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by Daniel Lawler with AFP bureaus PARIS, France (AFP) — The US, Britain, France and Australia have all announced record numbers of daily Covid-19 cases as the WHO warned Tuesday that Omicron’s dizzying spread increased the risk of newer, more dangerous variants emerging. Britain breached 200,000 cases for the first time on Tuesday, Australia posted almost 50,000 and France registered more than 270,000, all three countries easily topping their previous records. But dwarfing even those […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) – Australia reported a record daily tally of nearly 50,000 Covid-19 cases Tuesday as the Omicron variant raced through the population and sent people scrambling for tests. While the Omicron surge has apparently left relatively few dangerously ill, it has driven a rush on increasingly scarce self-administered rapid antigen kits and created hours-long queues at centres providing more reliable PCR tests. Australia had successfully suppressed infections for much of the pandemic through […]
by Paulina ABRAMOVICH Agence France-Presse BUIN, Chile (AFP) – Bengal tiger Charly and Bornean orangutan Sandai, both members of endangered species, have received coronavirus vaccines at a Chilean zoo in a Latin American first. Charly, Sandai and eight other animals at the Buin Zoo in Santiago were chosen for the experimental vaccine campaign as they belong to species considered at high risk of contracting Covid-19. The viral disease which has killed more than 5.4 million […]
France will relax Covid isolation rules from Monday, the government announced, in a bid to ease their impact on society and the economy. Fully vaccinated people who test positive will only have to isolate for seven days regardless of the coronavirus variant they were infected with, but can leave quarantine after five days if they show an antigen or negative PCR test. There will be no quarantine for fully inoculated individuals who have a close […]
The Philippines will tighten coronavirus restrictions in the capital Manila over fears of an “exponential growth” in cases due to the highly contagious Omicron variant, the government said on Friday. The metropolis of 13 million will be placed on the third-highest level of alert from Monday until January 15, under a new system that aims to balance the need to contain infections with the reopening of the Philippine economy, which has been hit hard […]
Children on French public transport will soon have to wear a face mask from the age of six upwards, the government decreed Saturday, as part of its latest measures against coronavirus. Masks had previously been compulsory from the age of 11, but Paris is tightening regulations given the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. Children aged six and older will have to don a mask on all means of public transport within national borders from […]
Europe has recorded over 100 million coronavirus cases, more than a third of all infections worldwide, since the start of the pandemic, an AFP tally Saturday showed. The continent has once again become the pandemic’s epicentre in recent months, and is battling an upsurge of cases spurred on by the highly transmissible Omicron strain of the virus. The European region, including 52 countries and territories from the Atlantic coast to Azerbaijan and Russia, has recorded […]
Britain’s health minister insisted Saturday reimposing coronavirus restrictions in England would be “an absolute last resort” and that the country must “try to live with Covid”. The country is among those in Europe hardest hit by the pandemic, registering nearly 149,000 deaths. It counted almost 163,000 new cases Saturday, a slight dip after days of unprecedented daily tallies. The UK government, which has responsibility for health policies in England only, has so far refused to […]
The Miami Heat’s NBA game against the San Antonio Spurs scheduled for Wednesday was postponed as Covid concerns and injuries left Miami without the minimum eight available players. Three more Heat players entered the league’s Covid health and safety protocols on Wednesday, with Gabe Vincent, P.J. Tucker and Zylan Cheatham joining Kyle Lowry, Udonis Haslem and Max Strus on the coronavirus absentee list. The Heat were already missing Bam Adebayo with a thumb injury as […]
by Kenan Augeard with AFP Bureaus A Covid variant-driven “tsunami” threatens to overwhelm healthcare systems, the WHO said Wednesday as AFP data showed cases have surged across the world in the past week to levels never seen before. Highly transmissible Omicron propelled the United States, France and Denmark to fresh records on Wednesday, with AFP’s tally of 6.55 million infections reported globally for seven days through Tuesday showing the unprecedented spread. They were the highest […]
by Khaliun Bayartsogt Agence France-Presse DUNDGOBI, Mongolia (AFP) – Nurse Sodkhuu Galbadrakh clutches a box of Covid-19 vaccines on his lap as he journeys along a bumpy track through a remote region of the Mongolian steppe, going home-to-home to offer booster doses to herders. The country of three million has taken some of the world’s toughest and most enduring measures against the coronavirus pandemic, shutting schools for much of the last two years and closing […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – The risk posed by the Omicron variant is still “very high”, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, after Covid-19 case numbers shot up by 11 percent globally last week. Omicron is behind rapid virus spikes in several countries, including those where it has already overtaken the previously-dominant Delta variant, the WHO said in its Covid-19 weekly epidemiological update. “The overall risk related to the new variant […]
