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Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Monday 1/30/2023 Three years to the day after the World Health Organization sounded the highest level of global alert over Covid-19, it said Monday the pandemic remains an international emergency. The UN health agency’s emergency committee on Covid-19 met last Friday for a 14th time since the start of the crisis. Following that meeting, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus “concurs with the advice offered by the committee regarding the ongoing […]
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 […]
by Sébastien Ricci and Vivian Lin Agence France-Presse WUHAN, China (AFP) — Residents of China’s Wuhan said Monday they were hopeful for the future and no longer afraid of Covid-19, three years after the city was locked down over what was then a mysterious virus. Since Beijing ordered Wuhan sealed off in a bid to suffocate the outbreak in January 2020, Covid has devastated the planet, killing millions and plunging the global economy into turmoil. […]
Beijing, China | AFP | China reported nearly 13,000 Covid-related deaths in hospitals between January 13 and 19, after a top health official said the vast majority of the population had already been infected. The death toll came a week after China said nearly 60,000 people had died with Covid in hospitals in just over a month — but there has been widespread scepticism over official data since Beijing abruptly axed anti-virus controls last […]
London, United Kingdom (AFP) – Nurses in England began two days of strikes over pay Wednesday, as officials warned of disruption for thousands of patients in the UK’s state-run health service. It comes after nurses held an unprecedented strike last month, joining a wave of industrial action by public sector workers hit by the cost-of-living crisis. The main nursing union accuses the government of failing to negotiate seriously on improving their pay deal for the […]
by Daniel Lawler Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — New research that links cooking with natural gas to around 12 percent of childhood asthma cases has sparked debate about the health risks of kitchen stoves, as well as calls in the United States for stepped-up regulation. The authors of the study said their findings suggested that around 650,000 US children would not have developed asthma if their homes had electric or induction stovetops, comparing the […]
Washington, United States (AFP) The US first lady, Jill Biden, flew from the White House on Wednesday to a military hospital for a minor surgical procedure to remove a skin lesion. Accompanied by President Joe Biden, she flew on the Marine One helicopter to Walter Reed National Medical Center in the suburbs of Washington. The White House confirmed that she had a “scheduled outpatient procedure, commonly known as Mohs surgery.” The procedure is done with […]
Kampala, Uganda (AFP) Uganda said on Monday it was expecting to declare an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that emerged late last year and has claimed the lives of at least 56 people. If no new case is reported by Tuesday, the health ministry said it would formally announce the end of the outbreak on Wednesday. According to the World Health Organization, an outbreak of the disease ends when there are no new […]
Hong Kong, China (AFP) by Su Xinqi Hugging her boyfriend goodbye, student Yuri Tan was among hundreds excitedly heading north across Hong Kong’s border with mainland China on Sunday as pandemic travel restrictions were mostly lifted, finally allowing separated families to reunite. “I am going back because I don’t have to undergo quarantine anymore,” an elated Tan told AFP, clutching luggage containing a few boxes of fever medication for family. Tan, 23, was planning […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Almost 90 percent of people in China’s third most populous province have now been infected with Covid-19, a top official said Monday, as the country battles an unprecedented surge in cases. Kan Quancheng, director of the health commission for central Henan province, told a press conference that “as of January 6, 2023, the province’s Covid infection rate is 89.0 percent.” With a population of 99.4 million, the figures suggest about 88.5 […]
by Sara HUSSEIN / Tomohiro OSAKI Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — In Tokyo’s Asakusa tourist district, caricaturist Masashi Higashitani is dusting off his Chinese as he prepares for an influx of travelers after Beijing ends inbound quarantine rules. “We used to say ‘ni hao’ all the time,” he said with a laugh as he whipped up a portrait in minutes. Nearly 9.6 million Chinese visited Japan in 2019, the biggest group of foreign tourists […]
Bangkok, Thailand (AFP) Thai authorities said Thursday that travellers from China could enter the kingdom without pre-departure coronavirus tests, hoping their return would be a shot in the arm for the country’s tourism sector recovery. China has experienced a surge in infections and its hospitals and crematoriums have been inundated after Beijing last month wound back tight restrictions. The United States, Canada, Japan and France are among the countries that have imposed new rules requiring […]
