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SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Locked-down Sydney residents could enjoy a beer at the pub as soon as next month if the double-dose vaccination rate hits 70 percent, under an official “roadmap to freedom” released on Thursday. Officials in the eastern state of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, said stay-at-home orders would be lifted for fully vaccinated people once it hits the interim Covid-19 vaccine target for adults. The roadmap gave no date but current […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The vaccine-sharing facility Covax said Wednesday it should be able to provide Covid jabs to no more than 20 percent of people in poorer countries this year, far fewer than anticipated. Covax acknowledged that it now expects to access just 1.425 billion vaccine doses this year — far short of its goal of delivering two billion doses by year-end. That milestone was now expected to be reached only in the first […]
by Sofia CHRISTENSEN JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — More than 200,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Africa since the start of the pandemic, according to an AFP tally compiled from official records as of 1700 GMT. The 54 countries of the region may not have suffered as badly as other parts of the world — at least according to the officially recorded figures. They seem to have avoided the catastrophic scenarios some feared at […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — For families struggling to survive on $150 a month in Bangkok’s biggest slum, coronavirus swab tests are a luxury that few can afford. The Khlong Toei slum, where an estimated 100,000 people live packed into tiny, overcrowded dwellings, has been a major concern as Thailand battles its third wave of the pandemic. Now the Bangkok Community Help Foundation, a charity, has launched a mass testing drive to try to identify cases […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — There will be enough Covid-19 vaccine doses produced by the end of this year to cover the global population, industry heavyweights said Tuesday. There is a yawning gap in vaccination rates between rich and poor countries, but the threshold of 7.5 billion vaccine doses will be reached in September, Thomas Cueni, the head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) told a news conference in Geneva. Up to […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A judge in the US state of Ohio has said a hospital cannot be forced to administer an unproven treatment to a patient with Covid-19, reversing the ruling of another court. Judge Gregory Howard had ordered West Chester Hospital to administer the antiparasitic drug ivermectin to Jeff Smith, as prescribed by his physician, for 14 days. Smith’s wife, Julie, had filed suit to force the hospital located outside Cincinnati to […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia said Tuesday it was lifting a ban on travel to three countries including the UAE after imposing the restrictions to stop the spread of Covid-19. The kingdom would reopen on Wednesday its land, sea and air ports to the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Argentina, the official SPA news agency reported, citing an interior ministry source. The UAE, and especially Dubai, is a key leisure destination for […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan has agreed to buy 150 million doses of Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine, with Japanese firm Takeda expecting to manufacture the formula for distribution early next year, the drugmaker said Tuesday. The cost of the deal was not announced, and it is contingent on the vaccine being approved in Japan. Takeda will be in charge of carrying out local clinical trials. So far, Japan has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca jabs, […]
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — A Vietnamese man has been sentenced to five years in jail for spreading Covid-19 after he breached home quarantine rules. Le Van Tri was convicted of “spreading dangerous infectious diseases to other people” after he travelled to his home province Ca Mau from coronavirus hotspot Ho Chi Minh City in July, according to a report on the website of the provincial People’s Court. The 28-year old was accused of breaching a […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The UK government on Monday announced £5.4 billion (6.3 billion euros, $7.5 billion) in extra funding for the state-funded healthcare system to treat virus cases and clear a massive backlog in routine operations. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and health minister Sajid Javid announced the extra cash, to be handed out over the next six months, saying it would help “manage the immediate pressures of the pandemic”. The state-funded National Health […]
HELSINKI, Finland (AFP) — Finland’s last coronavirus restrictions will be lifted once 80 percent of over-12s have been fully vaccinated, the government said Monday, a target it expects to reach by October. “Our aim is to open up society and keep it open,” Prime Minister Sanna Marin told reporters in Helsinki after a cabinet meeting on the country’s coronavirus strategy. “The advancing vaccination coverage is our key to achieving that,” Marin said, adding that restrictions […]
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Cuba on Monday became the first country in the world to vaccinate children from the age of two against Covid-19, using home-grown jabs not recognized by the World Health Organization. The communist island of 11.2 million people aims to inoculate all its children before reopening schools that have been closed for the most part since March 2020. The new school year started on Monday, but from home via television programs, as […]
