Archives for March 2021

BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices remained elevated Monday as Saudi Arabian oil facilities were targeted by drone strikes just days after the largest crude exporting nations in the world said they would not increase output.

Brent crude, the international standard, surpassed $70 per barrel for the first time in over a year. Even after it lost ground in afternoon trading, at $68.19 a barrel prices are still hoverning at levels not seen since the early days of last year.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil also gave up early gains but at $65 per barrel, it’s up 12% over just the past month.

Crude prices have surged more than 30% this year as massive vaccinations campaigns gain momentum, potentially signaling the beginning of the end of a global pandemic.

The attacks in Saudi Arabia follow a devastating winter freeze in Texas and other parts of the southern United States last month knocked out production of roughly 4 million barrels per day of U.S. oil, pushing prices above $60 a barrel for the first time in more than a year.

The threats to the global oil supply are taking place with economists expecting energy demand to surge as nations recover from the pandemic.

In that environment, many energy analysts had expected the OPEC cartel and its allies to lift more restrictions and let the oil flow more freely. But OPEC, rattled by plunging prices over the past year, chose not to open the spigots, sending prices higher still.

The strikes on Saudi sites have increased in frequency and precision in recent weeks, raising concerns about Saudi Arabia’s air defenses and the expanding capabilities of the Iran-backed rebels across the border in Yemen.

A Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign on war-torn Yemen’s capital and on other provinces Sunday in retaliation for missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia that were claimed by the Iranian-backed rebels.

The official Saudi Press Agency quoted an anonymous official in the Ministry of Energy as saying that a drone flew in from the sea and struck an oil storage site in Ras Tunura, the port run by Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Aramco.

It claimed the strike did not cause any damage. Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s oil giant that now has a sliver of its worth traded publicly on the stock market, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Ministry of Energy denounced the strike as “an act of sabotage” targeting not only Saudi Arabia “but also the security and stability of energy supplies to the world.”

When key oil facilities in Saudi Arabia were attacked in 2019, global energy prices soared 14% the next day. But that prior attack disrupted more than half of its daily exports, halting 5% of world crude oil output.

Costlier oil pushes energy costs higher. That would add to inflation at a time when investors have been focusing on the potential for rising prices to cause central banks to raise interest rates that have been taken to record low levels to support economies battered by the pandemic.

“The last thing anyone wants in a recovering global economy is higher oil prices, and we are likely nearing a point when higher oil prices become a negative rather than a positive influence over risk assets,” Stephen Innes of Axi said in a report Monday.

Rising prices are a boon, however, for the oil industry, which has lost billions of dollars during the pandemic.

Oil prices crashed as millions of people stayed home and avoided traveling, hoping to avoid infection. Oil futures briefly traded below $0 a barrel last spring before settling around $40 a barrel for months, well below what most producers needed to survive. Many U.S. producers cut production dramatically, others filed for bankruptcy protection. Workers lost jobs by the thousands.

Eventually, prices began to recover as demand trickled back. In January, after Saudi Arabia announced it would cut production by 1 million barrels per day on top of cuts the kingdom already made through its agreement with the OPEC cartel, prices for U.S. benchmark crude pushed above $50 a barrel. The upswing continued through February, when Saudi Arabia’s cuts went into effect.

Natural resources consultancy Wood Mackenzie reports it is forecasting that oil prices will trade in the $70-$75 range in April and that global demand will increase in 2021 by 6.3 million barrels a day from a year earlier.

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Bussewitz contributed from New York.

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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A Senegalese court cleared the way Monday for opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to be released pending his rape trial in a case that already has sparked deadly protests that threaten to erode the country’s reputation as one of West Africa’s most stable democracies.

Sonko is widely seen as President Macky Sall’s greatest potential political challenger in the upcoming 2024 election and his supporters maintain that the allegations are aimed at derailing his political future. The ensuing protests, in which at least four people were killed last week, have been accelerated by broader, long-standing grievances with Sall’s administration.

Sonko’s supporters vowed to start three more days of demonstrations on Monday, and some indicated they would push ahead even as the opposition figure was expected to be released from custody later Monday after being formally charged.

