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by Patrick GALEY Agence France Presse Climate change may have played a “key role” in the transmission of the novel coronavirus to humans by driving several species of pathogen-carrying bats into closer contact, research showed on Friday. The virus, which has killed more than two million people and caused unprecedented global disruption, is thought to have originated in bats in Southeast Asia. Researchers from the University of Cambridge used temperature and rainfall data over […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — The Brazilian government announced Wednesday it was negotiating the purchase of 30 million coronavirus vaccine doses from Russia and India, after regulators made it easier for the treatments to win emergency-use authorizations. Until now, only the AstraZeneca/Oxford shot and China’s CoronaVac have been permitted in Brazil, the second-hardest-hit country after the US, with more than 226,000 deaths from Covid-19. Brazil’s health surveillance agency said it would no longer require final […]
WHO says countries must work together as COVAX readies vaccine rollout (Eagle News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) Director General called on the world to seize the “window of opportunity” to defeat the pandemic through timely vaccine intervention, and thus prevent widespread transmission of the COVID-19 virus that had so far claimed more than 2 million lives. WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that life-saving vaccines are a very limited resource right now, […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The mayor of Chicago has said the US city’s public schools are “safe” and will reopen Monday, despite teachers union calls for them to continue remote work due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We expect all of our teachers who have not received a specific accommodation to come to school tomorrow,” Lori Lightfoot said during a press conference. “Those who do not report to work, and I hate to even […]
by Sunghee Hwang Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest smartphone and memory chip maker reported fourth-quarter net profits up by more than a quarter year-on-year Thursday, with coronavirus-driven working from home boosting demand for devices powered by its chips. But the figures were below market expectations according to Bloomberg News, and the company warned of persisting uncertainties over the pandemic, and lower profits in Q1 2021 due […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Spain’s economy contracted sharply by 11 percent in 2020 due to the upheaval triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Statistics Institute said in a first estimate published Friday. The figure is largely in line with the fall of 11.2 percent predicted by Spain’s government although the International Monetary Fund had seen a sharper contraction of 12.8 percent. France also saw its economy shrink by 8.3 percent in 2020, Germany […]
https://youtu.be/bTA7MsLG0s4 (Eagle News) — The inter-agency Task Force on COVID-19 will consider the attack rate of the new COVID-19 variant, B.1.1.7, in its study of the quarantine protocol classification to be imposed in various parts of the country starting February. This was noted by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque in a recent press briefing. While there are still a few cases of COVID-19 detected with the variant B.1.1.7, Malacanang said that because the variant is […]
Facebook profit surged in the final three months of last year as people enduring the holidays in a pandemic turned to the leading social network for work and pleasure, the company said Wednesday. Facebook reported profit of $11.2 billion on revenue of $28 billion, increases of 53 percent and 33 percent when compared with the same period the prior year. “We had a strong end to the year as people and businesses continued to […]
by Agence France Presse bureaus Daily global deaths from Covid-19 topped 18,000 for the first time Wednesday, the latest reminder of the pandemic’s devastating impact as governments tightened restrictions in a bid to contain alarming new coronavirus strains. With vaccines seen as the only real chance of returning to some form of normality, a row erupted between the European Union and drugs firm AstraZeneca over supplies. And in Lebanon, a third night of clashes was […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Thousands of Hong Kongers will be ordered to stay in their homes for the city’s first coronavirus lockdown, local media reported Friday, as authorities battle an outbreak in one of its poorest and most densely packed districts. The order bans anyone from leaving their apartment unless they can show a negative test where cases have surged in recent days, and will last until everyone within the designated area has […]
(Eagle News) – After almost 30 years of operation, Makati Shangri-La Hotel will be temporarily closing operations starting February 1 as the hotel chain is hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter to the Philippine Hotel Owners Association, Vice-President for Operations (Philippines) of the Shangri-La Group John Rice said that throughout the “unprecedented pandemic” in the last 10 months, their priority has been to “preserve as many jobs as possible for our […]
by Glenn CHAPMAN Agence France Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Netflix on Tuesday topped subscriber growth expectations in the past quarter, keeping ahead of new streaming rivals competing for viewers stuck in their homes during the coronavirus pandemic. The streaming television leader added some 8.5 million paid subscribers in the quarter to reach 203 million, topping 200 million despite recent price hikes, its quarterly earning update showed. “Covid-19 has accelerated that big shift […]
