TOKYO: Jepun membatalkan pembelian kira-kira 40 juta dos vaksin COVID-19 Astrazeneca Plc yang dipersetujuinya tahun lalu, kata seorang pegawai kementerian kesihatan di Parlimen semalam, lapor Reuters.

Kontrak itu membolehkan kerajaan membatalkan sebahagian daripada bekalan jika ia tidak diperlukan, kata pegawai itu sebagai menjawab soalan anggota Parlimen.

Jepun pada asalnya bersetuju untuk membeli 120 juta dos vaksin, dengan sebahagian besar dibuat dalam negeri oleh Daiichi Sankyo Co dan rakan kongsi tempatan yang lain.

Kira-kira 200,000 dos Astrazeneca telah dibekalkan kepada kerajaan tempatan di Jepun, manakala 63 juta dos didermakan ke luar negara, tambah pegawai itu.

Sebahagian besar suntikan vaksin di Jepun menggunakan jenis mRNA yang dibangunkan Pfizer Inc dan Moderna Inc. – REUTERS

suntingan oleh: Berita Harian

PETALING JAYA: Duta Besar Indonesia ke Malaysia, Hermono menyuarakan kebimbangan bahawa pembantu rumah dari negaranya mungkin tidak menerima gaji RM1,500 yang dijanjikan dalam memorandum persefahaman (MoU) yang ditandatangani oleh Malaysia dan Indonesia awal bulan ini.

MoU yang dimeterai antara Malaysia dan Indonesia dengan jelas menyatakan bahawa majikan perlu membayar pembantu rumah ‘tidak kurang daripada RM1,500’, kata Hermono yang dimeterai antara Malaysia dan Indonesia dengan jelas menyatakan bahawa majikan perlu membayar pembantu rumah ‘tidak kurang daripada RM1,500’, kata Hermono.

Beliau berkata, MoU itu dengan jelas menyatakan bahawa majikan perlu membayar pembantu rumah “tidak kurang daripada RM1,500” terus ke dalam akaun bank mereka dan pemeteraiannya oleh Menteri Sumber Manusia M Saravanan dan Menteri Tenaga Kerja Indonesia Ida Fauziyah bermakna mereka mempunyai perjanjian.

“Mungkin sekarang orang akan kata, ‘Kerajaan saya tidak setuju untuk bayar. Jadi saya ikut kerajaan saya. Saya tidak akan bayar RM1,500.

“Ini akan menjadi masalah bagi kami,” katanya kepada FMT.

Beliau mengulas kenyataan Saravanan semalam bahawa kerajaan Malaysia tidak bersetuju dengan gaji RM1,500 dan terpulang kepada majikan untuk memilih membayar jumlah itu. Beliau juga berkata, gaji yang ditetapkan dalam MoU itu “bermula RM1,200”.

Hermono berkata, beliau tidak mahu mengulas lanjut kerana masih belum bercakap dengan Saravanan sejak kenyataan itu dikeluarkan.

FMT telah menghubungi pejabat Saravanan dan sedang menunggu komennya.

Minggu lepas, Hermono berkata, MoU itu mengikat “dari segi moral dan undang-undang”, selain menambah bahawa pihak berkuasa kedua-dua negara mempunyai bidang kuasa untuk mengambil tindakan terhadap sebarang pelanggaran. – FMT

oleh: Jason Thomas

PETALING JAYA: The health ministry reported 19 Covid-19 deaths yesterday, up from 12 previously.

Three of the deaths were classified as brought-in-dead cases. Three of the deaths were classified as brought-in-dead cases.
The death toll stands at 35,311.

According to the ministry’s GitHub database, there were 7,739 new cases, compared with 8,112 a day before. They comprised 7,716 local cases and 23 imported cases.

There were three brought-in-dead (BID) cases.

Selangor recorded four deaths, followed by Johor, Kedah, Pahang, Perak, Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur (2 each) and Melaka, Penang and Terengganu (1 each)

There were no deaths in Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis, Sabah, Labuan and Putrajaya.

As of midnight, there were 134,469 active cases, with 2,794 people hospitalised. Of this, 174 were in intensive care units (ICU), with 102 requiring respiratory assistance.

There were also 19,049 recoveries recorded.

The total number of Covid-19 cases recorded in Malaysia stands at 4,333,557. – FMT

LONDON (AP) — The World Bank says Ukraine’s economy will shrink by 45.1% this year because of Russia’s invasion, which has shut down half of the country’s businesses, choked off imports and exports, and damaged a vast amount of critical infrastructure.© Provided by Associated Press A young man pushes a wheelbarrow in front of a destroyed apartment building in the town of Borodyanka, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Unprecedented sanctions imposed by Western allies in response to the war, meanwhile, are plunging Russia into a deep recession, lopping off more than a tenth of its economic growth, the World Bank said in a report Sunday.

The war is set to inflict twice the amount of economic damage across Europe and Central Asia that the COVID-19 pandemic did, the Washington-based lender said in its “War in the Region” economic report.

“The magnitude of the humanitarian crisis unleashed by the war is staggering,” said Anna Bjerde, the World Bank’s vice president for the Europe and Central Asia region. “The Russian invasion is delivering a massive blow to Ukraine’s economy and it has inflicted enormous damage to infrastructure.”

The report said economic activity is impossible in “large swathes of areas” in Ukraine because productive infrastructure like roads, bridges, ports and train tracks have been destroyed.

Ukraine plays a major role as a global supplier of agricultural exports like wheat but that’s in question now because planting and harvesting have been disrupted by the war, the report said. The war has cut off access to the Black Sea, a key route for exports, including 90% of Ukraine’s grain shipments, it said.

The World Bank said the humanitarian catastrophe will be the biggest shockwave from the war and likely its most enduring legacy, as the wave of refugees fleeing Ukraine is “anticipated to dwarf previous crises.”

More than 4 million people have fled Ukraine, with more than half going to Poland and others heading to countries like Moldova, Romania and Hungary. An additional 6.5 million have been displaced internally. Those numbers are expected to swell as the war drags on, the World Bank said. – Associated Press

credit photo: (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)