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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan said on Thursday it will make a vaccine passport available from a next month for Japanese travellers, as governments around the world experiment with ways to relaunch tourism and business trips. “We are preparing to issue a certificate of vaccination for those who need one… when they visit foreign countries,” top government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told reporters. The certificate will be paper-based rather than digital and will be issued by […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan plans to lift Tokyo’s virus emergency on June 20, a month before the Olympics, the government announced Thursday as reports said only 10,000 spectators would be allowed at Games events. Tokyo and several other parts of the country have been under a virus emergency since April 25, with the measure forcing the early closure of bars and restaurants and banning them from selling alcohol. It is due to expire on […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — A coronavirus vaccine being developed by Germany’s CureVac has shown disappointing results in an interim analysis of its effectiveness, the company said Wednesday. “In the unprecedented context of at least 13 variants circulating within the study population subset assessed at this interim analysis, CVnCoV demonstrated an interim vaccine efficacy of 47 percent against Covid-19 disease of any severity and did not meet prespecified statistical success criteria,” CureVac said in a statement. […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Kim Jong Un has admitted that North Korea’s food situation is “tense”, state media reported Wednesday, sounding the alarm in a country that suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s in which hundreds of thousands died. The impoverished country, which is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, has long struggled to feed itself, suffering chronic food shortages. And last year the coronavirus […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan said a record 28 Chinese military aircraft including fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers flew into its defence zone on Tuesday, as Beijing hit out at international criticism of its military posturing. The incursion came a day after NATO said China’s increasingly aggressive military goals threatened international order — and after G7 leaders issued a landmark statement urging peace in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan’s defense ministry said it scrambled its own […]
by Françoise KADRI / Clare BYRNE PARIS, France (AFP) — France on Tuesday expanded its Covid-19 inoculation drive to children aged 12 and over in a bid to achieve herd immunity and slow the spread of variants, including the Delta strain behind a surge of cases in the United Kingdom. The jabs are not compulsory for children and have no bearing on whether they can attend school or go on holiday in France. But as […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca on Tuesday revealed it had hit a setback in trials of a treatment for Covid-19 symptoms. The drug, made from a combination of two antibodies, failed its main goal to treat symptoms in exposed patients, the company said in a statement. The treatment has been undergoing phase 3 or final-stage clinical trials to assess its safety and efficacy. AstraZeneca said that 1,121 unvaccinated adults had been exposed […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic surpassed 600,000 on Tuesday, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, with President Joe Biden mourning the latest “sad milestone” and urging Americans to press on with vaccinations. The United States has racked up by far the largest death toll of the pandemic, ahead of Brazil and India. “There’s still too many lives being lost,” Biden said, noting that the daily number […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — California — the first US state to enact a stay-at-home order just under 15 months ago — celebrated its “reopening day” Tuesday by lifting almost all pandemic-related social distancing and capacity limits. Vaccinated people will be free to ditch their masks in nearly all of the nation’s richest and most populous state, though exceptions will remain for locations including public transport, schools and hospitals. “Finally we are here, June […]
Bulk of vaccine purchases coming in by 3rd and 4th quarter of the year (Eagle News) – The vaccination of chlldren — those aged 12 to 15 years old – could start by the fourth quarter of this year, according to vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. During the Senate hearing on the vaccine procurement, Galvez said that the vaccination of children against COVID-19 can only happen when there are already enough vaccine supplies, […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A huge red banner welcomed nearly 9,000 students in Wuhan for a massive graduation ceremony over a year after the city was battered by the first global outbreak of Covid-19. Students in navy gowns and mortarboards sat in crowded rows, without social distancing or face masks, beneath the sign that read: “Welcoming the graduates of 2020 back home. We wish you all a great future.” Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019 […]
by Martín SILVA COCHABAMBA, Bolivia (AFP) — The alarm in the Bolivian hospital pierced through the din of beeping life support machines and hissing ventilators — a patient lay unconscious, oblivious to the warning that his life hung by a thread. The monitor was flashing red. “Low oxygen pressure” it alerted, showing a reading of 25. “It should be 75!” doctor Daniel Quispia said as he jumps to the patient’s aid, adjusting the controls in […]
