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Europe has recorded over 100 million coronavirus cases, more than a third of all infections worldwide, since the start of the pandemic, an AFP tally Saturday showed. The continent has once again become the pandemic’s epicentre in recent months, and is battling an upsurge of cases spurred on by the highly transmissible Omicron strain of the virus. The European region, including 52 countries and territories from the Atlantic coast to Azerbaijan and Russia, has recorded […]
by Gildas LE ROUX / Alexandria SAGE ROME, Italy (AFP) — “We are inundated,” Antonino Marchese says wearily as his Rome Covid hospital fills up with patients, most of them unvaccinated despite tougher restrictions for Italians who are not jabbed. As daily coronavirus infections in Italy hit new highs, hospital admissions across the country are surging once again due to the new Omicron variant and the persisting reluctance among some to get vaccinated. At Rome’s […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — England is building temporary hospitals to help cope with rising coronavirus cases, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday issued a stark warning to those not fully vaccinated. The new “surge hubs” would deal with a potential overspill of inpatients as surging virus cases put the country’s health service on a “war footing”, according to officials. Fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant, daily cases have ballooned, standing at more […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada’s Quebec province on Thursday announced a nighttime curfew ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations as Covid cases across the country soar. Several provinces in recent days introduced stricter gathering limits, while delaying students’ return to school after the Christmas holidays. Quebec Premier Francois Legault said the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew would start on Friday, and that it was needed to slow a Covid-19 surge that is threatening to overwhelm […]
by AFP bureaus PARIS, France (AFP) — Millions around the world braced Thursday for drastically curtailed New Year celebrations as record coronavirus cases fuelled by the Omicron variant saw the WHO warn a Covid “tsunami” threatens to overwhelm healthcare systems. Coronavirus, first detected two years ago and declared a global pandemic in March 2020, has killed more than 5.4 million people, triggered economic crises and seen societies ricochet in and out of lockdowns. The latest […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Residents in the locked-down Chinese city of Xi’an said they were struggling to find enough food, despite Beijing insisting Thursday that there were now adequate supplies. China has followed a strict “zero Covid” approach involving tight border restrictions and swift, targeted lockdowns since the virus first surfaced in a central city in late 2019. The country’s commerce ministry told reporters on Thursday that Xi’an’s 13 million residents — who were placed […]
The Miami Heat’s NBA game against the San Antonio Spurs scheduled for Wednesday was postponed as Covid concerns and injuries left Miami without the minimum eight available players. Three more Heat players entered the league’s Covid health and safety protocols on Wednesday, with Gabe Vincent, P.J. Tucker and Zylan Cheatham joining Kyle Lowry, Udonis Haslem and Max Strus on the coronavirus absentee list. The Heat were already missing Bam Adebayo with a thumb injury as […]
by Khaliun Bayartsogt Agence France-Presse DUNDGOBI, Mongolia (AFP) – Nurse Sodkhuu Galbadrakh clutches a box of Covid-19 vaccines on his lap as he journeys along a bumpy track through a remote region of the Mongolian steppe, going home-to-home to offer booster doses to herders. The country of three million has taken some of the world’s toughest and most enduring measures against the coronavirus pandemic, shutting schools for much of the last two years and closing […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – The risk posed by the Omicron variant is still “very high”, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, after Covid-19 case numbers shot up by 11 percent globally last week. Omicron is behind rapid virus spikes in several countries, including those where it has already overtaken the previously-dominant Delta variant, the WHO said in its Covid-19 weekly epidemiological update. “The overall risk related to the new variant […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Rapid Covid home tests are more likely to give a false negative with the heavily-mutated Omicron variant compared to earlier strains, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday. The news comes as the country is facing a massive surge in cases that experts say is being under-captured as a result of a testing crunch, with long wait times for the more accurate PCR tests, and home kits in […]
by Hui Min NEO with AFP bureaus BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — The WHO warned Tuesday that the Omicron coronavirus variant could overwhelm healthcare systems despite early studies suggesting it causes milder disease, as China and Germany reintroduced tough restrictions to stem new infections. Covid-19 surges have wreaked havoc worldwide, forcing many nations to make tough choices between economically punishing restrictions to control the spread of the virus and keeping society open. The United States has […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The NBA has reduced quarantine time from 10 days to six for vaccinated players and coaches who come into contact with Covid-19 or contract the disease but are asymptomatic, ESPN reported Monday. Teams were informed in a league memo obtained by ESPN about the move, which came the same day the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the isolation time for those with asymptomatic Covid-19 from 10 […]
