December 2022

The United Nations refugee agency said Sunday in a statement that about 180 Rohingya were feared to have drowned at sea after their boat left Bangladesh for Malaysia earlier this month. When a boat carrying 174 Rohingya washed ashore Monday in Indonesia, many people speculated that they were the ones the refugee agency had assumed to have drowned. However, some Rohingya in Bangladesh and Malaysia, who managed to speak to the refugees rescued Monday, confirmed that those 174 were not related to the 180 refugees still missing and feared dead. Several people in Malaysia and Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh — where

China said Monday it would scrap mandatory quarantine on arrival, further unwinding years of strict virus controls as the country battles a surge in cases. Having mostly cut itself off from the rest of the world during the pandemic, China is now experiencing an unprecedented surge in infections after abruptly lifting restrictions that torpedoed the economy and sparked nationwide protests. And in a sudden end to nearly three years of strict border controls, Beijing said late Monday it would scrap mandatory quarantines for overseas travelers. Since March 2020, all passengers arriving in China have had to undergo mandatory centralized quarantine.

A British historian, an Italian archaeologist and an American preschool teacher have never met in person, but they share a prominent pandemic bond. Plagued by eerily similar symptoms, the three women are credited with describing, naming and helping bring long COVID into the public’s consciousness in early 2020. Rachel Pope, of Liverpool, took to Twitter in late March 2020 to describe her bedeviling symptoms, then unnamed, after a coronavirus infection. Elisa Perego in Italy first used the term “long COVID,” in a May tweet that year. Amy Watson in Portland, Oregon, got inspiration in naming her Facebook support group from