no i want to reach all of those women back home who are bones by their duties and social goals and informed aboard the basic rights my name is the about of people and a war. you're watching d.w. news each year coming up today 1st india and now nepal facing a covert surge the worst of the countries experienced since the start of the pandemic what is the government doing and what is the country need to turn the tide will take a closer look. nepal's coby crisis has even reached mount everest the story of how the coronavirus scaled such heights. and in pakistan will share the story of roche on the camel who has the important task of fighting illiteracy in a remote part of the country.

i'm melissa chana thanks for joining us the covert surge in india has spread to nepal it's seeing a record number of cases almost double since its previous peak last fall over the past week doctors have reported almost 70000 cases according to the red cross and red crescent 44 percent of covert test conducted are coming back positive and the cases per 100000 people or about the same as india's 2 weeks ago in other words it looks like a repeat of india's disaster and with a weaker health care system than india's and a slower vaccination rate the challenge for nepal will be that much bigger. getting out while they still can. these passengers are on the last flights out of kathmandu as. all suspends international air travel. over you because you

just i'm glad that i'm able to leave nepal where the covert 19 situation is getting really bad. like neighboring india nepal is reeling from a deadly 2nd wave of the coronavirus the porous border between the 2 countries has contributed to skyrocketing case numbers. nepal's main towns and cities are in lockdown the health ministry says the situation is unmanageable doctors and nurses are being pushed to their limits. today we have not turned anyone away without providing them with oxygen. but the situation is getting complicated. oh but you wonder how colleagues are working very hard they are on juicy for 24 hours we have even been giving oxygen to patients in chairs.

nepal has called for international help as case numbers hit record highs the country's neglected health care system is facing collapse. with the lockdown in place many migrant workers have returned from the cities to their homes in rural areas while katmandu is hospitals struggle to save lives fear is growing of outbreaks in the remote regions lacking health care infrastructure. we have the nepal head of delegation at the international federation of red cross and red question societies joining us from the capital kathmandu let's start with kathmandu tell us what's happening there. yeah katmandu is one of the hotbeds for it is 2nd wave of deadly cobra at 19 and you also have the other districts along the border with india i just want to say that. in the lock few weeks the number of infections have gone up by 50 times or over 50

times and is still rising if you look at modest figures that mobs are talking about 100 cases a day in the last few days it was over the top of the $100.00 or so over $7000.00. pounds so sound out from under the day 2 months ago those death rate is 50 over 50 a day and this is unprecedented in the net power context. obviously you have heard of very adept at the very end and this variant is much more contagious much more aggressive and is spreading poor board a spectrum of the population including younger people in that power. 2 the vaccination rates so far it's under one percent compared to about 3040 percent in many of the richer countries this is a major challenge and you're right i want to actually ask about the vaccines how

good is the distribution is there not enough is there a vaccine hesitancy tell me a little bit more. yeah but the $2000000.00 that they have received have all almost been fully used up on the red cross volunteers have been very active in what we call in gauging the community or will come anything back themes so i think in some way that phrase is sort of over with the intervention there and you have a main challenge now is a lack of vaccines and one of the scenes has been coming into the country. so far it's called a shield from india and so you know if i'm from china interesting interesting and in our report just now it also show people especially migrant workers traveling going back home because there is no work in the cities with the lock down but i'm

wondering that also means possibly spreading the corner virus to more rule areas isn't that a problem in a challenge. yes there is there is and but if you look i mean right now the government shutdown in katmandu and some of the border towns the restriction of returning migrants and the red cross is also helping authorities in some of the border areas are you know measures like sanitization like social the mosque. it's after. yes and you know that not only in their power but in many countries where there are people living below the poverty line challenge between restriction and livelihood is a life and death one. as my last thank you so much for joining us rank you. one additional know nepal held large religious festivals this spring something

the government did not discourage and the country's leadership including the prime minister has spread misinformation he said at one point that gargling while the leaves can treat cove it no part of the country is immune including mount everest nepal's economy relies on tourism dollars and the government reopened the world's highest peak to international mountaineers earlier this year physically fit climbers have expressed shock they could contract kovac but the coronavirus doesn't discriminate and more than 30 people have had to be evacuated from base camp. this is where the klein starts. it's not unusual for more than a 1000 people to be camped at the foot of the iconic mountain but right now things feel very different. the group they were in watching the other groups having.

