Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The top US health agency on Thursday announced it was lifting mask-wearing requirements for people fully vaccinated against Covid-19, a watershed moment in the pandemic. “Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing,” said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you […]
by Sara HUSSEIN Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Paralyzed from the neck down, the man stares intently at a screen. As he imagines handwriting letters, they appear before him as typed text thanks to a new brain implant. The 65-year-old is “typing” at a speed similar to his peers tapping on a smartphone, using a device that could one day help paralyzed people communicate quickly and easily. The research could benefit people […]
KOROR, Palau(AFP) — The tiny Pacific nation of Nauru has congratulated itself for a “world record” Covid-19 vaccination drive which resulted in all its adult population receiving their first jab. The remote island nation, one of the few places in the world to remain virus-free, said the four-week vaccination campaign had exceeded expectations. It said 7,392 people received the first dose, or 108 percent of the estimated adult population, with foreigners included in the figure. […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s coronavirus death toll surpassed 250,000 on Wednesday, official data showed, as the pandemic raged across the vast country of 1.3 billion people. According to the health ministry, 4,205 people died in the past 24 hours — a new record — taking total fatalities to 254,197. The number of cases rose almost 350,000 to 23.3 million, the second-highest after the United States. While the pandemic is easing in […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse Doctors from major hospitals in England sounded an alarm on Wednesday over a fivefold increase in the number of young children requiring medical treatment after swallowing magnets from toys. Nearly half of these kids aged four months and up required surgery to remove the magnets, often followed by complications, they reported in a research letter published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, a medical journal. From 2016 […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization said Wednesday that a variant of Covid-19 behind the acceleration of India’s explosive outbreak has been found in dozens of countries all over the world. The UN health agency said the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, first found in India in October, had been detected in more than 4,500 samples uploaded to an open-access database “from 44 countries in all six WHO regions”. “And WHO has received […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that almost half the world’s leaders have contacted him, asking for US help in obtaining Covid-19 vaccines. “Every country in the world is now looking at us to provide for their lack of capacity to produce and/or have vaccines,” Biden said in a virtual meeting with US state governors. “I literally have, virtually 40 percent of the world leaders calling and asking, can we help […]
by Andrew BEATTY Agence France Presse CANBERRA, Australia (AFP) — Australia set a new target of vaccinating all willing adults by the end of 2021 on Tuesday, hoping to speed a glacial vaccine roll-out that threatens the country’s pandemic success story. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg — unveiling a free-spending, crisis-tinged budget — said the continuation of the country’s “roaring” economic recovery depended on “effective suppression of the virus”. To that end, he said, the conservative […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO chief took on so-called “vaccine diplomacy” on Monday, slamming countries for using Covid-19 jabs to gain competitive advantage rather than engaging in true cooperation to end the pandemic. “Vaccine diplomacy is not cooperation,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters from the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva. The UN health agency chief’s was responding to a question about allegations that countries such as Russia and China, which have donated large […]
MUMBAI, India (AFP) — A growing number of current and recovered Covid-19 patients in India are contracting a deadly and rare fungal infection, doctors told AFP Monday as the vast nation battles to contain a massive outbreak of virus cases. The world’s second most populous nation on Monday reported nearly 370,000 coronavirus infections to take the overall number of cases to just under 22.7 million, and more than 3,700 new deaths. Experts warn that the […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US biotech firm Novavax on Monday said it had positive results from preclinical studies of a shot combining its influenza and Covid vaccine candidates. The company said a study, which it has posted to a preprint server and will now undergo peer review, showed that the shot produced strong levels of antibodies against both diseases in ferrets and hamsters. “Despite low rates during the Covid-19 pandemic, influenza remains a significant […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 years old. Acting FDA commissioner Janet Woodcock described the move as a “significant step in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.” “Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from Covid-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the […]
