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OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada announced Tuesday a deal to secure an additional 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, which would allow for more than half of Canadians to be inoculated before summer. The American and German pharmaceutical giants will also accelerate deliveries of their jointly-developed vaccine over the coming months, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference. “Between mid-April and June, we will have enough doses to vaccinate up to 20 […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada’s Ontario province, the country’s most populous and its economic engine, on Tuesday ordered residents to stay home as projections showed the number of Covid-19 cases could soon explode, overwhelming hospitals. “Our province is in crisis,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford told a news conference, at which he declared a month-long state of emergency. “The (health care) system is on the brink of collapse. It’s on the brink of being overwhelmed,” he […]
LISBON, Portugal (AFP) — Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has now tested negative for coronavirus after a positive test that saw him cancel all public engagements, his office said Tuesday, two weeks before an election he is set to win. The 72-year-old head of state had returned an “asymptomatic” positive test, officials said Monday, and he went into isolation in the presidential palace in Lisbon. However, according to the latest statement, the result […]
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — The Chinese-developed Coronavac Covid-19 vaccine has demonstrated a 50 percent efficacy following tests in Brazil, the organization in charge of its production in the South American country said on Tuesday. Coronavac has been given to frontline health care workers in close contact with coronavirus patients. The Butantan Institute repeated its claim from last week that the vaccine is 78 percent effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and showed […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese authorities sealed off a city of almost five million people and imposed strict travel restrictions on several others on Tuesday as they worked to quash a number of Covid-19 clusters near Beijing. The country had largely curbed the spread of the coronavirus, which first emerged in Wuhan in late 2019, with small outbreaks swiftly snuffed out using mass testing, local lockdowns and travel restrictions. But Hebei province in northern China […]
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Chinese-developed Covid-19 vaccine CoronaVac showed at least 78-percent effectiveness in final-stage clinical trials in Brazil, officials announced Thursday, saying they would apply for emergency approval from the Brazilian regulatory agency to begin a vaccination campaign. “This is a historic day, a day of hope,” Sao Paulo state Governor Joao Doria told a news conference announcing the results. He said his state’s vaccination campaign would begin on January 25, though […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan is working to isolate and analyze a new variant of the coronavirus detected in four people who arrived from Brazil, a health ministry official said Tuesday. Japan announced the detection of the new variant on Sunday, but officials have been at pains to emphasize there is no evidence yet that it is any more transmissible or dangerous than others. “In order to further analyze the variant, we need to isolate […]
LISBON, Portugal (AFP) — Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has tested positive for coronavirus and cancelled all public engagements, his office announced late Monday just two weeks before a presidential election he is expected to win. The 72-year-old head of state was “asymptomatic” and isolating in the presidential palace in Lisbon, his office said in a statement. Last Wednesday, he had spent a few hours in “administrative isolation” after a member of his […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia’s king Tuesday declared a nationwide state of emergency to fight a surge in coronavirus cases that threatens to overwhelm the country’s healthcare system. Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah “is of the opinion that the Covid-19 outbreak in the country is at a very critical stage and that there was a need for the emergency,” said a statement from the national palace. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had requested an emergency […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump and his deputy Mike Pence met Monday evening in the Oval Office, a senior official said, signaling a common front as Democrats press the vice president to have the president removed from office as unfit. “The two had a good conversation,” the administration official said of the meeting, their first since last week’s assault on the US Capitol. According to the official, Trump has no intention of resigning […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — At least two gorillas at California’s San Diego Zoo have caught the coronavirus, the first known instance of natural transmission to great apes, officials said Monday. Two primates began coughing last week and have since tested positive for Covid-19, while a third is showing symptoms, Governor Gavin Newsom said. They are thought to have contracted the virus from an asymptomatic zoo worker, though this has yet to be confirmed. […]
by Alvaro Villalobos and Noemi Gragera MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Armed with picks and shovels, Madrid residents on Monday slowly shovelled out of Spain’s worst snowstorm in decades, which has turned roads and pavements into skating rinks. Officials asked people to stay at home if possible after Storm Filomena dumped 20-30 centimetres (7-8 inches) of snow on the capital between Friday and Saturday. Emergency services workers and soldiers freed 2,500 drivers trapped in their vehicles […]
