GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization’s annual assembly refused Monday to discuss admitting Taiwan to the meeting, under pressure from China and despite impassioned pleas from several countries. Taiwan has been blocked from attending the assembly in recent years by China, which considers the island a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland. There have been growing calls to allow Taiwan in as an observer, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted […]
Tag: health
Switzerland reports first monkeypox case
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Swiss health officials on Saturday reported the country’s first case of monkeypox in a person living in the canton of Bern but who was exposed while abroad. Bern’s health authority said the patient had been treated as a walk-in case and was now isolating at home. Everyone who had come into contact with him had been informed, it added in a statement. “As far as we know, the person concerned […]
Israel reports monkeypox case as virus spreads to Middle East
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel confirmed its first case of monkeypox Saturday, joining several European and North American countries in detecting the disease endemic to parts of Africa. A spokesman for Tel Aviv’s Ichilov hospital told AFP that a 30-year-old man, who recently returned from western Europe with monkeypox symptoms, had tested positive for the virus. On Friday, the health ministry said the man had been exposed to a person with monkeypox abroad, noting a […]
Biden warns of potentially ‘consequential’ monkeypox spread
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Monkeypox has caught the attention of US President Joe Biden, who said Sunday that people should be on guard against the disease which has the potential for “consequential” impact, if it were to spread further. Several cases of monkeypox have been detected in North America and Europe since early May, sparking concern the disease, endemic in parts of Africa, is spreading. The US leader, on his maiden trip to […]
Europe health official warns monkeypox cases could ‘accelerate’
A top European health official warned Friday that cases of the rare monkeypox virus could accelerate in the coming months, as the virus spread across Europe. WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge said that “as we enter the summer season… with mass gatherings, festivals and parties, I am concerned that transmission could accelerate”. The virus, which causes distinctive pustules but is rarely fatal, has previously been seen in central and west Africa. But […]
Two cases of monkeypox confirmed in Canada
Canada reported its first two confirmed cases of monkeypox Thursday night, adding to the growing number of cases in Europe and North America of the contagious, but rarely deadly disease. “Tonight, the Province of Quebec was notified that two samples received by the NML (National Microbiology Laboratory) have tested positive for monkeypox. These are the first two cases confirmed in Canada,” the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a release. Other suspected cases […]
North Korea sent planes to China for Covid supplies: reports
North Korea sent three of its largest cargo planes to China to pick up medical supplies to help with a spiralling Covid outbreak, local media reports say. Pyongyang announced its first-ever Covid cases last week and has since reported nearly two million cases of “fever” and 63 deaths as the virus tears through its unvaccinated population. State media reports do not specify how many of the cases and deaths have tested positive for Covid, but […]
Rare monkeypox outbreaks detected in N.America, Europe
Health authorities in North America and Europe have detected dozens of suspected or confirmed cases of monkeypox since early May, sparking concern the disease endemic in parts of Africa is spreading. Canada was the latest country to report it was investigating more than a dozen suspected cases of monkeypox, after Spain and Portugal detected more than 40 possible and verified cases. Britain has confirmed nine cases since May 6, and the United States verified its […]
Canada reports dozen suspected cases of rare monkeypox virus
Health authorities in Canada’s Quebec province are investigating more than a dozen suspected cases of monkeypox, a rare but potentially serious virus, public broadcaster CBC reported Wednesday. The United States on Wednesday also confirmed a case of monkeypox in a man who had recently traveled to Canada, after European health officials confirmed dozens of cases earlier this week. The illness often starts with flu-like symptoms such as fever, muscle ache and swollen lymph nodes […]
Spain, Portugal detect suspected monkeypox cases
Spain and Portugal have detected around 30 suspected cases of monkeypox, officials said Wednesday after British authorities found several cases of the viral infection which is rare in Europe. Health officials have noted some of the UK infections may be through sexual contact — in this instance among gay or bisexual men — which would be a new development in understanding transmission of the virus. The World Health Organization said Tuesday it was coordinating with […]
Japan to trial group tours in move to ease Covid border rules
Japan will trial small group tours with travellers from the US, Australia, Thailand and Singapore from this month, the government said on Tuesday, as it experiments with easing strict Covid border rules. The country’s borders have been closed to almost all arrivals since the spring of 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities only recently began allowing some students and business visitors to enter. There are no plans to lift border restrictions fully, […]
Shanghai says ‘zero-Covid’ achieved but millions still in lockdown
Shanghai on Tuesday declared it had achieved “zero-Covid” across all its districts, sparking derision on social media as millions in China’s biggest city remained under lockdown. Confronted with its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic, China — the last major economy still closed off to the world — put the city of 25 million under heavy restrictions in early April. The government’s insistence on squashing the Omicron-variant-driven outbreak prompted rare protests and angry scuffles […]





