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by Aishwarya Kumar, with AFP Bureaus NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — New Covid-19 deaths surged past 4,000 for the first time in India on Saturday as it struggled with one of the world’s worst outbreaks, but the global immunization effort was boosted with WHO approval for Chinese firm Sinopharm’s vaccine. And while many Western countries have started easing restrictions thanks to rapid vaccinations, the head of the World Health Organization warned that more countries could […]
(Eagle News) – Some 2 million more doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from COVAX Facility arrived in the country on Saturday, May 8, bringing to over 7.5 million doses the vaccines that have been delivered in the country. The two million AstraZeneca doses that arrived on Saturday came via a Singapore Airlines commercial flight at around 12:50 p.m., and is the biggest batch of vaccine deliveries so far. This will add to the previous 525,600 doses […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia will not extend a controversial ban on citizens returning from Covid-hit India, the prime minister said Friday following widespread public outrage. Scott Morrison this week barred all travel from India, fearing a large number of Covid-positive arrivals would overwhelm Australia’s already strained quarantine facilities. The move stranded an estimated 9,000 Australian citizens and threatened them with large fines and jail time if they tried to dodge the ban and return […]
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Thursday said he was against a US-backed proposal to waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines and that production should be ramped up in existing facilities instead. In an interview with AFP, Bourla said his company, which developed its vaccine with German firm BioNTech, was “not at all” in favour of the call from the United States to waive patent protections for coronavirus jabs. The widely praised move […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia is likely to remain shut to visitors until late 2022, the country’s trade and tourism minister said Friday, as another global coronavirus surge smashed hopes of a quick reopening. Minister Dan Tehan said a wave of cases on the Indian sub-continent showed Australia’s near blanket ban on arrivals was still essential to keep the country Covid-free. Since March 20, 2020, Australians have been barred from travelling overseas and a hard-to-get […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan will prolong a virus state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions and impose restrictions in more areas on Friday as cases surge less than three months before the Olympics. The emergency measures, less strict than the blanket lockdowns seen in other countries, focus on limiting commercial activity with malls closed and bars and restaurants told to shut or stop serving alcohol. They were imposed in Tokyo, Osaka and two […]
by Camille BAS-WOHLERT COPENHAGEN, Germany (AFP) — Gyms, theatres and cinemas on Thursday welcomed Danes back thanks to a new round of Covid-19 restriction easing and a reliance on a “corona pass”. Armed with the pass people in Denmark can already visit restaurants, museums or the hairdresser. Now the new certificate — confirming that they have either tested negative in the past 72 hours, been vaccinated, or recently recovered from Covid-19 — will also give […]
https://youtu.be/63p4y6P1nsw BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany will aim to offer Covid-19 vaccines to all children aged 12 and over by the end of August once a jab is approved for younger people by the European regulator, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Thursday. All 12- to 18-year-olds will be offered vaccines in the summer “on the condition of the expected approval, if nothing unforeseen happens”, Spahn said after a meeting with regional health ministers in […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Moderna said Thursday its Covid-19 vaccine is 96 percent effective among youths aged 12 to 17, according to the results of its first clinical trials. Two-thirds of the 3,235 participants in trials in the United States received the vaccine and one-third were given a placebo. The study “showed vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 of 96%; mRNA-1273 was generally well tolerated with no serious safety concerns identified to date,” the company said. […]
BRAZZAVILLE, Congo (AFP) — The World Health Organization on Thursday warned of a new wave of Covid-19 infections in Africa due to delayed vaccine supplies, a slow rollout and new variants. The African bureau of the UN agency said the continent had to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of vaccine rollouts. “The delay in the delivery of vaccine doses from the Serum Institute of India earmarked for Africa, the delay […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said he supported the idea of a waiver on patent protections for coronavirus vaccines as Russia registered its fourth virus jab called Sputnik Light. A campaign to lift patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines picked up steam on Thursday, with French, German and EU leadership saying they were ready to discuss a proposal by US President Joe Biden, before Putin added his support. “We are […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Health officials in Russia approved a single-dose version of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the developers of the shot said Thursday. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which helped finance the vaccine, said in a statement that Sputnik Light “demonstrated 79.4 percent efficacy” compared to 91.6 percent for the two-shot Sputnik V. The results, it said, were drawn from “data taken from 28 days after the injection was administered as […]
