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by Glenda KWEK / Atish PATEL Agence France Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — More emergency medical aid from foreign donors to alleviate a dire oxygen shortage arrived in India on Sunday, as Covid-19 deaths in the South Asian nation rose to a new record. India is setting almost-daily records for new infections and deaths as the virus crisis engulfs overstretched hospitals in cities and spreads into rural regions. The country of 1.3 billion […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Sydney was enveloped in a thick bank of hazardous bushfire smoke Monday, forcing authorities in Australia’s largest city to scale back controlled forest burning nearby. Ferries were cancelled and the city’s five million residents were told to stay indoors if necessary, as air pollution levels spiked. Levels of hazardous PM 2.5 pollution — particles that can seep deep into the lungs and cause respiratory illnesses — were among the worst in […]
HELSINKI, Finland (AFP) — Crowds gathered in the capitals of Finland and Sweden on Saturday as hundreds marched in protest over their governments’ measures to limit the spread of Covid-19. A protest in Helsinki that drew around 300 participants resulted in about 50 arrests, Finnish police tweeted. Organisers of the event in the centre of the capital announced there would be only six participants, the current limit on public gatherings due to the pandemic. Those […]
by Olivier MONNIER TORONTO, Canada (AFP) — Intensive care nurse Farial Faquiry says the health care system in Canada’s Ontario province is nearing the breaking point as it fights a fast-moving new wave of Covid-19 infections. The 29-year-old caregiver at Toronto’s Humber River Hospital is looking after two patients in their 60s who are on ventilators. “We’re overwhelmed,” Faquiry told AFP, conveying the feelings of her peers who often say they feel powerless against a […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — South Africa will on Sunday take delivery of the first batch of its 4.5 million Pfizer coronavirus vaccines as the country readies to start ramping up immunization. In a statement, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said 325,260 doses were scheduled to land at the country’s OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg late on Sunday. A similar number is expected weekly until the end of this month. “Thereafter the vaccine supply will […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The UK said Sunday it was sending an extra 1,000 oxygen ventilators to Covid-struck India, as a group of doctors staged their own intervention by offering long-distance telemedicine from Britain. British authorities have already sent 495 oxygen concentrators and 200 ventilators to India as the country grapples with a devastating surge in coronavirus cases, and are shipping three larger production units, dubbed oxygen factories. The 1,000 additional ventilators will come […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia will permit citizens immunised against Covid-19 to travel abroad from May 17, the interior ministry said Sunday, more than a year after Saudis were barred from external trips. The ministry said three categories of people would be considered immunised — those who have received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine, those administered a single dose at least 14 days prior to travel, and people who have recovered from […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela nearly tripled its minimum wage Saturday but inflation is so outrageous that that amount of money will not even buy a kilo of meat. Labor Minister Eduardo Pinate announced the raise to government supporters at a May Day rally in Caracas. The new monthly minimum wage is seven million bolivares, which is equivalent to $2.50. A kilo (2.2 pounds) of meat in Venezuela costs about $3.75. The once-wealthy oil […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Several thousand Brazilians marched Saturday in support of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, ignoring a surging pandemic even as government opponents took their own protests online. There were rallies in Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with many demonstrators wearing the yellow, blue and green of the country’s flag. Brazil, with more than 403,000 Covid-19 deaths, is second only to the United States in that grim category, and Bolsonaro faces […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong migrant worker groups on Saturday criticized plans to make coronavirus vaccines compulsory for all foreign domestic helpers, labelling the move “discriminatory and unjust”. Health officials said they were planning to roll out mandatory inoculations for the 370,000 domestic helpers in the city, mostly poorly-paid women from the Philippines and Indonesia. Those wanting to apply for work visas — or renew their current ones — would need to […]
AHMEDABAD, India (AFP) — At least 16 Covid-19 patients and two nurses died Saturday in the latest in a series of hospital fires in India, officials said, as the country’s health care system buckles under a surge in cases. There were around 50 other patients at the four-storey hospital in Bharuch in the western state of Gujarat when the blaze began at 1:00 am (0730 GMT). It has since been put out. The death […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India recorded on Saturday over 400,000 new Covid cases in 24 hours for the first time, the first country to do so in the pandemic, official data showed. According to the health ministry, 401,993 new infections were registered taking the total caseload to 19.1 million. There were 3,523 deaths, bringing the toll to 211,853. Many experts suspect that because of insufficient testing and inaccurate recording of cause of death, […]
