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by AFP bureaus across the Maghreb Weeks after a spike in coronavirus cases overwhelmed intensive care units across North Africa with severe oxygen shortages sparking public anger, case numbers are sharply declining. Here is a look at the situation in the four countries of the Maghreb — Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Libya — based on official figures collected by AFP. – Tunisia – Images of intensive care units overwhelmed with Covid patients in July […]
by Issam AHMED Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A panel of leading US medical experts advising the government voted in favor of authorizing boosters of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine for everyone aged 65 and up, as well as people at high risk of developing severe Covid. The same committee however rejected an initial proposal, submitted by Pfizer and backed by President Joe Biden’s administration, to fully approve boosters to everyone aged 16 […]
by Allison JACKSON Agence France Presse MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Exhausted nurses in the Philippines are struggling to care for patients as colleagues contract Covid-19 or quit a profession that was dangerously understaffed even before the pandemic. The country is enduring a record rise in infections, fuelled by the Delta variant, with the health department reporting a nursing shortfall of more than 100,000 — forcing those left to work long hours for little pay […]
MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AFP) — Equatorial Guinea on Friday stiffened measures to tackle Covid-19, citing a third wave of the pandemic in the small central African country. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo reinstated a curfew, tightened travel restrictions and imposed a complete cycle of vaccination on all civil servants. Those previously affected worked only in the health, safety and education fields. Vaccination is now also compulsory for any citizen who undertakes an approach to the […]
by Suy SE PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AFP) — Cambodia on Friday began inoculating children as young as six against coronavirus, even though the World Health Organisation has yet to approve a vaccine for the under-12s. The southeast Asian country has won praise for its swift vaccination programme, which has seen more than 98 percent of the adult population receive at least one dose, according to the health ministry. The latest phase of the drive began […]
CONAKRY, Guinea (AFP) — Guinea has declared the end of an outbreak of the Marburg virus, which belongs to the same family as Ebola, the World Health Organization said Thursday. Health authorities in the country confirmed West Africa’s first recorded case of Marburg on August 9, in a man whose infection was detected after he had died a week earlier. No treatment or vaccine exists for Marburg, which belongs to the same filovirus family as […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Thousands of health workers across France have been suspended without pay for failing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 ahead of a deadline this week, Health Minister Olivier Veran said Thursday. “Some 3,000 suspensions were notified yesterday to employees at health centres and clinics who have not yet been vaccinated,” Veran told RTL radio. He added that “several dozens” had turned in their resignations rather than sign up for the jabs. That […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China has fully vaccinated more than 1 billion people — 71 per cent of its population — a health official said Thursday. “As of September 15, 2.16 billion vaccine doses have been administered nationwide,” said a National Health Commission spokesman at a press briefing. © Agence France-Presse
LANGKAWI, Malaysia (AFP) — Visitors flocked to the Malaysian island of Langkawi Thursday as it became the country’s first holiday hotspot to reopen after a coronavirus lockdown that has hammered the vital tourism industry. Restrictions on local travel had been in place for months and international borders remain largely closed as Malaysia battles its worst Covid-19 wave. But with the outbreak gradually easing, Langkawi, one of tropical Malaysia’s premier holiday destinations, has been chosen for […]
by Sara HUSSEIN TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Ebola survivors can relapse and trigger outbreaks at least five years after infection, and long-term follow-up of former patients is needed to prevent devastating flare-ups, according to new research. Scientists already knew Ebola could lie dormant in survivors, who test negative because the virus is in tissue rather than circulating in the blood. But analysis of an outbreak this year in Guinea, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, […]
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Cuba said Wednesday it would seek World Health Organization approval for two home-grown coronavirus vaccines it hopes to commercialize widely. A vetting process will start Thursday with WHO experts examining the nation’s Abdala and Soberana 02 jabs, said Rolando Perez of state pharma group BioCubaFarma. Perez said the experts would examine the vaccines’ “safety, immunogenicity (the ability of a vaccine to provoke an immune response) and efficacy.” The WHO’s representative in […]
by Ahikam Seri and Ben Simon JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel’s program of booster jabs has proved effective in reducing severe cases of Covid even as new infections hover near record highs, experts said, citing recent data. Since taking office in June, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has insisted he will aim to avoid any new lockdown, a pledge his government has kept even as the country of roughly 9.3 million people regularly records more than 10,000 […]
