Chinese citizen journalist jailed for Wuhan virus reporting

Yahoo – AFP, 28 December 2020 

Authoroties said former Chinese lawyer and citizen journalist
Zhang Zhan had spread "False remarks" online.

A Chinese citizen journalist was jailed for four years Monday for her reporting from Wuhan as the Covid-19 outbreak began, her lawyer said, almost a year after details of an "unknown viral pneumonia" surfaced in the central China city. 

Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer who arrived at court in a wheelchair, was sentenced at a brief hearing in a Shanghai court for allegedly "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" during her reporting in the chaotic initial stages of the outbreak. 

Her live reports and essays were shared on social media platforms in February, grabbing the attention of authorities, who have punished eight virus whistleblowers so far as they curb criticism of the government's response to the outbreak. 

Beijing has congratulated itself for "extraordinary" success in controlling the virus inside its borders, with an economy on the rebound while much of the rest of the world stutters through painful lockdowns and surging caseloads a year on from the start of the pandemic in Wuhan. 

Controlling the information flow during an unprecedented global health crisis has been pivotal in allowing China's communist authorities to reframe the narrative in their favour, with President Xi Jinping being garlanded for his leadership by the country's ruling party. 

But that has come at a serious cost to anyone who has picked holes in the official storyline. 

The court said Zhang Zhan had spread "false remarks" online, according to one of her lawyers Zhang Keke, but the prosecution did not fully divulge its evidence in court. 

"We had no way of understanding what exactly Zhang Zhan was accused of doing," he added, describing it as "a speedy, rushed hearing." 

In return the defendant "didn't respond [to questions]... She refused to answer when the judge asked her to confirm her identity." 

The defendant's mother sobbed loudly as the verdict was read out, Ren Quanniu, another member of Zhang's defence team, told reporters who were barred from entering the court. 

Concerns are mounting over the health of 37-year-old Zhang, who began a hunger strike in June and has been force-fed via a nasal tube. 

Her legal team said her health was in decline and she suffered from headaches, dizziness and stomach pain, and that she had appeared in court in a wheelchair. 

"She said when I visited her (last week): 'If they give me a heavy sentence then I will refuse food until the very end.'... She thinks she will die in prison," Ren said before the trial. 

"It's an extreme method of protesting against this society and this environment." 

China's communist authorities have a history of putting dissidents on trial in opaque courts between Christmas and New Year in an effort to minimise Western scrutiny. 

Example made

The sentencing comes just weeks before an international team of World Health Organization experts is expected to arrive in China to investigate the origins of Covid-19. 

Zhang was critical of the early response in Wuhan, writing in a February essay that the government "didn't give people enough information, then simply locked down the city". 

"This is a great violation of human rights," she wrote. 

Rights groups and embassies have also drawn attention to her case, although diplomats from several countries were denied requests to monitor the hearing. 

"Zhang Zhan's case raises serious concerns about media freedom in China," the British embassy in Beijing said, urging "China to release all those detained for their reporting." 

Authorities "want to use her case as an example to scare off other dissidents from raising questions about the pandemic situation in Wuhan earlier this year", added Leo Lan, research and advocacy consultant at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders NGO. 

A United Nations official following the trial also expressed "deep concern" about the verdict. 

"We raised her case with the authorities throughout 2020 as an example of the excessive clampdown on freedom of expression linked to #COVID19 & continue to call for her release," the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a tweet. 

Zhang is the first of a group of four citizen journalists detained by authorities after reporting from Wuhan to face trial. 

Previous attempts by AFP to contact the other three -- Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua -- were unsuccessful. 

Related Article:

"Corona 1", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - 

(>13.46 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis)

US sues Walmart over opioid crisis

France24 – AFP, 22 Decemberb 2020

The Justice Department sued Walmart, alleging it worsened the
opioid crisis Paul Ratje AFP/File 2 min New York (AFP)

The US Justice Department sued Walmart over its role in the opioid crisis on Tuesday, alleging the giant retailer wrongly filled prescriptions and worsened a public health disaster.

The suit accuses Walmart of irresponsible handling of orders, filling thousands of "invalid" prescriptions. 

 Authorities could seek up to billions of dollars in penalties, in the litigation that followed a multi-year investigation, the Justice Department said in a press release.

