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Over 9.9 million vaccinated in first five days of national vaccination campaign from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3 (Eagle News) – The Philippines was able to vaccinate almost 10 million in the five days of extended national vaccination campaign, Bayanihan, Bakunahan, according to the Department of Health (DOH). Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the numbers vaccinated from November 29 to December 3 reached more than 9.9 million. The Department of Health said […]
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — Mexico on Friday announced its first case of the coronavirus Omicron variant, in a traveller from South Africa, but the government said it was not considering border closures as a counter-measure. The variant was detected in a 51-year-old from South Africa with mild symptoms, undersecretary of health Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez said on Twitter. An epidemiologist by training, Lopez-Gatell Ramirez said closing borders and blocking the movement of people and […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The Omicron variant has been detected in 38 countries but no deaths have yet been reported, the WHO said on Friday, as authorities worldwide rushed to stem the heavily mutated Covid-19 strain’s spread amid warnings that it could damage the global economic recovery. The United States and Australia became the latest countries to confirm locally transmitted cases of the variant, as Omicron infections pushed South Africa’s total cases past three […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — South Africa’s Covid-19 infections surged to a record three million on Friday as a new wave driven by the Omicron variant rips through parts of the country, official figures showed. The government on Friday reported 16,055 new cases over a 24-hour period, taking the cumulative laboratory-confirmed cases to 3,004,203. “This increase represents a 24.3 percent positivity rate,” the government run National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said in a […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia on Friday reported a student with no history of foreign travel had tested positive for the Covid-19 Omicron variant, the country’s first detected case of community transmission. The case, detected in the country’s largest city Sydney, comes despite a ban on non-citizens entering the country and restrictions on flights from southern Africa, where the variant was first detected. New South Wales Health said “the case has no overseas travel history […]
by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden announced Thursday a winter campaign against Covid-19, with new testing requirements for travelers and a surge in vaccination efforts. Biden has brought steady leadership after the chaotic Donald Trump years, but the mutating coronavirus continues to defy him, helping drive his approval ratings deep underwater. Urging the nation — in particular his political rivals — to unite behind the strategy, Biden unveiled a […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The state of New York has confirmed five cases of the coronavirus Omicron variant, Governor Kathy Hochul said Thursday, bringing the total number of US detections of the new strain to eight. “New York State has confirmed five cases of the omicron variant,” Hochul said in a Twitter post aimed at reassuring residents of the nation’s fourth most populous state that the detections were not unexpected. “Let me be […]
JOHHANESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — A preliminary study by South African scientists published Thursday suggests the Omicron variant is three times more likely to cause reinfections compared to the Delta or Beta strains. The findings, based on data collected by the country’s health system, provides the first epidemiological evidence about Omicron’s ability to evade immunity from prior infection. The paper was uploaded on a medical preprint server and has not yet been peer-reviewed. There were […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India announced its first two cases of the Omicron Covid variant on Thursday, months after a devastating wave of the virus killed more than 200,000 people around the country. Top health ministry official Luv Agarwal said two men in southern Karnataka state, aged 66 and 46, had tested positive for the variant. “As per the protocols all their primary and secondary contacts have been traced and are being tested,” he […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Health authorities in the midwestern US state of Minnesota announced Thursday they had found another case of the Omicron coronavirus variant on American soil, this time in a man with no known recent international travel history. Like the first identified US case in California, the patient was vaccinated, and had mild symptoms from which he has now recovered. Minnesota officials said he had also received a booster. He returned to […]
YEN BAI, Vietnam (AFP) — As the morning sun finds its way through the mist over Vietnam’s terraced rice fields, local farmers lead buffalo into the paddies and pass another day without tourists in their hilly homeland. Located 300 km (around 190 miles) northwest of Hanoi, Mu Cang Chai district in northern Yen Bai province had become a hit with foreign and local tourists alike before the coronavirus pandemic. The spectacular terraces — which lie […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan has softened its suspension of all new incoming flight bookings to make it easier for citizens to return, the government said Thursday, a day after it announced the move prompted by worries about the Omicron coronavirus variant. The transport ministry abruptly said Wednesday it was asking airlines to stop taking all new incoming flight reservations for a month, in a surprise move affecting citizens and foreign residents. But on Thursday, […]
