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by Patrick BAERT Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — The number of coronavirus cases in the Chinese city where the pathogen was first detected may have been 10 times higher than official figures suggest, according to a study by health authorities in Wuhan. About 4.4 percent of the city’s 11 million residents had developed antibodies against the virus causing Covid-19 by April, the report by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control (CDC) said. […]
SINGAPORE (AFP) — Singapore began a coronavirus vaccination campaign Wednesday with a nurse receiving the first jab, making it among the first Asian nations to roll out inoculations. The city-state, which has suffered a mild outbreak, became the first country in Asia to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier this month, and its programme kicked off with healthcare workers. Nurse Sarah Lim, 46, whose work includes screening suspected Covid-19 patients, was the first to be […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Phase 3 trials of a Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine found it was 79 percent effective, the Chinese pharma giant said Wednesday, lower than rival jabs developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna but a potential breakthrough in the battle to stem the pandemic in Asia. China has been racing against the West to develop its own Covid-19 vaccines, with five already in large-scale Phase 3 clinical trials. But Wednesday’s announced was the first […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian rescuers on Tuesday were continuing to search for 17 missing fishermen after their trawler capsized during a storm and sank in the freezing Barents Sea a day earlier. The spokesman for the maritime and river transport agency Rosmorrechflot, Alexei Kravchenko, told AFP that rescuers were conducting the operation by air and sea. “We are formally continuing the search and rescue operation,” Kravchenko said, adding that two ships and an An-74 […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — The United States began a coronavirus vaccination campaign for its troops stationed in South Korea Tuesday as a third virus wave saw the host country record its highest daily death toll since the pandemic began. US Forces Korea (USFK) administered initial doses of the Moderna vaccine for military and civilian healthcare workers, first responders and command staff across its medical treatment facilities in the country, it said in a statement. […]
AMMAN, Jordan (AFP) — Jordan has ordered one million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech novel coronavirus vaccine, with the first shipment expected at the end of January or early February, the health minister said Monday. Jordan has recorded 289,748 cases of the Covid-19 disease, including 3,778 deaths, and the numbers continue to rise daily. “Jordan will receive one million vaccines from Pfizer-BionNTech in instalments from January or early February,” said Health Minister Nazir Obeidat in remarks […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia has extended its suspension of commercial passenger flights by at least one week and possibly two amid concerns over a new variant of the coronavirus. Saudi Arabi will however allow flights in “exceptional cases”, an interior ministry official said according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Sunday. Foreigners will be allowed to depart the kingdom and cargo movement will be permitted, it added. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait […]
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Vietnam on Sunday reported economic growth of 2.91 percent in 2020, the slowest rate in more than 30 years as the country battled the coronavirus pandemic. The communist state has long been among Asia’s fastest-growing economies, and the 2020 figure marked a sharp fall from last year’s GDP growth of seven percent. But Vietnam’s performance looks rosy in the context of a global recession triggered by the pandemic, and officials hailed […]
AMMAN, Jordan (AFP) — Jordan on Sunday confirmed two cases of a particularly infectious coronavirus variant in a man and his wife who had arrived from Britain. Health Minister Nazir Obeidat said the Jordanian couple traveled to the kingdom on December 19 and were found to be infected with the new strain of the virus after being tested and isolated. The couple were still in quarantine and being monitored by medical experts according to virus […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Three more climbers in Iran have died after avalanches struck mountains north of the capital Tehran, bringing the overall toll to 11, the Red Crescent said Sunday. State news agency IRNA said the tragedy began on Friday when avalanches and blizzards hit the mountainous region. Several climbers were trapped in the area but the Red Crescent managed to rescue 14 during a three-day operation led by 20 emergency teams backed by […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese citizen journalist held since May for her livestream reporting from Wuhan as the Covid-19 outbreak unfurled was set for trial Monday, almost a year after details of an “unknown viral pneumonia” surfaced in the central China city. Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, could face up to five years in jail if convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for her reporting in the chaotic initial stages of the outbreak. […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Three cases of a particularly infectious coronavirus variant that recently emerged in Britain have been confirmed in South Korea, health authorities said Monday. The three individuals are members of a London-based family who arrived in the country on December 22, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. They have been placed in isolation since testing positive for Covid-19 on arrival, the KDCA statement said. The new strain of […]
