The Philippines has announced that a new COVID-19 variant first detected in South Africa has reached the country, with at least six new cases reported, as the government began its delayed vaccination programme using Sinovac shots donated by China.

At least three of the detected new variants, known as B1351, were discovered in Metro Manila, while two were among Filipinos returning from abroad, the health department said on Tuesday. Officials are still verifying the origin of the sixth case.

The cases were detected from a batch of more than 300 samples being examined by the Philippine Genome Center, the statement added.

The B1351 variant first emerged in October 2020 in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. It has now been found in at least 32 countries, including Mozambique, Kenya and Botswana.

According to the World Health Organization, preliminary studies suggest the B1351 variant is associated with “a higher viral load,” suggesting “potential for increased transmissibility.”

However, the UN body said that there was “no clear evidence” of the COVID-19 variant being associated with more severe disease or worse outcomes.

News of the B1351 variant came just a day after the government began the Philippines vaccination programme using 600,000 shots donated by China.

It remains unknown how effective Sinovac, which has been tested in countries including Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia, will be against the new variant.

Vaccine hesitancy

Health Under-Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the department spokesman, said on Tuesday that Sinovac had not yet released any study about its efficacy against the new strain.

Details of the Sinovac trials have not yet been made public by the Philippine government, citing confidentiality, which has raised concern among health watchdogs and healthcare workers.

On Monday, director of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila, Dr Gerardo Legaspi, was the first to be officially administered the Sinovac vaccine.

Dr Legaspi was given the jab despite an earlier statement by the country’s Food and Drug Administration that the Sinovac shot was not recommended for healthcare workers directly involved with COVID-19 patients, or people of 65 years old or more.

As the vaccines were administered to several officials on Monday, other healthcare workers staged a demonstration outside the Philippine Lung Center to demand more transparency about the Sinovac shots, as well as more choices on vaccine brands.

In a statement on Monday, the Philippine Medical Students’ Association said that there was “no public health, without public trust.”

The roll-out of the vaccine in the Philippines has been rife with controversy after it was revealed that members of President Rodrigo Duterte’s security detail were vaccinated with Sinopharm shots smuggled from China as early as October, last year.

Last Wednesday, a special envoy from Duterte to China revealed that he and several government officials also received the same shots from China last year, and that the president had made a verbal request for vaccine samples for himself and his family.

To date, Sinopharm has not applied for or been issued with an emergency use authorisation in the Philippines, making the use of the vaccine in the country illegal.

Aljazeera/Olawunmi Sadiq

The leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT) said on Tuesday he is in no rush to travel to China to meet President Xi Jinping, and that Beijing’s proposals to get Taiwan to accept Communist rule had “no market” on the island.

The KMT ruled China before retreating to Taiwan at the end of a civil war with the Communists in 1949. While ties across the Taiwan Strait have improved dramatically in the last three decades, Beijing continues to claim Taiwan as its own territory.

The KMT was trounced in presidential and parliamentary elections last year, unable to shake accusations by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party that they were Beijing’s lackey.

Johnny Chiang, elected as leader following the party’s defeat, said that he was in no hurry to follow his predecessors footsteps and visit Beijing to meet old adversary the Communist Party, and its leader Xi.

“We can wait, for a better timing. There’s no insistence for it. It’s not just a meeting for a meetings sake, but it needs to be meaningful, respectful,” he said at party headquarters in central Taipei, adding the pandemic also made travel hard now.

“The timing needs to be right, but more importantly there needs to be the precondition of equality and dignity, and it has to be beneficial for Taiwan.”

Chiang said they were maintaining routine contacts with the Communist Party, but there had been no high level communication.

Xi met then-President Ma Ying-jeou in Singapore in 2015 in a landmark meeting, shortly before current President Tsai Ing-wen first won power. That meeting was cast as a meeting between the heads of the Communist Party and the KMT rather than one between heads of state.

But political trust has “collapsed” since then, with small issues turning into slanging matches between Taipei and Beijing, said Chiang.

Voters support

He faces an uphill struggle to win back voter support at a time when Chinese pressure on Taiwan is unrelenting and many electors view the KMT whose name literally translates as Chinese Nationalist Party as not properly Taiwanese.

In July he faces re-election as party leader, though he reiterated he has no interest in running for president and would rather serve as a “kingmaker” in choosing its candidate for elections in 2024.