Security forces deployed early across the capital of Dakar in a show of force aimed at preventing further unrest. As news of Sonko’s pending release spread, throngs of boisterous supporters descended on the courthouse waving Senegalese flags.

“The conspiracy has failed. Our client will go home,” attorney Cire Cledor Ly told reporters. “We have had this result thanks to the mobilization of the people.”

The violence has been the worst unrest to hit Senegal in nearly a decade, as demonstrators have sought to undermine Sall’s business ties with former colonizer France. In recent days crowds have set fire to more than a dozen supermarkets opened by French retailer Auchan, and have targeted Total gas stations.

The sight of burned-out cars and boarded-up shops is a rarity in Senegal, which has never suffered the military coups and dictatorships that have destabilized so many of its neighbors in West Africa over the past half-century.

The opposition coalition known as M2D has urged peaceful protests this week, urging the president “to take concrete action to meet the democratic demands of the Senegalese people.” Chief among those was the release of Sonko, charged with rape and making death threats.

The demonstrations first began Wednesday before Sonko’s initial court appearance for questioning on accusations of rape. He was detained on the way to the courthouse and arrested for disturbing public order after hundreds of his supporters clashed with police who were blocking unauthorized protests.

Sonko, 46, finished third in the 2019 presidential election with just over 15% of the ballots cast, drawing strong support from younger voters. However, his message of greater economic independence for Senegal has attracted a wider audience amid the financial hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic amid curfews and other movement restrictions.

Sall easily won re-election in 2019 with more than 58% of the vote. His opponents fear he will seek to extend his mandate with a third term as presidents in neighboring Guinea and Ivory Coast did last year though Sall has not commented publicly on his intentions yet.

While Sall has been credited with infrastructure and development projects, his critics say that has come alongside the sidelining of political rivals. Two other rising political stars have previously faced charges their supporters said were politically motivated.

Karim Wade, the son of the president Sall defeated in 2012, was once widely seen as the heir apparent before he was charged with corruption the following year. He ultimately spent three years in jail before going into exile abroad in Qatar. Former Dakar Mayor Khalifa Sall, seen as a top contender at one point for the 2019 election, was arrested in 2017 on corruption charges and later pardoned after the vote took place.

The leaders of Senegal’s influential Muslim brotherhoods on Sunday urged protesters to show restraint in the days ahead.

“Every Senegalese has the right to express themselves on the situation in the country, but with respect for institutions and without the destruction of public or private property,” said Serigne Mansour Sy. “We call for peace and serenity.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — They’re just your regular neighborhood pharmacists, but some now wear superhero capes.

Local pharmacy owners are filling in the gaps as federal, state and county authorities across the country struggle to ramp up vaccinations vital to crushing the COVID-19 pandemic. In some small towns across the U.S., an independent pharmacy is the only local place where residents can get a COVID-19 vaccination.

President Joe Biden recently celebrated the injection of the 50 millionth dose of COVID-19 vaccine since his inauguration. But the huge undertaking has been hampered by vaccine shortages and concerns whether marginalized communities are getting access to shots.

The hope is that local pharmacies will now play a key role in getting more Americans inoculated. They have become vaccine providers by applying to state health officials and the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for COVID-19 Vaccination, which has been distributing vaccine to networks of independently owned pharmacies, as well as the big national chains.

The Biden administration’s coronavirus coordinator, Jeff Zients, said at the start of the program last month about 6,500 pharmacies would receive a total of 1 million doses, with more pharmacies joining the program as vaccine production increases. The program doesn’t fully fill the gaps, however — more than 400 rural counties lack a retail pharmacy that’s included in the partnership.

Giving vaccinations requires long hours and administrative work, and there’s little or no money in it for pharmacy owners. They don’t have to pay for the COVID-19 vaccine, unlike flu and other vaccines, but they do have administrative costs they may be able to recover when patients have insurance. Still, the money is not their immediate concern.

Adam Bayer and his wife have given out shots at their store, Hillcrest Pharmacy in Vernon, Texas. The work can be intense — the first batch of 100 doses took them a day and a half to administer. Besides giving the vaccine, they must monitor patients for 15 minutes for signs of allergic reactions.

Bayer applied to become a vaccine provider because he believed he was in a position to help fight the pandemic. He’s been proactive and reaching out to customers.

