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BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese province of more than 37 million declared an “emergency state” on Wednesday to snuff out a handful of Covid-19 cases, as the country moved decisively to contain infections. China had largely brought the coronavirus under control since its emergence in Wuhan late in 2019. But recent weeks have seen smatterings of cases, prompting localized lockdowns, immediate travel restrictions and widespread testing of tens of millions of people. More than […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The NBA and its players union updated Covid-19 health and safety protocols on Tuesday as positive tests and game postponements mounted. The Washington Wizards’ home game against the Utah Jazz scheduled for Wednesday was postponed on Tuesday night, the sixth game to be scrubbed in the three-week old season. Earlier Tuesday the league said Wednesday’s game between the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic would be postponed. Boston’s scheduled Tuesday […]
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) appealed on Tuesday for emergency aid of $35 million to fight hunger in southern Madagascar, hit by the coronavirus pandemic and a third consecutive year of drought. “Some 1.35 million people are projected to be food insecure — 35 percent of the region’s population,” the WFP said in a statement. “With severe malnutrition rates continuing to spiral and many children forced to beg in […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesian investigators said Wednesday they were hopeful of retrieving a crashed passenger jet’s second black box, as they seek to explain why the plane with 62 people aboard slammed into the sea minutes after takeoff. Divers just off the coast of the capital Jakarta hauled the jet’s flight data recorder to the surface Tuesday, with the hunt now focused on finding its cockpit voice recorder on the wreckage-littered seabed. The devices […]
(Eagle News) — The Quezon City government announced that the city will “receive an initial 1.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine” against COVID-19 after signing a tripartite agreement with the national government and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Philippines. Quezon City mayor Joy Belmonte said that the additional doses of AstraZeneca vaccines will be coming by the third quarter of this year. This is an increase from the previous 750,000 doses that it had initially ordered for […]
by Sébastien VUAGNAT with Laurent BANGUET in Los Angeles APPLE VALLEY, United States (AFP) — As Covid-19 tears through southern California, small hospitals in rural towns like Apple Valley have been overwhelmed, with coronavirus patients crammed into hallways, makeshift ICU beds and even the pediatric ward. When AFP visited St Mary hospital in this desert town of 70,000 people this week, palliative care supervisor Kari McGuire said her team were seeing “astronomical numbers of patients […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada announced Tuesday a deal to secure an additional 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, which would allow for more than half of Canadians to be inoculated before summer. The American and German pharmaceutical giants will also accelerate deliveries of their jointly-developed vaccine over the coming months, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference. “Between mid-April and June, we will have enough doses to vaccinate up to 20 […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada’s Ontario province, the country’s most populous and its economic engine, on Tuesday ordered residents to stay home as projections showed the number of Covid-19 cases could soon explode, overwhelming hospitals. “Our province is in crisis,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford told a news conference, at which he declared a month-long state of emergency. “The (health care) system is on the brink of collapse. It’s on the brink of being overwhelmed,” he […]
LISBON, Portugal (AFP) — Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has now tested negative for coronavirus after a positive test that saw him cancel all public engagements, his office said Tuesday, two weeks before an election he is set to win. The 72-year-old head of state had returned an “asymptomatic” positive test, officials said Monday, and he went into isolation in the presidential palace in Lisbon. However, according to the latest statement, the result […]
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — The Chinese-developed Coronavac Covid-19 vaccine has demonstrated a 50 percent efficacy following tests in Brazil, the organization in charge of its production in the South American country said on Tuesday. Coronavac has been given to frontline health care workers in close contact with coronavirus patients. The Butantan Institute repeated its claim from last week that the vaccine is 78 percent effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and showed […]
https://youtu.be/-BholJnjOWg (Eagle News) – The Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Genome Center stressed that they have not detected the COVID-19 variant, B.1.1.7 that was first detected in the United Kingdom in recent COVID-19 samples collected in the country. The PGC also said that it did not detect the South African variant in its biosurveillance of COVID-19 samples sent to their laboratories from October 31 to December 30 last year. The DOH issued this […]
Total of 6 million vaccine doses from AstraZeneca assured https://youtu.be/O3nI8NEWq4M (Eagle News) – The number of private companies which had joined the second batch of the tripartite agreement with the Philippine governemnt to buy COVID-19 vaccines from the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca had increased to around 240. Presidential adviser on enterpreneurship Secretary Joey Concepcion said that these 240 private companies are included in the second batch of their private sector initiative to negotiate with AstraZeneca. […]
