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by Agence France Presse Bureaus WASHINGTON, Unnited States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden announced plans to vaccinate most Americans by the end of July with the help of 200 million newly acquired doses, as the country’s inoculation campaign kicked off a new phase in drugstores and supermarket pharmacies, some of which will offer shots as of Friday. Even as the Biden administration inked deals to acquire “100 million more Moderna and 100 million […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Facing a severe vaccine shortage, Los Angeles moved to temporarily close five major inoculation centers including its giant Dodger Stadium site Thursday, even as California this week topped the nation’s pandemic death toll. “We’re vaccinating people faster than new vials are arriving here in Los Angeles, and I’m very concerned right now,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti, slamming the vaccine supply as “uneven… unpredictable and too often inequitable.” Los Angeles […]
by Yemeli Ortega with Alina Dieste in Washington and Agence France Presse bureaus MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AFP) — As a second, deadly wave of Covid-19 batters Latin America, images have emerged from country after country of desperate people lining up for days to buy oxygen to ease the suffering of infected loved ones fighting for breath. As demand soars, prices have skyrocketed and families have had to scrape together their last cents to pay for […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son and heir Prince Charles, who contracted Covid-19 last year, has received a first vaccine dose, his office said on Wednesday. The 72-year-old Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, 73, both received the shot as health authorities urged those over the age of 70 to get a jab. Britain, which was the first Western nation to roll out Covid jabs in the general population, […]
by Deborah COLE BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government agreed Wednesday to continue a partial lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic until at least March 7, even as Germans grow increasingly weary of the tough restrictions. Following crunch talks with the leaders of Germany’s 16 states, Merkel said that the number of new Covid-19 infections in Europe’s top economy was dropping after more than two months of shuttered schools and shops. “When we […]
by Nina LARSON GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine can be used for people aged over 65, and also where coronavirus variants of concern are circulating, WHO experts said Wednesday, soothing fears about the jab. The World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) issued interim recommendations for when and how to use the two-shot vaccine, which has yet to receive WHO emergency use authorization. The announcement came after the […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia officially surpassed four million coronavirus infections Wednesday, days after the country dramatically revised upwards its fatality rate, cementing its place as one of the world’s worst-hit nations. A government tally showed infections had reached 4,012,710, which is the fourth-highest rate globally after the United States, India and Brazil. But Russia has come under fire for its official virus statistics and the government’s stated death toll of 78,134 in particular […]
LIMA Peru (AFP) — Peru on Tuesday began its coronavirus immunization program just two days after receiving 300,000 vaccine doses from state-owned Chinese company Sinopharm. The country has been hard hit by a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping Latin America. It has recorded around 1.2 million cases and more than 42,000 deaths from Covid-19 among its population of 33 million. Hospitals are overrun with almost 13,800 Covid patients while they have also reported […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Spain, one of Europe’s hardest-hit nations, has topped three million since the start of the pandemic, the health ministry said Tuesday. Spain recorded another 16,402 cases in the last 24 hours, taking its overall figure to 3,005,487. Seroprevalence studies, which test for antibodies using a blood serum sample, suggest the real figure is far higher. Over the same 24-hour period, Spain also saw […]
WUHAN, China (AFP) — The WHO mission to China to uncover the origins of the coronavirus has failed to identify the animal source, scientists said Tuesday. Experts believe the disease — which has gone on to kill more than 2.3 million people worldwide — originated in bats and could have been transmitted to humans via another mammal. While transmission from animals was the likely route, so far “the reservoir hosts remain to be identified”, Liang Wannian, […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran began its vaccination campaign against Covid-19 on Tuesday to fight the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak of the illness, images broadcast by state television showed. “We begin our national vaccination against the Covid-19 virus… (in) memory of the martyrdom of health workers,” Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said at a ceremony at a Tehran hospital, referring to medical personnel who have died from the disease. Iran’s inoculation effort for its 80-million-plus population […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Dubai has begun the mass vaccination of public transport workers, with the Gulf emirate aiming to remain open to international tourism despite a surge in cases. The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai and six other emirates and has a population of nearly 10 million, has administered 4.4 million doses — one of the best vaccination rates per capita in the world, and second to Israel. The UAE has […]
