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SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook on Tuesday announced a ban on ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated, in light of the coronavirus pandemic which the social media giant said has “highlighted the importance of preventive health behaviors.” “While public health experts agree that we won’t have an approved and widely available Covid-19 vaccine for some time, there are steps that people can take to stay healthy and safe,” the company said in […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The World Bank said Tuesday that it approved $12 billion for developing countries to finance the purchase and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatment. The financing “aims to support vaccination of up to a billion people,” the bank said in a statement. The money is part of an overall World Bank Group (WBG) package of up to $160 billion through June 2021 designed to help developing countries battle […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Two late-stage Covid-19 medical trials have been paused in the space of 24 hours over potential safety concerns, the latest setbacks to scientists in the long fight against the pandemic. US pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly on Tuesday suspended its Phase 3 trial of its lab-produced antibody treatment in hospitalized patients over an unspecified incident. A day earlier, the American pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson temporarily halted its Phase 3 Covid-19 […]
ZURICH, Switzerland (AFP) — Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche said Tuesday it would produce a new antigen test for Covid-19, allowing high-volume and rapid testing for the deadly disease, by the end of the year. The new Elecsys SARS-CoV-2 Antigen test is meant to be administered by healthcare professionals in a lab setting and allows the detection of the virus that causes Covid-19 in as little as 18 minutes, Roche said. It said the “highly accurate” […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Thousands of North Koreans have packed into Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung square to pledge their support for the government — all of them wearing masks, unlike at a military parade only two days earlier. Authorities held the rally on Monday at the start of an “80-Day Campaign”, a mass mobilization drive to boost the economy ahead of a ruling party congress in January. Such efforts, often dubbed “battles”, feature extra-long […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s unemployment rate has jumped to 4.5 percent as the coronavirus pandemic continues to destroy jobs, official data showed on Tuesday. The reading for the June-August period compared with an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent for May to July, the Office for National Statistic said in a statement. Early estimates for September meanwhile “suggest that there is little change in the number of payroll employees in the UK; up 20,000 […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — More than three million swabs have been taken in a matter of days in Qingdao, the Chinese port city where a minor coronavirus outbreak elicited a sweeping health response. Queues for testing stretched deep into Monday night across the eastern city, which detected six virus cases the day before but swiftly swung into action to head off a wider outbreak. In scenes which contrast with the fumbled efforts of other nations […]
by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — Covid-19 patients may experience more severe symptoms the second time they are infected, according to research released Tuesday confirming it is possible to catch the potentially deadly disease more than once. A study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal charts the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection in the United States — the country worst hit by the pandemic — and indicates that exposure to the virus […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Johnson & Johnson said Monday it had temporarily halted its Covid-19 vaccine trial because one of its participants had become sick. “We have temporarily paused further dosing in all our Covid-19 vaccine candidate clinical trials, including the Phase 3 ENSEMBLE trial, due to an unexplained illness in a study participant,” the company said in a statement. The pause means the online enrollment system has been closed for the 60,000-patient clinical […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — French authorities could be forced to impose new lockdowns in a bid to contain another surge in coronavirus cases that is putting a strain on hospitals, Prime Minister Jean Castex warned Monday. “If over the next two weeks we see the epidemic indicators worsen, if intensive care beds fill up even more than we expect, we will indeed take additional measures,” Castex said in an interview with France Info radio. Asked […]
by Holly ROBERTSON Agence France-Presse BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) — The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 can survive on items such as banknotes and phones for up to 28 days in cool, dark conditions, according to a study by Australia’s national science agency. Researchers at CSIRO’s disease preparedness centre tested the longevity of SARS-CoV-2 in the dark at three temperatures, showing survival rates decreased as conditions became hotter, the agency said Monday. The scientists found that at 20 […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to present a new three-tiered alert system for coronavirus cases in England on Monday, with northwestern Liverpool expected to be the only city placed in the top category. Like governments throughout Europe, Johnson’s conservative cabinet is seeking to balance bringing down the rate of new infections against concern about the economy and frustration among voters. The new alert system, which will classify all […]
