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NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — New York will become the first major US city to require proof of vaccination for people attending indoor venues such as restaurants, gyms and shows, under a plan announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio Tuesday. The announcement comes as public bodies and private businesses in the United States step up vaccine requirements as the country battles the highly infectious Delta variant. “If you’re vaccinated… you have the key, you […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Bangladesh extended its strict lockdown on Tuesday and announced plans to vaccinate at least 10 million people in a week as the country battles a major Covid-19 surge. The vaccination drive from August 7 will be led by tens of thousands of health workers at 14,000 health centres, senior minister A.K.M Mozammel Haque said. “More than 10 million people will be vaccinated in a week. Elderly people, workers and shopkeepers will […]
TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) — Libya called Monday on people to come forward to be vaccinated after it received two million doses of the Chinese vaccine Sinopharm, with more on the way. “We call on all our fellow citizens to be vaccinated,” Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah told reporters at Mitiga airport near Tripoli after the shipment arrived. Adding to its security and political problems, the North African country of around seven million people has been hard […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Schools in a county in the southeastern US state of Georgia will pay $1,000 bonuses to staff who are vaccinated against Covid-19 in a bid to protect themselves from the resurgent pandemic, authorities said. With that incentive county officials said they hope to avoid the “numerous disruptions that were encountered in public education over the past two school years due to a global pandemic.” “Last year was a challenge like […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States on Monday hit President Joe Biden’s goal of administering 70 percent of adults with at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, almost a month after the July 4 target date. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website showed that 60.6 percent of adults, and 49.7 percent of the total population, have now been fully vaccinated. The Biden administration initially targeted the country’s Independence Day […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany plans to start offering Covid-19 booster shots to the elderly and at-risk from September 1, according to a draft document seen by AFP on Sunday, as concerns grow about the spread of the Delta variant. The plan also recommends promoting vaccination for those aged 12-17, which would go further than earlier guidance issued by the country’s vaccine regulator. Health Minister Jens Spahn and Germany’s 16 regional health ministers are expected […]
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AFP) — Cambodia began a roll out of Covid-19 vaccinations for teenagers in its capital Phnom Penh and three provinces Sunday, with Premier Hun Sen’s grandchildren among the first to get the jab. Several countries in Southeast Asia are currently experiencing a deadly Covid-19 resurgence largely driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, which has set back the region’s successes last year in curbing pandemic tolls. While Cambodia appeared to have escaped […]
Says Delta variant now in 132 countries by Robin MILLARD Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The Delta variant of Covid-19 is a warning to the world to suppress the virus quickly before it mutates again into something even worse, the WHO said Friday. The highly-transmissible variant, first detected in India, has now surfaced in 132 countries and territories, the World Health Organization said. “Delta is a warning: it’s a warning that the virus […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s worst coronavirus outbreak in months has spread to two more parts of the country, health authorities said Saturday, including a sprawling megacity of 31 million people. The National Health Commission reported 55 new cases in areas including Fujian province and Chongqing municipality, in addition to the four provinces and Beijing where outbreaks of the Delta variant had already been reported. More than 200 infections nationwide have been linked to […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Daily virus cases in Tokyo topped 3,000 for the first time on Wednesday, as several neighbouring regions weighed emergency restrictions to tackle a surge in infections. Tokyo, which is already under a virus state of emergency as it hosts the Olympics, reported 3,117 cases, and Governor Yuriko Koike called on people to avoid “unnecessary, non-urgent outings.” Japan’s vaccination programme started slowly, and only just over 25 percent of the population […]
FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s BioNTech, which developed a coronavirus vaccine with US giant Pfizer in record time, said Monday it aimed to start trialling a malaria vaccine next year using the same breakthrough mRNA technology. If successful, the vaccine could be a crucial step in the fight against the mosquito-borne disease, which kills more than 400,000 people a year — mainly young children in Africa. “We will do whatever it takes to develop a […]
ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — Greece will open Covid-19 vaccinations to youngsters aged 12-15 in August, Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias told local television on Monday. Vaccination for this group has been approved and will be optional, he said. The program is expected to start on Friday. Maria Theodoridou, president of the country’s vaccination committee, stressed that there had been a significant rise in infections among children and adolescents recently. “The constant contamination of children is going […]