But being firm with autocratic China will be an important test of whether the KMT can get back into power. Chiang described China as the major threat Taiwan faces.

Chiang said that China’s offer of using “one country, two systems” to entice Taiwan with a high degree of autonomy, like how Beijing is supposed to run unrest-hit Hong Kong, has “no market” on the island, where people like their freedoms.

“We are already used to this kind of lifestyle. If you want Taiwan’s people to change it – impossible.”

Olusola Akintonde/Reuters

The United States is expected to impose sanctions as early as Tuesday on Russians connected with the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.

President Joe Biden’s decision to impose sanctions for Navalny’s poisoning reflects a harder stance than taken by his predecessor, Donald Trump, who let the incident last August pass without punitive US action.

The sources declined to identify the targets or the legal authorities Washington would use to penalise them as it seeks to impose consequences for the poisoning of Navalny.

The critic of the Kremlin fell ill on a flight in Siberia last August and was airlifted to Germany, where doctors concluded he had been poisoned with a nerve agent.

The sources said on Monday on condition of anonymity that the US was expected to act under two executive orders: 13661, which was issued after Russia’s invasion of Crimea but provides broad authority to target Russian officials, and 13382, issued in 2005 to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Both orders let the United States freeze the US assets of those targeted and effectively bar US companies and individuals from dealing with them.

The sources said the Biden administration also planned to act under the US Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991, which provides a variety of punitive measures.

The sources said some individuals would be targeted in the sanctions to be announced as early as Tuesday, but declined to name them or say what other sanctions may be imposed.

They added, however, that Washington would maintain waivers allowing foreign aid and certain export licenses for Russia.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the possibility of sanctions.

Pattern of attacks

Top United Nations human rights experts said, on Monday, attempting to kill Navalny was part of a pattern of attacks on critics to quash dissent.

Many Western countries have said Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent, but the Kremlin has denied any role in his illness and has said it has seen no proof that he was poisoned.

After his treatment in Germany, 44-year-old Navalny returned to Russia in January. He was arrested and later sentenced to more than two and a half years in jail for parole violations that he said were trumped up.

Biden, who took office as US president in January, last month called the jailing of Navalny “politically motivated” and called for his release. He has pledged a new and tough approach towards Moscow, saying the US would no longer be “rolling over” in the face of aggressive action by Russia.

Washington and Moscow disagree on a wide range of issues on top of Navalny, such as Russia’s military ambitions in Ukraine and Georgia, as well as cyber-attacks on US government agencies last year that Washington blames on Russia

Aljazeera/Olawunmi Sadiq

President Joe Biden’s administration has downplayed the prospect of sharing coronavirus vaccines with Mexico, saying it is focused first on getting its own population protected against a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans.

The remarks by White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki came before a video conference between Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and US President Joe Biden, in which the Mexican leader was expected to ask the United States to consider sharing some of its Covid-19 vaccine supply.

“The administration’s focus is on ensuring that every American is vaccinated. And once we accomplish that objective, we’re happy to discuss further steps,” Psaki said at a White House news conference.

President Biden told reporters that ”the two leaders would discuss the issue at the meeting’s outset.” But an official statement released after the meeting ended made no mention of vaccine distribution.

He has predicted the United States would have enough supply by late July to inoculate all Americans.

The US authorities have administered 76.9 million doses to date, according to its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, enough for 23% of the population to get the two doses recommended for full protection under the vaccines that have been deployed so far.

Mexico has vaccinated roughly 2.5 million doses so far, enough for about 1% of the population, according to reports. Officials have been frustrated by bottlenecks in supply and raised concerns that wealthy countries are hoarding vaccines.

Loprez Obrador said at a news conference before the meeting that ”he would ask Biden to share the vaccines.”

Mexico would repay Washington once pharmaceutical companies have delivered on their orders, reports said

In a joint statement released after the meeting, the two countries said ”they would deepen their cooperation on Covid-19 response.”

They also said they would work together on immigration policies “that recognise the dignity of migrants and the imperative of orderly, safe, and regular migration.”

Lopez Obrador is pushing for more US work permits for Mexicans and Central Americans, including professionals.

The two countries also said they would try to cooperate on efforts to slow climate change and would restart high-level diplomatic talks on trade and labor rights.

Reuters/Olawunmi Sadiq