"As one of the largest pharmacy chains and wholesale drug distributors in the country, Walmart had the responsibility and the means to help prevent the diversion of prescription opioids," said Jeffrey Bossert Clark, acting head of DOJ's civil division. 

"Instead, for years, it did the opposite -- filling thousands of invalid prescriptions at its pharmacies and failing to report suspicious orders of opioids and other drugs placed by those pharmacies." 

Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the company, the world's biggest retailer, filed its own lawsuit against the Justice Department in October that argued that the US crackdown put it in a no-win position. 

Pharmacists "must make a difficult decision" of either accepting a doctor's "medical judgment and fill the opioid prescription, or second-guess the doctor's judgment and refuse to fill it," Walmart said in its suit. 

"Either decision puts the pharmacist and pharmacy at great risk," the company argued. It said 

it faces potential federal action if prosecutors say an order was wrongly filled, or the chance of having a pharmacist license "stripped for the unauthorized practice of medicine, not to mention the potential harm to patients in need of their medicine."

Purdue Pharma pleads guilty to criminal charges over opioid sales

Yahoo – AFP, Paul HANDLEY, October 21, 2020 

Headquarters of Purdue Pharma LP, the maker of the painkiller OxyContin,
in Stamford, Connecticut

US drugmaker Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to three criminal charges over its intense drive to push sales of the prescription opioid OxyContin, which stoked a nationwide addiction crisis, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. 

Purdue also agreed to $8.3 billion in fines, damages and forfeitures to settle the criminal case against it, the department said. 

In a separate agreement, the billionaire Sackler family, which built Purdue to a pharmaceutical giant on the back of lucrative sales of OxyContin, agreed to pay $225 million to resolve civil liability charges filed by the Justice Department. 

"Purdue, through greed and violation of the law, prioritized money over the health and well-being of patients," said FBI assistant director Steven D'Antuono. 

Purdue, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and two counts of violating kickback laws over its marketing and sales of OxyContin and two other hydrocodone-based treatments, which involved encouraging distributors and doctors to aggressively push the highly addictive drugs to consumers. 

Even after paying $600 million for falsely marketing the painkiller as "less addictive," the Justice Department said, Purdue ratched up its sales drive and developed new addictive applications which it marketed through a network of 100,000 prescribing doctors and nurse practitioners. 

Among them were thousands of hyper-prescribers that Purdue "knew or should have known were prescribing opioids for uses many of which were not for a medically accepted indication, were unsafe, ineffective, and medically unnecessary," or which were resold on the black market, the charges said. 

To encourage them Purdue had a program dubbed "Evolve to Excellence" which offered financial and other incentives, particularly offering doctors lucrative speaking gigs, which amounted to kickbacks for pumping out more prescriptions of the company's drugs. 

Its activities, combined with those of other prescription opioid producers and distributors, fed an epidemic of addiction. Millions of Americans became dependent on the painkillers while the drugmakers reaped billions of dollars in profits. 

Deputy US Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen(C) announces that Purdue Pharma 
has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges over its sales of the addictive
 prescription opioid OxyContin, which fed a national addiction epidemic

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 500,000 Americans have died of opioid overdoses -- both prescription and non-prescription -- since 1999. 

In a statement, Steven Miller, Purdue's chairman since 2018, said the company "deeply regrets and accepts responsibility for the misconduct detailed by the Department of Justice." 

"Purdue today is a very different company. We have made significant changes to our leadership, operations, governance, and oversight," he added. 

Purdue also faces billions of dollars in claims from state and local authorities around the country, and in September 2019 filed for bankruptcy to fend off more legal claims against it. 

Because of the bankruptcy and competing claims from litigants and creditors, the Justice Department admitted it might not see all of the $8.3 billion the company agreed to pay on Wednesday. 

But the agreement mandated that the company be dissolved and its assets be placed in a new "public benefit company." 

"The PBC would be charged with providing its medicines in a manner as safe as possible, without diversions, while providing millions of doses of medicines to treat opioids addiction and reverse overdoses and otherwise taking into account long-term public health interests," said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. 

