The World Economic Forum announced Thursday that it plans to convene its annual meeting of world leaders again in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland in 2022, its first gathering there since 2020 after this year’s event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Swiss resort could not host the 2021 WEF edition due to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Alpine country, and it was scheduled to be held in August in Singapore, but the coronavirus outbreak also forced its cancelation.

“The pandemic has brought far-reaching changes. In a world full of uncertainty and tension, personal dialogue is more important than ever,” Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and executive chairman, said in a statement.

“Leaders have an obligation to work together and rebuild trust, increase global cooperation, and work towards sustainable, bold solutions.”

It will use the theme Working Together, Restoring Trust, and will take place in the Swiss winter resort from Jan. 17-21.

WEF said the meeting will be the first global leadership event to set the agenda for a sustainable recovery.

It said the pandemic has exacerbated fractures across society.

“It is a critical year for leaders to come together and shape the necessary partnerships and policies. The meeting will bring together forward-thinking leaders to drive multistakeholder collaboration and address the world’s most pressing economic, political and societal challenges.”

WEF said the well-being of participants, staff, service providers, and hosts are a priority, and it is working closely with the Swiss authorities, experts, and national and international health organizations to implement measures for the 2022 gathering.

Davos-Klosters, in southeastern Switzerland, had hosted each annual event since the first meeting in 1971. In 2002, it was held in New York to show solidarity for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks./aa

 Life in Kuwait is expected to return to normal in mid-October amid a decline in infection and death rates and the occupancy of intensive care to its lowest level, plus the steady growth of the vaccination rate, an official source said.

The source said the country plans to move to the fifth phase of the plan to return to normal life by mid-October, in keeping with the scheme approved by the Cabinet at the outbreak of the pandemic.

The source expected wedding and event halls will be open for fully vaccinated people, it will be business as usual for health clubs, conferences, exhibitions and training courses, and the number of incoming flights will be increased.

The source said destinations that were banned in the previous stages will open up, and land ports will open completely during the coming period.

Regarding the future of the academic year, which is scheduled to start on October 3, the source confirmed that there is no change so far in the announced study plans, noting that the Ministry of Education is considering face-to-face education for students in different stages for a month, and accordingly it will decide whether to continue or return to distance education.

On the other hand, the Director of Al Adan Hospital, Dr. Tariq Dashti, revealed that 402 deaths have been recorded in the Al Ahmadi Health District since the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020 until the end of August, with a rate of 16.6 per cent of the country’s total deaths, estimated at 2,419.

Dashti told Al Seyassah, “The latest report on COVID-19 deaths in Al Adan Hospital shows that 82 per cent of deaths were among unvaccinated patients, 7 per cent among people who received one dose of the vaccine, 8 per cent of people fully vaccinated, and 2 per cent among people unknown whether they received the vaccination or not, pointing out that 52 per cent of the deaths were men and 48 per cent women.

The report, prepared by the Head of the Public Health Department in the Ahmadi region, Dr. Shaima Al Awadi, shows that the death rate among Kuwaitis in the region was the highest at 48 per cent, followed by deaths of Indian nationality by 23 per cent, then the stateless people or Bidoon by 11 per cent, followed by expatriates of the Filipino nationality by 9 per cent, then other nationalities.

He added, “The age groups of the deceased ranged between 26 and 95 years, and the median age was 65 years, explaining that 83 per cent of the deaths were among people aged 50 or above, and that the age group from 70 to 79 years witnessed the highest number of deaths with 93.

The Ministry of Health said on Monday 58 new COVID-19 infections and one death had been recorded, bringing the total number of deaths to 2,432.

The Ministry’s spokesman, Dr. Abdullah Al Sanad, said that the ratio of recoveries to the total number of infections was 99.12 per cent./agencies

Nigeria's National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) said Wednesday that it has identified and enrolled 1.7 million Nigerians for treatment of HIV. 

“It is our responsibility to identify and enroll all of them for care, and I believe we are doing well because we have identified 1.7 million of them,” NACA’s Director for Community Prevention, Care and Support Services, Alexander Ogundipe, said in Calabar, the capital city of Cross River State.

Ogundipe said NACA is on the right path in terms of its mandate to coordinate activities on an HIV response.

“Our mandate is to identify people living with the virus. There are supposed to be about 1.9 million Nigerians,” he said.

“You must be objective on how you rate or assess yourself. You must ask: Is the assessment from the eyes of those who give you money, those of beneficiaries of your services, or those other partners?”

“These are the criteria we check once in a while to help fine-tune our services,” he added.

Ogundipe said it is the responsibility of NACA to train, guide and give policy direction to officials of the State Agencies for the Control of AIDS (SACA), but it is the duty of state governments to fund them and ensure they carry out HIV response services.

With whoops and hollers on the ground and fist bumps and thumbs ups from the crew members, Elon Musk's SpaceX venture launched the first all-civilian crew into space Wednesday night for an historic step forward in space tourism.

At just after 8 p.m. local time in Cape Canaveral, Florida on a warm, clear night, a rocket dubbed Falcon 9 blasted off, carrying the Crew Dragon Capsule, which will be home for the two men and two women for the next three days.

"You are truly inspiring the world," came the word from SpaceX mission control as the rocket blasted off. "Good luck, Godspeed and enjoy the ride."

By 12 minutes into the ride, the capsule reached the boundary of space, drawing a big cheer from mission control. The capsule is heading to an orbital altitude of 575 kilometers (357 miles) above Earth, which is beyond the orbit of the International Space Station.

The mission, called "Inspiration4" is notable for several reasons. Unlike the space flights led by billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos in July, considered the first of their kind, Musk himself is not aboard the Crew Dragon.

The four civilians include Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-old billionaire who heads a payment processing company. He paid an undisclosed amount of money to help fund the trip and is dedicating it to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for cancer patients.

Hayley Arceneaux is a bone cancer survivor who later began working for St. Jude. Chris Sembroski is an Air Force veteran and aerospace data engineer who won his seat in a sweepstakes drawing, while Sian Proctor, a community college educator in the state of Arizona, won her seat by winning an entrepreneurial contest held by Isaacman. Proctor's father worked for NASA during the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s and she just missed a chance to become an astronaut herself in 2009.

Also, Inspiration4 will go far deeper and spend a much longer time in space than the flights by Branson and Bezos, which both briefly entered space and then landed on solid ground. The Crew Dragon will eventually splash down somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

Most notably, there are no seasoned astronauts on board, although Isaacman has experience as a jet pilot.

The four crew members have been undergoing intense space training since March, and while they are in space, their health will be continuously monitored.

Musk has talked about his desire to eventually colonize Mars, and he, like Branson and Bezos, hopes to use such flights to eventually make space tourism available for the masses.

Prior to liftoff, the four crew members talked at length about their favorite space movies: "Star Trek" or "Star Wars." After liftoff, one of them could be seen making the "live long and prosper" hand gesture from "Star Trek."/agencies