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SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Sydney extended its two-month-old lockdown for another month and introduced a partial curfew Friday, as Australia’s largest city struggled to contain a fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak. New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the “difficult” decision, telling the city’s population of five million it was time to “bunker down”. “Unfortunately the case numbers continue to grow,” she said. “This is what life will look like for most of us until the end […]
DAKAR, Senegal (AFP) — Guinean health officials are monitoring 172 contact cases of a man who died of Marburg virus, Health Minister Remy Lamah said Thursday. West Africa’s first recorded case of the virus — which belongs to the same filovirus family as Ebola but is somewhat less deadly — was confirmed on August 9. The virus, which is carried by bats and has a historic fatality rate of up to 88 percent, was found […]
JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — Israelis aged 40 and over will be able to receive coronavirus vaccine booster shots starting this weekend, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said Thursday, as the country battles a spike in infections. Israel was one of the first countries to launch a vaccination drive in mid-December via an agreement with Pfizer to obtain millions of paid vaccine doses in exchange for sharing data on their effectiveness. The inoculation campaign was hailed as […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Three US senators from different political affiliations and different parts of the country said Thursday they have tested positive for the coronavirus. The lawmakers, who were vaccinated, are among the 71 members of Congress to be diagnosed with Covid-19 since the beginning of last year, according to the nonpartisan group GovTrack. “I’ve tested positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19. I feel good but will isolate per docs instructions,” Senator […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Alex Gorsky will step down as chief executive of Johnson & Johnson in January, ceding the role to longtime company executive Joaquin Duato, the health care giant announced Thursday. Gorsky, the CEO since 2012, is stepping aside “due to family health reasons,” according to a company press release, which said he will stay on as executive chairman. Gorsky oversaw development of the company’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine. His tenure also […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization condemned Wednesday the rush by wealthy countries to provide Covid vaccine booster shots, while millions around the world have yet to receive a single dose. Speaking before US authorities announced that all vaccinated Americans would soon be eligible to receive additional doses, WHO experts insisted there was not enough scientific evidence that boosters were needed. Providing them while so many were still waiting to be immunised […]
by Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden said Wednesday he will make Covid-19 booster shots available to all American adults beginning next month, as his administration warned that vaccines are showing a declining effectiveness against infection. The move comes as scientists and health experts grapple with how to beat back the surging Delta variant of the coronavirus, and follows extensive debate over whether a third injection […]
JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — New restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid took effect in Israel on Wednesday, after the largely vaccinated country saw the highest daily infection rate since January. The measures, announced Sunday, require vaccination certificates or negative coronavirus tests to enter a range of public spaces, including restaurants and bars, cultural and sports venues, hotels and gyms, the health ministry said. The same applies to worshippers wishing to enter synagogues, mosques […]
by Emeline BURCKEL PARIS, France (AFP) — People refusing to get Covid vaccines in France are coughing up hundreds of euros for fake health passes in an online black market that has flourished since the government required them to enter cafes, inter-city trains and other public places. People have had to show proof they have either been vaccinated, tested negative for Covid or have recovered from the disease in order to enter a museum, cinema […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealanders must brace for additional Covid-19 cases from an outbreak that has plunged the previously virus-free country into a snap lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned Wednesday after six more positive tests. Ardern confirmed New Zealand was dealing with the highly transmissible Delta variant linked to the outbreak in Australia that authorities have so far been unable to contain. Ardern said the rapid rise to a total of seven […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian airline Qantas said Wednesday it would make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for staff, as the company bids to get planes back into the skies. The national carrier is one of the first major Australian firms to mandate vaccines for employees, saying the rule would also apply to its budget offshoot Jetstar. Pilots, cabin crew and airport staff must be fully vaccinated by November 15, with other staff members given until March […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The UN health agency said Tuesday that a second suspected case of infection by the deadly Ebola virus had been detected in Ivory Coast. World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said that as of Monday, there had been one confirmed and one suspected case, with nine contacts identified so far. No deaths have been reported. He said the WHO was “very concerned” about the ability of the virus to spread […]
