Tag: Virus

Swiss authorize Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine

  by Robin MILLARD Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been authorized for use in Switzerland, regulators announced Saturday, with immunisation set to start within days as the country battles rising coronavirus cases and deaths. The Swissmedic regulatory authority said it had given the green light following a two-month rolling review. It is the first Covid-19 vaccine approved in the wealthy Alpine nation, with rivals being assessed. “After a meticulous […]

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Slovak PM tests positive for Covid-19

  BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AFP) — Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic said Friday he had tested positive for Covid-19, a week after he attended an EU summit in Brussels. The summit is believed to be where French President Emmanuel Macron caught the virus, leading a host of European leaders and top French officials to go into self-isolation. “Today, I am one of you,” Matovic wrote on his Facebook page, attaching a screenshot of a text message […]

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Parts of Sydney locked down as Australia battles growing cluster

  SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Parts of Sydney were heading into a fresh lockdown on Saturday as officials in Australia’s most populous city said they hoped the restrictions would be enough to control a growing outbreak in time for Christmas. As a cluster of cases on the city’s northern beaches grew to 38, residents were ordered to stay at home from late Saturday until midnight on Wednesday, other than for essential reasons. “We’re hoping that […]

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US authorizes Moderna as second Covid-19 vaccine

  by Issam AHMED Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States on Friday authorized Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, paving the way for six million doses of a second vaccine to soon begin shipping across the hardest-hit country in the world. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Stephen Hahn said: “With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of Covid-19, the FDA has taken another crucial step in […]

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Burundi ex-president Buyoya dies from Covid-19

  NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — Burundi’s former president Pierre Buyoya has died in Paris of Covid-19 at the age of 71, relatives said Friday, just weeks after he resigned as the African Union’s special envoy to Mali and the Sahel. Buyoya, who was credited with helping push democracy in the small African country but was accused of involvement in his successor’s assassination, was hospitalised in Mali’s capital Bamako on Wednesday, a family member told AFP. […]

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New virus restrictions threaten Hong Kong’s last true junk boat

  by Celia CAZALE Agence France Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — The red sails of the “Dukling” junk boat have glided across Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour for more than six decades. But the wooden ship has been docked after new measures to stem a fourth wave of the coronavirus were introduced earlier this month, threatening the city’s last remaining antique junk. Strict social distancing rules were brought back after daily cases repeatedly spiked to […]

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Africa confronts a second wave of Covid-19

by Claire Doyen with AFP bureaus in Africa JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — After being relatively spared by coronavirus, Africa is bracing for the pandemic’s second wave, noting how the microbe has once more cut a swathe through rich countries in Europe and North Africa. The continent’s most-hit nations are again having to contemplate stringent public health measures as they await the arrival of the vaccine cavalry. In South Africa, the start of summer has […]

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US panel recommends emergency approval of Moderna Covid vaccine

by Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A US panel of experts on Thursday voted to recommend emergency approval of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for six million doses to start shipping as soon as this weekend. The Food and Drug Administration is now expected to imminently grant an emergency use authorization (EUA), which would make Moderna’s vaccine the second to be approved in a Western country. The panel voted 20 in favor, […]

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Biden aide tests positive for coronavirus: transition team

WILMINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming White House senior advisor, congressman Cedric Richmond, has tested positive for Covid-19 after having open-air “interactions” with Biden, the transition team said Thursday. Richmond traveled independently to the state of Georgia to campaign Tuesday with Biden for a pair of Democrats in tight runoff elections against incumbent Republican senators. “Richmond’s interactions with the president-elect happened in open air, were masked and totaled less than 15 […]

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US hospital converts nearby parking lot into Covid care facility

RENO, United States (AFP) — To cope with an influx of coronavirus patients, a hospital in Reno in the western US state of Nevada has transformed two floors of a nearby parking garage into a care unit dealing with patients experiencing less severe symptoms. The space gives Renown Health Hospital patients and staff a secure environment that has direct access to key hospital facilities — lab, pharmacy, food services — while freeing up intensive care […]

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Saudi Arabia kicks off coronavirus vaccination campaign

  RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia kicked off a three-phase Covid-19 vaccination programme Thursday, with the health minister among those inoculated after the first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in the kingdom. Along with Health Minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah, a woman in a wheelchair and another man were among the first to be administered the vaccine at a centre in Riyadh, an AFP photographer reported. “This is the beginning of the end of […]

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Vietnam’s pharmaceutical firm starts human trial of coronavirus vaccine

  HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — A Vietnamese pharmaceutical company began testing a coronavirus vaccine on volunteers in Hanoi on Thursday, as developing countries jostle with richer nations to access affordable inoculations. Nanogen’s Nanocovax is one of four under development in Vietnam, and a company representative said it is expected to cost around $5 a dose. Three volunteers received the jab on Thursday and will be monitored for 72 hours at the Vietnam Military Medical University. […]

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