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by Issam Ahmed with Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden addressed a Covid-19 summit of world leaders Wednesday with a promise to donate a “historic” extra 500 million vaccines to countries struggling to overcome the pandemic. “This is an all-hands-on-deck crisis,” Biden said. “America will become the arsenal for vaccines as we were the arsenal for democracy in World War II.” The pledge from Biden at the summit, held virtually […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga tested positive for Covid-19 Tuesday after attending the UN General Assembly in New York that was inaugurated by his president, Jair Bolsonaro, according to an official statement. “The other members of the delegation have been tested and are negative,” said the official Brazilian government press release. Queiroga, who had received a Covid-19 vaccine, was the second member of Bolsonaro’s entourage to test positive for the virus […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Delta has all but elbowed out the three other Covid-19 variants of concern, which now represent a tiny fraction of the samples being sequenced, the WHO said Tuesday. “Less than one percent each of Alpha, Beta and Gamma are currently circulating. It’s really predominantly Delta around the world,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead on Covid-19. Delta “has become more fit, it is more transmissible and it […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine is more effective when given as a two-dose regime, according to new data released by the company on Tuesday. A second shot given 56 days after the first provided 75 percent protection against symptomatic Covid in a global clinical trial, with that level rising to 94 percent in the United States. The reason behind this difference was not clear from the company’s press release, […]
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — Melbourne riot police used pepper spray, foam baton rounds and rubber ball grenades to disperse a violent protest against mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for construction workers Tuesday. More than 1,000 demonstrators wearing work boots and hi-vis jackets rampaged through the centre of Australia’s second-largest city, lighting flares, throwing bottles, attacking police cars and chanting their opposition to vaccines and lockdown restrictions. Melbourne has been in strict lockdown for seven weeks, as the […]
by Michelle FITZPATRICK FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Pfizer and BioNTech on Monday said trial results showed their coronavirus vaccine is safe and produces a robust immune response in children aged five to 11, adding that they would seek regulatory approval shortly. The vaccine would be administered at a lower dosage than for people over 12, they said. “In participants five to 11 years of age, the vaccine was safe, well tolerated and showed robust neutralising […]
by Joel Olatunde AGOI LAGOS, Nigeria (AFP) — Cholera has killed more than 2,300 people and infected thousands more, mostly children, in Nigeria since the start of the year, a senior health official said on Monday, in the nation’s worst outbreak in years. Africa’s most populous nation suffers from a high rate of water-borne diseases as a result of dilapidated infrastructure and under-investment.` “As at September 5, 2021, a total of 69,925 suspected cases, including […]
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Cuba agreed Monday to provide Vietnam with 10 million doses of its home-grown coronavirus vaccine, Abdala, for which the Asian nation has given emergency approval. A deal was signed between the two countries during an official visit by President Nguyen Xuan Phuc to the communist island, the government said. The agreement concerns an initial five million doses, but Vietnam has already authorized the purchase of 10 million doses in total, Cuban […]
by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States announced Monday it will lift Covid travel bans on all air passengers in November if they are fully vaccinated and undergo testing and contact tracing. The unprecedented restrictions had kept relatives, friends and business travelers around the world separated for many months as the pandemic grinds on. Jeffrey Zients, coronavirus response coordinator for President Joe Biden, told reporters the new “consistent approach” would take […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand’s largest city Auckland will remain in a Covid-19 lockdown for at least another two weeks, although some restrictions will be eased, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday. Ardern said the city of two million would move down to level three on New Zealand’s four-tier coronavirus response system by late Tuesday, even as authorities remain committed to eliminating a Delta-variant outbreak. “We’re moving now because the advice we have […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Around 25,000 people joined a massive outdoor drinking party marking the start of term at a Madrid university without observing safety precautions, police said Saturday, admitting they were caught off-guard. Spanish media said it was the biggest such gathering since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic when large public gatherings were halted to stop the spread of the virus. “There were thousands of people on the grounds of Complutense University, about […]
Australia’s second-largest city will exit its coronavirus lockdown in late October if vaccine targets are met under an official roadmap released Sunday. About five million people in Melbourne have been under stay-at-home orders since August 5, the sixth lockdown they have endured so far during the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials in Victoria state, which includes Melbourne, announced those orders would be lifted when 70 percent of over-16s are fully vaccinated. They projected that target would be […]
