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SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean hackers tried to break into the computer systems of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in a search for information on a coronavirus vaccine and treatment technology, South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday, according to reports. The impoverished, nuclear-armed North has been under self-imposed isolation since closing its borders in January last year to try to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone […]
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization gave emergency use approval to AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccines on Monday, meaning distribution can start to poorer countries starved of doses to fight the pandemic. The AstraZeneca-Oxford jab forms the bulk of batches being lined up through Covax, the global program aimed at procuring and shipping out vaccines equitably around the world, regardless of wealth. It is only the second Covid-19 jab to have received […]
by Carol VALADE, with Philippe SIUBERSKI in Dakar CONAKRY, Guinea (AFP) — Five people have died of Ebola virus in Guinea, the health agency said on Monday, as the government and aid groups began to roll out their response to the outbreak. Guinea announced the outbreak on Saturday — the first in West Africa since a 2013-2016 epidemic that left more than 11,300 dead in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. According to an epidemiological report […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — A factfile on the Ebola virus that has plunged Guinea into an “epidemic situation” according to a senior health official, and which has killed more than 15,000 people since 1976. – Origins – Ebola was first identified in central Africa in 1976. The tropical virus was named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo — then known as Zaire. Five of the virus species are known to cause […]
CONAKRY, Guinea (AFP) — The head of Guinea’s health agency said Sunday that the country was in the midst of an Ebola “epidemic situation” with seven cases confirmed in the West African nation, including three deaths. “Very early this morning, the Conakry laboratory confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus,” Sakoba Keita said after an emergency meeting in the capital. Health Minister Remy Lamah had earlier spoken of four deaths. It was not immediately […]
LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s foreign minister resigned Sunday, the second top official to step down amid a growing scandal over politicians receiving Covid-19 vaccinations well before the general public. The South American nation has been badly hit by the pandemic, with its hospitals overwhelmed and a targeted vaccination program for health workers rolling out only from February 8. Public resentment over officials receiving vaccinations — despite there being no date for a wider […]
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AFP) — Two new coronavirus infections which sent New Zealand’s biggest city into lockdown Monday are due to the UK variant of the disease, the first to be detected in the country, officials said. The Health Ministry said genomic sequencing identified the infections in Auckland as caused by the highly-contagious strain first found in the UK and said there was no link to any other positive cases detected so far in […]
by Mouctar Ba with Philippe Siuberski in Dakar CONAKRY, Guinea (AFP) — West Africa faced its first known Ebola resurgence since the end of a devastating outbreak in 2016 on Sunday, with Guinea responding to what its health chief called an “epidemic” after seven cases were confirmed. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic stretching health resources across the world, Guinea and the World Health Organization (WHO) say they are better prepared to deal with Ebola now than […]
by Joe JACKSON in London and AFP bureaus LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s coronavirus vaccination programme passed the 15 million mark on Sunday, hours after New Zealand, so far largely spared by the pandemic, ordered its largest city into lockdown. The European Union, facing criticism over the sluggish roll-out of its own programme, meanwhile, confirmed it would fast-track approval of vaccines updated to target variants of the original virus. Germany partially closed its borders […]
by Patrick GALEY Agence France Presse Developing new Covid-19 vaccines will fail to end the pandemic unless all countries receive doses in a fast and fair manner, disease experts warned Saturday. As several nations consider implementing vaccine passports when international travel resumes, the authors of an open letter published in the Lancet medical journal said vaccine stockpiling in wealthier countries would only prolong the global health emergency. They warned that “vaccine nationalism” could leave […]
by Marc Preel with Agence France Presse bureaus STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — The head of the EU’s disease control agency warned Friday that the novel coronavirus could last indefinitely even as global infections slowed by nearly half in the last month and vaccine rollouts gathered pace in parts of the world. In an interview with AFP, ECDC chief Andrea Ammon urged European countries in particular not to drop their guard against a virus that “seems […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Hard-hit Brazil’s drive to vaccinate its population against Covid-19 has stumbled this week as a lack of doses forced authorities to slow or halt immunization in several key areas. Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo state and the northeastern city of Salvador have all run into vaccine shortages, fueling frustration with the government, which already faced criticism for President Jair Bolsonaro’s erratic handling of the pandemic. Brazil got its immunization […]