“We’re calling patients who we know aren’t online,” he says. “My prayer is that we’re not leaving people behind.”

Good Neighbor Pharmacy, one of the networks whose members are participating in the Federal Retail Pharmacy program, has so far been allotted 75,000 doses for pharmacies in Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Texas and Guam, says Jenni Zilka, a senior vice president at the network. Those doses began arriving the week of Feb. 11.

All told, the Federal Retail Pharmacy program has 21 companies taking part including big drugstore and grocery chains and mass merchandisers like Costco and Walmart. However, not all the big chains like CVS, Rite-Aid and Walgreen’s are giving out vaccinations in every state they’re located in.

The program is giving a boost to the independents that have been losing ground to the nationwide retailers for decades. In 2015, independents accounted for 36% of the 61,000 pharmacies across the U.S., according to the National Community Pharmacists Association, a trade group. By 2019, they accounted for 35% as the number of pharmacies overall grew to 61,480.

Pharmacists who get a smile and a nod when customers pick up routine prescriptions are now being greeted by applause and tears from customers, first responders and residents of assisted-living centers in communities across the country.

The pharmacists themselves are equally emotional.

“The opportunity to call someone who’s 85 and tell them, ‘I’m going to give you a vaccine’ is a pretty profound experience,” says Chris Antypas, co-owner of Asti’s South Hills Pharmacy in Pittsburgh, which has given out several hundred doses.

Besides giving COVID-19 shots in their stores, pharmacists have also set up mass immunization clinics. They’re already experienced at giving out shots — for years they’ve administered flu, pneumonia, shingles and other vaccinations. But they’re required to get additional training before they can give out COVID-19 shots: They must learn how to handle and store the vaccine, and unlike with other immunizations, they must report to health officials who gets the vaccines, and the name of each dose’s manufacturer.

Matt Hopp owns what’s known as a closed-door pharmacy — it specializes in packaging and delivering medication for assisted-living facilities and nursing homes in the Atlanta area. So far, Guardian Pharmacy has administered 1,500 doses to people in assisted living and who have come to drive-through clinics. Hopp says he’ll bill Medicare and insurance companies later.

“We’re more focused on getting the vaccine out there and into arms,” he says.

Many pharmacists, especially those running mass clinics, are getting help from their communities. School districts, fire departments, landlords with empty stores have been offering the use of their space, Antypas says.

Mayank Amin, who has set up mass clinics in the Philadelphia suburbs, has gotten help from doctors and other health professionals who volunteered to administer shots, sometimes as many as 1,000 over an eight-hour period. Amin, owner of Skippack Pharmacy in Skippack Township, Pennsylvania, has also fielded requests to set up more clinics.

“As soon as word spread that we were doing, this, we started getting calls from different counties and mayors,” Amin says.

Like other pharmacists, the owners of Ochoa’s Pharmacy had to give Texas health officials detailed information about the population they serve and their physical plant, including how they would store and administer the COVID-19 vaccine. The Ochoa family, which has two pharmacies in the town of Edinburg, even had to tell the state the model number of their refrigerators and how they would log the temperatures the vaccine would be stored at.

“When we received the email saying we were going to receive vaccine, we started to cry,” Alessandra Ochoa says. Her family’s pharmacies are located in Hidalgo County, an area hard-hit by the virus.

Pharmacists have had to contend with the same uncertain pace of vaccine distribution as hospitals and other medical facilities. They fill out surveys that include estimates of the number of doses they need, but they don’t know how many doses they’ll get — or if they’ll get any at all.

“You don’t want to get excited and get zero,” Amin says. But when the vaccine does arrive, Amin says he has to be quick on his feet, securing a location for a clinic. But despite the stress of getting a clinic together, Amin manages to bring a little levity to vaccine distribution — he’ll arrive dressed in a superhero costume, complete with red cape.

People who get their shots are overwhelmed with gratitude. When Guardian Pharmacy’s employees arrive with the vaccine, assisted living residents greet them with applause. And Ochoa has seen many deeply emotional moments.

“They’re praying as they’re receiving it — praying the Hail Mary, the Our Father, and there are tears streaming down their faces,” she says.

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