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MERS death toll raised to 282; deputy health minister fired

June 4, 2014

Riyadh, Jun 4: The Ministry of Health on Tuesday said the Kingdom’s death toll from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is actually 282, or 92 more than the tally recorded as of June 2.

MERS deathAccording to the Ministry of Health’s Command & Control Center, which was set up last week by Acting Health Minister Adel Fakeih, the new data came about following a thorough review by the center starting from September 2012 to the present day.

New data also showed that the total number of infections in the Kingdom is actually 688 rather than 575 as reported in the ministry’s website on Monday.

“Following the review, the total number of cases recorded in the Kingdom since 2012 stands at 688 including 282 fatalities; 53 are currently receiving treatment while 353 have recovered,” said the report released by the center on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the ministry announced on Twitter that Deputy Health Minister Ziad Memish, who played a frontline role in the campaign against MERS, has been relieved from his post.

Memish was the second top Health Ministry official to lose his post apparently as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

In April, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah replaced then Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabeeah as the number of MERS infections and deaths spiked, causing panic among the public.

The king named Labor Minister Fakeih as acting health minister in a concurrent capacity.

Last month, Fakeih sacked the top management of King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah after numerous medical staff reportedly got infected, causing some of the hospital’s Saudi doctors to resign.

No reason was given for the dismissal of Memish, who had been the ministry’s point man in the campaign against MERS since the coronavirus was first discovered in September 2012.

A Reuters report said international scientists interviewed for a Reuters Special Report last month have chided Memish for being reluctant to collaborate with some specialist laboratories around the world offering to help investigate the possible source of MERS and explore how it spreads.

“Experts say the rising number of infections and deaths could have been stopped well within the two years since MERS first emerged — and would have been if Saudi authorities had been more open to outside help offered by specialist teams around the world with the technology, know-how and will to conduct scientific studies,” said the report.

It said Memish was asked last month about the criticisms and said he was “surprised” but did not respond to the allegations directly concerning his own role.

Reuters quoted David Heymann, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology, chairman of Public Health England, and head of global health security at Britain’s Royal Institute of International Affairs, as saying “Saudi Arabia needs to make sure it has appropriate infection control practices in hospitals, where cases are being transmitted, and number two, they need to do the case-control study that will hopefully tell them how people are getting infected.”

Acting Health Minister Fakeih wrote last week in a response to the Reuters Special Report that Saudi Arabia was working with international scientific organizations to improve its response to MERS, and pledged to continue that collaboration, said the report.

The rate of infection has slowed since mid-May, which public health officials say may be a result of improved infection control procedures introduced in Saudi hospitals.

New measures

The Health Ministry said it had put in place new measures to make sure data gathering, reporting and transparency were being observed, including standardization of testing and better guidelines for labelling and storing samples.

“While the review has resulted in a higher total number of previously unreported cases, we still see a decline in the number of new cases reported over the past few weeks,” Tariq Madani, head of the ministry’s scientific advisory board, was quoted as saying in an e-mailed statement.

The main objective of the review was to ensure a more complete and accurate understanding of the MERS-CoV outbreak in the Kingdom. The review has already enhanced the Ministry’s policy development process and improved measures taken to address the situation.

Madani added: “This review has informed the Ministry’s policies, which took stringent action to combat MERS-CoV, announcing the establishment of the new Command and Control Center to increase the level of preparedness for future public health challenges, issuing infection control protocols to contain the spread of the virus, and directly engaging the public with an awareness campaign.”

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Agencies
February 16,2020

Al-Jawf, Feb 16: At least 31 people were killed and 12 others were injured here in the al-Maslub district in airstrikes by the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition on Saturday.

"Preliminary field reports indicate that as many as 31 civilians were killed and 12 others injured in strikes that hit al-Hayjah area of the al-Maslub district in al-Jawf governorate," said a statement from the office of the UN resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.

According to Al Jazeera, the airstrike was conducted hours after the Yemeni Houthis said that they downed a Saudi fighter jet in the same region.

Commenting on the air raids, Lise Grande, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said: "We share our deep condolences with the families of those killed and we pray for the speedy recovery of everyone who has been injured in these terrible strikes."

"So many people are being killed in Yemen - it's a tragedy and it's unjustified. Under international humanitarian law, parties that resort to force is obligated to protect civilians," Grande was quoted as saying.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

Dubai, Aug 2: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced on Saturday that it has started operations in the first of four reactors at the Barakah nuclear power station - the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world.

Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), which is building and operating the plant with Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) said in a press release that its subsidiary Nawah Energy Company "has successfully started up Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, located in the Al Dhafrah Region of Abu Dhabi".

That signals that Unit 1, which had fuel rods loaded in March, has achieved "criticality" - a sustained fission chain reaction.

"The start-up of Unit 1 marks the first time that the reactor safely produces heat, which is used to create steam, turning a turbine to generate electricity," said ENEC.

Barakah, which was originally scheduled to open in 2017, has been dogged by delays and is billions of dollars over budget. It has also raised myriad concerns among nuclear energy veterans who are concerned about the potential risks Barakah could visit upon the Arabian Peninsula, from an environmental catastrophe to a nuclear arms race.

