Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
MADRID, Jan 5, 2024 (AFP) – The Spanish government on Friday called for the wearing of masks to be obligatory in medical facilities as cases of flu and Covid-19 surge with the onset of winter. With the increase in respiratory infections, “we are calling” for the return of obligatory mask-wearing in hospitals and health centres, Health Minister Monica Garcia said on X, formerly Twitter. The minister said she would bring up the subject on Monday […]
by Mathias CENA Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s government eased its mask guidelines on Monday, recommending them only on crowded trains and in hospitals or care homes, but there was little sign residents were keen to unmask. Japan has never had a mask mandate, but residents have adhered to guidelines to wear them indoors and outside from the early days of the pandemic, and masks were common even pre-Covid during cold and hayfever […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Friday 1/27/2023 Japan’s government will drop its recommendation to wear masks indoors and downgrade its medical classification for Covid-19, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday. The changes, effective from early May, will classify the disease on the same level as the flu, down from its current status on par with tuberculosis and SARS. “As for masking, regardless of indoors and outdoors, the decision will be left up to individuals,” Kishida […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) – China’s volleyball association apologised on Friday for failing to tell its women’s team to remove their face masks for an Asian Cup match in the Philippines. The team lost the opening set of Thursday’s match against Iran while wearing the masks but went on to win 3-1, finishing top of their group and moving into the quarter-finals. Some players began to remove their masks just before the end of the first […]
BANGKOK, Thaland (AFP) — Thailand has dropped rules requiring people to wear masks from Friday, the government says, as Covid-19 cases fall and the tourism-dependent kingdom seeks to lure back foreign visitors. Face masks had been compulsory in public since mid-2021, when the country saw a wave of cases driven by the spread of the Delta variant. But the kingdom is keen to kickstart its stuttering economy and is relaxing Covid-19 restrictions, including discarding […]
Thailand announced Friday it would drop rules requiring people to wear masks outdoors and no longer require foreign visitors to register before travel, as Covid-19 cases fall and the kingdom seeks to lure tourists back. Facemasks have been compulsory in public in Thailand, including outdoors, since mid-2021 when the Delta variant was running rampant. But as the pandemic has subsided, the tourism-dependent kingdom has gradually relaxed covid restrictions in a bid to boost visitor numbers. […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain will end the mandatory use of face masks outdoors on February 8, a minister said Friday, ending a measure reimposed in late December to tackle a surge in Omicron cases. The measure will be approved at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Health Minister Carolina Darias told Cadena Ser radio. Spain first imposed obligatory mask-wearing outdoors in May 2020, but lifted it in June last year, although wearing a face covering was still […]
Anyone with symptoms only advised to stay home by Camille BAS-WOHLERT Agence France Presse COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Denmark waved goodbye to facemasks and health passes Tuesday as it became the first European Union country to lift all of its domestic Covid curbs despite record numbers of cases of the milder Omicron variant. Only a few restrictions remain in place at the country’s borders, for unvaccinated travellers arriving from non-Schengen countries. After a first attempt […]
Children on French public transport will soon have to wear a face mask from the age of six upwards, the government decreed Saturday, as part of its latest measures against coronavirus. Masks had previously been compulsory from the age of 11, but Paris is tightening regulations given the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. Children aged six and older will have to don a mask on all means of public transport within national borders from […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Authorities in California said Monday they were reinstating mask mandates in all indoor public spaces to try to curb the resurgence of Covid-19 in recent weeks. The mask mandate, which will come into force Wednesday, applies to all individuals, whether vaccinated or not. Los Angeles, San Francisco and other counties in California reintroduced the mask-wearing rule locally several months ago. But other counties, such as Orange and San Diego, […]
by Michelle FITZPATRICK Agence France Presse FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Germany reacted with shock and outrage on Tuesday after a 20-year-old petrol station worker was shot dead by a customer angry about being asked to put on a mask while buying beer. The killing on Saturday evening in the western town of Idar-Oberstein is believed to be the first in Germany linked to the government’s coronavirus rules. The row started when the cashier, a student, […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — A judge overruled Florida’s conservative, pro-Trump governor Friday and said the state’s schools can make mask-wearing mandatory. Judge John Cooper sided with a group of parents who had filed a lawsuit challenging an executive order by Governor Ron DeSantis that barred schools from making students and school staff wearing masks to fight Covid-19. Several school districts in Florida had decided to make masks mandatory because of a rise in […]
