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NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — New Yorkers will receive free train rides if they get vaccinated against Covid-19 in subway stations, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Monday as part of a move to speed up immunizations. Big Apple residents will be able to get a shot of the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine in one of six stations that have been selected for a pilot program to run from Wednesday to Sunday. As a […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Washington is to lift pandemic restrictions on most businesses and public venues in less than two weeks, with the daily toll of new Covid-19 cases in the US capital at its lowest level in almost a year. As the vaccination drive gathers pace, the city’s famed Smithsonian museums and zoo — as well as shops, restaurants, places of worship and numerous other venues — will see capacity curbs removed entirely […]
by Marie GIFFARD MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain’s government on Monday urged people to act “responsibly”, stressing that health restrictions remain in place after crowds celebrated the end of a state of emergency over the weekend without masks or social distancing. “The end of the state of emergency does not mean the end of restrictions. Far from it. The virus threat still exists,” Justice Minister Juan Carlos Campo wrote in an opinion piece in El […]
by Nina LARSON GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — A Covid-19 variant spreading in India, which is facing an explosive outbreak, appears to be more contagious and has been classified as being “of concern”, the World Health Organization said Monday. The UN health agency said the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19 first found in India last October seemed to be transmitting more easily. “There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of the B.1.617,” Maria Van Kerkhove, […]
OSLO, Norway (AFP) — An expert committee set up by Norway’s government to evaluate AstraZeneca’s and Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccines said on Monday that both should be abandoned over risks of rare but serious side effects. In order to avoid a slowdown of the vaccine rollout the committee recommended that the two jabs should be made available for people on a voluntary basis. The committee’s head Lars Vorland said they did “not recommend […]
FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Covid jab maker BioNTech said Monday it would build a southeast Asia headquarters and manufacturing site in Singapore to produce hundreds of millions of mRNA-based vaccines per year. Construction of the site will start this year, and it could become operational by 2023, the German company said in a statement. “With this planned mRNA production facility, we will increase our overall network capacity and expand our ability to manufacture and deliver […]
by Leila MACOR MIAMI BEACH, United States (AFP) — A long line of people snaked across the sand of Miami Beach, Florida, as dozens of travelers from Latin America waited their turn at a pop-up coronavirus vaccination booth. Sweating under the Sunday afternoon sun, visitors checked into an online system — no proof of residence required — and soon after received a free, single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine and a vaccination card. People had come […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — People who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 are exempt from many restrictions in Germany from Sunday after the government passed new legislation to restore some freedoms. Curfews and limits on social contacts no longer apply to those fully vaccinated — more than seven million people — or recovered from a Covid infection under the new rules. They will also no longer have to present a negative test result to access […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The British government is to announce a timeline for lifting anti-virus restrictions in England on Monday including the reopening of indoor seating in pubs and restaurants and allowing hugs, Downing Street said late Sunday. Johnson will hold a news conference on Monday afternoon set to announce a May 17 start for the third step in Britain’s “roadmap” out of the crisis. The government said Johnson would agree the exact measures […]
by Mathieu GORSE MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain has lifted a state of emergency in place since October to fight the pandemic, allowing Spaniards to travel between regions for the first time in months. “It’s like New Year’s,” said 28-year-old Oriol Corbella in Barcelona, where the lifting of the curfew was met with shouts, applause and music. “We’re getting a bit of normality back, of freedom, but we have to keep in mind that the […]
by Nina LARSON GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — A Covid-19 variant spreading in India is more contagious and it is feared it could be dodging some vaccine protections, contributing to the country’s explosive outbreak, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist said Saturday. In an interview with AFP, Soumya Swaminathan warned that “the epidemiological features that we see in India today do indicate that it’s an extremely rapidly spreading variant”. India on Saturday for the first time […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — A Vietnamese woman died from Covid-19 in Laos on Sunday, according to state-run media, marking the first death from the disease in the impoverished communist country. Reclusive, landlocked Laos had appeared to escape the brunt of the pandemic in 2020, but a community outbreak uncovered last month has sent the number of cases soaring — from 49 in early April to 1,302 in less than a month. Authorities confirmed Sunday that […]
