet

era, nobody explained anything to anybody. you just order to get a job. but we need people to understand, to be educated. and we need your thought is to treat people with respect and explain the situation to them. the vaccination rate in russia are somewhere in the high fifty's, a percentage points at the moment. he wants it by the 1st quarter of 2022 to be 90 percent and 95 percent. so a really big challenge for russia to actually turn those statistics around. and as far as the russia can't be defeated, as far as n g o foreign influence, and for an agent goes, it says russia can't be defeated, it can only be disintegrated from within. and he defended russian rules has been no, no better or worse than, than europe or the united states as far as designating where people get their funding from. okay, well we're waiting to see what he says about ukraine and knighthood. so no doubt will cross back to you throughout the day. thank you very much. pope. and in life for us in london, an explosion has taken place outside

a passport office in the african capital of cobbled security forces, say they were able to kill the attacker before he entered the building, but could not prevent the bomb blast. several people were injured. the un security council has unanimously adopted a resolution allowing humanitarian aid into afghanistan. the council voted to apply a sanctions exemption, meaning governments and agencies can now send money in goods to the country. for the 1st time since the taliban to power, millions of afghans desperately need food and medicine. kristin salumi reports from the united nations is, will not work as by the un security council paved the way for more aid to afghanistan unanimously. passing a u. s. sponsored resolution, explicitly stating humanitarian assistance and other activities that support basic human needs and afghanistan are not a violation of international sanctions. china supported the resolution after

pushing back against an initial draft requiring case by case aid exemptions. thank you. thank you for the current situation in afghanistan is out a critical stage facing multiple articles and complex challenges. the most important task is to help africa understand, mitigate the humanitarian crisis. the soonest on to stabilize unrestored economy will hug in the u. s. insisted the un emergency relief coordinator report back to the counsel every 6 months to ensure the aid does not benefit those on the sanctions list. it is essential for the security council to receive regular updates on the implementation of this resolution. such information is critical to enabling sufficient oversight to ensure that assistance is reaching the intended beneficiaries. by mitigating diversion, after the resolution passed, a spokesman for the taliban welcomed the measure, saying,

we appreciate it. it can help afghanistan's economic situation. he also called on the international community to speed up the removal of crippling economic sanctions . the u. s. has warned that half the population doesn't have enough to eat. cash flow has been an issue since the taliban took control of the government, leading the world bank to freeze nearly $10000000000.00 and assets. civil servants haven't been paid and months. aid groups. welcome the resolution. it is a very important that i understand, but the sanctions i've had an impact on, on the capacity to, to bringing assistance to bringing. i man show the support that he created. he's to are the people in the services that we need to support right now at this moment. the ones humanitarian chief martin griffith's called the resolution on milestone the rare agreement among council members. evidence of the shocking level of need

and suffering and afghanistan christians, we, me, al, jazeera, the united nations. the head of the un relief in works agencies of palestinian refugees is told us, his organizations on the verge of financial collapse. felipe, it, less rainy, is warning unwise, can no longer mate, the grown needs of refugees in lebanon. zana hota has more from barracks in exile for decades. these palestinian refugees have long lived on the margins of society. they are among the most vulnerable and poorest communities in lebanon. their situation has been made worse because the economy is close to collapse. and now they're lifeline. faces are short the to funds the financial crisis, also on one us being often existence in nature. and it's often existence in nature because we cannot properly deliver our services any more at a time to needs in to come have significantly increase all noise providing access

to education, to all the buddies and reproduce. the girls and boys are in the camp and in the country we are providing assistance to more than 200000 people. we are providing primary health care lebanon's. currency crash has heard the palestinians as well. inflation lead to food prices increasing by 10 fold. oh, well, we'll amish. people are just buying the basics that they no longer buying kilos, but in grounds for many help from the un is vital, especially since the lebanese state denies palestinians basic services. i tease my son own rob, provide education, and medicine by the should give us more help because many people can afford to buy bread. a recent decision by the lebanese authorities to expand palestinian rights in the labor market is welcomed here as a way to deal with rising unemployment. but many tell us it's limited and what is

needed is to grant them basic rights. i. i can't resist on my truck under my name. i can't even get a license to drive it. there are minimum rights which palestinians dont have. we sang the minister for the new decree, but i doubt it will resolve an impairment shovel, palestinians her faced. what rights groups call discriminatory policies since they 1st arrived in lebanon in 1948 successive governments, believe easing restrictions and providing them citizenship will encourage them to settle here permanently. that's why the majority rely on the informal labor market, but opportunities are drying up. and i know most of them, if we don't work, we can do that. and there isn't much work nowadays because of the economic crisis. even before the economic collapse, lebanon's palestinians were struggling. it has since pushed more into poverty. the united nation says it now has to find money so that the crisis won't have what it

calls a devastating humanitarian impact center could there al jazeera beirut, still hair, don't al jazeera doesn't have died in malaysia after some the was flooding of recent times. we follow the clean up operation, and coming up in the sport, there's major concern among premier league manages over the issues relating to coven 19 and player welfare. ah, ah, ah! hello, we've got mild weather pushing in too much of europe over the next couple days. says the good news. the bad news is, as can be a fair, but when she weather ahead of that some rain, some snow at also some ice to watch out for the moderate come. you can't see this area of low pressure fading in from the atlantic winds coming in from a southwesterly, or even

a southerly directions are picking those temperatures up. but a lot of cloud coming in on that some wet weather, some rain freezing, rain ice issue fo, wrapped.