you know that some time before the climbing of course and then. i see that many groups are putting some line to not to cross they said please do not for a call that said i changed mission last year the pandemic devastated nepal's tourism industry so this year authorities have eased quarantine rules and issued more than 400 climbing permits a new record that maybe allowing the virus to spread uncontained on everest to try to stop this climbers are not allowed to socialize before they start their ass and and customary religious ceremonies to pray for saith expedition are now smaller more private affairs. but the local sherpas guides and cooks who depend on tourism and climbing for their livelihoods are worried. you can see it's a new time we're working here cities and we're making sure we follow all protocols

so that we can save ourselves from cold at 19 i'm going to disown you outlaw good jam. although you know we try not to mingle we used to have a lot of fun at base camp we would sing and dance. but we don't have any of that now just we keep to ourselves and speak only within our teams to some of the simple system to some of the good i can but i just. health professionals at everest base camp say they do not have the capacity to test for the disease dozens of people have been flown off base camp in recent weeks and at least 2 tested positive afterwards yet the government has yet to confirm a single official covert case on everest. we ended this week with a story about a camel named roche on who has

a very important job fighting illiteracy in pakistan roshan lives in the country's region which has the lowest literacy rate in the country at just 40 percent so when schools closed because of the pandemic the camel library came to the rescue russia on the camel is on an important mission. his slow plodding through this hour a desert terrain is in sharp contrast to how urgently he and his cargo of books are awaited. russia has been a lifeline for children in this district during the pandemic she carries books to 4 different villages making the journey every other day. children can choose the books they like and give them back the next time russia returns and i like picture books because when i look at the pictures and the photographs i can understand the story better. you know the camel library is the brainchild of recchi my gelato

a local school principal and of her sister a government minister. when the current virus spread to the entire region and all the schools were closed there was a real atmosphere of depression old and young alike the region where i live there's no entertainment for the children actual no place to announce the only activity is the children bearing to school and then coming home again or after the schools have been closed for 8 or 9 months because of code it would you start thinking about what we could do for the children they asked how we could start some sort of activities that would keep them busy and also be of benefit to them giant virtual corps fly them in. has big ambitions for the project if she can get more funding she'd like to expand its reach from 4 to 40 villages and that's something the russians i know would be very happy about. i used to collect wood and sell

it in the market then the camel library project asked me if i'd like to carry books on my camel i was surprised but now i carry these books to 4 villages and the children love it i'm very happy and so are all the people in the villages so now it's continuing and i'm happily doing it. pakistan schools have sausage reopening but local officials say there are many requests for the common library to continue. that's it for friday you can always check us out on social media and on t.w. dot com for it slash asia we leave you with whatever e.w. news asia team found a bit of levity in a week of intense cope with news pictures of a giant squid sculpture that's what one japanese town decided to do with its covert relief money thanks for watching have a good weekend and get by. the

phone against the coronavirus tend to have much. has the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and context around a virus update. on t w. grappling hooks. expressed feeling. very creative yet but i would love to be considered an artist one day

looking for new perspectives to do it and know to be replaced but with the camera doing things differently. come to a place where we reflect on society. whenever a shipment of biotech pfizer coronavirus vaccine arrives in south africa it makes the headlines. because the country's vaccination program has been struggling because after a late start 1st using astra zeneca job without. its ineffectiveness against the variant spreading rapidly in the country. then south africa turned to

johnson and johnson's vaccine. that rolled out due to concerns about side effects. with the 2nd wave of infection now behind life is starting to appear normal in south africa but it may not stay down for. look into this covered 19 special on rob what's in berlin the coronavirus situation in south africa has relaxed in recent weeks the country is now one of the world's hottest lock downs and 2 worrying waves of new cases behind it the number of new daily infections around 2000 a day just a 10th of what it was in late january the 2nd peak you can see that but the improvement it's a spy it's a slow start in south africa's vaccination campaign and it's possible with a mutator fire variant creech reports. camps bay in cape town concern about the pandemic seems far away here in the last days of summer many

people are still socially distancing but the mask mandate is rarely followed to be honest i'm just enjoying the phoenix today and the start of the law it's. the law of the like the weekends are just 2 minutes. you know i mean i think. i am happy that i'm free i'm able to come to the beach and have found things were quite. even in the summer. like all of a sudden luck people couldn't come to the beats. away from the fish including the sea you know. but this is like. even if. life was coming that the normal the economy's been open like in europe we have many of those. humans are going to.

and then me anymore and i mean we want to sustain destruction and more. and you know what that is all the. antibody studies show that almost half of the population of cape town has already been infected in densely populated townships the rate is even higher the excess death rate suggests that more than $150000.00 people have died of corona virus during the pandemic. virus just involve gun pizer worries that the mutation could be more resistant against vaccines as well as the antibodies people develop after early infections similar to the brazilian mutation time but this hasn't been verified by studies there's still no proof of a higher death rate among the new mutations and there are glimmers of hope that district with in cape town they were badly fitted to the 1st wave seems to be less badly affected during the 2nd wave and that makes one think of 1st somehow

protective effect some some likely evidence of some protective effect even after a picture with the previous what type of virus no it came to the very end but what we think is that if you've had in fiction with the new variant of virus you would be immune to it against any preceding wards and that is the good news. pies and his team are already preparing for the 3rd wave and they're increasing testing capacities since so many rules aren't being adhered to the number of new infections could start rising again. but we can now speak to cheryl cohen. here is the head of the center for risperidone disease at south africa's national institute for communicable diseases thank you very much for joining us on the covered 19 special how would you characterize the coronavirus situation in south africa is there a feeling that it's over the worst. so thanks for having me i think you know right

