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BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany is in talks with Russia to buy 30 million doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine once it is approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Saxony state premier Michael Kretschmer said on Thursday. “Germany is negotiating 3 x 10 million doses for June, July, August. The prerequisite for this is the swift EMA approval of the vaccine,” Kretschmer, who is in Moscow for talks, wrote on Twitter. © Agence […]
by Nina LARSON GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — After an international mission to China turned up more questions than answers about the pandemic origins, the WHO is evaluating how to move forward through a diplomatic quagmire to solve the mystery. Determining how the virus that causes Covid-19 first began spreading among humans is seen as vital to preventing future outbreaks. But a long-delayed report, drafted by the team of international experts sent to Wuhan at the […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US drugmaker Pfizer on Wednesday confirmed that suspect doses of its coronavirus vaccine that were seized in Mexico and Poland were indeed fake, with doses going for as much as $1,000 a shot, according to US media. At a clinic in Mexico some 80 people received bogus doses of the drug, which appeared to have been physically harmless, though offering no protection against the potentially deadly disease ravaging the country, […]
by Abhaya SRIVASTAVA NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India posted a global record of almost 315,000 new Covid infections on Thursday as hospitals in New Delhi sent out desperate warnings that patients could die without fresh oxygen supplies. India’s long-underfunded health system is being stretched to the limit by a devastating second wave blamed on a “double mutant” variant and “super-spreader” mass gatherings. Health ministry data on Thursday showed 314,835 new infections in the past […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday hailed his government’s “stunning” achievement in administering 200 million Covid-19 vaccine shots across the United States ahead of schedule. Biden said the landmark had been reached a week before he hits his administration’s 100-day mark — the deadline he’d announced for meeting the 200 million doses challenge. “Today we did it, today we hit 200 million shots,” he said in a televised speech from the […]
MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Twenty-two Covid-19 patients at a hospital in India were killed on Wednesday when the oxygen supply to their ventilators was disrupted by a leak. The tragedy comes as India battles severe shortages of medical supplies during a fierce second wave of coronavirus infections. The 30-minute leak from an oxygen tanker stationed outside Dr Zakir Hussain Hospital in Nashik, about 200 kilometres north of Mumbai, cut off supply to the ventilators of […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Covid-19 infections in Iraq surpassed one million on Wednesday, the health ministry said, a figure unmatched in the Arab world, in a country that has long faced medical shortages. The ministry reported 8,696 new coronavirus infections and 38 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total since the start of the country’s outbreak in February last year to 1,001,854, including 15,098 deaths. The ministry has said it carries out around […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — The Italian government said Wednesday it plans to gradually lift Covid-19 restrictions from next week, with restaurants and movie theatres set to reopen. Authorities said restaurants will be allowed to serve patrons outdoors from Monday, but only in yellow zone areas where the risk of contagion is deemed low. Cinemas, theatres and concert halls can also reopen the same day with 50 percent capacity. Schools and universities will be allowed to […]
BAB AL-HAWA, Syria (AFP) — A first batch of Covid-19 vaccine doses was expected to arrive Wednesday in war-torn northwestern Syria, where millions of people live in dire humanitarian conditions, a UN official said. The 53,800 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were dispatched to the rebel-dominated region as part of the Covax facility, which ensures the world’s poorest economies get access to jabs for free. “Once the vaccines arrive, we are prepared to start vaccination […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday vowed that Russia, one of the world’s oil and gas producing giants, would do its part to fight climate change and develop carbon recycling. “We must respond to the challenges of climate change, create a carbon recycling industry,” Putin said in his annual state of the nation address. © Agence France-Presse
HELSINKI, Finland (AFP) — Finland could start lifting coronavirus curbs on businesses and youth activities from next week but borders will stay closed to tourists for at least the coming months, ministers said on Wednesday after agreeing an “exit plan”. A decision to lift the state of emergency, which allows the government to shut businesses and restrict movement, could be made next week “if the situation continues improving,” Prime Minister Sanna Marin told a press […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — France plans to lift travel restrictions and ease a nationwide curfew on May 2 on expectations that daily Covid-19 cases will soon begin falling, a source close to the presidency told AFP. President Emmanuel Macron also intends to stick to a goal of allowing restaurants to serve patrons outdoors from mid-May, while also reopening cinemas, theatres and museums with reduced capacity, the source said. Non-food businesses will also open their doors […]
