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ADELAIDE, Australia (AFP) — Adelaide will on Tuesday become the latest in a string of Australian cities to lock down, as the largely unvaccinated nation struggles to contain a rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak. The state of South Australia, of which Adelaide is the capital, said it would join Sydney and Melbourne in locking down after five local cases were detected. The decision means more than 14 million Australians are now under orders to stay at […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Any Saudi citizen wishing to travel abroad will be required to have had two doses of coronavirus vaccine from next month, tightening existing measures, the interior ministry said on Monday. “The second dose of the vaccine against Covid will be a condition of all overseas travel for all citizens from August 9, 2021,” the ministry wrote in a statement published by the official SPA news agency. Children under 12, those […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US health authorities on Friday pleaded with Covid vaccine holdouts to roll up their sleeves and get their shots, as cases, hospitalizations and deaths surged. “There is a clear message that is coming through: this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky told reporters. The agency reported more than 33,000 new cases on Thursday, bringing the seven-day average up to […]
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s two largest cities are set to stay under tight Covid-19 restrictions as Melbourne on Monday extended a five-day snap lockdown designed to curb a virulent outbreak. “These restrictions simply cannot end at midnight tomorrow night,” Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews said, without saying how long the Melbourne lockdown would last. About 12 million people are under lockdown in Melbourne and Sydney, where a month of restrictions has failed to […]
by Jitendra JOSHI Agence France Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The British government on Monday lifted pandemic restrictions on daily life in England, scrapping all social distancing in a step slammed by scientists and opposition parties as a dangerous leap into the unknown. From midnight (2300 GMT Sunday), nightclubs were able to reopen and other indoor venues allowed to run at full capacity, while legal mandates covering the wearing of masks and working […]
by Talek HARRIS Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — The chief of the Tokyo Olympics tried to reassure “worried” athletes on Saturday as the Games Village was hit by its first coronavirus case, six days before the pandemic-delayed event opens. As thousands of competitors pour into Japan for the Games, which will largely take place without spectators, the positive test for an unnamed person in the Village heightened worries over biosecurity. About 11,000 […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — An ocean liner on a “cruise to nowhere” was forced to make an earlier-than-scheduled return to Singapore Wednesday after a coronavirus case was detected on board, reports said. The cruises — starting and ending in Singapore, with no stops — were launched last year as part of the travel industry’s attempt to bounce back from a pandemic-induced crunch. They have proved popular among those seeking an escape from the tiny city-state, […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Coronavirus is surging in Africa with a record average number of new cases according to an AFP tally based on official sources on Tuesday at 1815 GMT. It said 6,009,854 cases have been officially counted in Africa’s 54 nations and territories since the virus was first discovered in December 2019 in China. The number of new cases is growing at more than 41,400 per day — a 13 percent increase over […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Wednesday called for use of face coverings to remain compulsory on public transport in the British capital after government plans to relax Covid curbs begin on July 19. Under the plans passengers on Transport for London (TfL) services — which include the city’s tube, bus, tram, and rail networks — would be required to wear a face-covering after an England-wide requirement ends under plans set […]
by Andrew BEATTY SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Sydney’s five million residents will be in virus lockdown for at least another two weeks, state premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Wednesday, rejecting calls to tighten restrictions further. Australia’s largest city is already in its third week of a partial lockdown and struggling to bring a fast-spreading outbreak of the coronavirus Delta variant under control. In the past 24 hours, 97 new cases were recorded, more than the […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand on Tuesday defended mixing two different Covid-19 vaccines to battle a surge in infections, after the WHO’s top scientist warned it was a “dangerous trend” not backed by evidence. The kingdom is struggling to contain its latest outbreak fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant, with cases and deaths skyrocketing and the healthcare system stretched thin. Authorities said they will mix a first dose of the Chinese-made Sinovac jab with […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — An Australian apartment block was placed under strict lockdown with police posted outside Tuesday, as authorities stepped up efforts to curb a fast-growing coronavirus outbreak. Police guarded both the front and rear exits of an apartment block in Sydney’s Bondi neighborhood, where nine people have tested positive for Covid-19, with movement in and out of the building restricted. A sign taped to one apartment window read “Send Beer” while another asked, […]
