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HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong and Singapore on Monday announced plans to resurrect their scrapped coronavirus travel bubble with dedicated flights between the two cities starting on May 26. The two business hubs had to abandon a highly anticipated quarantine-free travel corridor late last year after Hong Kong was hit with a fourth wave of infections. From May 26, one flight per day carrying up to 200 passengers will shuttle between the two […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian authorities on Monday lifted a snap three-day lockdown of Perth, but faced pointed questions about how the coronavirus leaked from a quarantine hotel for returning travellers. Stay-at-home orders for Perth and surrounding areas will expire at midnight Monday, after just two people contracted Covid-19 out of thousands tested in the region. “It was a circuit breaker we needed to limit community spread and keep our community healthy,” Western Australia state […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — New Covid restrictions came into force in Thailand on Monday to try to halt a spiralling outbreak that saw deaths hit a record single-day high over the weekend. In Bangkok — where the latest outbreak has been traced back to a nightlife district — as well as 46 other provinces, wearing masks is now compulsory in public spaces, backed up by the threat of a 20,000 baht ($640) fine. Authorities in […]
by Jalees Andrabi and Glenda Kwek with Bhuvan Bagga NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s capital New Delhi on Sunday extended its lockdown, as the country’s Covid-19 crisis grew with infections and deaths hitting record highs. The healthcare system has struggled to cope with the huge surge, with reports of severe oxygen and medicine shortages and patients’ families pleading for help on social media. India recorded 349,691 new cases and 2,767 deaths in the past […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccinations can restart, US health regulators said Friday, after the shots’ rollout was paused due to worries over blood clotting. Health authorities in the United States on April 14 proposed a halt on the vaccine following instances of severe blood clots among a handful of the millions of Americans who received the vaccine. The news came shortly after an expert panel recommended lifting the pause because […]
by AFP Bureaus PARIS, France (AFP) — The number of Covid-19 jabs administered globally surpassed the one billion mark on Saturday, offering hope even as the number of virus cases worldwide hit a new daily record mainly due to an explosion of infections in India. At least 1,002,938,540 vaccine doses have been administered in 207 countries and territories, according to an AFP tally. Nevertheless, the number of new infections topped 893,000 worldwide on Friday, a […]
ATHENS, Greece (AFP) — Greece has become the latest European nation to detect a case of the Covid-19 variant that has helped drive an explosion in infections in India, authorities said Sunday. The country’s public health agency said in a statement that the virus strain was detected in a foreign woman aged 33 who lives in the Athens area and had travelled to Dubai on April 4. The woman had a negative PCR virus test […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain said Sunday it was sending life-saving medical equipment to India, including ventilators and oxygen concentrators, as the south Asian country reels from record numbers of daily Covid-19 infections and deaths. London will ship more than 600 pieces of equipment to New Delhi to support its fight against the virus, following a request from India and Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledging the UK would do “all it can” to help. […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States will “immediately” make supplies of material to make vaccines, as well as therapeutics, tests, ventilators and protective equipment available to India, facing a Covid-19 surge, the White House said Sunday. “The United States has identified sources of specific raw material urgently required for Indian manufacture of the Covishield vaccine that will immediately be made available for India,” a White House statement said. It listed other initiatives Washington […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — France plans to offer India “significant” extra oxygen capacity in the coming days to help the country cope with a record surge in Covid-19 infections, the French presidency said on Sunday. The assistance is to include badly needed oxygen ventilators, a source told AFP without providing further details. France joins other countries such as Germany, Britain and the United States in coming to the aid of India, which with a new […]
by Ammar Karim and Salam Faraj Agence France Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — More than 80 people died Sunday when a fire ripped through a Baghdad hospital for Covid-19 patients, sparking outrage and the suspension of top officials overseeing Iraq’s crumbling health services. The blaze at eastern Baghdad’s Ibn al-Khatib hospital began when badly stored oxygen cylinders blew up, medics said. Many of the victims were on respirators and were burned or suffocated in […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Gz6dLz2g4 OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received a first dose of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine on Friday, seeking to reassure Canadians it is safe despite very rare but serious blood clots in a handful of cases among millions vaccinated. The Canadian leader arrived at an Ottawa pharmacy with his wife Sophie, took off his shirt in front of cameras, and told the masked woman giving out jabs that he was eager to […]
