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LIMA, Peru (AFP) — A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck northern Peru on Sunday, destroying buildings including a church tower, injuring at least 10 people and sending shock waves across the region. The strong quake hit at 5:52 am (1052 GMT) at a depth of 131 kilometers (81 miles), according to the Geophysical Institute of Peru. Civil Defense authorities said at least 10 people were injured, while 75 houses were destroyed. The quake also caused damage […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada said Sunday it has detected its first cases of the new Omicron strain of Covid, in two people who had traveled recently to Nigeria. Both patients are in isolation while public health authorities trace their possible contacts, said federal and Ontario provincial officials. “I was informed today by the Public Health Agency of Canada that testing and monitoring of Covid-19 cases has confirmed two cases of the Omicron variant of […]
by Mathieu GORSE / Valentin BONTEMPS MADRID, Spain (AFP) — The coronavirus pandemic will cost the global tourism sector $2.0 trillion in lost revenue in 2021, the UN’s tourism body said Monday, calling the sector’s recovery “fragile” and “slow”. The forecast from the Madrid-based World Tourism Organization comes as Europe is grappling with a surge in infections and as a new heavily mutated Covid-19 variant, dubbed Omicron, spreads across the globe. International tourist arrivals will […]
by Joris FIORITI with Danny KEMP in The Hague and AFP bureaus Agence France Presse SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AFP) — Several European nations on Saturday announced their first cases of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, as governments worldwide began pulling down the shutters to contain the new Omicron variant. Britain, Germany and Italy confirmed their first cases of the new Covid-19 strain, while Dutch authorities quarantined 61 passengers from South Africa who tested positive […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany on Saturday confirmed its first two cases of the new Omicron strain of Covid-19, in travellers who arrived at Munich airport from South Africa, regional officials said. “Two suspected cases of the new virus variant Omicron classified by the World Health Organization as a variant of concern have been confirmed in Bavaria,” the health ministry of the southern state said in a statement. The people, who arrived back in Germany […]
by Joris FIORITI with Jan HENNOP in The Hague SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AFP) — Dutch health authorities said Saturday the new Omicron strain of Covid-19 was “probably” among some of the 61 passengers who tested positive after arriving on two flights from South Africa. The cases — more than one tenth of the 600 people on the two planes — were quarantined in a hotel near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s biggest international air travel […]
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP) — The regional hospital in the northern Czech city of Liberec confirmed the new Omicron strain of Covid-19 in a female patient, its spokesman Vaclav Ricar told Czech Television Saturday. “My colleagues from the department of genetics and molecular diagnostics confirmed the strain with 90-percent probability after a sequence analysis,” said Ricar. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said earlier Saturday that the woman had been in Namibia and flew back to […]
The world’s largest vaccine maker Serum Institute of India on Friday resumed exports of Covid-19 shots, it said, in a boost for poorer countries that have struggled to secure supplies. The shipment to Tajikistan under the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative agreement was the company’s first in seven months. “This will go a long way in restoring vaccine supply equality in the world,” tweeted billionaire chief executive Adar Poonawalla. “It’s a huge moment to begin exports again, […]
Australia banned flights from nine southern African countries on Saturday, tightening its borders to prevent the entry of the new Covid-19 Omicron variant. Non-Australians who visited South Africa, Zimbabwe and several other nations in the past fortnight will also be barred from Australia, Heath Minister Greg Hunt said. Citizens and residents travelling from the listed countries will have to quarantine for 14 days. “These are strong, swift, decisive and immediate actions,” Hunt told media in […]
An anti-Covid pill developed by Merck has proved effective in treating the disease, the US Food and Drug Administration said Friday in a much-awaited preliminary report. But the report, from an FDA advisory panel, cautioned that pregnant women should not use the drug, known as molnupiravir, saying the potential benefits do not outweigh the risks for those patients. The report is meant to provide guidance to an FDA experts panel convening Tuesday to consider whether […]
by Daniel Woolls with AFP bureaus The United States, Brazil, Canada, and Saudi Arabia became the latest countries Friday to restrict travel from southern Africa, where a new Covid strain labelled a “variant of concern” has been discovered in a potentially heavy blow to the world’s efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic. The World Health Organization said the new variant is more infectious than the dominant, highly transmissible Delta strain, and renamed this B.1.1.529 strain […]
by Paul RICARD Agence France Presse It is, scientists say, the most worrying Covid-19 variant since delta and perhaps ever. Here is what we know — and what we don’t — about the strain thought to have originated in Southern Africa. – How worrying? “This one is worrying and I’ve not said that since delta,” British virologist Ravi Gupta said on Twitter, about the variant labelled B.1.1.529. Concerns among disease experts stem from the variant’s […]
