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ROME, Italy (AFP) — People in Italy who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 are barred from restaurants or taking domestic flights under new rules which came into force Monday as schools reopened nationwide. Only those who have recently recovered from a coronavirus infection are exempt from the regulations, which represent a further tightening of restrictions in the face of rising infections. The majority of schools opened Monday for a new term under government orders, despite […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Most Asian and European markets rose Monday as traders brushed off another negative performance on Wall Street as US data showed fewer new jobs than expected were created last month but that wages saw a strong gain, keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve in its battle against inflation. Traders will be keeping a watch on inflation readings out of the United States and China this week as they try to […]
SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — The northern Chinese city of Tianjin on Sunday advised its nearly 14 million people to stay home while it conducted mass Covid testing after a spate of recent cases, including two caused by the Omicron variant, state-controlled media reported. Tianjin emerged as a new area of concern after more than 20 Covid cases were reported there in the last few days, most of them imported from abroad, according to the National […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China reported more cases of the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant on Monday, with authorities on high alert over flare-ups in major cities just weeks ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics. The emergence of the fast-spreading variant is yet another test of China’s zero Covid strategy, with authorities already battling several outbreaks — including in Xi’an where 13 million city residents were in their third week of lockdown. Fears grew about […]
JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — Israel could see up to nearly 40 percent of the population infected by coronavirus during the current wave, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday, as testing facilities nationwide buckled. “Data presented at the cabinet meeting indicates that here, in Israel, between two to four million citizens in total will be infected during this current wave,” Bennett wrote on his Twitter account. A country of just 9.4 million, Israel has seen infections […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — The number of Covid-19 cases soared by nearly two thirds across the world this week, but pandemic-linked deaths continued to drop. Here is the global state of play from an AFP database: – Nearly two million daily cases – The average number of new daily coronavirus cases increased to 1.94 million, a 64 percent increase compared to the previous week, according to an AFP count to Thursday. The confirmed […]
by Jing Xuan TENG BEIJING, China (AFP) — The distressing case of a pregnant Chinese woman miscarrying after a strict lockdown delayed her access to medical treatment has reignited debate over the limits of China’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19. The country where the coronavirus was first detected in 2019 is now among the last places still hewing to “zero Covid”, placing millions under quarantine even as Beijing prepares to host next month’s Winter Olympics. – […]
LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Covid-19 killed at least one parent or primary caregiver for nearly 100,000 children in Peru, the country with the world’s highest coronavirus death rate, its government reported Thursday. “Unfortunately our country has almost 98,000 children who lost their father, mother or guardian during the pandemic,” said Peru’s Minister of Women Anahi Durand, citing figures published in the medical journal The Lancet. Peru leads the world in overall Covid deaths per capita, […]
by Jitendra JOSHI / James PHEBY LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British hospitals have switched to a “war footing” due to staff shortages caused by a wave of Omicron infections, the government said Tuesday, as the country’s daily Covid caseload breached 200,000 for the first time. The 24-hour tally, after chalking up multiple records in the run-up to New Year, hit 218,724 and another 48 deaths were reported in the latest government data. Hospital admissions […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is killing people across the globe and should not be dismissed as mild, the World Health Organization insisted Thursday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the record numbers of people catching the new variant — which is rapidly out-competing the previously-dominant Delta variant in many countries — meant hospitals were being overwhelmed. “While Omicron does appear to be less severe […]
JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — Israel’s health ministry on Wednesday announced nearly 12,000 new coronavirus cases, constituting the largest daily rise in infections since the beginning of the pandemic nearly two years ago. According to the figures, 11,978 new Covid cases were detected over the course of Tuesday, surpassing the country’s previous record high of 11,344 cases recorded on September 2 last year. While there were currently nearly 60,000 people with Covid in Israel, the number […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazilian health authorities authorized Covid-19 vaccines for children age five to 11 on Wednesday, as South America’s most populous country faces a rapid increase in cases due to holiday gatherings and the arrival of the Omicron variant. The final green light by Brazil’s Ministry of Health comes three weeks after the nation’s independent medicines regulator, Anvisa, declared Pfizer-BioNTech’s child-size dose to be safe and effective. “To all those parents who want […]
