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WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden on Monday officially ended the Covid national health emergency that for more than three years underpinned extraordinary efforts to provide care for a country where more than a million people died from the disease. The White House said Biden signed a law passed earlier by Congress “which terminates the national emergency related to the Covid-19 pandemic.” This closes lavish funding streams for Covid tests, free vaccines and […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The White House said Monday that the national and public health emergencies declared just as the Covid-19 pandemic took grip three years ago will officially end May 11. The end to both federal emergency declarations, which took effect in January 2020 under then-president Donald Trump, will see funds used to subsidize Covid medicines, medical insurance and other types of government aid related to the pandemic come to an end. In […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Friday 1/27/2023 Japan’s government will drop its recommendation to wear masks indoors and downgrade its medical classification for Covid-19, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday. The changes, effective from early May, will classify the disease on the same level as the flu, down from its current status on par with tuberculosis and SARS. “As for masking, regardless of indoors and outdoors, the decision will be left up to individuals,” Kishida […]
Outside of China, many experts have their attention on the US and Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, which has been detected in 29 countries so far. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said it was “the most transmissible subvariant that has been detected yet.” However there is no indication as yet that XBB.1.5 — which has been spreading rapidly in the northeastern United States — causes more severe disease than other types of Covid. […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – China on Tuesday condemned fresh Covid test requirements by around a dozen countries on passengers travelling abroad from its territory, warning it could take “countermeasures” in response. The United States, Canada, France and Japan are among a number of countries that now require travelers from China to show a negative Covid test before arrival, as the country faces a surge in cases. “Some countries have taken entry restrictions targeting only Chinese travelers,” […]
WORLD, Undefined (AFP) – European stock markets started the New Year on a high note on Monday after a rough 2022 but the IMF chief warned that a third of the world economy faces recession in 2023. The Paris CAC 40 surged 1.9 percent and the Frankfurt DAX jumped more than one percent but London, Wall Street and oil markets were closed for the New Year holiday. Most Asian stock markets were also shut. Of those […]
France and Britain on Friday joined a growing list of nations imposing Covid tests on travelers from China, and the World Health Organization pressed Beijing to be more forthcoming on real-time data amid an explosion of cases there. Spain, South Korea and Israel also said they would require proof of a negative test for travelers leaving China. Despite its hospitals and morgues being overwhelmed — and international concern over the low official figures on infections […]
(Eagle News)–The Department of Health on Friday, December 30, said it had directed the Bureau of Quarantine to intensify quarantine protocols. The DOH said such protocols include “heightened surveillance on all respiratory symptoms in all travelers and conveyances coming from China.” According to the DOH, meanwhile, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases will discuss the “guidelines on how to deal with the COVID-19 resurgence in China, including our border control […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – Beijing’s sudden pivot away from containing Covid-19 has caused jitters around the world, with the United States saying it may restrict travel from China following its decision to end mandatory quarantine for overseas arrivals. China late Monday scrapped quarantine for inbound travelers from January 8 onwards, dismantling the last remaining piece of its stringent zero-Covid policy and ending some of the world’s harshest border restrictions. The move was greeted with jubilation by […]
CHONGQING, China (AFP) – “Deceased, deceased,” a staffer in full protective gear shouted as she handed a nurse a death certificate, their hospital in central China overflowing with Covid patients. China is battling a wave of infections that has hit the elderly hard, but has officially logged only a handful of deaths from the coronavirus after the government redefined the criteria by which Covid deaths are counted. At No. 5 People’s Hospital in Chongqing, the main […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) – The yen held onto gains Wednesday and equity markets were mixed after plunging the day before in response to the shock Bank of Japan decision to shift away from its ultra-loose monetary policy. The move to allow yields on certain government bonds to move in a wider band was seen as a precursor to a possible interest rate hike next year, finally bringing the central bank in line with others around […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – China said Wednesday that not a single person had died of Covid-19 the previous day, after changing the criteria for recording virus deaths to mean most are no longer counted. Hospitals are struggling, pharmacy shelves are stripped bare and crematoriums are overwhelmed in the wake of the Chinese government’s sudden decision to lift years of lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing. China had recorded a total of seven deaths — all in Beijing […]