now in south africa case numbers are i had a relatively low level and they have been reducing since the peak of stick and wave around the new year but i think me you know would you characterize it as the as the risk is over we know from from previous waves you know case that has reached a high levels and then they came down but they sit in the remains am a risk to case numbers may increase again so right now you know except in a small number of provinces case numbers are generally at a low level but if it doesn't mean at all that they become places that will think that they will remain at this level you know you're working on the assumption that there will be a wave or a you i suppose hoping that it can just be avoided it. well so i think. you know if we look at or think about the possibility of a 3rd wave we know that we have no experience to large waves in south africa but

there have been a number of studies looking at population immunity a proportion of people that have been infected in the country and while here in some areas of the country immunity levels appear to be fairly high even as high as 60 percent of the scenes i mean in the areas of the western cape we we we know there's been intense transmission other areas have much lower levels of people that have been affected just sitting around 3030 percent so so based on that i mean it would appear to be lacky that there will be a 3rd wave. and and you know that also taking into account the fact that restrictions have relaxed substantially since the peak of the wave mostly around trying to get the economy growing and generate economic activity so i think most experts would agree that it is lacking that it will be another wave inside africa as opposed to difficulties perhaps 2 to predict the timing and the magnitude of where one of the things i suppose you're hoping is have that wave off with facts

and nations but the vaccination program isn't going as well as you might have hoped . so i think pixelation got off to a slow start there was hope largely related to concerns about about the new period which which did emerge in south africa really around the time of their running out of the vaccination program so to happen till now at about 350000 health care workers have been vaccinated through a program. really focusing on health care workers out of about 21500000 potentially eligible health care workers but i think south africa is planning over the next few weeks in fact to move into a match more actually scaled intensive vaccination program the plan and number of several 1000000 doses are expected to arrive in the country over the next few man the. target group is expanding within the next 3 weeks to include individuals over

the age of 60 with a plan to to really decrease that age band quite rapidly over the subsequent months i'm certain there is a planted need to abscond of explanation repine any eventual target is really to get to about 2 thirds of the population vaccinated towards the end of this year into into next year. you know he had restrictions song for example of the use of the astra zeneca vaccine and also there was a pause at the johnson and johnson baxi as south africa tied its own hands by making these restrictions. well i think every i think the 2 issues are different i think the johnson and johnson was a pause with regard to safety concerns and i think that you know that's quite a normal thing media other countries in europe and other parts of the world also instituted a pause in response to the safety concerns until we got information that there confirmed that the vaccine was safe yes that may have had

a negative impact on the acceptance of the vaccine but you know i think that again may have been experiencing in other parts of the world with regard to astra zeneca and i think it was it is a complex decision and you know i think it is but i wouldn't say we've tied our hands i think now the government is really secured. you know supply of a number of other vaccine products which are suppose coming into the country over the next few weeks. i thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us cheryl cohen from south africa's national institute for communicable diseases. now it's time to answer more of your questions about science correspondent derrick williams . asking for conclusive evidence for anything in this pandemic is setting the bar

pretty high which is why most of the commentary that i read on this topic has has been pretty heads and and i couldn't find any really clear directives issued by trustworthy healthcare bodies like the c.d.c. or the w.h.o. saying you should stop drinking completely before or between vaccine shots maybe it's best therefore to start by looking at the conclusive evidence that we do have we know alcohol abuse is bad for your house pretty much everyone agrees on that and there are convincing studies out there showing that one of the things regular heavy alcohol consumption impacts negatively is immune system response there are other studies however showing that light or moderate drinking doesn't have the same impact and even some indicating it might actually bolster your immune response so so most medical professionals appear to be adopting

a kind of middle of the road approach to this question and saying hey it's fine to have a celebratory beer or a glass of champagne after you've been vaccinated but adding that it's never a good idea to overindulge particularly after receiving a vaccination after all aside from the potential direct health considerations of that having a hangover would almost certainly make any potential vaccine side effects even less pleasant to deal with. very good hymns that and before we go a reminder that nowhere is safe from covered 90 not even the highest place on earth more than 30 climbers have just been evacuated from the foot of mount everest after taking over from coronavirus. suffers a 2nd wave of infections the country's tourism sector depends on the thousands of

people who come every year to climb the world's tallest mountain it's now trying to recover from a total shutdown of the himalayan summits last year. that's all from this data you covered 19 special for more checkouts data we dot com 90 taken.

in. india. conspicuous rescued and the story office. is one to. spieth consummation is all over the wilds they were once hunted. and it was the story of the day they treated in the beaches of funny as a place of a helpless eagle in. 90 minutes on w. . in the army of climate change.

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this is the news live from berlin bringing social equality to the european union a small task for the $27.00 member states but it's the focus of an e.u. summit in portugal looking to transform would create more gender equality and fight poverty also in the program international calls to white patents on code 19 vaccines and growing the u.s. backs the idea that germany the proposal and sides with drug develops and media can't seem to catch a break more than $400000.00 new coronavirus cases for the face.