The Sacklers, he added, would have no role in that company. He added that the civil fine against the family did not preclude future criminal charges against them, amid public pressure to wrest back the profits they earned on the addiction epidemic. 

In a statement, New York state Attorney General Letitia James said her office will continue to pursue the family. 

"Today's deal doesn't account for the hundreds of thousands of deaths or millions of addictions caused by Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family," James said in a statement. 

"While no amount of money can ever compensate the pain that so many now know, we will continue to litigate our case through the courts to secure every cent we can to limit future opioid addictions," she said.

Fast Covid test development speeds up, latest gives result in less than a minute

DutchNews, October 15, 2020 

Photo: Brandon Hartley

A Dutch company has developed a breathalyser test which will almost instantly exclude people who do not carry the coronavirus and which could significantly ease the pressure on testing facilities. 

The device, which is made by Breathomix in Leiden and can detect particles in people’s breath, was tested on 1,800 people in an Amsterdam testing facility. They then had the more time consuming PCR test.

Investigations showed that some 1,350 people could have been sent home immediately had they taken only the breathalyser test. The device was able to exclude coronavirus in three quarters of the participants but was inconclusive in the remaining quarter. 

Despite this it is thought that a large scale application of the test, which takes approximately 45 seconds, including the result, could ease the pressure on testing facilities, some of which are reaching crisis point. 

The health ministry has ordered hundreds of the breathalysers which, on final approval, will be used by testing facilities by the end of next month, health minister Hugo de Jonge said on Thursday. 

TNO 

Meanwhile Dutch research institute TNO announced it has developed a fast test which it claims is as reliable as the PCR  process currently used in nationwide testing centres. 

It too was validated at a facility in the capital and showed a 99% accuracy rate compared to the PCR test when used on 900 people. 

TNO developed a so-called LAMP-test which works at a molecular level and gives a result in 45 minutes to an hour. 

Last week, two fast tests produced by American companies BD and Abbot were approved by the health ministry. Each of these take 15 minutes to come up with a result,and will be used in addition to the normal health board tests.

Africa to be declared polio-free

Yahoo - AFP, Sophie Bouillon with Aminu Abubakar in Kano, August 25, 2020

A child in Kano, northwest Nigeria receives the vaccine in 2017

The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to certify on Tuesday that the African continent is free from wild polio, four years after the last cases appeared in northeastern Nigeria.

"Thanks to the relentless efforts by governments, donors, frontline health workers and communities, up to 1.8 million children have been saved from the crippling life-long paralysis," the WHO said in a statement.

The official announcement is due at 1500 GMT in a videoconference with WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and key figures including philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

"Happiness is an understatement. We've been on this marathon for over 30 years," said Tunji Funsho, a Nigerian doctor and local anti-polio coordinator for Rotary International.

He said it marked a crucial step in the total eradication of the illness at the global level.

"It's a real achievement, I feel joy and relief at the same time," he added.

Poliomyelitis, or "wild polio" is an acutely infectious and contagious disease which attacks the spinal cord and causes irreversible paralysis in children.

It was endemic around the world until a vaccine was found in the 1950s, though this remained out of reach for many poorer countries in Asia and Africa.

As late as 1988, the WHO counted 350,000 cases globally, and in 1996 said there were more than 70,000 cases in Africa alone.

Thanks to a rare instance of collective global effort and financial backing -- some $19 billion over 30 years -- only Afghanistan and Pakistan have recorded cases this year: 87 in total.

Trust

Nigeria, a country with 200 million inhabitants, was still among the trouble-spots in the early 2000s.

In its northern Muslim-majority areas, authorities were forced to stop vaccination campaigns in 2003 and 2004 by Islamic extremists who claimed it was a vast conspiracy to sterilise young Muslims.

It took a huge effort in tandem with traditional chiefs and religious leaders to convince populations that the vaccine was safe. 

"People trust their local traditional leaders who live with them more than the political leaders," said Grema Mundube, a community leader in the town of Monguno, in the far north of Nigeria.

"Once we spoke to them and they saw us immunising our children they gradually accepted the vaccine," he told AFP.

However, the emergence of violent Islamist group Boko Haram in 2009 caused another rupture in the programme. In 2016, four new cases were discovered in Borno state in the northeast in the heart of the conflict.

