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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Around half of South Africa’s population may have already been infected by coronavirus, a figure far higher than the documented tally, a study and analysis of death figures suggest. Samples taken from almost 5,000 blood donors across four South African provinces in January showed that between 32 and 63 percent had antibodies to the coronavirus. The figure compares with clinically confirmed case rates of just two to three percent, […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong’s government on Thursday approved the Chinese-made Sinovac coronavirus vaccine for emergency use after a panel of experts fast-tracked its recommendation despite the drug’s comparatively low efficacy. “The first batch of one million jabs of Sinovac vaccines will arrive in Hong Kong soon,” the government statement said. Local media reported that the first vaccinations could arrive as soon as Friday, finally kicking off the financial hub’s delayed inoculation […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand lifted a snap Covid-19 lockdown in its largest city Auckland on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expressing confidence the outbreak was contained. The stay-at-home order for the city of almost two million was issued on Sunday after three community cases emerged, the first lockdown in Auckland for almost six months. Ardern said close contacts of the three cases, all members of the same family, had all since […]
by Natsuko FUKUE TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan began vaccinating healthcare workers against the coronavirus on Wednesday, as it rolled out a cautious inoculation programme with just over five months until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Japan has so far approved only the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and started administering the first shots at a Tokyo hospital on Wednesday morning. Tokyo Medical Centre director Kazuhiro Araki volunteered to be the first at the facility to receive the shot. […]
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The number of new cases of Covid-19 reported worldwide fell by 16 percent last week to 2.7 million, the World Health Organization said. The number of new deaths reported also fell 10 percent week-on-week, to 81,000, the WHO said late Tuesday in its weekly epidemiological update, using figures up to Sunday. Five of the six WHO regions of the world reported a double-digit percentage decline in new cases, […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States on Tuesday warned that, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the world “cannot afford to turn the other way” after cases of Ebola were confirmed in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Five people have died of Ebola virus in Guinea — the first outbreak in West Africa since a 2013-2016 epidemic that left more than 11,300 people dead in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Democratic Republic […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean hackers tried to break into the computer systems of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in a search for information on a coronavirus vaccine and treatment technology, South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday, according to reports. The impoverished, nuclear-armed North has been under self-imposed isolation since closing its borders in January last year to try to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone […]
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization gave emergency use approval to AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccines on Monday, meaning distribution can start to poorer countries starved of doses to fight the pandemic. The AstraZeneca-Oxford jab forms the bulk of batches being lined up through Covax, the global program aimed at procuring and shipping out vaccines equitably around the world, regardless of wealth. It is only the second Covid-19 jab to have received […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for an investigation into a rocket attack on an airbase in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and promised to “hold accountable those responsible.” A volley of rockets targeting the base late Monday killed a foreign civilian contractor and wounded five others and a US soldier, the US-led coalition said. “We are outraged by today’s rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region,” Blinken said in […]
by Fran BLANDY MERU, Kenya (AFP) — As dawn breaks in central Kenya, a helicopter lifts off in a race to find roosting locusts before the sun warms their bodies and sends them on a ravenous flight through farmland. Pilot Kieran Allen begins his painstaking survey from zebra-filled plains and lush maize farms, to dramatic forested valleys and the vast arid expanses further north, his eyes scouring the landscape for signs of the massed insects. […]
PORT VILLA, Vanuatu (AFP) — A strong earthquake struck Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila on Tuesday, with eyewitnesses reporting violent shaking and the US Geological Survey measuring a shallow 6.2-magnitude quake just off the South Pacific island’s coast. “Wow, haven’t felt one like that in years. My heart’s still in my mouth,” local journalist Dan McGarry posted on Twitter, “very large lateral movement”. Authorities said the quake occurred 90 kilometres (56 miles) west of the […]
by Francois Picard with Chris Lefkow in Washington Agence France Presse HOUSTON, United States (AFP) — Much of the United States was in the icy grip of an “unprecedented” winter storm on Monday as frigid Arctic air sent temperatures plunging, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations, making driving hazardous and leaving millions without power in Texas. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for the southern state, and the National Weather Service (NWS) said […]
