The Latest: SKorea rights body to review virus testing rules

SEOUL, South Korea — Following complaints about discrimination, South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission says it’s reviewing decisions by health officials to mandate coronavirus tests for all foreign workers in the capital of Seoul and a nearby province.

The commission’s chairperson, Choi Young-ae, said in a statement Friday it plans to issue “swift judgment” on whether the measures are discriminatory and infringing rights.

If the commission concludes the measures are discriminatory, it could recommend government officials to change related policies or laws. But its proposals are non-binding.

The testing campaigns came in response to outbreaks among low-skilled foreign workers employed at Gyeonggi factories, who often face hash working and living conditions.

Critics question why authorities are mandating broad tests based on nationality instead of specifically targeting people with vulnerable working conditions.

Lim Sun-young, an official from the commission, said more than 20 individuals, including foreigners, have submitted complaints to the commission over the tests.

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— President Biden plans to send COVID shots to Mexico, Canada

— EU agency: AstraZeneca vaccine safe, will add clot warning

— Zoos, scientists aim to curb people giving virus to animals

— France announces soft new virus restrictions in Paris region

— WHO expert: Virus study to have unanimity despite pressure

—- U.S. jobless claims rise to 770,000 with layoffs still high

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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

CANBERRA, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he is working with U.S., Indian and Japanese partners to provide emergency coronavirus vaccine to Papua New Guinea.

Australia has provided 8,000 AstraZeneca doses from its own stockpile to its nearest neighbor after an explosion of infections in the South Pacific island nation in recent weeks.

Morrison said Friday that the European Union has yet to respond to his recent request for 1 million AstraZeneca doses contracted by Australia to be sent to Papua New Guinea as soon as possible.

He says that “it’s not right for advanced countries in Europe to deny the supply of vaccines to developing countries who need it desperately like Papua New Guinea.”

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WASHINGTON — A new analysis suggests the coronavirus pandemic likely began in China’s Hubei province a month or two earlier than late December 2019, when a cluster of cases tied to a seafood market was first detected.

Scientists traced mutations back in time to estimate when a common ancestral virus first emerged, did modeling exercises on how the new coronavirus spread, and reported their findings Thursday in the journal Science.

Evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey says the study is “pointing pretty strongly to that market not being the original source of the virus but the first place where it encountered sort of one of these superspreading events.”

Public health expert William Hanage, who had no role in the study, says the conclusions are “very, very plausible” and the work “pushes back in time” estimates of the origins of the outbreak.

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MADRID — Spain’s health minister says the country will resume vaccinating with AstraZeneca doses next Wednesday but officials will revise over the weekend which groups to exclude to minimize risks.

Carolina Darias said authorities at the national and regional level will assess the jab’s updated technical sheet and give new guidelines to doctors.

The minister spoke after an urgent meeting with health officials from the country’s regions following the European Union’s drug regulatory announcement that the vaccine is safe.

The head of Spain’s drug agency says resuming now after assessing a series of rare blood clots in a dozen patients who had received the AstraZeneca jab “should strengthen trust in the vaccines.”

After weeks of falling contagion rates, Spain’s coronavirus pandemic incidence is on the rise again, prompting fears that the country could soon join the uptick that the rest of Europe is experiencing.

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PRAGUE — With infection and death rates remaining at high levels, the Czech government has extended the country’s tight lockdown until after Easter.

Health Minister Jan Blatny says his country is still not in a position to relax the measures.

Among the restrictions in one of the hardest-hit countries in the European Union, people have been banned from traveling to other counties unless they go to work or have to take care of relatives.

It’s part of a series of step as the Central European nation has been seeking to slow down the spread of a highly contagious virus variant first found in Britain and prevent the country’s hospitals from collapsing.

Of the 8,910 COVID-19 patients in Czech hospitals on Wednesday, 1,989 needed intensive care. Both the numbers are close to the records set earlier this week.

Blatny said the situation in should start to improve after by the end of this week and the number of hospitalized to drop to some 5,000 in April.

The nation of 10.7 million has over 1.4 million confirmed cases with more than almost 24,100 deaths.

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. is finalizing plans to send a combined 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico and Canada in its first export of shots.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki says the Biden administration is planning to send 2.5 million doses to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada as a “loan.”

The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been authorized for use in the U.S. but has been authorized by the World Health Organization. The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, thanked Biden for his willingness to share the vaccines.

Canadian regulators have approved the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, but acquiring them has proven difficult. Canada ranks about 20th in the number of doses administered, with about 8% of the adult population getting at least one shot. That compares with about 38% in the U.K. and 22% in the U.S.

Mexico has fully vaccinated more than 600,000 people and more than 4 million have received a single dose in a country of 126 million.

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JOHANNESBURG — Africa’s ability to produce COVID-19 vaccines got a boost Thursday with the announcement that Biovac has signed a full manufacturing partnership with U.S.-based ImmunityBio.

Biovac is a laboratory partly owned by the South African state. It has an agreement with ImmunityBio, which has a COVID-19 vaccine in clinical trials, to produce the vaccine sometime next year.

Biovac, based in Cape Town, has the capacity to produce between 20 million and 30 million vaccines in a year.

Africa’s 54 countries have limited capacity to make vaccines, with only two laboratories on the continent able to fully manufacture vaccines. Those are Biovac and the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, which produces yellow fever vaccines. Three other African countries can partially manufacture vaccines.

South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare is awaiting approval to assemble the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a process of blending the ingredients sent in large batches and putting the vaccine into vials – the filling and finishing. Aspen said it has the capacity to produce 300 million doses annually of the J&J vaccine.

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NEW YORK — It’s showtime! AMC Theatres says it will have 98% of its U.S. movie theaters open on Friday. Even more theaters are expected to open by March 26.

AMC says more than 40 of its locations in California are reopening on Friday and will open 52 of its 54 locations by Monday. The company is preparing to resume operations at the rest of its California locations once the proper local approvals are in place. AMC previously opened more than 500 of its theaters elsewhere around the country.

Some movie theaters have opened over the past few months with limited capacity and enhanced safety protocols.