"At the time, we couldn't reach two-thirds of the children of Borno state -- 400,000 children couldn't access the vaccine," said Dr Funsho.

Inaccessible children

The security situation remains highly volatile in the region, with the jihadists of Boko Haram and a local Islamic State affiliate controlling vast areas around Lake Chad and the border with Niger.

"International agencies, local governments, donors -- all partners took the bull by the horns to find new strategies to manage to reach these children," said Dr Musa Idowu Audu, coordinator for the WHO in Borno.

In these "partially accessible" areas, vaccination teams worked under the protection of the Nigerian army and local self-defence militias.

For areas fully controlled by the jihadists, the WHO and its partners sought to intercept people coming in and out along market and transport routes in a bid to spread medical information and recruit "health informants" who could tell them about any polio cases.

"We built a pact of trust with these populations, for instance by giving them free medical supplies," said Dr Audu.

Today, it is estimated that only 30,000 children are still "inaccessible": a number considered too low by scientists to allow for an epidemic to break out.

Despite the "extreme happiness and pride" felt by Dr Audu, he never fails to remember the 20 or more medical staff and volunteers killed for the cause in northeast Nigeria in recent years.

The challenge now is to ensure that no new polio cases arrive from Afghanistan or Pakistan and that vaccinations continue to ensure that children across the continent are protected from this vicious disease.

"Before we couldn't sleep at all. Now we will sleep with one eye open," said Dr Funsho.

'Unofficial' world's oldest man dies in South Africa

Yahoo – AFP, RODGER BOSCH, August 22, 2020

Fredie Blom may have been the world's oldest man

A 116-year-old survivor of the 1918 Spanish Flu believed to be among the world's oldest people died Saturday in South Africa, his family said.

Born on May 8 1904, Fredie Blom had "lived this long because of God's grace," he told AFP this year.

Guinness World Records lists the oldest currently living man as Briton Bob Weighton, aged 112, but South African media have described Blom as "unofficially" the world's oldest.

Blom's entire family was wiped out by the Spanish Flu pandemic when he was just a teenager.

But he himself survived and went on to raise the three children of his wife of 46 years, Jeanette, as his own, becoming grandfather to five over the years.

"Two weeks ago oupa (grandfather) was still chopping wood," family spokesman Andre Naidoo told AFP fondly, recalling the old man using a 4 pound hammer.

"He was a strong man, full of pride," he added.

But within 3 days, his family saw him shrink "from a big man to a small person".

Born in the rural town of Adelaide, tucked near the Great Winterberg mountain range of South Africa's Eastern Cape province, Blom died at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town.

His death was "not a COVID death at all, it's normal natural death," Naidoo said in reference to the coronavirus pandemic..

Israeli and UAE firms join forces in coronavirus research

Yahoo – AFP, 16 August 2020

Representatives from the Emirati company APEX National Investment (R) and the
Israeli TeraGroup sign an agreement to develop research on the novel coronavirus

Firms from the United Arab Emirates and Israel have signed an agreement to jointly develop research and studies on the novel coronavirus, the UAE's state WAM agency reported.

The business deal comes days after a surprise political agreement between the UAE and Israel to normalise relations, a historic shift which will make the Gulf state only the third Arab country to establish full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

The UAE's APEX National Investment and Israel's TeraGroup signed the "strategic commercial agreement" late Saturday in Abu Dhabi, WAM said in a statement.

"We are delighted with this cooperation with TeraGroup, which is considered the first business to inaugurate trade, economy and effective partnerships between the Emirati and Israeli business sectors," APEX chairman Khalifa Yousef Khouri said.

APEX is an investment company with a particular focus on the healthcare sector.

The deal would be "serving humanity by strengthening research and studies on the novel coronavirus," Khouri added.

The two companies hope to develop a rapid test for coronavirus.

"We are thrilled with our agreement with APEX National Investment, and hope that we will achieve the objectives outlined in this agreement, which in turn will benefit everyone economically," TeraGroup chairman Oren Sadiv said, according to WAM.

Last Thursday the UAE and Israel agreed the US-brokered deal to establish full diplomatic ties.

Under that agreement, Israel pledged to suspend its planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, a concession welcomed by European and some pro-Western Arab governments as a boost for hopes of peace.