Paul Dorfman, an honorary senior research fellow at the Energy Institute, University College London and founder and chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group, has criticised the Barakah reactors' "cheap and cheerful" design that he says cuts corners on safety.

Dorfman authored a report (PDF) last year detailing key safety features Barakah's reactors lack, such as a "core catcher" to literally stop the core of a reactor from breaching the containment building in the event of a meltdown. The reactors are also missing so-called Generation III Defence-In-Depth reinforcements to the containment building to shield against a radiological release resulting from a missile or fighter jet attack.

Both of these engineering features are standard on new reactors built in Europe, says Dorfman.

There have been at least 13 aerial attacks on nuclear facilities in the Middle East - more than any other region on earth.

The vulnerability of critical infrastructure in the Arabian Peninsula was further laid bare last year after Saudi Arabia's oil facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais were attacked by 18 drones and seven cruise missiles - an assault that temporarily knocked out more than half of the kingdom's oil production.

On Saturday, Dorfman reiterated his concern that there is no regional protocol in place to determine liability should an accident or incident at Barakah result in radioactive contamination spreading from the UAE to its neighbours. 

"Given Barakah has started up, because of all the well-rehearsed nuclear safety and security problems, it may be critically important that the Gulf states collectively evolve a Nuclear Accident Liability Convention, so that if anything does go wrong, victim states may have some sort of redress," Dorfman told Al Jazeera. 

The UAE has substantial oil and gas reserves, but it has made huge investments in developing alternative energy sources, including nuclear and solar.

Experts though have questioned why the UAE - which is bathed in sunlight and wind - has pushed ahead with nuclear energy - a far more expensive and riskier option than renewable energy sources.

When the UAE first announced Barakah in 2009, nuclear power was cheaper than solar and wind. But by 2012 - when the Emirates started breaking ground to build the reactors - solar and wind costs had plummeted dramatically.

Between 2009 and 2019, utility-scale average solar photovoltaic costs fell 89 percent and wind fell 43 percent, while nuclear jumped 26 percent, according to an analysis by the financial advisory and asset manager Lazard.

There are also concerns about the potential for Barakah to foment nuclear proliferation in the Middle East - a region rife with geopolitical fault lines and well-documented history of nuclear secrecy.

The UAE has sought to distance itself from the region's bad behaviour by agreeing not to enrich its own uranium or reprocess spent fuel. It has also signed up to the United Nation's nuclear watchdog's Additional Protocol, significantly enhancing inspection capabilities, and secured a 123 Agreement with the United States that allows bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation.

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News Network
April 26,2020

Abu Dhabi, Apr 26: Indian Ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor says he is appalled after the bodies of three Indians flown back to India were returned to Abu Dhabi on Friday.

The three deceased Indian nationals had died of non-coronavirus causes and were flown to Delhi on Thursday but were promptly returned by authorities there.

“We are appalled at what has happened,” Kapoor told Gulf News. “We do not know if the bodies were returned because of coronavirus-related restrictions, but we are obviously not sending the remains of people [who have passed away from COVID-19],” he added.

“[As we understand], it happened because of new protocols at the airport and we are trying to sort it out,” he said.

Sent back a few hours later

“The remains were not offloaded from the plane, and were sent back a few hours later,” Kapoor explained.

The deceased were Kamlesh Bhatt, who passed away on April 17, and Sanjeev Kumar and Jagsir Singh who both died on April 13.

According to reports in Indian media, Kamlesh Bhat was 23 years old, and hailed from Tehri Garhwal district. He allegedly died of cardiac arrest. Along with the remains Kumar and Singh, Bhatt’s body was initially repatriated on an Etihad Airways flight, then sent back, even though his relatives had been on their way to collect them.

Kapoor explained the procedure through which remains are normally returned to family members back home, saying that the worker’s employer typically makes arrangements with cargo companies to repatriate bodies on cargo aircraft.

The employer applies for a No Objection Certificate from the Indian Embassy, which is granted once the Embassy ensures that all local formalities have been completed. The cargo company then applies for airport clearance, and the airline obtains approvals from the receiving airport.

“If airport protocols have changed, it means cargo companies have to be more careful about the clearance they’re getting,” Kapoor advised.

Additional costs
The ambassador added there may eventually be additional costs to repatriate the bodies but that it is first necessary to sort out the concerns.

The global coronavirus outbreak has spawned difficulties in repatriating mortal remains as a result of the travel restrictions imposed by countries. Remains of people dying from COVID-19 are not being sent back, but the caution surrounding the handling of bodies often affects the repatriation of those who succumb to other causes.

As Gulf News reported, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan reached out to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday for intervention in bringing back the bodies of Keralites who have died in the Gulf from non-COVID-19 causes.

“I would like to draw your attention to the grievances received from Non-resident Keralites Associations (NRKs) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries on the delay caused in bringing home the mortal remains of NRKs who had expired due to reasons other than the COVID-19 infection,” read the letter by the CM.

“It is learnt that a ‘clearance certificate’ from the Indian Embassies is required to process the application of bringing home the mortal remains of the dead. The Embassies are [further] insisting on the production of a no-objection certificate from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), New Delhi. To enable to bring back the bodies of the NRIs whose deaths occurred due to reasons other than COVID-19 infection, without necessary procedural hassles, I request your kind intervention,” Vijayan has requested.

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