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PARIS, France (AFP) — France plans to offer India “significant” extra oxygen capacity in the coming days to help the country cope with a record surge in Covid-19 infections, the French presidency said on Sunday. The assistance is to include badly needed oxygen ventilators, a source told AFP without providing further details. France joins other countries such as Germany, Britain and the United States in coming to the aid of India, which with a new […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian authorities ordered a snap, three-day lockdown in the western city of Perth Friday after the coronavirus escaped from a quarantine hotel housing infected international travellers. Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan said a man who was allowed to leave the hotel on April 17 after testing negative for the virus at the end of the standard 14-day quarantine period tested positive several days later. One of his close contacts in […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — The peak of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in France “appears to be behind us”, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday, announcing that travel restrictions will be relaxed from early next month. He told reporters there had been a “genuine fall in the circulation of the virus over the last 10 days”, confirming that restrictions confining people to a 10-kilometre (six-mile) radius of their homes would be dropped […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — A total of 168 people have suffered rare blood clots after taking the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in Britain, and 32 have died, the UK’s medicines regulator said Thursday. The figures for clots or “thromboembolic events” run up to April 14, by when 21.2 million people had received first doses of the vaccine, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It represents a rise of 10 deaths compared […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany is in talks with Russia to buy 30 million doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine once it is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Saxony state premier Michael Kretschmer said on Thursday. “Germany is negotiating 3 x 10 million doses for June, July, August. The prerequisite for this is the swift EMA approval of the vaccine,” Kretschmer, who is in Moscow for talks, wrote on Twitter. © Agence […]
by Nina LARSON GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — After an international mission to China turned up more questions than answers about the pandemic origins, the WHO is evaluating how to move forward through a diplomatic quagmire to solve the mystery. Determining how the virus that causes Covid-19 first began spreading among humans is seen as vital to preventing future outbreaks. But a long-delayed report, drafted by the team of international experts sent to Wuhan at the […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — The Italian government said Wednesday it plans to gradually lift Covid-19 restrictions from next week, with restaurants and movie theatres set to reopen. Authorities said restaurants will be allowed to serve patrons outdoors from Monday, but only in yellow zone areas where the risk of contagion is deemed low. Cinemas, theatres and concert halls can also reopen the same day with 50 percent capacity. Schools and universities will be allowed to […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s defense ministry on Wednesday said it planned to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in early July, after the United States announced plans to pull out by September 11. “The current thinking… is to shorten the withdrawal period. A withdrawal date of July 4 is being considered,” a ministry spokesman told AFP, stressing that the final decision would be made by NATO. NATO had agreed last week to begin their troop […]
HELSINKI, Finland (AFP) — Finland could start lifting coronavirus curbs on businesses and youth activities from next week but borders will stay closed to tourists for at least the coming months, ministers said on Wednesday after agreeing an “exit plan”. A decision to lift the state of emergency, which allows the government to shut businesses and restrict movement, could be made next week “if the situation continues improving,” Prime Minister Sanna Marin told a press […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — France plans to lift travel restrictions and ease a nationwide curfew on May 2 on expectations that daily Covid-19 cases will soon begin falling, a source close to the presidency told AFP. President Emmanuel Macron also intends to stick to a goal of allowing restaurants to serve patrons outdoors from mid-May, while also reopening cinemas, theatres and museums with reduced capacity, the source said. Non-food businesses will also open their doors […]
by Danny KEMP THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — Blood clots should be listed as a “very rare” side effect of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine but its benefits still outweigh the risks, the EU’s drug watchdog said Tuesday. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement that it had found a “possible link” between the J&J jab and the clots, following eight such cases in the United States, one of which was fatal. […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Sleeping six hours or less per night in your 50s and 60s is associated with an increased risk of dementia, according to a new study of nearly 8,000 British adults followed for more than 25 years. Scientists said that while the research, which was based on data from a long-running survey, could not prove cause and effect, it did draw a link between sleep and dementia as people age. The study, […]