However, before the political deal, two Israeli defence companies last month signed an agreement with an Emirati company to collaborate on the development of a non-invasive coronavirus screening test.

State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the country's largest aerospace and defence firm, as well as the government's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42 in July.

Related Article:

Israel and UAE to normalise ties in 'historic' US-brokered deal

Experimental treatment ‘drastically’ improves prospects for worst Covid patients

DutchNews, July 21, 2020

Illustration: Depositphotos.com 

An anti-inflammatory drug used in a Dutch hospital to treat the most seriously ill Covid-19 patients has been found to reduce the death rate by 65%. 

The Zuyderland Medisch Centrum in Geleen and Heerlen used corticosteroids, sometimes in combination with other medicines to suppress the immune system, to treat patients who developed cytokine storm syndrome (CSS). 

Around a quarter of Covid-19 patients who are admitted to hospital develop CSS, which occurs when the virus activates large numbers of white blood cells. 

Patients who were treated with an intensive course of glucocorticoids were 65% less likely to die and 71% less likely to need mechanical ventilation, according to the findings published on Tuesday in The Annals of Rheumatic Disease. 

At the beginning of the outbreak in March, 48% of Covid-19 patients being treated for CSS in the Limburg hospital died, but after doctors began using the steroid treatment the death rate fell to 16%. 

Patients were given the treatment for between five and seven days, in combination with the immunosuppressant drug tocilizumab if no improvement was seen by the second day.

Related Articles:

"Some Virus Truths for you to Consider", Streamed, US, Apr 14, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>43.09 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis and the Immune System) (Text version)

"...... The virus is not killing you.

The virus will often take someone, perhaps, who is weaker, to a level that is dangerous. With that danger, the doctors will put them into a hospital and give the best care that they know how to give. Some of the patients go into that which you call the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Surrounded by ICU specialists and doctors and nurses who care about them and are doing their best to save their lives, these health care professionals watch their efforts fail. Instead of seeing that which is a normal response within an ICU protocol, or that which is normal for a virus of this kind, they observe something completely different.

They watch a dramatic and quick downturn, and, sometimes, an almost immediate death. They are mystified, since there shouldn’t be this scenario happening, and they’re scratching their heads and saying, “that should not have happened.”

Dear ones, they are correct. Indeed, it should not be that way, and so, there’s another component to this – there is something else happening. This is factual, dear ones, and you can ask the physicians on the front lines and the nurses who have watched and seen those who are put on the ventilators who seem to be recovering, and then they lose them.

There is something else going on, dear ones, and now I will tell you what it is – and it’s not sinister or esoteric. It’s just chemistry. What I tell you now, hopefully, will lead to an understanding, so that, in the future, this virus does not have to be the “killer flu.” It will only be “the flu.” I’m telling you now the potential of what will be discovered and, if you roll your eyes at this, talk to me in a few years and see if you are going to roll your eyes then.

Number One:

Dear ones, your immune system has never seen this. Most of you have a robust immune system, but for those who don’t, your system will overreact to the virus. You might say that the immune system is what is killing the Human Beings, not the virus. The virus will take the dysfunction of your body to a certain level, and then the immune system, which has never seen this before, will completely overreact and cause quick death.

Now, I just gave you a key: If your medical science could encapsulate that immune system so it will not overreact, this flu will never kill another Human. You absolutely know the flu season is coming back. However, it will simply be the flu and it won’t be a killer flu anymore, because you will have figured it out. I just gave you something to work on and to know, and, if you think I am wrong, simply ask those doctors in the ICU if they have seen this phenomenon. They will say, “Yes, and we know there’s something else. We wish we knew what it was.”

Concentrate not on the virus vaccine, but on the immune system. Figure out why this reaction is taking place and work the puzzle of the immune system, so that there is no devastating horror for so many and hurt for so many hearts. Inappropriate death, it is.

You have gone into a habit of looking for an outside cure to always come forward and give you protection. Realize, dear ones, that this is an “add on” to an already wonderful immune system that begs for help. What if you, someday, have no need for any vaccine, and instead, you become super-strong in your resistance? What if everything can be solved and cured by enhancing YOUR system instead of something from the outside? What if this strength comes from organic substances and enhanced support for your own system instead of going to a pill? This would be a new paradigm for mainstream health. ...."

"Corona 2", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>3,12 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis)

"Corona 1", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - 

(>13.46 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis)

Fewer premature babies were born during lockdown: Erasmus MC

DutchNews, July 20, 2020   

Photo: Depositphotos.com 

Researchers from the Erasmus teaching hospital in Rotterdam believe that there was a decrease in the number of premature babies born in the Netherlands while the country was under lockdown. 

A similar drop was observed during the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in other European countries including Denmark and Ireland, according to the New York Times. 

Premature babies – those born before 32 weeks of gestation – are at greater risk of a variety of health problems, including neurological issues, vision and hearing problems and premature death. 

Irish and Danish doctors reported a 90% drop in significantly premature babies, born earlier than 28 weeks, but the fall in the Netherlands was said to be “slight,” reports NOS. 

It is unclear what was causing the decrease. Some researchers speculate that during lockdowns, pregnant women may have slept for more hours and spent less time on their feet. Others suggest that a decrease in air pollution may have played a role.

Virus-hit Iran says masks compulsory from next week

Yahoo – AFP, Amir Havasi, June 28, 2020

Iran announced new measures to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus as
 the country counted 144 new fatalities, its highest death toll for a single day
in almost three months (AFP Photo/ATTA KENARE)

Tehran (AFP) - Iran said Sunday it will make mask-wearing mandatory in certain areas and has allowed virus-hit provinces to reimpose restrictions, as novel coronavirus deaths mounted in the Middle East's worst-hit country.

The new steps were announced as Iran counted 144 new fatalities from the COVID-19 disease, its highest death toll for a single day in almost three months.

The Islamic republic has refrained from enforcing full lockdowns to stop the pandemic's spread, and the use of masks and protective equipment has been optional in most areas.

President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would have to live with the virus for the "long haul", as he announced the latest measures to combat it.

Mask-wearing would be "obligatory in covered spaces where there are gatherings", he said during a televised meeting of the country's anti-virus taskforce.

According to him, the measure would come into force as of next week, continue until July 22 and would be extended if necessary.

Rouhani said the health ministry had devised "a clear list" of the types of spaces and gatherings deemed high-risk, but he did not elaborate.

He also did not say what the penalty would be for those who fail to observe the measure.

According to deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi, services would not be provided to those without masks in areas such as government organisations and shopping malls.

But implementing the measure may be difficult, as according to Tehran's mayor, many do not wear masks in places like the capital's public transport network, where it is already mandatory.

"Fifty percent of metro passengers wear masks... and even fewer in buses," Mayor Pirouz Hanachi was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency.

"We can't forcefully confront people without masks," he added.

Mask-wearing will be obligatory in covered spaces and gathering places, Iranian 

authorities announced after a rise in virus cases (AFP Photo/ATTA KENARE)

'Red' counties

Iran reported its first COVID-19 cases on February 19 and it has since struggled to contain the outbreak.

The health ministry on Sunday announced 144 virus deaths in the past 24 hours, its highest for a single day since April 5, raising the total to 10,508.

Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari also raised total confirmed infections to 222,669, with 2,489 new cases during the same period.

Official figures have shown an upward trajectory in new confirmed cases since early May, when Iran hit a near two-month low in daily recorded infections.

"Considering the rising numbers, I plead with you to definitely use masks outside and in covered places," Lari said.

Iran closed schools, cancelled public events and banned movement between its 31 provinces in March, but the government progressively lifted restrictions from April to try to reopen its sanctions-hit economy.

The economy is starting to suffer under the pressures of the health crisis.

The country's currency, the rial, has hit new lows against the US dollar in recent days, mostly over border closures and a halt in non-oil exports, according to analysts.

The increasing virus caseload has seen some previously unscathed provinces classified as "red" -- the highest level on Iran's colour-coded risk scale -- with authorities allowing them to reimpose restrictive measures if required.

According to Rouhani, the measure would also be extended to provinces with "red" counties.

"Any county that is red, its provincial (virus) committee can propose reimposing limitations for a week", which could be extended if needed, he said.

The government launched an "#I wear a mask" campaign on Saturday and pleaded with Iranians to observe guidelines aimed at curbing infections.

One Iranian is infected with COVID-19 every 33 seconds and one dies from the disease every 13 minutes, Harirchi said on Saturday.

Zanjan county in northwestern Iran has already reimposed restrictive measures for two weeks, its governor said in a televised interview.

It followed a "certain indifference from Zanjan residents and as the number of our (virus) deaths picked up again in recent weeks," said Alireza Asgari.

The limitations include closing wedding halls and a ban on funeral events held at mosques, as they can lead to large gatherings, he added.

Related Articles:

US sees new pressure point as coronavirus hits Iran

"Kryon on Corona", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar 13, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>13.46 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis)

Bayer pays $10 bn to settle weedkiller cancer cases

Yahoo – AFP, Michelle FITZPATRICK, Jun 24, 2020

Roundup weedkiller. The deal relieves a major headache for Bayer, going on since
it bought US firm and Roundup maker Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018
(AFP Photo/Odd ANDERSEN)

Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - German chemical giant Bayer said on Wednesday it had agreed to pay more than $10 billion to end a wave of lawsuits from Americans who say their cancers were caused by its Roundup weedkiller.

The deal relieves a major headache for Bayer, which has been going on since it bought US firm and Roundup maker Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018.

"The Roundup settlement is the right action at the right time for Bayer to bring a long period of uncertainty to an end," said CEO Werner Baumann in a statement.

At the same time Bayer announced it had also agreed separate multi-million-dollar payouts to resolve longstanding legal issues involving other Bayer products, as the group tries to turn the page on its courtroom dramas.

Bayer's share price climbed nearly six percent to 74.06 euros in after-hours trading following the surprise announcement.

The Roundup deal would bring closure to around 75 percent of current litigation that involves roughly 125,000 filed and unfiled claims, the statement said.

It would also settle about 95 percent of the cases currently set for trial and establish "key values and parameters" to resolve the remainder of the claims, Bayer added.

- 'Hard-fought battle' -

Roundup is a flagship Monsanto product containing glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller that tens of thousands of plaintiffs say caused their illness -- with many suffering from the blood cancer non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Bayer suffered a clutch of financially painful setbacks in first-instance US court rulings last year, although the amounts awarded were later reduced.

The legal woes have weighed heavily on the group's share price with many observers and investors questioning the wisdom of the Monsanto takeover.

Jennifer Moore, a lawyer representing several Roundup plaintiffs, welcomed the deal.

"This settlement is significant for our clients because this has been a long, hard-fought battle and it brings justice for our clients," she told AFP.

Bayer maintains that scientific studies and regulatory approvals show Roundup's main ingredient glyphosate is safe, but said when it released first-quarter earnings data in April that it "continues to engage constructively in the mediation process".

The settlement announced on Wednesday consists of a payment of $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to resolve the current Roundup litigation, Bayer said, and $1.25 billion to address potential future litigation.

Bayer stressed that the agreement would not cover three cases currently going through the appeals process.

They include the landmark first Roundup case brought by school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson who was eventually awarded $78.5 million.

Dicamba deal

In the same statement, Bayer said it would pay $820 million to settle decades-old complaints over Monsanto-made toxic chemicals known as PCBs that caused water contamination.

It also agreed to settle US lawsuits involving dicamba herbicide which has been blamed for wrecking crops in America, by drifting on to plants unable to resist it.

The group said it would pay up to $400 million to resolve pending claims in Missouri for the 2012-2015 crop years.

Bayer said it expects co-defendant BASF -- which also manufacturers a type of dicamba -- to contribute towards the settlement.

It comes after a US jury in February awarded $265 million to Missouri peach farmer Bill Bader who accused the two companies of encouraging farmers to use the weedkiller irresponsibly.

Bayer said the Bader case was not included in the proposed settlement.

"The company believes the verdict in Bader Farms is inconsistent with the evidence and the law and will continue to pursue post-trial motions and an appeal, if necessary," it said.

Bayer said it would make the first cash payments related to the mass settlements starting this year. Part of the funds will come from the sale of its profitable animal health unit.

"All three settlements are in the best interest of the company and our stakeholders," said supervisory board chairman Norbert Winkeljohann.